Similar technique as all the elevation exploration with a &quot;min&quot; applied on the noise to make some steps appearing.

Step elevation

Ring packing

Simple elevation that have an interesting waving effect.

Waving elevation

Squares Noise Packing

This plot was made for fun as a contest I did for colleagues, where I asked how much meters of fountain pen ink was used in this. The answer was 93.38 meters.
That plot is gifted to a colleague who estimated at 100 meters.
<pre><code>Estimated print time: 1:39:35 (Hours, minutes, seconds)
Length of path to draw: 93.38 m.
Pen-up travel distance: 289.31 m.
Total movement distance: 382.69 m.
</code></pre>

Crimson & Indigo Squares

Square Spiral Packing

Diagonal Stroke Packing

Cross Stroke Packing

Pentagon Spiral Packing

Blue Spiral Packing

The best part of generative art is accumulating techniques and improving your creative coding skills. You explore your imagination and can combine different ideas and techniques over time once you have &quot;absorbed&quot; them in our playbook. IF you know N techniques, one more technique is now giving you <code>N*(N+1)</code> possibilities of outcomes. They can all be crossed over and combined together to produce results. It&#39;s exponential.
Here is the combination of shape packing, applied to triangle polygon, filled with one of my oldest &quot;fill&quot; algorithm that works by rotating around randomly sampled points.

combination of shape packing, applied to polygon, filled with one of my oldest fill algorithm that works by rotating around randomly sampled points

triangle noise spiral

A variant of <a href="/plots/203">plot#203</a>.
<blockquote>
I like randomness a lot. Exploring the beauty of noise is also recreating Nature&#39;s pattern and trying to put back some order in that randomness.
</blockquote>

I like randomness a lot. Exploring the beauty of noise is also recreating Nature's pattern and trying to put back some order in that randomness.

Bloody circles & ordered noise

As you may notice, I like randomness a lot. Exploring the beauty of noise is also recreating Nature&#39;s pattern and trying to put back some order in that randomness.
This creation is an unusual version of &quot;circle packing&quot; that instead of a pure random distribution will run a few times to actually try to find the biggest circle to place. This makes the distribution less random and way more ordered. However, the fact there is a &quot;a few times&quot; maximum tries gives some room for some randomness and not &quot;pure order&quot;.
The algorithm at stake is relatively simple, I will have to improve it in future to parallelize the computation.
<pre><code class="language-rust">fn packing(
 seed: f64,
 iterations: usize,
 desired_count: usize,
 optimize_size: usize, // &lt;--- number of retries to optimize the size 
 pad: f64,
 container: &amp;VCircle,
 min_scale: f64,
 max_scale: f64,
) -&gt; Vec&lt;VCircle&gt; {
 let mut circles = Vec::new();
 let mut tries = Vec::new();
 let mut rng = rng_from_seed(seed);
 let x1 = container.x - container.r;
 let y1 = container.y - container.r;
 let x2 = container.x + container.r;
 let y2 = container.y + container.r;
 let max_scale = max_scale.min(container.r);
 for _i in 0..iterations {
 let x: f64 = rng.gen_range(x1, x2);
 let y: f64 = rng.gen_range(y1, y2);
 if let Some(size) = search_circle_radius(&amp;container, &amp;circles, x, y, min_scale, max_scale) {
 let circle = VCircle::new(x, y, size - pad);
 // innovation happens here, basically we keep pushing until we reach the nb
 tries.push(circle);
 if tries.len() &gt; optimize_size {
 // then we grab the biggest
 tries.sort_by(|a, b| b.r.partial_cmp(&amp;a.r).unwrap());
 let c = tries[0];
 circles.push(c.clone());
 tries = Vec::new();
 }
 }
 if circles.len() &gt; desired_count {
 break;
 }
 }
 circles
}
</code></pre>

circles recursion & ordered noise

@greweb&#39;s #12 plot loop. Taking the idea of <a href="/plots/198">plot#198</a> to the next level using an animated eye.
These are plotted (~ 2 hours each frame) with fountain pens and two inks (&#39;Bloody Brexit&#39; by Diamine and &#39;Writers Blood&#39; by Diamine) on a A4 watercolor paper (300g/m2).
The eye is mirrored with a different offset to make this duality. The title refers to the French expression &quot;œil pour œil, dent pour dent&quot; which means &quot;an eye for an eye&quot;.
<h3 id="making-of">Making of</h3>
I took a video of my wife eye and use this GIF as an input to my generator =)
<img src="/images/plots/202-input.gif" width="400">

The way to mix the two eyes is using a simple technique, using my own tool set:
<pre><code class="language-rust">let get_color_1 = image_gif_get_color(&quot;images/eye.gif&quot;, opts.index).unwrap();
let get_color_2 = image_gif_get_color(&quot;images/eye.gif&quot;, opts.index + 2).unwrap();
let f = |(x, y): (f64, f64)| {
 let p = (x, y);
 let c1 = get_color_1((p.0, p.1 + 0.2));
 let c2 = get_color_2((p.0, 1.2 - p.1));
 smoothstep(0.0, 1.0, grayscale(c1)) *
 smoothstep(0.0, 1.0, grayscale(c2))
};
</code></pre>

œil pour œil (4 frames)

Plotting 1000 digits of π. Y axis spreads from 0 to 9, X axis is the index of digits. Diamine &#39;Red Dragon&#39; ink with fontain pen on watercolor paper.

Plotting 1000 digits of π. the y axis spreads from 0 to 9, the x axis is the index of digits.

1000 digits of π

Today is 200th day of 2021. I started plotting on January 1 on a daily cycle, so let&#39;s celebrate this 200th plot. I&#39;m using here a very similar technique as explored in <a href="/plots/198">plots#198</a> with even more tight lines and different settings used in combination with a coffee cup photo. 
This plot is a tribute to artist Sean M Puckett (<a href="https://twitter.com/PhotoPuck">@PhotoPluck</a> on Twitter), who I consider an incredible artist of the plotting scene. They are frequently releasing impressive photo-driven plots, pushing the boundaries of what can be done with fountain pens. Please check their work on <a href="https://twitter.com/PhotoPuck">https://twitter.com/PhotoPuck</a>.
I like their regular &quot;Monday coffee plot&quot; that I wanted to celebrate.

Monday coffee

This plot combines circle packing meets 2d sampling sorted by (x+y). Diamine &#39;Bloody Brexit&#39; on A4 watercolor paper.
It took 2 hours to draw with a fountain pen that ran 111 meters of ink!

This plot combines circle packing with sorted connected random lines technique. Diamine 'Bloody Brexit' on A4 watercolor paper.

oblique doodle packing

Using layered lines combined with an eye photo with two fountain pens on watercolor paper.

