I wanted some random meaningless alien letters for a space scene I've been 
working on, so I decided to make a pigment filled with random alien 
gibberish!

The letters are built out of segments, like the numbers on a calculator, but 
the segments can overlap. I use object pigments with a repeat warp and a 
cells pattern to randomly light up every possible combination of segments, 
in an infinitely large pigment.

Here's the code:

//--start
// Alienese - by Tek

#include "transforms.inc"

#declare AlienLetters = array[6];

// build it in boxes of 11x11, from 0,0 to 11,11 with 0-1 and 10-11 as space 
between letters
#declare AlienLetters[0] =
 union { box { <1,1>, <2,6,1> } box { 0, <1,4,1> Shear_Trans(x-y,y+x,z) 
translate <1,6> } box { <5,9>, <6,10,1> } scale <1,1,11>/11 };
#declare AlienLetters[1] =
 union { box { <9,1>, <10,6,1> } box { -x, <0,4,1> Shear_Trans(x+y,y-x,z) 
translate <10,6> } box { <5,9>, <6,10,1> } scale <1,1,11>/11 };
#declare AlienLetters[2] = box { 0,1 Shear_Trans(x-y,y+x,z) translate 
<4.5,5.5> scale <1,1,11>/11 };
#declare AlienLetters[3] =
 union { box { <1,1>, <6,2,1> } box { 0, <1,4,1> Shear_Trans(x-y,y+x,z) 
translate <5,2> } box { <9,5>, <10,6,1> } scale <1,1,11>/11 };
#declare AlienLetters[4] =
 union { box { <9,5>, <10,6,1> } box { -x, <0,4,1> Shear_Trans(x+y,y-x,z) 
translate <10,6> } box { <5,9>, <6,10,1> } scale <1,1,11>/11 };
#declare AlienLetters[5] =
 box { 0, <1,8,1> Shear_Trans(x-y,y+x,z) translate <1,2> scale 
<1,1,11>/11 };

#declare Alienese =
 pigment {
  // combine an on/off pattern for each of the cells making the characters
  // optimal version would test empty space first, then combinations of 
cells, then individual ones, but lazy approach is just test all using 
average and saturate that
  pigment_pattern {
   pigment_pattern {
    average
    pigment_map {
     // toggle each one randomly, by using 2x frequency with each letter 
part, so every combination appears in the colour map.
     // could instead get a nice effect by having a list of every valid 
combo and doing one big colour map on cells for that.
     #local i=0; #while ( i < dimension_size(AlienLetters,1) )
      [1 cells frequency pow(2,i) pigment_map { [.5 rgb 0][.5 object { 
AlienLetters[i] rgb 0, rgb 1 } warp { repeat x } warp { repeat y } warp { 
repeat z } ] } ]
     #local i=i+1; #end
    }
   }
   colour_map {
    [.5/dimension_size(AlienLetters,1) rgb 0]
    [.5/dimension_size(AlienLetters,1) rgb 1]
   }
  }
 }

//--end

Enjoy!

-- 
Tek
http://evilsuperbrain.com

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