One image, 100 variations

[Dennis Miller]

As a proof of concept, I need to make, say, 10 - 20 (ultimately 1,000) variations (random at first) of a single source image and save them all to disk. What would be the best way to do that?  Thanks for any suggestions.

[Synthetik]

There are a lot of different approaches one could take.

Let's look at a few.

Probably the simplest thing one could do would be to setup a single Ip Op effect that generates random variations, setup the number of different variations you want as the # of frames in an animation, record the single Ip Op effect in a PASeq, then run Action : Animate : to Image.

Note that _Random is set to 'Unique' in the Editor for the Ip Op effect.  If i set it to 'Use Seed', then the result would be the same every time i ran it.  But because it is set to Unique, the fracture effect will be a random variation every time it is run in the animation.

Not every Ip Op effect generates random variations (a rank area filter would not), so run a test if you are unsure.

 

Above generates a random variation of a specific effect. So based on the Editor shown above, the effect is going to be a random variation of a Center Algorithm, Normal Color Space, and Edge Mode.  Suppose you want to randomize all of the parameters for the Fracture effect, not just get different random variations based off of specific parameter settings.

You could of course press the Randomize button down at the bottom of the Editor to create new random parameter settings for this effect.

You could also keyframe different parameter settings of the effect on the PASeq timeline, and then interpolate between the different keyframe parameter settings to generate new parameter vallues for the animation output.  Those new parameter settings are structured, based on how you defined the parameter settings for the keyframes, which will interpolate parameters as you move between different keyframes.

A different approach that is really random in a generative way is to use the Random Cur Ip Op option for the Main technique in Gallery Show.

If you do that for the Fracture Ip Op effect, then you will generate new parameter settings for the Fracture effect e=for each gallery show cycle.

You could start an image stream, and set your stream write flag to 'Enable Write on Gallery Show Cycle', and then you will output the randomized Fracture Ip Op effect each gallery show cycle to a folder of images.  If you set your gallery show Source Option to Fixed, then the current source will be used for each gallery show cycle.

 

There are a lot of other ways to do what you want in gallery show.

You could work with folder of factory presets, or complete factory preset collections, or generative effects built by gallery show, all processing the same source image.  There are mutate technique options for anything working with factory presets if you want more diversity.

if you want things more constrained or designed, then build up a folder of specific custom presets you want to work with.  Again, you can use the straight presets, or run mutate variations if you want that diversity.

If you are working with the paint synthesizer, there are billions of different generative paint settings you could setup in gallery show.

A different approach would be to work with fields of solid colored patterning (from MSG presets lets say), and then use automatic selection masking in gallery show derived off of the source image to build random screen prints of the colored patterning.

[Synthetik]

One thing i wanted to point out is that while keyframe interpolating most effect parameters is going to have some inherent structure, if you just keyframe the random seed of an effect that uses one, then you will get a random variation of the effect with each unique seed generated by keyframe interpolating seed values.

[Synthetik]

Another approach to this kind of thing would be to use Temporal Generators (TG) attached to specific editable parameters in MSG presets that process the source image.  Set the TG modulator to uniform random noise, setup your TG Min and Max settings, and you are set.  Record this as a MSG action step in a PASeq.  Run it out as an animate to a folder of images like i discussed before.

[Dennis Miller]

John - Thanks much for the detailed reply. Lots of options to try out. Already getting interesting results from the Unique setting in Ip Op. Might be back with a few quesions, but thaks again.