Using layered lines combined with an eye photo with two fountain pens on watercolor paper.

Eye 02

Eye 01

Brume means Mist in French. Diamine Earl Grey ink on watercolor paper.

Brume means Mist in French. Diamine Earl Grey ink on watercolor paper.

Brume

@greweb&#39;s #11 plot loop. This is an highlight of the recent work, animated.

Dancing mountain (4 frames)

Usage of different harmonies of noise to reveal glitches. Various noise experiments and inks.
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/194zoom.jpg">

<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/194b.jpg">

<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/194c.jpg">

Usage of different harmonies of noise to reveal glitches. Various noise experiments and inks.

Elevation glitch

Layering lines with noise with another noise to produce random stripe distribution. Parker Quint on Watercolour paper (300g/m).

Layering lines with noise with another noise to produce random stripe distribution. Parker Quint on Watercolour paper (300g/m).

Striped mountain

Continuation of noise elevation. Fountain pens with various inks on watercolour paper (300g/m).
Two other experiments done and much more will follow because it&#39;s a great concept:
<img src="/images/plots/192b.jpg" width="100%" />
<img src="/images/plots/192c.jpg" width="100%" />

Continuation of noise elevation. Fountain pens with various inks on watercolour paper (300g/m).

Colored mountains 01

Lines elevation with perlin noise warping. Fountain pen and &#39;Bloody Brexit&#39; ink on watercolour paper (300g/m).
Various other experiments:
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/191b.jpg">

<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/191c.jpg">

<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/191d.jpg">

Lines elevation with perlin-noise warping. Fountain pen and 'Bloody Brexit' ink on watercolour paper (300g/m).

Blurry elevation

Continuation on packing circles with layered lines.

Continuation on packing circles with layered lines.

Mountain moons

Packing circles with layered lines inside. exploration made before <a href="/plots/188">plot#188</a>&#39;s plot loop.
Also made a second one:
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/189bis.jpg">

There is an infinity of variants.

Packing circles with layered lines inside. exploration made before plot#188.

Layers

Every NFT sold allows acquiring a plotted frame. (code in the unlockable content)
<nft-card contractAddress="0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e" tokenId="47428341271170390733253974222101382154768714392453356712130950051307370577931"> </nft-card> <script src="https://unpkg.com/embeddable-nfts/dist/nft-card.min.js"></script>
@greweb&#39;s #10 plot loop. That animation is the main digital art.
A high-quality video is available in 11 NFT editions, one per frame, for buyers to acquire each physical frame.
This work took me a lot of dedication to plot the 11 frames for an (interrupted) one week long! Each frame taking almost 2 hours to plot, you can&#39;t really cheat here, I like to think the process to be some sort of Proof Of Plot.
It is getting sold by achetezdelart on OpenSea. Detail is in the description.
<h2 id="plotting-highlights">Plotting highlights</h2>
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188plot1.gif">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188plot2.gif">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188plot3.gif">


<h2 id="making-of-and-technical-notes">Making-of and technical notes</h2>
It is probably one of the craziest main.rs source code I wrote for a plot, notably because I have combined in one script many different techniques, most of them explored earlier in other dedicated plots.
I tried to put in this plot loop my best artwork and recent iterations of color packing experiments.
The work is technically composed of 3 circles rotating in the middle of a lot of circles packing. Each circle contains itself a specific art technique:
<ul>
<li>shape contouring, to remind a bit exploration of <a href="/plots/136">plotloop#136</a></li>
<li>square packing, which is a direct reuse of logic of <a href="/plots/180">plot#180</a> with however a unique nesting of squares to create more depth.</li>
<li>layered lines in circles, which is an innovation that I&#39;m going to re-explore (starting with next <a href="/plots/189">plot#189</a>)</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="full-picture-photos">Full picture photos</h2>
1 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full0.jpg">

2 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full1.jpg">

3 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full2.jpg">

4 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full3.jpg">

5 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full4.jpg">
6 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full5.jpg">
7 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full6.jpg">

8 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full7.jpg">

9 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full8.jpg">

10 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full9.jpg">

11 out of 11
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188full10.jpg">

<h2 id="early-prototypes-i-had">Early prototypes I had!</h2>
It was a hard choice to give up on colors and stay on a minimalistic black.
I do not plan to sell these at this stage.
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188proto1.jpg">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188proto2.jpg">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/188proto3.jpg">

@greweb's #10 plot loop. That animation is the main digital art. A high-quality video is available in 11 NFT editions, one per frame, for buyers to acquire each physical frame.

Rotation (11 frames)

3-level recursion of packing circles

circles inside circles inside circles in a circle

Continuation of packing circle experiments.

Continuation of packing circle experiments.

Packing disc

Packing turquoise half-filled circles, plotted with a fountain pen and Diamine Turquoise ink on watercolor paper.

Packing turquoise half-filled circles, plotted with a fountain pen and Diamine Turquoise ink on watercolor paper.

half-filled or half-empty?

A total of 11307 hexagons are drawn with a fountain pen to fill 3963 hexagons. The shapes are themselves positioned in hexagons. It takes 2 hours to perform on the speed I chose for a watercolor 300g/m paper. The ink changes color due to the amount of ink flow (it flows less and less). The ink is &#39;Bloody Brexit&#39; and there is only this one ink used!.
<img src="/images/plots/184zoom.jpg" width="100%">

<img src="/images/plots/bloodybrexit.jpg" width="100%">

Packing 3963 filled hexagons in hexagons. 2 hours of plotting with fountain pens on watercolor 300g/m paper.

packing hexagons in hexagons

Packing many squares in circles. Black fountain pein on watercolor 300g/m paper.

Packing many squares in circles. Black fountain pein on watercolor 300g/m paper.

packing squares in circles

Continuing my geometry minimalism series. This time, packing squares in triangles. Black fountain pen on 300g/m paper.

Continuing my geometry minimalism series. This time, packing squares in triangles. Black fountain pen on 300g/m paper.

packing squares in triangles

Continuation of <a href="/plots/180">plot#180</a>.
Third iteration on packing iso triangles in a square. two fountain pens on 300g/m paper.

