Motion Graphic Synthesis #2

Have just finished the first usable build of my graphic synthesiser.  Below are just screen-grabs of me playing around in its first afternoon of functioning.

 

a basic set up – 3 simple patterns – created by repeating along paths, with changing scale, colour -  these are then repeated again around a radial path with orientation.

 

 

altered the values of the 3 individual patterns slightly, positioning, path shapes etc.

 

 

more playing around with value changing.

 

 

switched off orientation for parent path, so they all point the same direction.

 

 

orientation back on, but with gradual scaling effect on parent path.

 

 

switched a few of the parent signal path generators to ‘noise’ – our 3 patterns are scattered more randomly.

 

 

gradual scaling, but with slightly random distribution.

 

 

randomly tweaking values to see what happens.

 

 

changed the basic shapes to triangles and squares, also tried a white background.

 

 

more playing about.

 

 

Still early days, there’s a lot that’s still not functioning yet, for example, modulation of phase and bias,  square waves, sawtooths (only sines at the minute), full shape modelling (ploys), curved lines.  I’ve only got a hue function working at the minute, but saturation, brightness, alpha to follow.  Every parameter can be animated and effected by other signals in a complex hierarchical system – let’s hope the bugs don’t bite!

 

Motion Graphic Synthesis #1

Today I’m starting a little development diary on my latest software creation.

It’s very early days, but after a month’s work on it, there’s enough to show and explain a little.  Basically the concept is a graphic creation tool that uses the same principles of wave synthesis that you might find in audio and music, e.g. frequency, amplitude & phase modulation, additive synthesis etc.  But rather than generating sounds – patterns, lines and shapes are drawn instead along the signal generated paths.  Think ‘signal to light’.

The signal generators, and the endless ways of daisy chaining them together form only the backbone of the system.  The signals control ‘plotters’ – which plot, or draw something along the path with intervals, scale, orientation etc controlled by other signals.  Each plotter when chained will plot, or duplicate the generated form of the previous plotter, to give endless iterative possibilities.  Each plotter has it’s own independent signal system.  This can be grouped into a ‘shape’ which can form part of a bigger hierarchy of other shapes and nodes/widgets.

In the above screens, you can see various signals chained to a couple of plotters.  At this stage I only have amplitude modulation working, and white dots are all that’s drawn.  The first plotter creates a curved line, the second plotter repeats this line through another path.  Modulation can affect a path through space, or time (animation).

There’s a long way to go, but the system is modular, in that I can continually add ‘widgets’ that can be chained into everything else and produce increasingly complex visuals and creative possibilities.

Here’s just a few buzz words that will hopefully manifest as nodes/widgets available in future evolutions of the software :-

hsb colour, random generator, perlin, fractal, brownian motion, golden mean filter, harmonics, square waves, sawtooth waves, granular synthesis, import bitmap sprites & eps vectors, particle systems, event triggers, math ops, collision detection, pixel detection, audio reaction, 3d procedural modelling.

The results are quite primitive at the minute, but it’s my firm belief that once I get the fully functioning concept of ‘vibration’ synthesis into an intuitive GUI, every possible form in the cosmos can be generated, with a very high artistic aesthetic.

Peter Gabriel Tour Visuals

Have just finished producing concert visuals for Peter Gabriel for his South American tour which kicks of next week, produced through onedotzero in London.

The picture above is the military airbase in Wiltshire were he has been rehearsing, and where the lighting and visuals have been tested too.

I’ve created visuals for his song ‘No Self Control’, which consists lots of my Processing work (procedural animation) and sequences from some of my earlier work ‘Butterfly’.  Has been a great thrill to work with my hero once again, I’ll hopefully get some pics/footage from the concerts and post them here soon.

Below are just a few of the dates.