If you are a nerd then you most likely have heard of Karl Sims. If you haven’t heard of him give his page a browse as there is some good stuff there.
I have admired and respected him since his work in Genetic Images back in 1993 that inspired all three of my attempts at Genetic Art so far. I still have a few more ideas on new Genetic Art methods to experiment with and share when I get some spare time.
I noticed his latest work as I was browsing Reaction Diffusion videos on YouTube. Yes, if you know what to look for there are videos on YouTube better than this one that was featured on their homepage and has millions of hits so far. I must be getting old(er)… “What is wrong with kids these days”!?
Check these two RD samples Karl put up on YouTube.
The most impressive aspect of those is the shading that gives them the 3D look. (Aussies can confirm the almost exact reflectance of the second example to Vegemite). Remember that the output of these Reaction Diffusion equations is strictly 2D. The bulging 3D look is based on calculating the slope between neighbouring pixels. Or at least that is how I do it in Visions Of Chaos, but Karl’s versions seem so much more 3Dish than mine. See his images here that are awesome.
As always he inspires me (and I am sure many others) to do better.
Jason.
Hi Jason, although not quite up to Karl Sims levels of beauty, I’ve been tinkering with reaction-diffusion models using AGAL under the Flash Player. AGAL is a GPU shader language.
You can see my efforts here: http://flexmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/stage3d-agal-reaction-diffusion.html
Cheers,
simon
Hi Simon,
You have some very nice results. I always like to see what other people do with reaction diffusion, especially since 99.9999999% of people have not even heard of reaction diffusion. The way such relatively simple formulas mimic nature’s patterns is intriguing.
Not to self… look up and implement the “Willamowsky Rossler” model.
The “fake 3D” look is easy enough to implement if you want to get closer to Karl Sims’ results.
Regards,
Jason.