Third iteration on packing iso triangles in a square. two fountain pens on 300g/m paper.

triangle packing

Continuation of <a href="/plots/179">plot#179</a>.
Second iteration on packing rotated squares in a square. Black fountain pens on a 300g/m paper. It&#39;s interesting how the paper makes the ink having different shade of greys.
This time, the rotations are less random and aligned on 10 possible angles. (but these are squares so not it repeats)
There is also two concentric squares drawn each time.
<h2 id="technical-notes">Technical notes</h2>
This is also a continuation of the code of <a href="/plots/179">plot#179</a>.
I did an improvement of the search algorithm using a dichotomic search:
search
<pre><code class="language-rust">fn poly_square_scaling_search(
 boundaries: (f64, f64, f64, f64),
 polys: &amp;Vec&lt;Polygon&lt;f64&gt;&gt;,
 x: f64,
 y: f64,
 angle: f64,
 min_scale: f64,
 max_scale: f64,
) -&gt; Option&lt;f64&gt; {
 let overlaps = |size| {
 let poly = rotated_square_as_polygon(x, y, size, angle);
 let bounds = poly.bounding_rect().unwrap();
 let topleft: Point&lt;f64&gt; = bounds.min().into();
 let bottomright: Point&lt;f64&gt; = topleft + point!(
 x: bounds.width(),
 y: bounds.height()
 );
 out_of_boundaries(topleft.x_y(), boundaries)
 || out_of_boundaries(bottomright.x_y(), boundaries)
 || poly_collides_in_polys(polys, &amp;poly)
 };

 let mut from = min_scale;
 let mut to = max_scale;
 loop {
 if overlaps(from) {
 return None;
 }
 if to - from &lt; 0.1 {
 return Some(from);
 }
 let middle = (to + from) / 2.0;
 if overlaps(middle) {
 to = middle;
 }
 else {
 from = middle;
 }
 }
}
</code></pre>

Second iteration on packing rotated squares in a square. Black fountain pens on 300g/m paper.

squares packing 002

Packing rotated squares in a square. Black fountain pens on Bristol. Interestingly one square didn&#39;t draw due to ink issues. It makes the final art pretty unique!
<h2 id="technical-notes">Technical notes</h2>
The algorithm brute-forces with 1 million iterations to find square location, for each iteration it will then search for the biggest square that can fit in the location space. I didn&#39;t even implemented dichotomic search for finding the square scale (it&#39;s a simple loop) but the overall script runs relatively fast in Rustlang (less than 10 seconds).
main loop
<pre><code class="language-rust">let mut polys = Vec::new();
let mut rng = rng_from_seed(opts.seed);
for i in 0..1000000 {
 let x: f64 = rng.gen_range(bounds.0, bounds.2);
 let y: f64 = rng.gen_range(bounds.1, bounds.3);
 let a: f64 = rng.gen_range(0.0, 8.0);
 if let Some(size) = poly_square_scaling_search(bounds, &amp;polys, x, y, a, min_threshold) {
 let poly = rotated_square_as_polygon(x, y, size - pad, a);
 polys.push(poly);
 }
 if polys.len() &gt; desired_count {
 break;
 }
}
</code></pre>
search
<pre><code class="language-rust">fn poly_square_scaling_search(
 boundaries: (f64, f64, f64, f64),
 polys: &amp;Vec&lt;Polygon&lt;f64&gt;&gt;,
 x: f64,
 y: f64,
 angle: f64,
 min_threshold: f64
) -&gt; Option&lt;f64&gt; {
 let mut size = 0.1;
 let dsize = 0.1;
 // TODO dichotomic search could help perf here...
 loop {
 let poly = rotated_square_as_polygon(x, y, size, angle);
 let bounds = poly.bounding_rect().unwrap();
 let topleft: Point&lt;f64&gt; = bounds.min().into();
 let bottomright: Point&lt;f64&gt; = topleft + point!(
 x: bounds.width(),
 y: bounds.height()
 );
 if out_of_boundaries(topleft.x_y(), boundaries) || out_of_boundaries(bottomright.x_y(), boundaries) {
 break;
 }
 if poly_collides_in_polys(polys, &amp;poly) {
 break;
 }
 size += dsize;
 }
 if size &lt; min_threshold {
 return None;
 }
 return Some(size);
}
</code></pre>

Packing rotated squares in a square. Black fountain pens on Bristol.

squares packing 001

@greweb&#39;s #9 plot loop. The 1920p animation is the main digital art. NFT is available in 6 editions, one per frame. First buyer of each edition can collect related frame to acquire the physical art (selected by buy order. PM @greweb, ship anywhere in the world). Secondary market is digital only. plotted on Bristol paper with black fountain pen. See greweb.me/plots/178
plotloop, physical, phygital, plot, loop, fountainpen
Here is &quot;Shell&quot; my 9th <a href="https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops">&quot;plot loop&quot; (see article)</a>. The main digital art is a 1920p video loop of 6 frames available as a <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/154538">Tezos hicetnunc NFT</a>. The physical art is 6 frames of A4 size, plotted with a black fountain pen on Bristol paper, and offered when <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/154538">buying the NFT</a> (6 editions, assigned in buy order).
<img src="/images/plots/178zoom1.jpg" width="100%">

<h3 id="making-of">Making of</h3>
I&#39;ve rebooted one of my plot code (one from 100th&#39;s celebration) and animated it by rotating the center gravity. One of the usual challenge I had to face is the fact many strokes were placed at the same area and had risk to dig into the paper. I&#39;ve used my usual &#39;grid counter&#39; technique but this time pushed it to extreme in that it started making &quot;dots&quot; a bit like in the stippling technique. Dots are aligned to the grid that is used by the algorithm.
<img src="/images/plots/178plotting0.gif" width="100%">

I then met one of the biggest difficulty of my plot: the fact the paper will start waving a bit with the humidity of the ink. It creates two problem: imprecision and unplanned strokes (lines when the robot move it).
I countered this problem by reversing my plot and starting from the center:
<img src="/images/plots/178plotting1.gif" width="100%">

Some of the plots have small remaining imperfection that I judged being part of the art.

Shell (6 frames)

Spirals with 3 colors distributed with &#39;circle packing&#39; technique. 3 fountain pens on Bristol.

Spirals with 3 colors distributed with 'circle packing' technique. 3 fountain pens on Bristol.

3-colors spiral packing

My first plot experiment using &#39;circle packing&#39; technique. More ideas and explorations to come!

My first plot experiment using 'circle packing' technique. More ideas and explorations to come!

Blue Circle Packing

Exploration of marching squares contour and distance function technique.

Exploration of marching squares contour and distance function technique

3-Blob

Plots made during an internal Hackathon at Ledger using profile picture, hatching and contouring techniques.
<a href="https://opensea.io/collection/ledger-hackathon-summer-2021/">https://opensea.io/collection/ledger-hackathon-summer-2021/</a>

Plots made during an internal Hackathon at Ledger using profile picture, hatching and contouring techniques.

