Today’s post continues the discussion we started yesterday, where we showed how to use an embedded MSG preset to make the paint synthesizer paint a chaotic attractor generated by the embedded MSG preset. Today we will show how to generate a moving paint animation of the chaotic attractor. We’ll use temporal generators attached to editable parameters in the MSG preset to generate the procedural movement of the chaotic attractor over time in the paint animation.
For details on how we configured the paint synthesizer to paint the chaotic attractor generated by the embedded MSG preset, please read yesterday’s post. We used the MSG Scan Generator option in the Path Start control panel along with a set of Path Shape parameters that paint in the sequential series of path start points as a continuous smooth spline based paint path.
The paint action sequence we used to generate the paint animation of the moving chaotic attractor is shown below. The AutoPaint action step is the one using the embedded MSG preset to paint in the attractor.
Note that we start by erasing the canvas to Black for each frame, then paint in the attractor using the paint synthesizer preset with the embedded MSG preset, and then run 2 different image operation action steps to boost the overall contrast a little for the final animation output. The Blur action step is using the Edge1 composite setting to make the Blur effect a contrast boost effect, as shown in the 2nd gallery image above.
The 3rd gallery image above shows the MSG Advanced Editor with the Parameter editing tab active on the right side. Note that we are editing the parameters associated with the highlighted PickoverChosGen processor, which is the first processor in the PChain list on the left side of the MSG Advanced Editor.
There are 2 different editable parameters associated with the PickoverChosGen processor that have attached temporal generators. They are the Angle and the Angle Z parameters. Note that both of them have a Ramp temporal generator (TG) turned on.
The cycle time for the time-based ramp oscillator is set to 177 frames for the Angle parameter and 100 frames for the Angle Z parameter. The cycle time for the ramp oscillator is based on the Inc_TG setting. Making the Inc_TG cycle time longer for a ramp oscillator temporal generator means that it will take longer to cycle through the ramp function that starts at the Min_TG value and linearly increments to the Max_TG parameter over Inc_TG frames.
If you look at the top of the PASeq palette in the 1st gallery image above you can see that I have setup the animation to be 100 frames long. To generate the animation, I used the Action : Animate with Paint Action Sequence : to Movie menu command ( as shown in the 4th gallery image above).
The final paint animation is available for viewing here. Note that the procedural animation of the Angle and Angle Z parameters over time in the animation give rise to the tumbling movement of the chaotic attractor.
The coloring of the painted chaotic attractor is based on the source image I have loaded into the source area. If I used a movie source as opposed to an image source, I could have the coloring change over time as the animation progresses. When you use an image for the source coloring, the local coloring of the source image is what is generating the local spatial coloring of the painting attractor. Note that I used a paint preset that clones color as opposed to drags color
