Progress has been slow but these represent a first "state" (to borrow 
from printmaking terminology,) where a few basic objectives are 
realized. The idea so far is to generate the look of a spider's web from 
some pseudo-randomly generated perimeter points.

The inspiration is the spider web mezzo prints of Vija Celmins
http://www.kellysalerno.com/art21/images/image34.jpg

The best results seem to come if the web strands are given a glass 
material and the web is backlit.

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download '1f003.jpg' (107 KB) Download '4g002.jpg' (111 KB)

Preview of image '1f003.jpg'

Preview of image '4g002.jpg'

Look excellent!

How well does it show up against a background?

Also, see if you can get it to write "Good Pig" in there...

Post a reply to this message

Impressive, Jim.

Thomas

Post a reply to this message

Mark Birch wrote:
> Look excellent!
> 
> How well does it show up against a background?

Will be part of a subsequent "state".  Right now most of the web is
straight cylinders except for the perimeter strands which are cylinders 
laid along splines.  Well I hoped to base all the strands on splines 
because in the real world, where backgrounds exist, webs are often 
drooping from dew or whatever.  And I do have a version where all the 
strands of webbing *are* based on splines.  But that version stops 
inexplicably and capriciously.  In fact I've spent over a week trying to 
isolate the bug but cannot.  So I went the simpler, less general, route 
in order to move the project along.  But yes I do want to play with 
backgrounds, lighting, texturing a bit, recreate those early morning sun 
on spiderweb dew type shots that photographers so love, and see if that 
goes anywhere.  There are a few different directions I want to try. 
Also different types of spiders produce slightly different web patterns 
which might be interesting coding problems.  Much of the difference 
seems to involve how each handle the perimeter.  The problem I was 
trying to solve in these examples is the case where the spiral starts 
out pretty round, reflecting the outside perimeter shape only slightly, 
but then increasingly comes to conform to the outside shape of the 
perimeter, though never completely.


http://www.conservation.unibas.ch/team/zschokke/spidergallery.html


> 
> Also, see if you can get it to write "Good Pig" in there...
> 
> 
Hee hee.  E B White got there ahead of me!  Well for me it will just be 
hard enough to introduce vagaries into the pattern which then becomes 
smoothed out again as the spiral progresses.  But you never know!

Post a reply to this message

Thomas de Groot wrote:
> Impressive, Jim.
> 

Thanks.

I mean, Celmins' images are impressive, spiders are impressive, 
Zschokke's research is impressive. I'm just sort of after the fact. But 
some of the issues intrigue me.

Post a reply to this message

"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] msncom> schreef in bericht 
news:459992dc$1@news.povray.org...
> Thomas de Groot wrote:
>> Impressive, Jim.
>>
>
> Thanks.
>
> I mean, Celmins' images are impressive, spiders are impressive, Zschokke's 
> research is impressive. I'm just sort of after the fact. But some of the 
> issues intrigue me.
>

Yes. I often feel that words/languages are awkward vehicles to convey the 
exact feeling of one's thoughts. This is one of such cases. I am interested 
in the techniques you have used, but what I find more deeply appealing here 
is the sense of wonder that these (simple) images evoque. Certainly 
reminiscent of Celmin's work or, let's say, a (possible) way towards 
Celmin's work. However, there is the potential of different paths to be 
taken from here and that is something to be looking forward to. Besides 
that, there are spiders of course. There are usually a couple of them in 
front of my kitchen window and each year I enjoy to contemplate the building 
of the webs. Of course, that means less window cleaning, which is a very 
un-dutch attitude, to be frown upon  :-)

Last but not least, my best wishes for the new year.

Thomas

Post a reply to this message