Been geeking away on more functions for Truchet.
now we have..
> much improved spray paint effect with better colour sampling from the image
> new ability for transparency and layering of effects
> pixelization effect
> stripes effect
> ability for the image to attempt to regenerate itself
> lots of animation controls
Been adding more painterly effects to Truchet++
This starting to look closer to some of my traditional painting techniques. Im hoping to add more effects soon to make things look more organic.
For this year’s Bigman Christmas card I decided to use our Truchet++ program (see earlier post). To get the effect I wanted, I added functions for how randomized or true to the original image the colours were, and a small chance of the grid size doubling.
I’ve been having tons of fun with this so keen to develop it further, next on the list is a whole heap of animation parameters for making ‘tangram-ized’ video.
As a kid, when my ZX spectrum used to frustratingly crash mid game I used to find some consolation in the beautiful colourful images it would generate if you so much as looked at the joystick interface.
Ive been getting more and more obsessed with the use of digital artifacts as an artform in their own right
Wired Magazine have a good article on it.
Wikipedia have a few bits
Youtube has lots of cool stuff including the original data moshing trilogy
Heres an out-take from one of my 3D scenes.
Ive just ordered this cool looking book from Mark Batty publishers, cant wait to read it
Ive been getting really inspired by procedural artwork for a while now, and I have been itching to have a try myself. After reading some great books like Form and Code & The Blind Watchmaker (see my earlier post) I decided to get stuck into some Processing. Processing was written by Ben Fry and Casey Reas at MIT with the goal of making code more accessable to artists.
As my company, (Bigman) uses tangrams extensively in its brand identity I thought it would be a fun first challenge to try and build a program that can generate patterns of tangram shapes automatically.
The solution seemed to be out of my reach until I managed to break down the problem into a few simple steps. The initial inspiration came from Sebastien Truchet
1. This is exactly like how Mr Truchet did it all those years ago. randomly oriently square tiles.
2. To break it up abit I added bigger ones every now and then
3. Things get a little more interesting when the small shapes are allowed to join into bigger shapes.
4. Adding a few more rules for how the small shapes can join together, and giving each a unique colour gives a nice broken pattern.
5. As this is coded rather than created by hand we can do cool things like huge canvas sizes.
6. By placing an image underneath our pattern and taking the colour from that pattern for each triangle, its possible to ‘filter’ an image into a tangram pattern similar to how a Photoshop filter might work
7. I have this working for animation sequences now, will be adding more features soon to make this into a fully fledged video effect.
Love these digital paintings. Created algorithmically, and printed digitally it means that 10,000 unique designs were printed. Great collab between GFsmith , Sea Design, and Field.
Ever since Ive read the excellent Form and Code Ive been itching to do something like this.
Found these whilst researching new printing techiques for our new business cards. Pure Print are now printing in a groundbreaking white ink, which looks very tasty on black card.
I just got wind of imminent changes to Mari, some very exciting stuff coming within the next few weeks, including….
1. Displacement preview and painting
2. PTex UV-less Workflow (this is the BIG one)
3. Version SnapshotsAs assets and textures go through more and more versions, keep and easily reference all changes.
4. Tiled TexturesArtists can quickly cover large areas with repeating textures.
5. Environment MappingSimulate shiny, reflective surfaces when creating textures.
6. High Dynamic Range (HDR)High dynamic range paint channels rendered and cloned.
I also hear the early adopter prices end on 28th when the price will double. Its amazing to see the speed of development here, Autodesk take note!
Year after year, as the 3D world evolves rapidly, our reliance on jargon words that make up our digital vocabulary has increased. In a push to open up both my blog and Bigman’s website to a larger audience, we have created the ‘Geek Glossary’. Whether it be the advertisement and marketing industry, or part of the wider 3D community, we hope to enlighten and engage everyone with a comprehensive source of information.
Here is a direct link to Bigman’s Geek Glossary.
As new lingo is introduced and the need arises, our glossary will be updated. We hope you enjoy reading, if anyone has feedback please get in contact and let us know!
I’m very pleased to be able to say that we have recently brought a license of The Foundry’s new texture program, Mari.
Mari is pretty much a revolution in texturing, it’s already making Photoshop look pretty old hat and stagnant as far as 3D is concerned. I’ve had high hopes for Photoshop’s 3D features of recent years but found them very lacking for serious professional 3D work. Mari was originally created in-house at Weta Digital, as no product on the market was deemed suitable for the sheer amount of texture data needed for James Cameron’s stunning film Avatar.
There is a lot of innovation here, my favourites are:
The Foundry are developing this aggressively and have a good team of engineers on board, looking forward to seeing what happens in the near future here. I’m hoping for a whole range of 3D procedural texture effects that we can bake into our maps.
I went for a look around Oxford a few weeks ago which was inspiring. Wandered around the Magdelen college and found this hidden gem at the back of the grounds in a secluded, peaceful gardens (maybe its swamped with tourists such as myself in the summer?)
http://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/wallinger/movie.html
Aside from the mathematical beauty of the tree, I thought that it’s placement in the field with other trees was genius. Kinda unexpected, in a similar way to a good piece of street art.
