I'm using SA5 64bit on Mac.
I've spent a few weekends now experimenting with one image operation preset and the editor panel, trying to figure out how to recreate something I really like that Gallery Show generated using mutate cur presets (and my current favorites when I ran it was just one preset). Unfortunately I looked away when Gallery Show generated that particular image and so I don't know what settings it might have had. Using the editor, I've managed to get somewhat close to the original Gallery Show item, but I'm beginning to wonder if the mutate function does things to the preset algorithm that are not "reachable" by settings in the editor panel? I'm using the same source image as Gallery Show had.
There's a lot of permutations of things to try... At times it feels like "oh my God! -- it's full of stars!" and I don't know which star has the habitable planet.
The only editor params I have not done a lot of manual permutation poking with are the settings like _seed, _random, _repitition. Should I devote more time to those?
erik
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Ultimately, anything Gallery Show is doing as far as mutating a preset is something you could manually program using the Editor for the particular effect. It's manipulating the same interactively adjustable parameter settings for whatever effect it is using that you have access to.
Mutating paint presets in a folder in Gallery Show is a little bit different then just randomizing their parameters. GS selects 2 different presets, then either Mingle or Morphs them, based on the settings in the GS preference panel.
Mingle means that a percentage of parameter values are taken from the 1st preset, and then anything that still needs to be filled in is taken from the second preset. So no in-between parameter values. All of them come from either preset #1 or preset #2.
Morph is different, because it mixes from the parameter values in the first preset to the parameter values in the second preset. So you get all of the in-between parameter values as you make that transition.
The reason we have the 2 different approaches is because they behave very differently. Mingle has a much higher ratio of generating useful output. Morph has the potential to create a lot of junk. But also the potential to find something totally unexpected and amazing.
One reason it might seem like you can't get there by hand editing is because the mutation process can generate parameter settings that it might never occur to you to use together in a preset if you had tried to build it by hand. Your cognitive pre-conceptions are going to lead you when you are editing. Not true for the auto-mutation algorithms.
That last sentence isn't totally true, because there are constrained randomization options in the GS preference panel that you can turn on. Settings that try to randomize paint presets in intelligent ways. Which is very useful, since they create solid useful output within their limited design criteria.
There are auto-masking options in Gallery Show. So if those are turned on, then things are happening that would require a PASeq preset to capture (multiple action steps to build the mask).
There are also some GS options associated with paint presets that again would require a PASeq preset if you wanted to replicate them. As opposed to just the paint synthesizer editor settings stored in a single paint preset.
So maybe that is what you ran into. Not being able to replicate the Gallery Show effect because you would have to build a PASeq to do it.
A tutorial post on all of this would be a good idea. I'll try to put one together tomorrow.
Thank you so much for delving into how this facet works. Yes, the preset used in the Gallery Show was a PASeq but step 1 is clear the canvas and step 2 is a imageOp. So my explorations have been in the imageOp params.
You've given me some ideas for things to try; and also check out Mingle and Morph and that is fantastic. Thanks!