Hack-a-plot avatar hatching 3

Hack-a-plot avatar hatching 2

Plots made during an internal Hackathon at Ledger using profile picture, hatching and contouring techniques.
<a href="https://opensea.io/collection/ledger-nft-hackathon-team">https://opensea.io/collection/ledger-nft-hackathon-team</a>

Hack-a-plot avatar hatching 1

Here is &quot;Ring of faces&quot; my 8th <a href="https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops">&quot;plot loop&quot; (see article)</a>. The main digital art is a 1920p video loop of 8 frames available as a <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/144002">Tezos hicetnunc NFT</a>. The physical art is 8 frames of A4 size, plotted with a black fountain pen on 300 g/m2 grain paper, and offered when <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/144002">buying the NFT</a> (8 editions, assigned in buy order).
<img src="/images/plots/171zoom1.jpg" width="100%">

The name &#39;Ring of faces&#39; refers to generating different silhouettes of faces from pure noise. The work involved here is purely generative art (nothing draw manually). I had a selection phase where I chose this one among 100 results.
I like these eight plots series because there are many unique faces here. You can even imagine faces in the inner area. That is purely a reflection of your own imagination.
I also played a lot with this duality to put twice the art in inversed coloring filling mode as well as having a rotation. The animation between the two tiles is offset exactly by 50% while also allowing a good variety and similarity when you buy one specific frame.
I used a high grain paper this time which works well with the cross-hatching filling method used, also thanks to a not too crowded area. I usually would avoid such paper for fountain pens that can &quot;bleed&quot; too much on it. It&#39;s time to do it more in the future!
<img src="/images/plots/171zoom2.jpg" width="100%">

The general animation is inspired by a shader I wrote <a href="https://greweb.me/shaderday/68">https://greweb.me/shaderday/68</a>
<img src="/images/plots/171all.jpg" width="100%">

The effect called &#39;Apophenia&#39; is, in this case, our ability to recognize a face silhouette in pure noise.
I see these different silhouettes:
<ul>
<li>an indigenous face</li>
<li>Churchill</li>
<li>a bearded man</li>
<li>a woman</li>
</ul>
Go figure why.

8 frames plotted making an animated loop. A 1920p video and A4 physical art is available as an NFT.

Ring of faces (8 frames)

<nft-card contractAddress="0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e" tokenId="47428341271170390733253974222101382154768714392453356712130950049108347322369"> </nft-card> <script src="https://unpkg.com/embeddable-nfts/dist/nft-card.min.js"></script>
One of the 4 plots of the series of &#39;Anomalie carrée&#39;. made with 2 fountain pens on A4 Bristol paper. The first buyer of this NFT sold by achetezdelart can collect the original copy. No other copy will be made. See information in the NFT.

One of the 4 plots of the series of 'Anomalie carrée'. made with 2 fountain pens on A4 Bristol paper. The first buyer of this NFT sold by achetezdelart can collect the original copy. No other copy will be made. See information in the NFT.

Anomalie carrée (4/4)

<nft-card contractAddress="0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e" tokenId="47428341271170390733253974222101382154768714392453356712130950048008835694593"> </nft-card> <script src="https://unpkg.com/embeddable-nfts/dist/nft-card.min.js"></script>
One of the 4 plots of the series of &#39;Anomalie carrée&#39;. made with 2 fountain pens on A4 Bristol paper. The first buyer of this NFT sold by achetezdelart can collect the original copy. No other copy will be made. See information in the NFT.

Anomalie carrée (3/4)

<nft-card contractAddress="0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e" tokenId="47428341271170390733253974222101382154768714392453356712130950046909324066817"> </nft-card> <script src="https://unpkg.com/embeddable-nfts/dist/nft-card.min.js"></script>
One of the 4 plots of the series of &#39;Anomalie carrée&#39;. made with 2 fountain pens on A4 Bristol paper. The first buyer of this NFT sold by achetezdelart can collect the original copy. No other copy will be made. See information in the NFT.

Anomalie carrée (2/4)

<nft-card contractAddress="0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e" tokenId="47428341271170390733253974222101382154768714392453356712130950045809812439041"> </nft-card> <script src="https://unpkg.com/embeddable-nfts/dist/nft-card.min.js"></script>
One of the 4 plots of the series of &#39;Anomalie carrée&#39;. made with 2 fountain pens on A4 Bristol paper. The first buyer of this NFT sold by achetezdelart can collect the original copy. No other copy will be made. See information in the NFT.

Anomalie carrée (1/4)

Marching squares on cosinus 😂
<img src="/images/plots/166zoom.jpg" width="100%">

Bubbles

square marching the distance to centers produced this interesting illusion. Combined with a bit of smoothing to make close center a bit more blobby.

square marching the distance to centers produced this interesting illusion. Combined with a bit of smoothing to make close center a bit more blobby.

centers of illusion

Every NFT sold allows acquiring a plotted frame. (code in the unlockable content)
<nft-card contractAddress="0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e" tokenId="47428341271170390733253974222101382154768714392453356712130950043610789183496"> </nft-card> <script src="https://unpkg.com/embeddable-nfts/dist/nft-card.min.js"></script>
<video loop autoplay controls src="/images/plots/164-showcase.mp4" width="100%"></video>
My 7th <a href="/plots/tags/plotloop">plotloop</a> is a very special one, inspired from the mother of all of my plot loops: <a href="/plots/108">plot#108</a> which wasn&#39;t planned to be animated but a way to visualize randomness and chose one frame! This is still what gave me the idea to do these plot loops.
<blockquote>
The concept of Plot Loop, as described in <a href="https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops">https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops</a> article, is an hybrid concept between a digital video art and physical plot that produces topology of the same art.
</blockquote>
The main digital art is a 1920p video loop of 8 frames available as NFT on Opensea.io sold by <a href="https://twitter.com/achetezdelart">@achetezdelart</a> famous Paris&#39; art gallery. I am so thrilled to work for the first time with an art gallery and looking forward to do more collaboration in the future! The physical art is the 8 frames, plotted with 3 fountain pens on Bristol A4 paper (250g), and offered when buying the NFT.
<h2 id="24-hours-of-near-non-stop-plotting">24+ hours of near non-stop plotting!</h2>
Once the coding was done, the hard part was the precision work of plotting 8 frames, each taking 2 hours to achieve. With all the fail and retry there were, it took me more than a day to finish it all. The sun strokes takes about 10 minutes but the rest takes around 100 minutes.
<video loop autoplay controls src="/images/plots/164-plotting-speed-x200.mp4" width="100%"></video>
<h2 id="zoom-photos">Zoom photos</h2>
<img src="/images/plots/164zoom.jpg" width="100%" />

