We going to discuss some different approaches to creating new paint presets. Of course you could do it all manually by hand. Drop into the paint synthesizer Editor, and start adjusting different parameters.
However, even if you know what you are doing mucking about inside of the paint synthesizer, this can be a very tedious and time consuming approach.
So are there other ways of being more spontaneous and getting reasonable results?
Randomizing Parameters
A simple generative strategy to make new paint presets (or any kind of preset really) is to use randomization. Each paint preset has a set of N editable user adjustable parameters (over 628 in Studio Artist V5.5).
So if you set them all to some random number (preferably scaled to be between a decent Min and Max for the possible range of parameter values), then you have a new random preset.
So how well does that work?
And how controllable is that approach?
The quick answer is that your performance may vary, but it's not going to be ideal by any method of evaluating the results.
Morph or Mingle Parameters
Another approach is to work off of designed presets in a collection (like the Factory preset collection we ship with Studio Artist). Someone spent a lot of time fine tuning and tweaking those individual presets. So one would expect that extrapolating off of designed sets of preset parameters would give better results.
And the answer is yes, if you are talking about Mingling the parameters. Mingle means using individual parameter settings from one of the designed presets in the collection. So if you are mingling 2 presets, then every parameter in a new mingled one is either from the firs tor the second designed presets you a e working off of.
Morphing is different, since you are interpolating parameter values between the values associated with the 2 designed preset you are morphing off of. And once you are somewhere in the middle, you have entered the great unknown, and they may lead to wild or even non-drawing effects in the paint.
In summary, morphing may lead to new and exciting things (occasionally), but generates a lot of junk. Mingling leads to useful working presets most of the time, but all of the behavior is associated with one of the 2 presets you are working off of for the mingle (so you aren't going to generate anything dramatically different).
Other factors to consider are where your end point presets for the morph or mingle are coming from. Are they random presets in the entire factory set, or specific collections, or specific categories, or specific individual presets.
Fine Tuning
Another way to fine tune (or gain more control over the results) is to morph or mingle the parameters associated with just and individual control panel inside of the paint synthesizer editor. Since every parameter inside of a specific control panel is associated with a specific aspect of the paint. Like all of the parameters inside of the Path Shape control panel are only associated with the path shape, not the brush or the paint nib, or the background texture, etc.
How Can we Make the Process Smarter?
One problem with all of the above is that they lack a certain specificity. For example, suppose you want to generate new paint presets that randomly tile individual paint nibs derived off of image folder brushes to create a photo mosaic. And you'd like to create an endless variety of different ones (until you find one that you particularly like and want to keep).
Smart Edit commands that specifically do some kind of 'intelligent' edit to the paint synthesizer is one approach. So you might run something like Edit : Paint Synthesizer : Quick Edit : Mosaic : Make Single Src Brush Tiler to quickly get a set of parameters that tile a single paint nib based on the current Brush Source.
And this brings us to the point that certain kinds of edits are structured. And randomly throwing dice and then setting parameter values based on the random throws are probably almost never going to get you to where you want to go. You need some intelligence built into the system.
Actually even pressing Random in Studio Artist has built in heuristic intelligence behind the scenes. The routines are built to avoid bad choices. And to statistically skew the results to create more visually appealing and uniform variations.
What we're trying to do with the new Studio Artist V5.5 QuickEdit commands and associated more elaborate Generative Paint Strategy edits are to enable you to work at a higher level to make editing and design decisions when creating new presets. And to hopefully be more spontaneous in the process.
I'll dive into this stuff in more detail in subsequent posts in this thread.
Replies
So here's one quick example i tossed together as i was testing some of the new features associated with generative paint preset design.
I started with one favorite starting point, the classic 'A Gradient Paint' preset that was the startup preset in V3, V3.5 and V4. Let's hit action and see what it does.
Notice that i am working off of a Source image (this is Studio Artist). i could switch to the Color picker.
