User Experiments

The painting is all automatically created using Studio Artist V5.5.5 gallery show generative ai paint (no presets involved). I was working with a folder of curated source imagery (nuclear dawn) with some symmetry data augmentation turned on. I streamed the gallery show cycle output into an image folder, then loaded that into a Transition Context and did a 2X time expansion out into a movie file.

I loaded that movie file as my source, then constructed a new Transition Context that keyframes a 'man dancer' movie file with 90 frame separation between the transition keyframes (so the movie instances are transition algorithm interpolated as they both play between different keyframes). I added some additional key-framed interactive warp commands to slowly build different symmetry configurations from the transition interpolated 'man dancers' in the canvas. I then used the Temporal Displace IpOp effect to spatially time displace my generative paint source movie based on the manipulated man dancers which were used as a temporal displacement modulation matte.

This approach to using a displacement modulation matte to add secondary structure to a painting is a great way to add controlled structure to any image or movie, but especially effective for pulling structure out of non-structured imagery. My previous post did this using a spatial warp (displacement within a single movie frame) as opposed to this example using a temporal warp (displacement across multiple movie frames). So another tool to add to your toolkit.

Generative paint animation experiment created in Studio Artist V5.5.5. I started by building a folder of source images tied to a sunrise dawn theme. I then configured a totally generative paint strategy (no presets used) in Gallery Show, then let it run to automatically generated 96 output images into an image stream. I then auto-loaded all 96 streamed Gallery Show cycle output images into a Transition Context, time expanded the Paint Action Sequence timeline by 10X, added some additional multi-octave gradient lighting and adaptive contrast boost to my PASeq, loaded a source movie i used for some interactive warp manipulation of the Transition Context output, then ran Action : Animate menu to output to the final movie file.

Procedural animation generated in Studio Artist V5.5.5 using some related MSG (modular synthesized graphics) presets that self-animate based on a few Temporal Generators (time based oscillators) hooked into different MSG processor parameters. I then key-framed these in the Studio Artist Paint Action sequence (PASeq) Timeline using Transition Contexts, which let you run transition effects between key-framed images or free running movies. I then used the Invert Expand timeline command to invert flip the entire animation for the second half, which timed out nicely to fit the first audio track titled 'Radiowave' off of Xenon Light's 'Annihilation' cd.

This short video shows off a few of the Studio Artist V5.5.5 factory presets.  I used a very simple art strategy in Gallery Show just based on the factory paint an PASeq presets with no additional generative ai modification except for a Surprise Me auto-selection masking option.  I hit the Grab button in the Gallery Show ToolBar when i saw something i particularly liked, and the canvas is then streamed out as an image file into a folder.  I then used a Transition Context (algorithm 4) to automatically generate an animation based off of the individual GS grab images in the folder as a movie file.

combining GS-Grabs with Image-Brushs from my library:

Background (GS)

composing the scene with IBs and running a finalize-paseq (smart displace)

(Rough Detail)

Coverart-designs for CDs in the context of "contemporary music", all done in studioartist.

(  the pdfs with drafts are taken from my archiv )

COV_WER6782_Cage_Sonatas &interludes.pdf

COV_WER6787_renatoDeGrandis.pdf

COV_73582_Funambule.pdf

COV_73472_YingWangTunTu.pdf

COV_67572_LIGETIVolumina.pdf

COV_7325FeldmanBeckett.pdf

COV_WER6765Zender_LogosFragmente.pdf

COV_WER73912Henze DoubleBass.pdf

COV_WER73842ImBauMichaelRoth.pdf

example from my series "corona lockdown walks"

on my walks I pass the "napoleon optical telegraph" and was fascinated by the (figurative) optical signal signs.
back in studio I build the main figures with liquorice squeezed through an etching-press and some aditional sketches with graphite and opaque white.
this intuitive processes leads me to an indepent set of analogous done triptychs. the digital variations based on my sketches and the discovered optical alphabet. I decided to make "diptychs," so the only thing was now to do the alienation distancing to find the styles...

This is a simple experiment using the Mutate Current Favorites option for the Main Technique in Gallery Show in Studio Artist V5.5.  I didn't cherry pick the output, you see exactly what gallery show generated in this short totally automated run.  I used Mingle rather than Morph for my Paint Mutate option.  I then loaded all of the frames into a Transition Context in a PASeq, and then time expanded the PASeq timeline by 6x, then used Action : Animate to generate the movie.

Studio Artist V5.5.5 has a lot of different features one can use to build TSP (Traveling Salesman Problem) sketch effects. I setup a Paint Action Sequence (PASeq) to automatically build a single bezier path TSP Sketch of a series of key-framed movies in a Transition Context. I then used another Studio Artist feature to automatically derive colored regions (the Flat Color Regionize IpOp effects) while keyframe interpolating the single bezier curve sketch effects over time. And this is what i got. Super easy to try experiments like this in Studio Artist.

my designer-colleague hJUNG sent me one of his new digital collages for a collaboration-project this morning, which let me think a little bit about the gallery-show masking techniques...