<h2 id="proof-of-plot-a-very-time-consuming-creation-process">&quot;Proof of Plot&quot;, a very time-consuming creation process</h2>
The creation process of this plot loop was one of the most challenging one, among all of the other plots I have done so far. The fact each frame takes about 2 hours to plot with 2 manual actions (changing the fountain pens) makes any mistake very punishing! You can&#39;t faster the 2 hours much without risking the paper to suffer faced to the number of stroke of the fountain pen!
<h3 id="fail-and-retry">Fail and retry</h3>
Yet, plotting is a fail and retry process, so I like to show you 2 failures first among 4 of my first prototype fails:
<img width="50%" src="/images/plots/164-fail1.jpg"><img width="50%" src="/images/plots/164-fail2.jpg">
For anyone familiar with plot and fountain pens this is indeed one of the worse nightmare to deal with: too much stroke-crowded area is going to badly end up with literally digging through the paper.
<h3 id="quick-technique-to-solve-this-problem">Quick technique to solve this problem</h3>
A very simple technique I call the &quot;passage counter&quot; technique. It&#39;s simply the use of a 2D Grid where each cell have a counter that you increment when a line goes through it, when it reaches 3 (or more) that&#39;s where you start raising the pen in these crowded area.
<img width="300px" src="/images/plots/164-grid.png">

It works great with the limitation that too much up and down of your pen is both time consuming but also can be hurting the paper too, there there is a tradeoff to find.
<h3 id="some-interesting-creative-coding-techniques-used">Some interesting creative coding techniques used</h3>
<h4 id="sun-rays-projection">sun rays projection</h4>
For the sun rays, I&#39;ve used a simple radial projection that collides with the mountain lines.
I had to make lines randomly starting at different places to avoid the effect to be too condensed at the beginning (problem of radial projection is your lines get more and more distanced). I wanted it to not be that &quot;random&quot; so i&#39;ve used a simple prime number formula: distance to center of sun is added of an extra <code>8. + ((i * 29) % 121) as f64</code> where <code>i</code> is the ray index.
<h4 id="sun-oscillation">sun oscillation</h4>
I didn&#39;t wanted to make the sun motion too realistic but I wanted a visible motion that would fit with the mountains and project rays from different positions. It also had to be looping (which a sunset/sunrise wouldn&#39;t allow)
Therefore, I went with a simple trigonometry formula:
<pre><code class="language-rust">let sunp = (
 w / 2. + 75. * (2. * PI * sunphase).cos(),
 50. - 30. * (2. * PI * sunphase).sin().abs()
);
</code></pre>
<h4 id="mountain-oscillation-and-noise-shape">mountain oscillation and noise shape</h4>
The noise algorithm I used was much more accomplished than in <a href="/plots/108">plot#108</a> even though that historical plot one is interesting too.
I learned recently the power of &#39;domain warping&#39; on applied on noise and I applied it here, at least mainly on the 1D of the wave. It creates more &quot;local minima&quot; on the shape and creates a more interesting animation.
It&#39;s important to also note that noise/perlin noise, is quite challenging to &quot;loop&quot; and the way I did this is interpolation between 3 states. I have simply done this:
<pre><code class="language-rust">let n1 = perlin.get([ a, b, opts.seed + i as f64 * divergence + 200.2 ]);
let n2 = perlin.get([ a, b, opts.seed + i as f64 * divergence + 300.514 ]);
let n3 = perlin.get([ a, b, opts.seed + i as f64 * divergence + 400.31 ]);
let n = 0.8 * 
 (
 n1 * (2. * PI * p).cos() +
 n2 * (2. * PI * (p + 0.33)).cos() +
 n3 * (2. * PI * (p + 0.66)).cos()
 ) +
 // global disp
 0.2 * perlin.get([
 freq * xp,
 freq * y,
 opts.seed
 ]);
</code></pre>
where a and b are noise themselves to apply the &quot;domain warping&quot; magic.

Montagne muable (8 frames)

Revisit of <a href="/plots/060">plot#060</a> &#39;Jumping man&#39; using two fountain pen inks and a spiral fill technique with slight noise.
Zoom:
<img src="/images/plots/163zoom.jpg" width="100%">

Revisit of plot#060 'Jumping man' using two fountain pen inks and a spiral fill technique with slight noise.

Jumping man spiral

Squares warping implements marching squares (contouring algorithm) on square distance and apply domain warping noise displacement onto it. There is a variety of different unique results and i&#39;ve plotted 4 of them.
<img src="/images/plots/162b.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/162c.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/162d.jpg" width="100%">

Squares warping implements marching squares (contouring algorithm) on square distance and apply domain warping noise displacement onto it. There is a variety of different unique results and i've plotted 4 of them.

squares warping

Perlin noise and domain warping. Fountain pen &#39;Aurora Borealis&#39; ink from Diamine on Bristol card.

Perlin noise and domain warping. Fountain pen 'Aurora Borealis' ink from Diamine on Bristol card.

Elevation 02

Apophenia – the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things.

the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things

Apophenia

A simple idea with bricks and slight variation of width/height of each brick.

A simple idea with bricks and slight variation of width/height of each brick.

Bricks

Did you find the alien head? You may also find a bird! But it&#39;s up to your imagination. Marching squares of perlin noise domain warping.

Did you find the alien head? You may also find a bird! But it's up to your imagination. Marching squares of perlin noise domain warping.

Here is &quot;Spring&quot;, my 6th <a href="/plots/tags/plotloop">plot loop</a> <a href="https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops">(see article)</a>. The main digital art is a 1920p video loop of 8 frames available as a <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/117072">Tezos hicetnunc NFT</a>. The physical art are the 8 frames, plotted with 2 fountain pens on Bristol A4 paper (250g), and offered when <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/117072">buying the NFT</a>.
There are 8 plots available for sale and there will be no other editions of these plot loop frames. They all have the same inital price and the physical piece is selected in order of buy as each frame is relatively similar!
<h3 id="closer-look">Closer look</h3>
The ink &quot;Bloody Brexit&quot; from Diamine have particularity to have coppery color reflections.
<img src="/images/plots/157zoom1.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/157zoom2.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/157zoom3.jpg" width="100%">

<h2 id="making-off">Making off</h2>
Here is a video of the plot, accelerated 5x.
<iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UBzsr0CcrSk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Before that result, I had many iterations and 3 prototypes where I adjusted many parameters each time:
<img src="/images/plots/157proto1.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/157proto2.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/157proto3.jpg" width="100%">

I also had this failure: (forgot to attach the paper!)
<img src="/images/plots/157fail.jpg" width="100%">

Spring (8 frames)

First experiment of Molotow pen on Bristol paper.
Using perlin noise and domain warping, we can make very interesting shapes that we can pipe into marching squares contour algorithm.
In this code, i&#39;ve also made 2 lines close to each other instead of a linear distribution. This is relatively simple to implement:
<pre><code class="language-rust">let pattern = (2., 3.); // 2 lines 3 blanks
let thresholds: Vec&lt;f64&gt; = // in [0..1] range
 (0..samples)
 .map(|i|
 (i as f64 + pattern.1 * (i as f64 / pattern.0).floor())
 / (samples as f64 * (pattern.0 + pattern.1) / pattern.0).floor())
 .collect();
</code></pre>
Here is the formula: (that i&#39;m not sure is correctly normalized by the way)
<a href="https://www.desmos.com/calculator/mlngfvssv0">https://www.desmos.com/calculator/mlngfvssv0</a>
(yeah I also use my fountain pen to do (simple) math =D)
<img src="/images/plots/156math.jpg" width="100%">

First experiment of Molotow pen on Bristol paper.

