STRUCTURE SYNTH BASICS

I've been playing with a program called Structure Synth this week, which has the possibility to create extremely complex imagery with very simple scripts. Ubuntu linux users can find it and the Sunflow renderer in the Ubuntu Software Center. There is an augmented version available from Anandamide, but I can't get it to build in linux. If you search around you can see a lot of amazing pictures people have made with it.  It has limitations, but I like that.  I have done a few architectural type things with it that are kind of interesting.  Like this:

One problem is that there is very little entry-level instruction, and by very little I mean none.  I thought the best way to learn the basics was to try to write a few simple instructive scripts, so here goes.

The image above was created using the following script, which can be pasted right into the program, where it will appear in colors that make it a lot easier to understand.  I have added explanatory notes:

// a two component script

8 * { x 1.5 ry 45 hue -20 } // builds a series of boxes and 

// changes their color

6 * { x 1 s 1.1 ry -35 hue 10 } box // applies this to each of 

// the boxes, changing size and color. 

 // Red is the default color and the hue modification number

// is degrees on the color wheel.

// Locations are defined by coordinates - x (l-r), y (u-d), z (f-b)

// ry means rotate along the y axis. ditto for rx and rz

// Putting a size change into the brackets makes it recursive, 

// each box that much smaller.

// to make it uniform, add it as a prefix, as 1 * ( s 0.9 } at the 

//beginning

rule example

{

8 * { x 1.5 ry 45 hue -20 }

6 * { x 1 s 1.1 ry -35 hue 10 }

box

}

// makes this into a rule which can be called up by the name 

//example

1 * { z 20 } 5 * { y 2 s 0.9 } example

// sets the location 10 away in direction z, then creates it five

// times modified in size and y location

// the second bracket builds the structure 2 units up in 

//direction y

//to put it on the same level as the original add y -2 to the

// first bracket

This image was rendered with the internal raytracer, which creates shadows. The script with instructive notes follows:

set seed 45

// ambiguous rules have two rules with the same name.

rule a1

{

8 * { x 1 ry 45 hue 30 } box

}

// this makes a ring of boxes.

rule a1

{

1 * { y -1} 8 * { y 1 ry 45 hue -30 } box

}

// This makes a stack of boxes starting on the same level.

1 * { s 20 0.1 20 y -5 color grey } box

// This makes something for them to sit on.

// Colors can be defined by hex code (#ff3ad5 or #f3d) or by 

// preset names like grey, white, etc.

10 * { z 3 ry 45 } a1

// this creates ten instances, selecting at random between 

// box and stack each time

//every time you build it, it will change unless you use the 

// set seed command

So there you go.  You can change and fiddle with anything in the code, and the program comes with a lot of other examples which will reveal a lot of complexity and potential.  Have fun.

PRE-SPRING UPDATE

For those who enjoy this sort of thing, here is some of it.  The bowl of the birdbath someone left out on the curb a few years ago started breaking up last year, so I molded a new one by making a hole in the soft soil of one of the planting beds and casting it in place.  It needed a depression in the bottom, 1 inch deep and 5 inches diameter, so I faked up a thing at the bottom of the hole and miraculously it all worked out.  I dug it out and hosed it down and it looked pretty good. It fits over the top of the pedestal fine and it holds water.  I used one bag of mortar mix.  Here is a tip I already knew so I didn't have to learn it by accident - don't dump the whole bag into the mixing tub.  Save some in case you get it a little too wet, and you can balance it out.  Here is the hand-molded rustic birdbath: [Addendum - I removed the inner tray, remnant of the old leaking bowl.  The wire frame is  primarily to keep the crows off, but the little birds like to perch on it and scope things out before they go in.]

I didn't dig out the compost heap last year, so this is the year for it.  Below is the sifting screen I built for Frankenstein the Cart, all salvaged materials except half a dozen screws:

I dump the compost in, lift the handles on the near end in an underhand grip, and shake.  The well-digested compost from the bottom of the heap goes right through and whatever is left in the screen will go back in the heap for another year or two.  I moved the upper half of the heap onto a tarp in the yard because it is mostly undigested, and it will go back into the enclosure today.  Here is what ten minutes of shaking the sifter provides:

I filled a big plastic trash barrel, and dumped a couple of big mounds onto planting beds to be distributed and worked into the soil when it is a little less muddy.  It took me two shifts to sift it all - the first day I moved the top of the heap and sifted half of it, and was pretty wiped out from the heavy upper body exercise and unaccustomed sun exposure.  I took a day off and did the rest of the sifting in about an hour, then took a long bike ride that afternoon to balance out the exercise.  Today I move the heap back into the enclosure and go work out at the health club this afternoon.  I am like some kind of vegetarian organic gardening health nut computer geek cartoon.

SCANNERCAM BLOG

If you want to read about how I turned and old flatbed scanner into a camera, go to my blog called SCANNERCAM.  Thank you.