Proving that you can't escape the Source in Studio Artist at some level. I'm also unclear on how working this way improves your ability to intelligently choose and/or design a paint preset. So we will end this diversion and continue with our attempts at spontaneously improvising a new paint preset we like.
I talked about randomization above. How well does that work?
So it gets you somewhere perhaps interesting if you work art it long enough. Now the image is what i got by doing probably 20 or more full parameter Random edits. So i'm stacking them on top of each other (a generative strategy them i will endless elaborate on) to create a spontaneous generative art strategy in addition to working through a generative paint preset strategy.
The problems with straight randomization is that you generate a lot of junk. Like presets that don't seem to draw anything, or are wonky, or kind of stupid. Occasionally you get a flash of genius, or something you can take as a starting point and then hand edit to fine tune.
And that was always the approach we pushed before. Creative work was a right brain thing, while preset design was a left brain thing (to use an overused and not technically correct brain metaphor). So do them on different days, in different design sessions, etc.
But Studio Artist is all about being spontaneous, and going where the program takes you. So why can't preset design be like that as well, we thought. And we're trying to push the design of the program to move more in that direction. So that you can be spontaneous building new preset effects on the fly as you work (hopefully in right brain flow mode).
So i tried a different approach. I switched to using a generative paint preset approach. The particular one i used to start was the 'Make Dynamic Path Start Regionize' one. After i picked that, then the GPSRun button in the new Studio Artist V5.5 PowerToolBar will run that generative strategy for me. It does the intelligent preset design (constrained by the particular generative strategy i selected), and also fires off AutoPaint with that generatively designed new preset.
And here's what i got. Again, this is 4 or 5 different applications of the generative preset design strategy piled on top of each other in the canvas (my working generative art strategy). Kind of fascinating, certainly not anything i would have built by hand. And it took me less than a minute to get to a white canvas to this.
Note that you hit undo at any point in the working generative art strategy if you don't like the results. So the artist is in the loop with the intelligent (somewhat) painting system.
At that point i switched to another generative art strategy i use often, which involves working with symmetry in some way. Building it and then breaking it. Because that creates visual interest (certainly it focuses attention in the brain, (people have studied the neurobiology of this). And because i happen to like this generative strategy, so i use it often (probably too much as a crutch to be honest).
So it's kind of like a framing effect build with 2 interactive warps.
I should point out that building a dynamic brush effect in the paint synthesize involves some tedious editing if you do it by hand. Because certain parameters need to be setup properly, or else it's not going to work. So even if you know what you are doing, having the ability to just run a single Edit : Paint Synthesizer : QuickEdit : Regionize : Default Regionize Dynamic Brush command to get you there is a godsend to moving quickly from point a to point b. Enabling you to be much more spontaneous.
So the above was fascinating, but i wanted to create something different, and at the same time, much more targeted. I wanted to work with image folder brushes and tiling in a pretty sophisticated way, always building new constrained random presets in the style.
So i combined a 'Make Image Folder BackgroundTexture' generative strategy with a 'Random Image Brush Folder Tiling Strategy 1' generative strategy. I fired off the GPSRun button in the PowerToolBar again (now constrained to use the 2 new generative paint strategies i selected).
And i got this (again kind of fascinating and not like anything i would have hand designed). Proving that even if you are working off of a source image, the end result doesn't have to be representational. Although the source image is modulating this in some very elaborate ways 9as is the background texture (based on an image folder).
I should point out that if you just use the 'Random Image Brush Folder Tiling Strategy 1' generative strategy you get something more like a conventional photo mosaic effect.
So the combination of the second 'Make Image Folder BackgroundTexture' generative strategy lead to some wild internal modulations. If i just used that generative strategy instead (built off of that original A Gradient Brush preset), i got the following
Keep in mind that running a generative paint strategy on a single preset is going to be way more constrained than running it off of randomly selected presets from the entire preset collection (or some constrained locality of the collection, like 'oil' search, or a specific Category). And that's where Gallery Show comes to the rescue, since it enables you do do exactly that and more.