Uncategorized – Drawing with Machines • 60-428

bookooBread – Final Project Documentation

My final project, “Antagonistic Drawing Robot” (I haven’t picked a better name yet) is a drawing app that allows you to collaboratively draw with a robot. When something is drawn on the app, the plotter may copy your mark… or add its own spin on it. When the drawing is finished, you will come away with a piece in both the robot’s “style” as well as your own.

This project is still in progress since I was not able to work in an efficient way with my past restraints. I will be finishing it hopefully next semester as a side project in Golan’s 60-212.

Inspiration

My project was heavily inspired by Sougwen Chung’s work in exploring artistic co-creation with robotic units.

Chung’s work, however, uses machine learning to create the robot’s improvisational drawing techniques. Nonetheless, I spent quite a long time researching her practice and how it explores the relationship between human and machine through this form of mark-making.

In contrast to Chung’s work, I am not using machine learning. My project also lies more in the realm of a funny/surprising drawing app than the type of gestural, elegant art that is Chung’s work. I am trying to tap into the robot’s “personality,” which considers the idea of robots often being seen as the antagonist in the future of human life. This is where the concept of an antagonistic drawing tool comes in. An example of this, and another inspiration for my project, is fugpaint created by Ben Fry. The tools in the drawing app “misbehave” or act in ways you wouldn’t expect a normal paint tool to act. The robot in my project will do the same, misbehaving in ways that endow it with a certain mischievous personality.

I hope to get to a point where the robot is making more sophisticated marks so that the final piece can stand alone, like in Sougwen Chung’s work.

Process

Coming soon.

Takeaways

This project was honestly extremely frustrating and difficult for me. Compared to how much time and effort I put into making it work and get to a somewhat solid point and the current outcome, it is very unsatisfying for me. I learned a ton, which makes it worth it, but I cannot let this project go unfinished with how much time I put into it. It is not where I want it to be, but I hope I can make it the project I originally imagined at some point next semester.

lsh-FinalProject

This project takes walk cycles and converts them to traces of motion.

Inspiration

The project was heavily inspired by Eadweard Muybridge’s captures, which tracked how the human (and horse) form moves in space.

Étienne-Jules Marey was another inspiration, specifically his traces of human locomotion.

However my project is more aligned with Harold Edgerton’s series that focuses on outlines, as it becomes more about the form than the movement of joints.

Process

In order to make this project, I used Detectron2 for segmenting outlines.

A segmented photo of Timothée Chalamet at the Met Gala — A sample segmentation.

Once I had the outline alpha, it was fairly simple to convert it to an SVG using the potrace library. From that point I began playing with what motion works best.

5 Figures with long exposure outlines — Outlines from a video of a group doing the YMCA dance.

After several attempts, I realized that the walk cycle, which has a strong history in animation and drawing, would be a good subject for the series. The next step was to tune movements and sample rates to see what would look best.

I ended up deciding that sampling a straight on walk from every frame looked best.

Tracing motion was also a nod to my architectural training, as depicting motion in this fashion is an exercise many architecture students partake in during their technical education.

Takeaway

This project was a confidence booster in some ways and frustrating in others. When I first decided what I actually wanted to make, I was overwhelmed and had no idea if I could even pull off getting outlines. Funny enough, the outlines were the easy part, but the small details, like dotted lines which ended up mooshing together from blotted ink, were hard. I’m happy with the outcome, but there are definitely places I can still take it.

spingbing – FinalProject

My final project for this class was a collection of several different plots of these skeleton-esque creatures in assorted configurations.

Inspiration

I am very drawn to artworks with busy, indiscernible compositions. Annabelle Gao’s Bicycle piece is a great example of this. What strikes me with these kinds of artworks is that most of its greatness/value is only found after some time has been spent appreciating the fine details.

I have also been interested in depictions of pain, longing, and any other pessimistic emotion. Kay Seyoung Lee’s hellscapes, specifically Harvest(2021), is another notable inspiration piece for me. The warped perspective is very intriguing, and I considered including this element in my pieces as well. I also love how non-distinct the subjects are.

Process

The piece began with my discovery of the Google Tiltbrush (discovery facilitated by Golan Levin). My practice usually lies in the realm of 3D CGI. However, drawing in VR gives what most 3D programs cannot do in that it allows for the act of drawing in 3 dimensions. This could be seen as a hindrance, but using this feature to my advantage, I created a skeleton-like creature made up of thin tube-like ropes:

From the Tiltbrush application, I was able to export my creation into Blender. Here I was able to set up a compelling composition.

Then I exported this as a plottable SVG.

Lastly, I took the same pen the plot was done in and added some detail. This was an intriguing idea to begin with, but I got carried away. The problem here is that it missed the busy, indiscernible effect and went more towards unfinished looking. The business looks accidental here placed next to the overbearing white space.

Another thing I was considering was drawing outside of the lines of the subjects in the background. This was an interesting idea as it further blends the distinction between machine-drawn and hand-drawn lines. However, my main qualm with this was that the objects I was drawing in the background did not match the original skeleton subjects. While perhaps visually similar, they themselves turned the story of the piece and made it confusing and wrong.

