Symmetry
The mirror, quadrant, radial and mandala symmetry modes — how many copies each makes, where the axis lives, and what a replica is.
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Symmetry replicates every stroke as you draw it. The artist draws one half of a face and the other half appears; draws one petal and gets a rosette.
The axis is placed anywhere, at any angle — it is not restricted to the middle of the canvas or to horizontal and vertical. Switch Mirror strokes on and the axis appears in the centre of the current view with a teal dot at its origin and an orange grip along it; drag the dot to move it, the grip to swing it.
The four modes
Switches the guide on. The first time it is switched on in a shot, the axis is centred in the view; after that it keeps its place.
Mirror · Quadrant · Radial · Mandala, below.
How many rotational copies Radial and Mandala make. Hidden for the other two modes.
The direction of the mirror line. The default of 90° is a vertical axis — the one you want for a face or a figure. 0° lays the axis horizontal. Dragging the orange grip on the canvas moves this slider, and vice versa.
Draws the axis on the canvas. Switching it off leaves symmetry working.
Mirror
One line: your stroke and its reflection. Two marks per stroke. This is the workhorse — faces, characters, vehicles, anything bilateral.
Quadrant
Two perpendicular lines through the origin — a four-way kaleidoscope. Your stroke is reflected across the axis, across its perpendicular, and across both. Four marks per stroke.
Radial
Sectors rotational copies about the origin, with no reflection. Handedness is preserved, so a spiral stays a spiral in every copy rather than alternating. Gears, fans, snowflakes. As many marks as there are sectors.
Mandala
Radial, with each rotational copy additionally mirrored. Twice as many marks as there are sectors — the true mandala. Six sectors gives twelve marks.
Your own stroke is never double-stamped
Every mode's group contains the identity — the transform that leaves a stroke where it is — and that one is skipped. Symmetry adds copies; it never re-stamps the mark you made on top of itself.
A replica is a real stroke
Each mirrored mark is a complete stroke of its own, carrying its own reflected points, not a mirrored view of yours. It appears in the layer like any other stroke: you can erase part of it, sculpt its points, select it on its own, and it survives saving and reopening the shot.
Two details follow from replicas being real:
A textured or chisel tip mirrors correctly. A reflection flips handedness, so a directional dab is mirrored rather than merely moved — a calligraphic edge leans the other way in the reflected stroke, as it should.
The copies are made from your finished stroke. Replication happens once the stroke is complete, after QuickShape cleanup and any guide snapping have rewritten its points. So a stroke you drew and held to snap into a perfect circle mirrors as that circle, not as the wobbly line you actually drew.
A mirror is a true reflection of the same brush behaviour. Each replica is given the same random seed as your stroke, so a scattering or jittering brush lays the same sequence of dabs on the far side rather than a differently-random second stroke.
Undo takes the whole set. The replicas are baked as part of the same undo step as your own stroke, so one undo removes a symmetric mark completely rather than leaving half of it behind.
Symmetry on a bent surface
Because the axis lives in the layer's canvas space, on a bent surface it follows the bend. A mirror axis on a cylinder runs around or along the tube rather than cutting straight across the screen, and the mirrored stroke lands on the far side of the form. Orbiting the camera does not move it.
Not to be confused with
Sculpt 3D's own symmetry. The Sculpt 3D section has separate X and Y toggles that mirror sculpt dabs across the surface's own axes. They are a different control, on a different tool, with a fixed axis — this page's symmetry applies to painted strokes only.