SpirographX

[Holmes]

I just released SpirographX today. SpirographX combines the ideas behind fractals and spirographs to create cool images. it also includes a screen saver module that creates them randomly.

http://homepage.mac.com/solidmag/spiro/spirologo.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/solidmag/spiro/spiro.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/solidmag/spiro/screen2.jpg

The Webpage is and download link can be found here. If anyone wants the source code, tell me. I'm making it open:
http://homepage.mac.com/solidmag/spiro/

P.S. Why can't I get these images to show as images in the browser?!

[macboy]

I haven't tried the program yet, but the screensaver is cool! :wow:

[Holmes]

Excellent. Glad you like it. Do you suppose you could review it on versiontracker.com?

http://versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18694

I've noticed recently that having reviews really boosts peoples confidence before downloading.

[macboy]

Originally posted by Holmes
Excellent. Glad you like it. Do you suppose you could review it on versiontracker.com?Of course. :)

[inio]

Cool!

http://www.inio.org/~inio/idgspiro.gif

and a few screenshots of the same pattern with different details, combined in photoshop:
http://www.inio.org/~inio/psspiro.gif

two things though:
1. if I type a value into one of the spinner fields and then try to spin it, it starts off at the previous value that was spun to
2. it would be nice to have direct control over the time variable.

hmm, it seems as if someone has turned of image embedding.

[Holmes]

Originally posted by inio
Cool!

http://www.inio.org/~inio/idgspiro.gif

and a few screenshots of the same pattern with different details, combined in photoshop:
http://www.inio.org/~inio/psspiro.gif

two things though:
1. if I type a value into one of the spinner fields and then try to spin it, it starts off at the previous value that was spun to
2. it would be nice to have direct control over the time variable.

hmm, it seems as if someone has turned of image embedding.

Two good ideas inio.

I actually have thought of something around the lines of both. I was thinking of an "animate between" feature where it would animate sinusoidally (spelling?) between two values. Control of the speed variable would be good too.

I'm so glad people are having fun with this! I'm totally stoked (I must have typed that 10 times today) about the reaction I've gotten to this.

What I really want to do, is add a save as .jpg feature. Then I could have people send me their creations and I could put them up on the website or something! Ooh... fun fun fun. :wow:

[jamie]

very fun program, it creates some really nice patterns.

The save as .jpg feature sounds great, I could certainly see this used to generate some cool patterns for graphical use. Also that makes me think that a save as .mov could be cool for the video inclined. Another fun feature could be a zoom function.

very cool program.

[Holmes]

Originally posted by jamie
very fun program, it creates some really nice patterns.

The save as .jpg feature sounds great, I could certainly see this used to generate some cool patterns for graphical use. Also that makes me think that a save as .mov could be cool for the video inclined. Another fun feature could be a zoom function.

very cool program.

I've gotten an email requesting save as movie too. I just don't know how the heck I'd do it. Perhaps I could consult an uber-programmer on that one.

[skyhawk]

Originally posted by inio
Cool!

http://www.inio.org/~inio/idgspiro.gif


how did you manage to get it on a white background? and make it that cool! give us your values!

[skyhawk]

bug note:
the width sliderbar got screwed up on me.. it seemed to not respond after I messed around with the blurs alpha (and I do mean mess around and try to break it)
[EDIT] nevermind, your slider is screwy period... you might want to fix it so it is less clunky.

[skyhawk]

another bug:
details value doesn't remember values. Like when I change it manually to 32... and press down or up.. it doesn't change the 32... it changes the last value made with the up and down buttons.

[Holmes]

Originally posted by skyhawk
bug note:
the width sliderbar got screwed up on me.. it seemed to not respond after I messed around with the blurs alpha (and I do mean mess around and try to break it)
[EDIT] nevermind, your slider is screwy period... you might want to fix it so it is less clunky.

I think I'm going to kill it entirely and redo it in the next release. The next release is going to have a better single window interface. Oh yeah, and I think he did the white background by setting the layer type to overlay or something onto a white layer in photoshop, or maybe inverting it and doing hue saturation. Not something you can do in my app. Though its a feature I'll be adding.

[Holmes]

*sigh* I know about that one too. I know how to fix that. Oh well, another excuse to release a new version.

Originally posted by skyhawk
another bug:
details value doesn't remember values. Like when I change it manually to 32... and press down or up.. it doesn't change the 32... it changes the last value made with the up and down buttons.

[inio]

Originally posted by skyhawk
how did you manage to get it on a white background? and make it that cool! give us your values!
The white background:

I took it into photoshop, inverted it, then rotated the hue 180°. After that I wanted to get it on it's own layer so I used the classic black background extraction trick.

I forget the exact settings for that image, but with a base of 1.67 some time, and >=3 subloops, you get this (http://www.inio.org/~inio/idgspiro2.jpg).

[Feanor]

Nice job, Holmes! You need to add more configurable options, including different colours and especially finer control of the animations. Also consider an animation file format: you should be able to set start, stop, increments and time-step variables and save those to a file. No need to save images, just save the settings, and everything can be re-built.