For my final composition I took care to achieve my desired busy effect, done with the help of Shiva Peri and Nikolas Diamant. The subjects were piled using physics in Blender. In a sentimental moment, or because I liked the white space, or maybe just because I was in a rush, I stopped the plot before it finished. This resulted in a nice variation of tone in the bottom half of the image to make the contrast between the top and bottom less intense.

More Images

Final Takeaways

This project was influential for me personally in that it allowed me to explore the usage of machines in the drawing process without having to code. I was able to familiarize myself with one new medium rather than two at once. It also forced me to be very uncharacteristically precise and intentional with my materials, something I had to learn the hard way(evidenced by my many failed plots). Another influential aspect was the usage of Tiltbrush as a part of my creative workflow.

I appreciate that the ambiguity of the precision of the linework contrasted with the manmade feel of the subjects themselves hints at the process I went through to actually make the piece; However, I wish it was a little more clear. Overall, the entire process was very inspiring, and I am excited to see where these new mediums take me.

frog-FinalWIP

For my final project, I’m programming a Universal Robotics robotic arm to inscribe and mark polymer clay surfaces. This is meant to primarily be a two-pronged technical exploration of both the material possibilities of polymer clay and the technical capabilities of the robotic arm to use tools and manipulate physical media.

The inspiration for this project is honestly more rhizomatic than emergent from a collection of works of interest. That said, I was at least partially inspired by the robot-human collaborations of artist Sougwen Chung.

Throughout the semester, I’ve done most of my work using pen and plotter. While the plotter creates an exciting interaction point where computational principles and the physical properties of media try to coexist and even contradict each other, I wanted to explore a new space with different effects at play. I decided it was time to try a ne medium, so I moved into paint and polymer clay. Initially I tried merely plotting on clay:

Above – using pen plotter and needle tool to poke points into clay

Above – misregistered plot

After a few experiments, it seemed that the plotter just didn’t have the power needed to do anything substantial to the clay – the tool would often snag and the motor couldn’t always actually push the clay, messing up registration.

I realized that the robotic arm in Frank-Ratchye studio could push what I could do computationally and gives me a continuous third dimension. The robotic arm also seemed to promise more physical pushing strength compared to the plotter. From there, I realized that polymer clay pairs nicely with the additional dimension and stuck with the robot.

I’ve been using polymer clay for most of my life already but have taken a long hiatus, so this feels like a natural direction for my work to go into and an exciting opportunity to explore the medium with a fresh set of eyes.

I started exploring for this project by digging into clay by hand in different ways. My intent was to test what sorts of marks my tools could make in an attempt to think of concrete ideas for the final project and produced the following:

From here, all that I had left to do a learn how to use the robot. After getting comfortable with manually controlling the robot, I moved on to automating the bot. I received extensive help from my classmate Dinkolas in understanding how to program the robot and am indebted to his time and efforts.

Below are the preliminary results of merely having the robot tear across a block of clay along random paths:

The robot managed to fold the clay up during the inscription process. More work will need to go into measurements to ensure that the clay stays flat, or maybe this folding direction may deserve a bit more time and thought.

Video pending, I need to remove audio from the footage that I have.

wip

progress, inspiration, etc

PROGRESS:
Initially, I messed around with blue/red 3D stereoscopy by plotting different angles of one object on top of each other. I thought it was funny that I went from 3D (TiltBrush) -> 3D (Blender) -> 2D (plotting the SVG) -> “3D” (stereoscopy). Even though this experimentation was not enough to be a final piece, it was useful to do because I realized I liked the layering of color. I may or may not go further into the use of contrasting colors in my final.

Finally, I have decided to create a sort of hellscape. It is also an experimentation with different mediums and a really funky workflow. Below is the SVG of a draft version. From here, I want to fill the background with more scenes by adding more 3D objects in Blender as well as drawing on top of the plot by hand. I also would like the use the big Axidraw to be able to add more detail.

Plotted:

Original image:

However, this looks more like an up close view of a traditional hellscape. While I like the perspective, I am also intrigued by art that ignores perspective such as seen in The Hellscape Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch:

3 dimensionality exists within each object and their surroundings, but it is overall flat-looking. I think using the giant Axidraw to create this type of scene would be interesting.

aether-FinalProject

Initial Question:

Through this creative inquiry, I seek to understand
the ways in which computational simulation can create
complex, geometric compositions. Using particle
simulations, I’m investigating how one may relinquish
discrete control of compositional geometry by endowing
with these autonomous agents with varying behaviors.
These agents then react and respond to various
environmental parameters, which I manage directly.

How may one create an artistic composition by allowing
digital space to act as environmental pressure on
a computational material?

Inspiration:

Murjoni Merriweather

Open Source Hair Library

Process:

My direction for this project has pivoted.
Rather than having particles merely trace
complex geometries as an end, I seek to use
forces, enacting geometries, and particles
systems to reflect the complex fiber
architectures of African hair.