I've detected again that my blog-part is only visible for me, when I am logged in. John: has this again to do with the current ning forum issues, or is this an administrative decision? Thanks.

some style-transfers based on my paper-cuts

Quiet.  The Generative AI is Dreaming.

William Kentridge presented the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures in 2012, entitled “Six Drawing Lessons.”

William Kentridge | Drawing Lesson One: In Praise of Shadows - YouTube

William Kentridge | Drawing Lesson Two: A Brief History of Colonial Revolts - YouTube

William Kentridge | Drawing Lesson Three: Vertical Thinking - A Johannesburg Biography - YouTube

William Kentridge | Drawing Lesson Four: Practical Epistemology: Life in the Studio - YouTube

William Kentridge | Drawing Lesson Five: In Praise of Mistranslation - YouTube

William Kentridge | Drawing Lesson Six: Anti-Entropy - YouTube

I thought it might be fun to take a look at some old cd cover artwork i did for the Xenon Light music group project.  I've been digging through it all for setting up a retrospective bandcamp site for Xenon Light.

This is for the Xenon Light Annihilation cd.  The image is from the Fold master, so you get the back and front artwork as it was printed on the folder sheet that was folded and then inserted into the plastic cd package.  Young people will ask what a 'cd' is of course.

The front and back cover images were generated in Studio Artist of course, but a much earlier version of Studio Artist (probably circa 2004-2005).

So you can see that i was working with a custom movie brush (this was before image folder brushes) in the paint synthesizer.

And i am struck by how some imagery unfortunately never seems to lose it's relevance to social commentary on current events.  True when the music was recorded in the mid 90s, true when the remastered cds were released in 2005, still true today in 2021.

This movie was generated in Studio Artist V5.5.5 using a TSP (Traveling Salesman Problem) sketch effect created in the paint synthesizer.  I then used a geodesic interpolator IpOp effect to fill in the rest of the canvas with the paint coloring laid down on the continuous one path TSP sketch path.

This is the output from a Gallery Show run from yesterday. I captured the output from the gallery show run by opening a movie stream, and setting the stream write flag to Enable Write  on Op End.  Choosing this write flag dumps a frame every time gallery show runs an action, as opposed to just one frame at the end of the complete gallery show cycle.  Depending on what you have specified in your gallery show configuration settings, there might be a lot of individual actions that run over the course of the complete gallery show cycle.  Due to what you have setup in selection auto-masking, start, and end cycle processing.

This video shows off a short Gallery Show run in Studio Artist V5.5.5

The Resynthesis IpOp effect is probably not used all that often.  It always seemed like a specialty thing.  It basically lets you define a sampling rectangle in the input to the effect, which is modeled, and then the texture is resynthesized.  Its intent was to be a little bit visually funky, the textures it generates are very stylized.

But i recently discovered auto-randomized versions of it are truly awesome when used appropriately in gallery show runs as the main technique.

Here's a gallery show cycle output i just grabbed from a recent experiment in recursive texture resynthesis.

Each gallery show cycle, a sample rectangle is randomly generated for the Resynthesis effect, and the current canvas output is used for that sampling.  The Resynthesis IpOp effect then uses the texture model it generated off of the rectangular sample of the existing canvas to generate a new re-synthesized texture field for the Resynthesis effect's output.

The other elements of the gallery show cycle run are introducing additional structure into the canvas. So what is being sampled each cycle for texture resynthesis is always a product of those additional treatments and what the resynthesized texture application from the previous gallery show cycle.

I also have the new Style Transformation start cycle option turned on, so a style transfer effect is happening prior to an auto selection masked application of the Resynthesis effect.  My end cycle processing is the new Random Deep Gradient Lighting- Colorize end cycle option.  All of the Colorize start and end cycle options are working with the new Compeller IpOp effect in some way.

The other thing i have going on is the particular data augmentation option i have turned on for the gallery show source. I'm using the new Src-Canvas Transition data augmentation option. So each gallery show source image used for gallery show processing is a transformation from the previous gallery show output to the randomly selected source image.  So there is this push pull effect going on where the last gallery show output is first auto-transited to the Style, then overlaid with auto-masked Resynthesized texture from the last gallery show output, subjected to dispersive and optimization forces by the end cycle processing, and then pulled back to the new randomly selected spur image with the Src-Canvas Transition data augmentation.

Working with dispersive forces is crucial when using anything that amplifies noise.  It acts over time in the repetitive processing cycles to damp down and eliminate the recursive noise amplification.

You can consider this an example of a more sophisticated art strategy dialed in using the new gallery show features in Studio Artist V5.5.5.

"this is my land" digital collage by graphicDesigner HjUNG for my "artfusion zines" and "on the other hand"-projects (no SA-work;-)

"strangers in venice" digital collage by graphicDesigner HjUNG for my "artfusion zines" and "on the other hand"-projects (no SA-work;-)

"under construction" digital collage by graphicDesigner HjUNG for my "artfusion zines" and "on the other hand"-projects (no SA-work;-)