I would love to also see this as a render-to-texture and wrapped onto different 3D objects. Line thickness adjustments would be cool.

I don't see any settings for transparency, skyhawk, where are you getting this? I find the slider works fine. The 2pi radians setting sometimes acts funny. Clicking it causes it to double or set to a random value.

The ultimate would be to take the whole algorithm 3D, take music levels as your co-efficients and other settings and make an iTunes plug-in.

I think you will maybe have to change the name, as "Spirograph" is definitely a trademark (Milton Bradley?).

[Holmes]

More great ideas. Right now I have a friend looking over my code and fixing up the interface a bit. It'll be much better and have more options. I think because Spirograph is a trademark it needs to be SpirographX, or perhaps SpirographiX as one friend of mine suggested. I was thinking 3D object warping for the screensaver. I have some code already to render to texture pretty nicely so it wouldn't be hard for me to set this up. I agree, iTunes visual type effects would be the greatest. The transparency settings (and color too) are right now in the window appearance, it can be accessed from the window menu. Its not so good right now, but will be fixed up in the next version.

Originally posted by Feanor
Nice job, Holmes! You need to add more configurable options, including different colours and especially finer control of the animations. Also consider an animation file format: you should be able to set start, stop, increments and time-step variables and save those to a file. No need to save images, just save the settings, and everything can be re-built.

I would love to also see this as a render-to-texture and wrapped onto different 3D objects. Line thickness adjustments would be cool.

I don't see any settings for transparency, skyhawk, where are you getting this? I find the slider works fine. The 2pi radians setting sometimes acts funny. Clicking it causes it to double or set to a random value.

The ultimate would be to take the whole algorithm 3D, take music levels as your co-efficients and other settings and make an iTunes plug-in.

I think you will maybe have to change the name, as "Spirograph" is definitely a trademark (Milton Bradley?).

[Feanor]

Originally posted by Holmes
I've gotten an email requesting save as movie too. I just don't know how the heck I'd do it. Perhaps I could consult an uber-programmer on that one.

To save as a movie file you have to first read back the values of the frames, which requires glReadPixels(). That is probably still faster than using Quartz 2D, although it will be not run at anything near the same rate as just rendering. If you take my suggestion to create animation file format, that can serve as the parameters for an exported movie.

Anyway, once you have frames of animation, I believe that QuickTime has facilities to generate a movie using them, but I could be wrong. How to choose a codec and all that, I have no idea.

For those of you experimenting, you can get some interesting and different results at really low detail settings if you let it run for a while. Problem I have is I cannot catch it in time to screen cap it. Anyway the low detail settings look much better animating than in still captures. Combine detail of 2 or 3 with 5 loops for an interesting quivering effect, looks great at base 1.5 after a minute or so.

Definitely need to have control whatever the value is that is tweaked by the animation.

[inio]

Originally posted by Feanor
I think you will maybe have to change the name, as "Spirograph" is definitely a trademark (Milton Bradley?). Actually, I'd say he's legally safe. Trademarks are exactly that, Trademarks. Their enforceability is limited to a single trade or industry. In this case there are two live marks with the name Spirograph. The first applies toEDUCATIONAL TOY KIT COMPRISING COLORED BALL POINT PENS AND A TRAY FOR MAKING VARIOUS GEOMETRIC AND DECORATIVE DESIGNSand the second to just pens. Nowhere in those marks do they obtain an exclusive right to "spirograph" in the digital image creation tool trade. This won't keep Hasbro from C&Ding you however.

However, evidence (http://www.softpile.com/Games/Kids/Review_03844_index.html) shows that Hasbro has not been particularly vigilant in shutting down people (http://www.dogbomb.com/spi/) who make software (http://www.wordsmith.org/~anu/java/spirograph.html) under their name.

Then again, INAL, and you should definitely talk to one before bringing this product to market under this name.

[edit]
Holmes: if you are vulnerable to the existing trademarks, using SpirographX or SpirographiX doesn't help. Hasbro could (and has a legal obligation to) file a "same name" suit which it would most likely be found in their favor (and not just because they have better lawyers). My advice is if you want to keep any semblance of the "spirograph" name, talk to a trademark lawyer.

Btw, it's either Tonka, Fisher, or Hasbro that owns it, not Milton Bradley.

[jamie]

I don't see any settings for transparency, skyhawk, where are you getting this?

If you go under the WINDOW menu and pick APPEARANCE you can adjust the Alpha there.

[skyhawk]

open up the appearance window silly. You can change the color and other things... jeez. Remind me not to stick you on my beta testing team
:p

[Feanor]

Originally posted by skyhawk
open up the appearance window silly. You can change the color and other things... jeez. Remind me not to stick you on my beta testing team
:p
Remind me not to test beta apps that don't conform to the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Preferences anyone??

[Holmes]

Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know I've sucessfully added save as tiff as a feature. Works flawlessly. Soon I'll add resolution options to that. Next...Quicktime movie?

I've also made the interface better, so Feanor - take a breather!

I hope that by this weekend you guys get to see a new version!