Mosaics from Pyraminxes

academicmaslow

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We’ve all seen massive Rubik’s Cube mosaics — hundreds or thousands of cubes turning into portraits, logos, or famous paintings.
But mosaics from Pyraminxes? Almost nobody does them. And there’s a reason… though it’s totally possible and actually pretty cool.
Why it’s way harder than with cubes:
  • Only 4 colors instead of 6 → much smaller palette
  • Pixels are triangular, not square → no straight horizontal/vertical lines, completely different grid logic
  • Most importantly — not every color combination is possible on one face because of how the puzzle is built
Unlike a Rubik’s Cube face, where you can basically put any color anywhere (within parity rules), a Pyraminx face has strict mechanical restrictions. As a result, the number of actually reachable patterns on one face is smaller than if there were no limits.

How to even make a flat mosaic?
Tetrahedrons don’t stack nicely like cubes. The working way is to place them tip-down.
To solve the stability issue, I built a custom stand with six precisely placed depressions/holes that hold the tips securely. Six inverted Pyraminxes in this holder form a perfect flat hexagon made of 6 faces × 9 triangles = 54 triangular pixels. That becomes your basic “module” for larger mosaics.

1772604084031.png
1772604025047.png


One more insight: Standard colors (red/blue/green/yellow) give bad contrast (blue and green almost merge, no good neutral background).
I switched to custom stickers: white + yellow + cyan + orange. White works great as background — the pictures start looking recognizable.

1772604116710.png


First real attempt
With just 6 physical Pyraminxes I made a 38-module digital mosaic:
  • Pixelated Scooby-Doo and Perry the Platypus into a triangular grid
  • For every single module found a reachable pattern that fits the overall image
  • Assembled each one physically, photographed, and stitched them together
The result is surprisingly readable low-res triangular pixel art!

1772604194416.png

Pyraminx mosaics are possible, but they require:
  • thoughtful custom color palette
  • thinking in triangular geometry
  • working around mechanical restrictions
  • some engineering (stands/holders)
  • patience to match reachable states to desired pixels
It’s a fun mix of twisty puzzles, geometry, and pixel art.
Has anyone else tried something like this? Or am I the only one crazy enough so far?
Would love to hear thoughts — worth pushing further? Bigger size? Different palette?
 
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We’ve all seen massive Rubik’s Cube mosaics — hundreds or thousands of cubes turning into portraits, logos, or famous paintings.
But mosaics from Pyraminxes? Almost nobody does them. And there’s a reason… though it’s totally possible and actually pretty cool.
Why it’s way harder than with cubes:
  • Only 4 colors instead of 6 → much smaller palette
  • Pixels are triangular, not square → no straight horizontal/vertical lines, completely different grid logic
  • Most importantly — not every color combination is possible on one face because of how the puzzle is built
Unlike a Rubik’s Cube face, where you can basically put any color anywhere (within parity rules), a Pyraminx face has strict mechanical restrictions. As a result, the number of actually reachable patterns on one face is smaller than if there were no limits.

How to even make a flat mosaic?
Tetrahedrons don’t stack nicely like cubes. The working way is to place them tip-down.
To solve the stability issue, I built a custom stand with six precisely placed depressions/holes that hold the tips securely. Six inverted Pyraminxes in this holder form a perfect flat hexagon made of 6 faces × 9 triangles = 54 triangular pixels. That becomes your basic “module” for larger mosaics.

View attachment 47075View attachment 47074

One more insight: Standard colors (red/blue/green/yellow) give bad contrast (blue and green almost merge, no good neutral background).
I switched to custom stickers: white + yellow + cyan + orange. White works great as background — the pictures start looking recognizable.

View attachment 47076

First real attempt
With just 6 physical Pyraminxes I made a 38-module digital mosaic:
  • Pixelated Scooby-Doo and Perry the Platypus into a triangular grid
  • For every single module found a reachable pattern that fits the overall image
  • Assembled each one physically, photographed, and stitched them together
The result is surprisingly readable low-res triangular pixel art!

View attachment 47077
Pyraminx mosaics are possible, but they require:
  • thoughtful custom color palette
  • thinking in triangular geometry
  • working around mechanical restrictions
  • some engineering (stands/holders)
  • patience to match reachable states to desired pixels
It’s a fun mix of twisty puzzles, geometry, and pixel art.
Has anyone else tried something like this? Or am I the only one crazy enough so far?
Would love to hear thoughts — worth pushing further? Bigger size? Different palette?
Dude that is awesome way to go. When I saw the title of the thread I was confused at how it worked but really smart thinking I would never have thought of that.
 
Six inverted Pyraminxes in this holder form a perfect flat hexagon made of 6 faces × 9 triangles = 54 triangular pixels. That becomes your basic “module” for larger mosaics.
Based on these modules, I developed the PyraMosa font (latin and cyrilic). If you like, you can use it. Free download OTF/TTF.
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1787989207359.webp
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1787989286014.webp
 
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