Forecast

Forecast is a long-form generative art project coming to fxhash on 16th Feb 2023. This article contains info about techniques I used, and some rambling about concepts and emotions.

You can see the project live on fxhash here and explore the variations before it drops.

Using ChatGPT to implement Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings

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Sol LeWitt was an artist who worked across many mediums but is probably most famous for his Wall Drawings series. These artworks aren’t actually drawings at all but, rather, instructions for drawings.

The instructions have been implemented in many ways, by many different people, revealing how they are at once prescriptive and ambiguous. Control over a final output lies somewhere between the instruction giver and the instruction follower. The idea popped into my head to put these instructions into ChatGPT, and ask for p5js sketches.

Distributing Randomness

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A good pseudorandom number generator gives an even distribution of results from 0 to 1 but sometimes in generative art we might want something different. It’s possible to skew or weight the distribution of results, so that certain outcomes are more or less likely. This is useful to manage rarities in a collection, or to control positions, dimensions and other choices within each piece.

This article is a guide on how I manage randomness in my projects. There are two main methods I use:

Skewing randomness across a continuous range with mathematical equations.

Defining discrete options and...

Playing dice: Randomness, determinism and the quantum world

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As generative artists we use “randomness” all the time but what does that actually mean? What’s the difference between unexpected, random and chaotic? Does the universe contain any truly random events, or is it operating like clockwork, ticking from one event to the next?

I got thinking about determinism while discussing randomness in my article ‘What is Generative Art’. After a bit of research, I realised that I needed to know more about quantum physics to be able to investigate determinism in the way I wanted to. I did a 12-week introductory course about the quantum world and,...

Emergence and Generative Art

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Sometimes, a system is more than the sum of its parts. Simple rules and behaviours at an individual level can lead to complex and surprising phenomena at a macro level. This is emergence - common in the natural world and in generative art.

Let’s take a look at some definitions:

"You have this very simple set of rules that doesn't look like it's going to do anything interesting, but (...) these large...

Packing & Expanding Polygons : An ongoing exploration

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I've been packing lots of irregular polygons into the canvas, and discovered some interesting (and some annoying) geometry along the way.

I started out detecting collisions in the same way as in my project Maplands, which you can read about in detail here.

Here’s how the collision checking worked:

Create a potential new polygon, with a path of points as the outline.

Check distances from each new point to all the points in existing polygons.

If any points are too close, discard that new polygon and try again.

This method...

What is Generative Art?

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An artwork may be generative in some ways and not in others. A piece could have generative aspects even if the artist didn’t have that intention. There are ways in which a painting could be considered generative.

I prefer definitions to be inclusive, not restrictive, and my definitions are for the purposes of discussing generative art, not for the purposes of ruling on what “is or isn’t” generative art.

Header image: Forecast #23

Okay, how about…

Amy Goodchild

Posted at 2022-02-02 19:14:41 | Art_and_design | read on

Maplands

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Maplands is a long-form generative art project I released on fxhash on 5th Jan 2022. It sold out 256 pieces in exactly 2 minutes.

This article contains background about the process of making Maplands, some information about techniques I used, and a guide to the features.

Maplands was initially a paper drawing. When the list of prompts for Genuary came out some time in late 2021, I saw that Day 1 was “Draw 10,000 of something” and I thought it would be fun/funny to do...

Pretty much all I want in life…

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….is to make things and then have other people look at those things and be like "woah, cool."

I tweeted this the other day and it seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people so here I am, expanding on it.

First off, let’s note that both halves of that tweet are super important. Having other people look at the stuff I make is not just about getting a bit of feedback or the endorphin hit of notifications and likes.

Nope, for me, the audience experience is...

dERIVATIVE – The Making of the Film

https://player.vimeo.com/video/458135379

Made of shapes, colours and a bit of story, dERIVATIVE is a short film I’ve directed for a wonderful Mixpoint Studio in Prague. It follows through a row of visual transformations and is likely to be more a work of motion design than classical CG animation. The project was a months-long effort and this time I had a chance to personally craft every single pixel of the final film – what has really helped me is a compositing-centered workflow which I’d like to talk about in this tutorial. 

It’s not uncommon among the film and animation 3D artists to overlook...