[videopack id=”2264″]https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/60-428/f2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20211117_hairTest.mp4[/videopack]

In the second test of the particle trails
emanating from a 3D head model, I switched
to an extra fine Prices V5 rolling ball pen,
which was thinner than my micron pen.

I also used color in a test. I found that 500
particles may be a bit heavy for 8.5 x 11in paper.
Materials constraints also need to be considered
in future tests. As I need a substrate and mark
making tools that collaborate well together.

miniverse – FinalProject

monster maker

[videopack id=”2283″]https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/60-428/f2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/test.mp4[/videopack]

This is at the moment a little broken and the drawings a tad hasty, but essentially I want to make a recursive monster maker. It’ll take drawings of animal parts and automatically scale and fit them into predefined openings. Here are a broken runs of the algorithm.

I drew some inspiration from a project Golan showed me: Mario Klingemann “Ernst” (examples below):

I’ve done some assemblage in the past with hand drawn pieces:

This is a truchet tiling with hand drawn pieces.

Some process shots:

(weird bug I need to fix)

tool I build to draw, save, and generate, JSONs

https://save-json.glitch.me/

spingbing-FinalWIP

The concept of my project was decided after deciding the medium. Making a smooth 3D object in Tiltbrush (like one possibly made in a 3D rendering software) I think is theoretically possible but very hard to do, so the physical form of my object is a result of me working with Tiltbrush instead of against it.

Initially, I messed around with blue/red 3D stereoscopy by plotting different angles of one object on top of each other. I thought it was funny that I went from 3D (TiltBrush) -> 3D (Blender) -> 2D (plotting the SVG) -> “3D” (stereoscopy). Even though this experimentation was not enough to be a final piece, it was useful to do because I realized I liked the layering of color. I may or may not go further into the use of contrasting colors in my final.

Prior draft of the scene:

Newer draft:

3 dimensionality exists within each object and their surroundings, but it is overall flat-looking. I think using the giant Axidraw to create this type of scene would be interesting.

sweetcorn-finalproject

Party-Planning Floor Mat

I’m interested in creating objects which plan parties. (‘Party’ is used as a catch-all term for some community-expressive event).

The ideal party-planning object to me is (1) unique (i.e., no two instances of it are identical), (2) low-effort to set up, (3) widely usable, and (4) interactive (both in terms of interacting with the object and each party-goer interacting with the other party-goers).

As best I could, I created party-planning floor mats under these constraints. In terms of (1) uniqueness, each floor mat is entirely generated. The size is arbitrary, able to scale from the area of one pair of shoes to the surface area of the globe, given appropriate material. Each area is filled with shoes according to a poisson-disc distribution. Each shoe is parametric, with variables relating to height, width, and concavity (magnitude and location). Party objects are placed on appropriate vertices of the shoes’ voronoi diagram. Each party object is a random choice from a natural-language-processing-generated list of 18,336 things that are wanted or desired in some way. Shoes face the nearest party object and party objects face the general direction of all shoes facing them. A closed path from shoe to shoe is determined from a decent enough traveling-salesman solution. Below is a gif of the debug-mode, which shows the cuts and the voronoi diagram, next to the full generated floor mat.

These elements are divided into 25-inch-wide strips of arbitrary length, which can be plotted on a large enough plotter, such as the studio’s MH871. Each color must be plotted as a separate layer, which, in combination with the difficulty aligning the paper over such a long length, does not exactly meet (2) the criterion of low-effort. I likely spent upwards of 3 hours simply plotting this 7-sheet-wide, 17-foot-long floor mat. Machines capable of plotting on this scale are also not commonplace, meaning these party-planning files, at least, are not (3) widely usable. The sheets themselves, though, may meet these two criteria. A better method of securing the sheets to the floor and to each other would greatly simplify things. I wonder about the product-ness of these mats and party-planning objects in general.

Part of me wants to either abstract or remove the words altogether. I’m just not sure how well they work in terms of augmenting the interactions between party-goers. I’m also not sure about their influence on the mood of the piece; they likely read as more foreboding or poetic than a “party object.” Of course, parties as I’ve defined them don’t need to be cheerful, but Iworry it makes the work read more as “art object” than “party-planning object.”

(4) I did see many people afraid to step on it. Given permission, however, people seemed to be having fun with the mat and one another. Some of the paths are quite long and a good number of people nearly fell trying to jump from shoe to shoe. People also ended up standing much closer to one another than they might normally. Maybe they needed an excuse?

– xoxo
sweetcorn

lsh-FinalProject

For my final project, I decided to make a tribute to the typology of drawing that focuses on the movement of living things. This typology explores motion, form, and time. One such example is Eadweard Muybridge’s Horse photographs.

The photographs became import as a series rather than individually, and in turn offer insight into the locomotion of a horse. Another example of this typology is the work of Harold Edgerton, which become more formal due to the stark contrast in the photographs.

In dialogue with these works, I took advantage of the image segmentation library Detectron2, which allowed me to generate outlines of people from an image.

Using these outlines, I began sampling videos to create long exposure outlines.

I found walk cycles particularly compelling, partially due to the uniqueness of an individual’s gait.