Gallery Show Abstractions 2

More gallery show testing on windows. One nice feature is that you can stop gallery show and then undo back through previous cycles of the gallery show if you see something you like and want to grab and keep it after the show has moved on to the next random canvas.

Gallery Show Abstractions 1

Windows gallery show testing for Studio Artist 4 is proving to be very useful for routing out some remaining subtle bugs.


It's interesting that the mac seems to be able to handle certain problems that will cause a crash under windows. An advantage of building a multi-platform application is that in the end you seem to end up with more robust code because of the platform variations stress testing different parts of the code.

Driftwood Abstraction

Photo mosaic image created with a driftwood movie brush in Studio Artist's paint synthesizer using path start regionization. The source image was actually created with the temporal scan tracker from a video shot with a Flip camera, but the mosaic is so abstracted that i don't think you'd recognize it unless you knew what it was.

Extreme Simplification

Working through some ideas on extreme simplification of imagery in Studio Artist.

DangerBaby2

This popped out while running some tests in the paint synthesizer. Created with a graffiti movie brush with path start regionization.

Symmetry Graffiti

This started with a set of graffiti images that were used as the source material for a photo mosaic image created in the Studio Artist paint synthesizer. The photo mosaic was then further processed to introduce the symmetry effects. It's funny how the introduction of a little symmetry causes the brain to perceive facial structure where there isn't any.

It Takes a While

The more i look at this the more interesting it starts to look. Pretty abstract. It's more fallout from random gallery show testing.

Paper Mache Face

All paint synthesizer. This one has a raised appearance that looks like paper mache or some kind of raised paint on a rough paper surface.

Somewhat Unsettling

This was generated in Studio Artist 4 using the paint synthesizer and a little bit of self-modulating interactive warp.

SVG Vector Shards

Doing some testing of the SVG output options in Studio Artist 4. One of the nice things about SVG is that unlike EPS it supports alpha blending. This image was generated using multiple passes of the Vectorizer with partial transparency for each accumulative pass.

More Facial Symmetry

More overuse of the symmetry generation options in Studio Artist 4. The image below was saved earlier in the work session before mucking around with symmetry.

BioHazard Mr Baby

Doing some testing. Added the selection override generator option to region fill as brush pen mode. This also solves the partial coverage issue for path start regionization when using region fill as brush pen mode, as can be seen in this photo mosaic test.

It also fixes the weird region issues with watershed path start regionization since it uses the regions directly as opposed to deriving path boundaries and then regenerating a new region from the path boundary. So this is a better replacement for the old Path Start Regionize option in the Region Fill as Brush control panel which vanished at some point in the 3.5 to 4 code rewrites. The new path start regionize code updates the current region selection as it iterates so that's why selection override also is the solution for the path start regionize issues described above.

Etherial Face

This was created with a single paint synthesizer pass that generates very abstract output followed by a slight self modulation in interactive warp to dial in the facial structure.

Background Movie Texture PhotoMosaic 2

More experiments using background movie textures in the Studio Artist paint synthesizer to generate photo mosaic effects.

Background Movie Texture PhotoMosaic

Imagery generated using Studio Artist background movie textures (as opposed to movie source brushes) can have a very different aesthetic. I liked the simplicity of the facial structure in this experiment.

Face Perception From Random Processes

I'm never fail to be fascinated by the visual system's ability to perceive facial structure out of an image derived from a random generative process that is not based on any source photos with facial structure.

More Gallery Show Posts 4

More examples generated from random MSG factory preset mutations using the automated gallery show features in Studio Artist 4.

More Gallery Show Posts 3

These screen grabs were generated with running automated gallery show tests of MSG factory preset mutations in Studio Artist 4.

More Gallery Show Posts 2

More examples of random imagery generated while running automated testing with the new Gallery Show feature in Studio Artist 4.

More Gallery Show Test Grabs

These 2 images could not be more different but they are both screen grabs from random gallery show testing with Studio Artist 4. I was running random mutations of the factory presets when both of these 2 images came up.

MSG Procedural Art 2

Some more examples of procedural art created via directed evolution of MSG processors in Studio Artist.

MSG Procedural Art

Some more examples of procedural art created using MSG processing with no source image.


I use swap evolution to create the images, working with directed evolution over time. Swap evolution swaps individual processors in the MSG processor chain in addition to randomly mutating the individual editable parameters associated with each processor.

MSG Symmetry Abstraction

These were created via directed evolution of MSG presets using the Studio Artist evolution editor.

Both images are examples of procedural art, there's no source image involved, the entire abstract image is constructed from the interaction of the MSG processor modules.

More Gallery Show Random Tests

More screen shots from automated gallery show testing of user contributed PASeqs.

