ekkiNoDerm

Was doodling starfishy shapes the other day so thought I would have a go at doing the same in code. This is my first sketch using Perlin noise which is what gives the 'arms' their form.
Move the mouse to move through the noise, and vary the impact of the noise.

• Right-click to toggle symmetry on/off.
• Left-click to pick a new seed for the noise (only seems to work once for some reason - refresh the page if you want a new one to play with).

Mouse towards the top will give a starfish-like form. Mouse towards the bottom will look more like a flower.

Some screenshots below from my desktop version (seems to give more pleasing results - think the noise function might be implemented slightly differently in javascript for the web version).

Pretty Good Year

Taking a break from turkey etc. to play around with text and images. Code robbed from http://generative-gestaltung.de/code with a few changes (mainly to enable source image as background with variable alpha channel). Brain hurts - back to the food and wine.

Pathfinder Pictures

Here's a bit of work from around Easter time this year. I've been meaning to do more with it but not found time yet so might as well post what I've got.

The images are created in the following way:

1. An agent wants to move from a random point on the screen, to another random point.
2. An algorithm (Dijkstra or AStar) computes the shortest path between the points (where darker pixels of the target image are 'quicker' to move through).
3. The path is marked by a very feint line.
4. Repeat a few thousand times.

Here's a selection of outputs:

Possible improvements:

• Make it multi-threaded so runs quicker.
• Allow images to be enlarged to any size.
• Draw alternate RGB lines to build color images.

I turn to my computer...

...and see how my line drawing algorithm manages to reproduce an image of Kate Bush.

Here's a video of the whole process...

and a few images...

Who is it?

So there is this facebook competition to reproduce a Bjork album cover with the prize of tickets to see her at Roskilde.

I thought I would give my line drawing algorithm a go at this but I think it will be invalid because the rules forbid the use of 'digital tools'. This is a shame as:

• I created the digital tool.
• It's quite biophilia inspired (quasi-evolutionary process and the image sometimes seems to grow crystalline-like).
• I was looking forward to seeing her at Primavera but she had to cancel.
• I can't draw.

Oh well - here is the result anyway...

And here is a video of the image being grown...

Worth doing anyway. I'll catch her on the next tour.

Angels of Monte Carlo

I love the work of this chap who layers packing tape onto glass to create images like this.

I thought I would have a go at writing a program to do the same. Initially tried to have a genetic algorithm placing virtual pieces of tape to try and match a target image. Results weren't great. Think I would need a massive population and an awful lot of computation to get anything half decent. I'll probably try again some time though.

So I tried a Monte Carlo approach. My code starts with a blank image and draws a random line (either black or white, random start and end, random thickness). If the line makes the image more like a given target image, it is retained other wise it is discarded and another random line is drawn (and so on).

I gave it a target image of the Angel of the North because I thought the clearly defined shape should be quite easy to find. Here's what it looked like after running for half an hour or so...

and then after around two hours...


More detail in the second image but perhaps not as pleasingly 'arty'. Quite pleased with how they're looking though. Am going to try a few different target images and see what I get.

Damped Springy Drawing

Added some damping to my earlier springy drawing sketch. Might take a while for the image to emerge as it can start very feint. Click to get a new one!

Springy Drawing

Thought I would have a go at first generative artwork. Dusted off some old A-level physics about springs and came up with this.

A pen draws circles and starts with a random velocity. Pen is attached to a spring in the centre of the screen. The screen wraps around and you can get interesting effects when the pen moves off the edge.

Click to get a new one.