Archive for proceduralism
That “metaball” look (has got to go)
Posted by: | CommentsIn a recent discussion online another artist complained that metaballs have a distinctive look and that that look is never seen in nature. I get what they’re saying, “blobbies” are kind of like lensflares in that they are useful and necessary but can easily be overdone and distracting. But I would also point out that they don’t have to look “blobby.” Below are a couple of images created easily and in just a few minutes using ICE and emPolygonizer2 (and photoshop for the one, because I just had to fiddle around…)
I am a metaball mesh, yessir.
Ice – stretchy strands
Posted by: | CommentsDoing some stuff with strands. This is pretty primitive still, have to get dynamics working with strands which are constrained on either end, and come up with a scheme for breaking strands, tweak texture approach etc.
ICE getting stronger and stronger.
Posted by: | CommentsRumors persist about ICE being expanded into Maya. 2011 introduces ice kinematics. And Hybride and Thiago Costa blow people away with ICE simulations for the feature film Predators. Thiago’s Loagoa engine teaser has gone viral, so I’m going to add myself to the tons of people wowing over it…here it is:
http://www.vimeo.com/13457383Wow indeed!
Graffiti Analysis
Posted by: | Commentshttp://graffitianalysis.com/about/
Grafitti analysis is an interesting project by Evan Roth (and others) where he’s converting graffiti, or more accurately the motions which create graffiti tags, into data, which is then archived into a database and can be displayed as a 3d visualization. There are some interesting applications, but mostly I think it looks cool.
http://www.vimeo.com/5271076Diffusion limited aggregation redux
Posted by: | Comments
Over time people have been asking me to share the DLA compound I wrote waaay back. So here it is.
http://www.vimeo.com/11122031The compound can be found in the downloads section.
Diffusion limited aggregation is a natural phenomena in which particles in solution build up over time – as particles are deposited they limit the locations where subsequent particles can be deposited, resulting in a pseudo-random growth of deposits with characteristic nodules and ‘fjords’. You can see examples of DLA systems in nature all over, from veins of copper to urban growth patterns. In this simple ICE implementation particles are emitted from geometry and then pulled towards a “seed” point, namely the point cloud the compound is applied to. If there are no existing points in the cloud the first will be deposited at the origin. This causes DLA structures to build towards the provided surface and then to spread across it or inside it’s volume. The compound has a turbulence node which adds a random tropisim as well as a vector input for user-directed tropisims. Please be aware this was never intended as more than an experiment: it works fine but is a pretty simple implementation.
To use: apply the compound to a point cloud (typically with a single point) in a simulated ice tree… Read More→
Chris Marshall posts his ICE tree building workflow
Posted by: | CommentsChris is on my short-list of about 15 people who have been consistently pushing ICE. He’s also been a prolific ICE advocate online. Recently he posted this neat blog entry showing how he’s been creating procedural trees in ICE.
http://www.vimeo.com/6471481Serendipity Reigns
Posted by: | CommentsThis is what I love about the net… serendipity reigns. A friend and colleague Jentsen Mooney posts a couple of videos of an (excellent) talk by Matt Ditton on vimeo on the need for artists to learn to program.
Matt has a bunch of neat videos of processing applications, which I check out. In one, he mentions an idea came from a computer scientist Jared Tarbel.
So I check out his site. And it’s wonderful. Another victory chalked up by ye olde world wide web.
complexification.net