Today’s post will continue our exploration of MSG processors that generate simple colored vector shapes that can be overlaid to build visual complexity to create abstract procedural art imagery. Today we’ll be exploring the 3C Abstract12 CP processor.
The first abstract procedural vector image above was created with the MSG preset defined below. Note that the first 2 gallery images show off the IO (input-output) routing structure used for the simple 2 processor preset. I followed the same strategy used 2 days ago. I started with a SetToValue processor who’s Out port was attached to the ROut image stream (1st gallery image).
I then routed the ROut image stream into all 3 color input Ports (In R,In G,In B) for the 2nd 3C Abstract12 CP processor (as shown in the 2nd gallery image). Note that the 3 output ports (Out R,Out G,Out B) for the 3C Abstract12 CP processor are attached to the 3 output image streams (ROut,GOut,BOut).
The 3rd gallery image above shows mutated variants of the simple MSG abstract effect generated in the Evolution Editor. they give you some feel for the different kinds of visual imagery the 3C Abstract12 CP processor can generate, which could be defined as vaguely plant-like.
Note that the ColorPalette stream is attached to the In Color Palette port for the 3C Abstract12 CP processor. The colors in this color palette stream are what define the coloring of the generated abstract vector overlay created by the 3C Abstract12 CP processor. By adjusting the processor’s individual editable parameters you can change the appearance of the shapes as well as how they are colored, edge outline effects, gradient fill effects, etc.
Like the post 2 days ago, since the 3C Abstract12 CP processor overlays vector shapes onto an existing 3 channel set of color image streams, I can stack multiple instances of the C Abstract12 CP processor to build more visual complexity in the MSG preset’s visual output. Note that for my second instance of the 3C Abstract12 CP processor I changed the input port routing so that the 3 input ports (In R,In G,In B) are hooked up to all 3 color output streams (ROut,GOut,BOut).
Again, remember that since the 3 color output streams are persistent image buffers, we can attach them to both input ports and output ports of a given processor.
The 2nd gallery image above shows mutated variants of the slightly more complex MSG preset we just hand edited. They were created by clicking on the image preview at the top left corner of the MSG Advanced Editor, which then propagates parameter mutated variants of the clicked current preset in to the Evolution Editor preview cells.
The 3rd and 4th gallery images above show off adding another 3C Abstract12 CP processor to stack on an additional abstract vector overlay. Again, the visual complexity of the visual output created by the modified effect increases, as seen in the mutated variants shown in the Evolution Editor.
Editing the Color Palette to Modify the Shape Coloring
As mentioned above, the coloring for the abstract shapes is defined by the colors in the ColorPalette stream (the 1st of the 3 color palettes in the MSG preset. The adjustable parameters associated with the 3C Abstract12 CP processor determine whether a single random color from the ColorPalette is chosen for coloring, or if a number of the colors in the ColorPalette are used for the shape coloring. But, you can also manually or automatically build a specific color palette to change the coloring of an existing shape configuration.
The 1st gallery image below shows the Fixed Color Picker in the Source Area. I hand selected a green color as the current source color.
I then used the Edit : Palette : Randomize Source Color : Lum Saturation menu command (2nd gallery image above) to generate a new random source color palette derived by randomizing the luminance and saturation of the current source color (green). The new color palette is shown in the 3rd gallery image above.
I then control clicked the top most color palette in the Palette tab on the right side of the MSG Advanced Editor to bring up the context menu commands for that color palette stream (right mouses click on windows). As seen in the 4th gallery image above, I then selected the Set From Source Palette context menu command. The 5th gallery image above shows the result.
Note that the top ColorPalette stream now matches the color palette I designed in the Source Area, and the coloring of the MSG preset has also changed to match the color palette modification. Note that all of the shapes still are the same kind of shape, but their coloring is now derived from the new green color palette.
By shift clicking the MSg Advanced Editor preview image I can mutate only the processor chain of the current MSG preset, leaving the color palettes and color gradients alone. I did this to generate the mutations shown in the 6th gallery image above. Note how they all maintain the custom designed green color palette coloring we just edited. The 3rd image in the very top gallery of the post is a larger render of one of these mutated variations.