Elevation 01

Using distance functions primitives with marching squares and noise displacement to produce another planet hole.

Using distance functions primitives with marching squares and noise displacement to produce another planet hole.

Corridor planet

Definitely overkill, but this is implemented with &#39;box&#39; distance function of a square and marching squaring it with noise displacement.

Definitely overkill, but this is implemented with 'box' distance function of a square and marching squaring it with noise displacement.

Rounded squares

Continuation of previous <a href="/plots/152">plot#152</a> using two different inks: Diamine Pumpkin and Diamine Turquoise. Reveals an overall green tone. Using similar noise domain warping with glitches technique.
<img src="/images/plots/153zoom.jpg" width="100%">

Continuation of plot#152 using two different inks: Diamine Pumpkin and Diamine Turquoise. Reveals an overall green tone. Using similar noise domain warping with glitches technique.

Warp Glitch 02

This is a fresh experimentation of noise domain warping with glitches. As many of my previous plots, this is a 2-pass spiral parametric function, displaced with perlin noise warpped into each other (see &quot;domain warping&quot;). The spiral ends up being unstable and &quot;breaks apart&quot; with intentional glitches: the line is stopped as soon as two datapoints are to far from each other, as a spiral get bigger and bigger it inevitably ending up breaking apart completely in various places which combined with the parametric function makes some sort of humanoïd shape!
I sent some video while it was getting plotted. It started from the middle and the beginning is quite interesting and could itself be made a standalone. All of these are very exploratory and may be revisited later!

This is a fresh experimentation of noise domain warping with glitches

Warp Glitch 01

This is a continuation of yesterday&#39;s plot loop to try to reuse similar noises on a more arbitrary structure. This is a crossfade of two fountain pen inks: Red Dragon and Turquoise.

This is a continuation of yesterday's plot loop to try to reuse similar noises on a more arbitrary structure. This is a crossfade of two fountain pen inks: Red Dragon and Turquoise.

Caves 01

Here is &quot;Dancing Planet&quot;, my 5th <a href="/plots/tags/plotloop">plot loop</a> <a href="https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops">(see article)</a>. The main digital art is a 1920p video loop of 8 frames available as a <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/105425">Tezos hicetnunc NFT</a>. The physical art are the 8 frames, plotted with 2 fountain pens on Bristol A4 paper (250g), and offered when <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/105425">buying the NFT</a>.
There are 8 plots available for sale and there will be no other editions of these plot loop frames. They all have the same inital price and the physical piece is selected in order of buy as each frame is relatively similar!
<img src="/images/plots/150-plots.jpg" width="100%">

This is a reboot of <a href="/plots/148">plot#148</a> but with a big rework of the noise technique using domain warping as well as combination with this famous &#39;rotating dancer&#39; GIF.
It is plotted with two phases, a first pass without a lot of noise and a second pass with more noise divergence:
<img src="/images/plots/150-phases.gif" width="100%">

<img src="/images/plots/150-zoom1.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/150-zoom2.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/150-zoom3.jpg" width="100%">

<h2 id="early-prototype-in-pursuit-of-the-good-ink-and-paper">Early prototype, in pursuit of the good ink and paper...</h2>
I started with this first prototype of the concept:
<img src="/images/plots/150-proto1.jpg" width="100%">

It allowed me to see what I could adjust, for instance: adding more noise, more lines and scaling a bit the dancer.
I used ink &#39;Quink&#39; by Parker plotted with a fountain pen on a Canson Bristol 250g paper (A4 format).
Here is another prototype I tried: it uses a mix of two colors (dragon red and turquoise). I ended up preferring minimalism: black on white. At the end I stayed on my first ink choice but I will revisit this idea.
<img src="/images/plots/150-proto2.jpg" width="57%"><img src="/images/plots/150-proto2-zoom.jpg" width="42.8%">
<h2 id="process-to-find-the-final-plot">Process to find the final plot</h2>
To search for the good parameters I&#39;ve used a generator script with bash for loops. It kinda looked like this:
<pre><code class="language-sh">for a in 0.5 1 2 4; do
for b in 0.5 1 2 4; do
for c in 0.5 1 2 4; do
for d in 0.5 1 2 4; do
 sh $P/gen.sh --a $a --b $b --c $c --d $d
 cp ./results/out.gif out/${a}_${b}_${c}_${d}.gif
done
done
done
done
</code></pre>
Then I kept refining my &quot;range&quot; by fail and retry. It is quite slow to generate them so it&#39;s a long process.
When I was satisfied by the parameters, I then switch to a second selection: the selection of the seed! because my noise have seed and can generate very different kind of noises, I put it against my &quot;elector&quot; homemade tool as explained on <a href="/plots/143">plot#143</a>.
<img src="/images/plots/150-selection.png" width="100%">

<h2 id="some-highlight-of-the-rustlang-code">Some highlight of the Rustlang code</h2>
There is nothing really &quot;new&quot; from my previous plots, especially all the parametric plot when I started this &quot;growing parametric&quot; exploration between <a href="/plots/114">plot#114</a> and <a href="/plots/148">plot#148</a>.
What is new here however is the use of a GIF as an input. It&#39;s very easy to do: my script takes basically an loop percentage which I can transpose to looking up a frame in the rotating dancer loop. I can then use this function I&#39;ve just added to my utilities:
<pre><code class="language-rust">use image::AnimationDecoder;
use image::RgbaImage;
use image::gif::GifDecoder;
use image::io::Reader as ImageReader;

pub fn image_gif_get_color(
 path: &amp;str,
 index: usize
) -&gt; Result&lt;
 impl Fn((f64, f64)) -&gt; (f64, f64, f64),
 image::ImageError,
&gt; {
 let file_in = File::open(path)?;
 let decoder = GifDecoder::new(file_in).unwrap();
 let frames = decoder.into_frames();
 let frames = frames.collect_frames()?;
 let img = frames.get(index % frames.len()).unwrap();
 let buffer = img.buffer();
 return Ok(dynamic_image_get_color(buffer.clone()));
}

