Good looking artwork

[Dennis Miller]

There's some good looking animation here: https://www.depict.com/arts/769

(Palimpset #4 if it doesn't come up automatically)

Any thoughts about how to do something similar in SA? This is also nice but may be harder to do:

https://www.depict.com/arts/765

Hyasynth

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

d.

[Synthetik]

The animation example you pointed out is very nice.

So if you want to create something like that, you can break it down into a few different components.

First, it appears like there are several simpler movement animations that are composited together in a non-linear editor to generate the full complexity of the final piece. So in your mind you'd want to break it up into the individual movements or dynamic components, and then try to figure out how to generate each of those.

It seems like the basic idea going on is index mapping a dynamic BW image though a color gradient. I tossed together a few quick very simple examples to show off some different approaches to doing this.

Simple Gradient Mapping Examples from john dalton on Vimeo.

Again, these were all created by mapping a time varying BW image though a color gradient. The luminance of the BW image maps into the color gradient to generate the color image output.

I first used a simple MSG preset using a temporal generator to modulate a color gradient mapped BW turbulence field depth parameter over time to demonstrate the basic idea of color gradient mapping.

So the Ramp temporal generator dynamically adjusts the Z Offset parameter associated with the BW turbulence field, which generates dynamic color animation.

But the appearance of that turbulence field is different than what is going on in the original animation we are trying to analyze. You could of course try to build different MSG procedural image generators to emulate some of those image looks. Or you could use the paint synthesizer, which is what i did for the remaining examples.

So everything else in the simple examples above is based on using the paint synthesizer to paint a BW image that is then color gradient mapped. I used a 2 layer Paint Action Sequence to pull that off. Overpainting into layer 1. And including some self transformation to the previous layer 1 image before over-painting for each new animation frame output. So you might fade, or blur, or warp the previous layer 1 image before overpainting on it.

The layer 1 overpaint image is then copied to layer 2, where a simple MSG preset does the color gradient mapping for the actual animation output.

So the 2 layers are not composited, they are used as separate image buffers. Layer 1 for building up dynamic overpainting and associated time based transformations to the previous painted image, layer 2 for the color gradient index mapping.

These short examples based on different approaches to working with the paint synthesizer first use paint synth time particles to define paint movement over time, then paint individual splatter paint nibs 1 by 1 with some different geometric warp transformations added for the different variations of this approach, followed by using the contents of the internal bezier path memory in the paint synth to specifically define several paint movement paths over time.

The point being that there are lots of different ways you could do the automatic overpainting in Studio Artist, all with different distinct looks. And these simple examples barely scratch the surface of what you could achieve if you spent some time artistically crafting your paint animation and associated color gradients for maximum visual impact.

How you specify your color gradient colors and index positions is going to greatly influence the overall appearance of this kind of animation approach. And you can also keyframe animate them over time, as is happening in the last 2 examples.

So i hope this gets across the basic idea that is going on under the hood in the example animation. Hopefully someone will run with the ideas discussed here and put together something more aesthetic than my simple examples, which show off some approaches you can use, but are not finished pieces of moving artwork by any means, just simple examples of different approaches you could use to pull it off using Studio Artist features.

[Synthetik]

I was curious if there was a way to put together a procedure where you could interactively paint into an ongoing process like i described in my original post. By process i mean an animating PAseq that is doing some kind of recursive processing to the contents of layer 1, and then using the output of layer 1 to gradient map into layer 2.

As it turns out there is a way to do it. Interactively paint into layer 1 while as PAseq is actively running an animation. So i tried out another really quick simple example just to show off how it cold be done.

Simple Gradient Mapped Live Paint Test from john dalton on Vimeo.

This is a real quick demo of live painting incorporated into a 2 layer Paint Action Sequence that is recursively processing the live BW painting taking place in layer 1, while also color gradient mapping the recursively varying BW layer 1 canvas in layer 2 . he recursive layer 1 processing is done by the Fixed Color action step (which slowly fades to white), and the Warp, Smooth, and Simple Texture action steps to recursively transform the contents of layer1 to give it a dissipative quality as the image self-modifies and degrades over time. The color gradient mapping is done using a Fixed Image action step to copy the contents of layer 1 to layer 2, and then a simple MSG preset to do the color gradient mapping.

So it's an example of incorporating live painting at the same time you are running a PASeq that is animating over time. You couldn't pull that off with normal painting, because a mouse down in the canvas associated with normal painting is going to shut down any PAseq that is running. But there is a way to do it.

I'm using the Pen Position Live Track option for the Path Start Generator to pull that off, in conjunction with a Wacom pen. The paint action step in the PASeq only live paints when the pen is in proximity of the tablet. And it's using the 'Last Path Start Spline To' Load Type for the Path Load option for Path Shape. You can also use Pen Proximity to modulate the size of the brush, or other aspects of the paint so they only are activated when the pen is in proximity of the tablet.

The first set of examples associated with this discussion were all using different auto-paint options recorded into the PASeq to algorithmically do the painting into layer 1. After a little thinking i came up with this approach to allow for interactive painting to be used as well in this kind of animation process. You use a movie stream with a write on PAseq Cycle End write flag enabled to generate the movie frame output.

You could of course keyframe manual paint action steps into the PASeq as another approach to doing this kind of thing. Or use any of the different procedural auto-painting approaches i discussed in the first set of examples i posted earlier today. The cool thing about this particular approach is that you can interactively do the painting while the PASeq is live animating the overall processing.