I just grab these on the fly before they mutate into something else in the random test, but you could setup an image stream and output the complete gallery show run as a series of images to sort through later for keepers. So you can let it run overnight or over the weekend and generate few thousand (or much more) original paintings.

Live Video Processing Tests

Performing some live video processing tests in preparation for the Studio Artist 4 release.

Chinatown Mini Store Adventure

Original digital photo was of some Mini Store in Honolulu Chinatown taken out the car window. A drug deal proceeded to go down before our eyes about 10 seconds after i took the picture so we drove off in a hurry as my wife yelled at me to put the camera away before they pulled out a gun and shot us (not that i would expect that to happen in Hawaii).

The processing is a combination of several different Studio Artist treatments. You can generate variable transparency in the vectorizer now with different random seeds for each repetition, so i used 10 repetitions to build the initial image. That was then edge layer composited with the original edge enhanced photo. I used Smooth to cut down on some of the digital noise in the original photo before the edge enhancement.

I also realized that using multiple versions of the same image in the layer composite stack can be a useful thing. By adding a second identical layer of the vectorizor output min composited after the edge composited original image i as able to beef up some light areas that were introduced by the edge compositing. I used the 5 repetitions of the Sphere Multiply ip op with different random parameters to pull the edges of the photo darker. Followed by the image compressor for a final boost.

BeachWalk Driftwood Movie Brush Experiments

I've been trying out some new ideas. I try to walk 5 miles every other day on the beach for exercise, so i've been dragging a digital camera along in the hope i'd get inspired to try something new. So every time i see a piece of driftwood, i've been taking close up pictures of the defects and textures in the surface of the wood. I then took a folder of those images, made a PASeq to do some cleanup and resizing and converted the image folder into a movie. I then used that movie as a movie source brush and tried out some path start regionization ideas in the paint synthesizer.

So i'm generating a picture of the beach out of random textured stuff i find on the same beach. It's taking the concept of how a fractal works and then twisting it somewhat.

The way the textures work out in a final image is also turning out a lot better than i had expected. My initial reaction to the individual photos was 'gee these are pretty boring', and the looks i get from people on the beach watching me take ridiculous pictures of a close up of a dirty piece of drift wood certainly reinforced my initial impression of this particular experiment probably not working out. But in fact i'm pretty happy with how it's all turning out in the end.

I've also been paying a lot more attention to depth of field recently. So the other thing i did with this particular image is used multiple applications of the Sphere Multiplier Ip Op with different random seeds to slightly darken the borders of the final image in a random way. Which focuses the viewers attention to the center of the image. There's a million tricks you can use in Studio Artist to simulate depth of field after the fact so perhaps i should post a new blog tutorial on that subject at some point in the bear term future.

Here's another more abstract experiment shown below using my driftwood movie source brush. The source image is a really stupid picture of an item sold at home depot. Recontexturalizing sterile man made imagery from home depot as organic textures seemed like an interesting conceptual project.



Those of you who follow my photo posts on the Studio Artist User Forum at studioartist.ning.com will notice these 2 images are also posted there as well. Normally that is not the case. The ning RSS photo feed seems to have stopped working yesterday, so i'll be double posting anything posted on the SA forum photo section on this blog as well until that issue gets resolved so that the posts will make it to my aggregation blog at studioartist.tumblr.com and anywhere else that subscribes to that.

Kite Surf Temporal Stack

Revisiting some old themes. Composite image created using 9 digital photos stack filter processed with the Studio Artist Temporal Rank Filter.

More Fun Random Test Images

Here's another random painting from our gallery show auto testing with the user paseq test suites that popped up this afternoon i managed to grab before it vanished.

Waikiki Beach Nite Shot

This started with a 180 degree video pan using a Flip camera that was then processed via the Studio Artist temporal Scan Tracker into a static panorama. You always end up thinking Waikiki beach is a spit of land surrounded by water on both sides when looking at these 180 degree slit scan panoramas but that is not really the case. Tourism is down quite a bit here these days as the economy sinks into oblivion so things were pretty quiet as we showed some out of town friends the sights.

More Random Auto-Testing

I never cease to be amazed by the output created by using the new Studio Artist gallery show feature for auto-testing. We've been getting some help from various users contributing their own custom presets that get thrown into the mix. This image popped out this afternoon and i did a quick canvas save before the auto-test moved on to the next set of parameters.

Extending the Vectorizer

I've been working lately on extending the functionality of the Studio Artist Vectorizer. The traditional vectorizer look is more of a flat cartoon style but the new controls are adding a whole new range of dimensionality to the effects you can create there. And of course they are still at their core raster to vector conversion effects, which you can now output via SVG and PDF for resolution independent vector output.