pub fn dynamic_image_get_color(
 img: RgbaImage
) -&gt; impl Fn((f64, f64)) -&gt; (f64, f64, f64) {
 let (width, height) = img.dimensions();
 return move |(x, y): (f64, f64)| {
 let xi = (x.max(0.0).min(1.0)
 * ((width - 1) as f64)) as u32;
 let yi = (y.max(0.0).min(1.0)
 * ((height - 1) as f64))
 as u32;
 let pixel = img.get_pixel(xi, yi);
 let r = (pixel[0] as f64) / 255.0;
 let g = (pixel[1] as f64) / 255.0;
 let b = (pixel[2] as f64) / 255.0;
 return (r, g, b);
 };
}
</code></pre>
Rust really shines in having great library, this is just the classical &quot;image&quot; package here.
Apart from this, the Rust code (you can see main.rs link on top of this page) is pretty straightforward. There is just a lot of work in the parametric function which starts to be quite big:
<pre><code class="language-rust">let parametric = |p: f64| {
 let p1 = (splits * p).floor();
 let p2 = splits * p - p1;
 let t = (p1 + split_threshold * p2) / splits;
 let mut t2 = (p1
 + split_threshold * p2.powf(pow))
 / splits;
 let initial = 1. / spins;
 t2 =
 (t2 - initial).max(0.) / (1. - initial);
 let scale = 1.0
 - t2 * (1.0
 - i as f64 * opts.size_diff / size);
 let s = spins;
 let mut p = (
 scale
 * amp1
 * ((s * 2. * PI * t).sin()
 + amp2
 * mix(
 (s * f1.1 * PI * t).sin(),
 (s * f2.1 * PI * t).sin(),
 t,
 )),
 0.07
 - scale
 * amp1
 * ((s * 2. * PI * t).cos()
 + amp2
 * mix(
 (s * f1.0 * PI * t).cos(),
 (s * f2.0 * PI * t).cos(),
 t,
 )),
 );
 let noise_angle = p.1.atan2(p.0);
 let noise_amp = 0.003 * perlin.get([
 opts.a * (progress * PI).sin() +
 4.8 * p.0 + perlin.get([
 7.8 * p.0,
 4.2 * p.1 + opts.b * (progress * PI).sin(),
 40. + opts.seed
 ]),
 4.8 * p.1 + 0.8 * perlin.get([
 4.5 * p.0 + opts.c * ((1. - progress) * PI).sin(),
 6.8 * p.1 + perlin.get([
 20.5 * p.0 + opts.d * (2. * PI * progress).cos(),
 20.8 * p.1,
 200. + opts.seed,
 ]),
 20. + opts.seed,
 ]),
 100. + opts.seed + i as f64 * opts.seed_diff,
 ]) +
 0.03 * (1. - t) * perlin.get([
 0.7 * p.0 + perlin.get([
 2.9 * p.0 + opts.e * (2. * PI * progress).cos(),
 1.7 * p.1,
 2000.0
 ]),
 0.7 * p.1 + perlin.get([
 3.1 * p.0,
 2.5 * p.1 + opts.e * (2. * PI * progress).sin(),
 2100.0
 ]),
 1000.,
 ]);

 p.0 += noise_amp * noise_angle.cos();
 p.1 += noise_amp * noise_angle.sin();
 p
};
</code></pre>

Dancing Planet

A chaotic experiment of parametric function meeting perlin noise. Brush pen with &#39;Bloody Brexit&#39; ink on Bristol paper.

A chaotic experiment of parametric function meeting perlin noise. Brush pen with 'Bloody Brexit' ink on Bristol paper.

Chaotic Inner

Orange

Drawing a lot of diamond in pink and blue with dimensions varying based on perlin noise.

Drawing a lot of diamond in pink and blue with dimensions varying based on perlin noise.

Diamond noise

A simple idea applying sine waves to rectangular shapes. Keeping some glitches in!

A simple idea applying sine waves to rectangular shapes. Keeping some glitches in!

rect waves

A similar flower as in <a href="/plots/123">plot#123</a> but with 2 steps themself split into 2 steps and different spiral amplitude. Sakura pens on Black card.

A similar flower as in plot#123 but with 2 steps themself split into 2 steps and different spiral amplitude. Sakura pens on Black card.

2-step flowers

A variation of <a href="/plots/108">plot#108</a> with more &quot;tensed&quot; lines. The distribution creates an interesting visual illusion that edges are &quot;blurred&quot;.

A variation of plot#108 with more 'tensed' lines. The distribution creates an interesting visual illusion that edges are 'blurred'.

tensed mountains

Here is &quot;Rainbow Roots&quot;, my 4th <a href="https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops">plot loop (see article)</a>. The main digital art is a 1920p video loop of 8 frames available as a <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/98062">Tezos hicetnunc NFT</a>. The physical art are the 8 frames, plotted with 2 fountain pens on Bristol A4 paper (250g), and offered when <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/98062">buying the NFT</a>.
There are 8 plots available for sale and there will be no other editions of these plot loop frames. You can chose which frame you buy as the NFT editions are segmented into different prices. 20.1 tez for the first frame, 20.2 for the second and so on up to 20.8.
<img src="/images/plots/143-plots.jpg" width="100%">

This is a reboot of <a href="/plots/091">plot#091</a> with more lines and better noise technique using domain warping.
<h3 id="coloring">Coloring</h3>
Each plotted frame is made with 2 fountain pens, one primary and one secondary ink. The primary color is interleaved with the second with a ratio of 2/3 for primary and 1/3 for secondary.
I used 8 different inks, all by &quot;Diamine&quot; brand: Turquoise, Aurora Borealis, Bloody Brexit, Imperial Purple, Writer&#39;s Blood, Red Dragon, Pumpkin, Sepia.
<img src="/images/plots/143-inks.jpg" width="100%">

