Simple MSG Shapes

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Simple MSG Shapes

All of these presets generate simple shapes or patterns. They are all based on index mapping a single channel black and white generated shape image with a color gradient to generate a colorized output shape.

The images shown above are just a few of the different kinds of shapes or patterns you can generate with this small set of presets. And by working the Evolution Editor to mutate evolve variations of the original presets you can create a very wide variety of different colored shapes and patterns.

You can download the “Simple MSG Shapes” preset folder SimpleMSGShapes You can either place the “Simple MSG Shapes” folder in a collection folder inside of the Preset/MSG factory preset folder, or you can directly drop the downloaded “Simple MSG Shapes” folder into the Preset/Favorites folder to use them as a custom favorites category. I chose to load them as a custom Favorites category, as seen below. For more information on customizing preset Favorites check out this tip.

All of the MSG presets contained in the “Simple MSG Shapes” category are constructed in a similar fashion. The all start with a processor that generates a single image stream (black and white image). They may include an additional processor that processors the generated image stream. And then they use a 1to3GradMap processor to index map the generated single channel black and white image stream with a color gradient to generate full color output (3 image streams or channel) for the MSG preset.

The first 3 gallery images below show the IO (input-output) connections associated with the 3 processors that were used to build the Sphere2 MSG preset.

The first SphereGen processor generates a black and white image of a sphere on a solid white color background and routes it into the R Out image stream. The Quantize processor then reduces the number of graylevel values in the R Out image stream. The 1to3GradMap processor then index maps the black and white R Out image stream with a color gradient stream (shown in the 4th gallery image above) to produce 3 image streams for the color output of the MSG effects (R Out, G Out, B Out).

If you want to visualize what the Quantize processor is doing to the original smooth black and white sphere image, you can temporarily turn it Off and see how the MSG preview display changes. The 1st gallery image below shows that the Quantize processor’s Number of Levels parameter is set to 4 (so it outputs only 4 gray levels). The 2nd gallery image below shows what happens when we turn the Quantize processor off. Note that the sphere is now smoothly shaded as opposed to be composed of a few concentric flat color rings.

If you want all of the shapes to stay centered when you use the Evolution Editor to make mutated variants, you can lock the hSt and vSt (horizontal and vertical center position) parameters associated with the generating processor (SphereGen in this example). The 3rd gallery image above shows the hSt and vSt parameters locked, and the 4th gallery image shows the result of clicking the MSG Advanced Editor’s preview cell to generate mutated variants in the Evolution Editor. Note that all of the Evolution Editor previews are now centered.

If you examine the other MSG presets contained in this “Simple MSG Shapes” category in the MSG Advanced Editor you will see that they are all constructed with the same simple design approach described above. And by starting with any of the MSG preset in this category and using the Evolution Editor you can create all kinds of different shape, patterning and coloring variations.

Category: MSG

Simple MSG Shapes

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