I had a last minute changes after the photo was taken: I replaced Spring Green by another color because it would have been too &quot;light&quot; for a plot. I actually tried to do one with Sepia and it was also too &quot;light&quot;, I decided to go black! I definitely have betterplans for &#39;Spring Green&#39;.
<h3 id="paper">Paper</h3>
I use a Canson Bristol 250g paper which works great with fountain pen. Format A4.
<img src="/images/plots/143-zoom1.jpg" width="50%"><img src="/images/plots/143-zoom2.jpg" width="50%">
<h2 id="creation-process">Creation process</h2>
The creation process is made of many steps, which are entirely created by me and all these steps are fully published and open sourced.
<ul>
<li>art generator: I write a Rustlang program that generate SVG files. (see main.rs)</li>
<li>GIF preview: I use a script to make a digital and theorical video of the animation. Very important for me to have an idea of the animation (even tho only plotting time will have the final surprise).</li>
<li>plot first prototypes: I do some prototype plots to make sure the plot is good, specifically that the density chosen (number of lines) is well adjusted (too much and your paper starts to be comprised, not enough and you have too much gaps).</li>
<li>I polish a lot the generator. Specifically on the different noise harmonies, frequencies and amplitudes.</li>
<li>Once it&#39;s ready, i&#39;ll run a super script that loops over the &quot;video preview&quot; generation. It&#39;s time consuming as I will often stop and polish again the generator. This time it took me probably ten times to iterate like this. Literally the whole day.</li>
<li>When I&#39;m confident, I&#39;ll generate a lot of video previews. This time I have generated 500 GIFs. It was very tricky to decide and to actually elect the final plot, I developed my own tool (see section below)</li>
<li>Finally, I can plot them all, it takes a lot of caution on manipulating paper and fountain pens and a lot of manual actions. It is very time consuming but very rewarding. Each frame took more than an hour to plot with an AxiDraw robot.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="preview">Preview</h3>
This is what the theorical art was going to be, this is a digital preview before doing the plot so indeed it only simulate what the actual ink was going to do. The physical art is better looking with the imperfections of the medium.
<img src="/images/plots/143-theorical.gif" width="100%">

<h3 id="process-to-find-the-final-plot">Process to find the final plot</h3>
As I&#39;m working with a generator, it can generate infinite variants of plot loops. I have generated 500 GIFs (virtual plot loops)
It ended up being very tedious to try to find a good animation by manually going through the files so I literally developped an app to solve my problem and provide a voting system so I can compare in parallel different results and chose among them. It could be reused and improved in future, it&#39;s not yet &quot;generic&quot; but if there is a need for it, I would make it generic and open source it as a standalone tool.
<img src="/images/plots/143-elector.jpg" width="100%">

<h3 id="early-prototype-and-special-editions">Early prototype and Special Editions</h3>
This prototype was done to adjust some plotting parameters, specifically the number of lines.
<img src="/images/plots/143-prototype.jpg" width="100%">

I&#39;ve also made these 2 special editions one to offer a friend and one gift to buyer of one of my previous plot loop. Each of them have very specific variations of parameters (they are written on the back of the plot and i don&#39;t keep them in memory, basically they are technically not easy to reproduce identically!)
<img src="/images/plots/143-special1.jpg" width="100%">
<img src="/images/plots/143-special2.jpg" width="100%">

Rainbow Roots

A reboot of the &#39;wool ball&#39; done with 2 pen brushes.
Also had another try:
<img src="/images/plots/142bis.jpg" width="100%">

A reboot of the 'wool ball' done with 2 pen brushes.

brushed ball

Drop inks on simple robotic motions and let the medium speak.
I&#39;ve used two different inks: Pink and Turquoise. The Pink ink ended up turning orange when it met a bit of the Turquoise&#39;s ink because chemistry!
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/141inks.jpg"/>

These are some other interesting plots with similar roboting actions.
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/141b.jpg"/>
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/141c.jpg"/>
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/141d.jpg"/>

Drop inks on simple robotic motions and let the medium speak.

Ink fabrics

Plotter&#39;s journey is made of simple plots like these. The robot had one job: plot a lot of plus. The result has been pretty unexpected.
First of all, I had issue on offset of my second color which make the plus literally colliding, secondly the center area had the paper waving and raising a bit which made brush paint more color. Finally, the way the plus are no longer plus is interesting, it almost looks like some sort of plants or snail shapes, depending on your imagination!
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/140zoom.jpg"/>

Before that plot, I had a first try with bigger and more distanced plus, but it was too simple to me:
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/140bis.jpg"/>

Plotter's journey is made of simple plots like these. The robot had one job: plot a lot of plus.

many plus

I used a dropper to drop some ink on a canvas while the plotter was running.
It it the best opportunity to use the glitter ink which have great effect:
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/139.gif">

This is really hard to master and very unpredictable. I tried many different ideas:
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/139b.jpg">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/139c.jpg">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/139d.jpg">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/139e.jpg">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/139f.jpg">
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/139g.jpg">

I used a dropper to drop some ink on a canvas while the plotter was running.

ink drops in square spiral

transition of two parametric spirals. I called it &#39;parametric oddity&#39; because one of the parametric frequency is literally an &#39;odd number&#39; which makes it having this mesh effect. Fountain pen with &#39;Red Dragon&#39; on white bristol A4.
basically it&#39;s a transition between <code>(10πt,41πt)</code> and <code>(8πt,8πt)</code> with radius that varies all along to make it a spiral. 41 is the oddity here!
The parametric is repeated twice with a slightly different perlin noise displacement to add some moiré effect on top of this.
<img src="/images/plots/138zoom1.jpg" width="100%">

<img src="/images/plots/138zoom2.jpg" width="100%">

transition of two parametric spirals. I called it 'parametric oddity' because one of the parametric frequency is literally an 'odd number' which makes it having this mesh effect. Fountain pen with 'Red Dragon' on white bristol A4.

parametric oddity

transition of two parametric spirals repeated twice with different displacement. Fountain pen with &#39;Aurora Borealis&#39; on white bristol A4. The beginning of the spiral is not yet changing in radius to make a bolder border, this is a subtle but important aspect.
<img src="/images/plots/137zoom1.jpg" width="100%">

The zoom is quite interesting here. let&#39;s also zoom at the center too:
<img src="/images/plots/137zoom2.jpg" width="100%">

transition of two parametric spirals repeated twice with different displacement. Fountain pen with 'Aurora Borealis' on white bristol A4.

Alien planet

Here is &quot;White Protozoa&quot; my third <a href="https://greweb.me/2021/05/plot-loops">&quot;plot loop&quot; (see article)</a>. The main digital art is a 1920p video loop of 8 frames available as a <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/82974">Tezos hicetnunc NFT</a>. The physical art is 8 frames of A4 size, plotted with white Sakura gen pen on black card paper (210g), and offered when <a href="https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/71006">buying the NFT</a> (8 editions, assigned in buy order).
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/136zoom.jpg" />

like in <a href="/plots/135">plot#135</a>, this is an exploration of domain warping and marching squares algorithms.
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/136full.jpg" />

The ending of #1 being plotted, speed x5:
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/136plot.gif" />

If you like bonus, I had considered many different animations, and they are viewable as GIF (digital black on white) on <a href="https://github.com/gre/gre/tree/master/plots/examples/136">https://github.com/gre/gre/tree/master/plots/examples/136</a>
You can also find the full source code, open sourced as 99% of my work. I essentially have a generator of plot loops and I ran it to generate 500 gif and chose among them! It was very hard to decide!
Enjoy!

White Protozoa (8 frames)

Domain warping meets marching squares algorithms. Fountain pen on A4 canson.
I have many other candidates. I also tried this one:
<img width="100%" src="/images/plots/135bis.jpg"/>