Just playing around with Blender and Cycles.

This is an attempt to merge Blenders Dynamic Paint feature with cellular automata. It started as a python script but then became even more of an educational experience when I realized python wasn’t going to be fast enough to run conway’s life on a 64x grid, let alone a 4Kx one, which was my initial goal. These ended up being 512x grids. I could have gone bigger but I’m using a little netbook for all this so I didn’t go nuts.

After figuring out that python wasn’t going to be fast enough I set out to make a c++ version, not in Blender, just in c++. Long story short it’s an atrocity of loops inside a main function. I didn’t even bother to pass any arguments, just recompiled every time I changed paths. Anyway it ended up being lots faster than the py scripts and I finally had an excuse to write a function I knew very well in a language I’ve been intimidated by for some time (and still very much am).

The c++ code uses the ImageMagick++ library, which made things much easier, but you’ll have to get this lib if you want to compile and use this. Hopefully this whole process has prepared me to get on porting the lighting generator to c++, which really needs to happen if if it’s ever going to be more than a gimmick.

So anyway, here’s the c++ code and here’s the Blender python script that I abandoned in favor of doing it in c++. For the record- this is bad, bad code. Very bad. Also here’s the command line to compile with g++ and imageMagick++, since that took awhile to get past.

conway_cpp_py.zip

user@pc:~$ g++ `Magick++-config –cxxflags –cppflags` conway.cpp -o conway `Magick++-config –ldflags –libs`

Here’s the process for using this to dynamic paint with conways life.

1) dynamically paint a canvas with a brush. This will paint ‘live’ cells onto the canvas
Turn on ‘dissolve’ and set to dissolve in 1-3 frames. Otherwise these become ‘immortal’ cells, which makes for a weird simulation.
I used red channel only for these demos.

2) compile and run the c++ code.
This will run the simulation on the dynamic paint cache images. It runs the simulation from the initial frame, but always includes the red cells from the next dynamic paint frame so they will be used in the next simulation step.

3) use this simulation output as a map in place of the dynamic paint output.
Sounds easy, and it kind of is, and kind of isn’t.
So if you want to do this yourself- if you know c++ it should be easy. If you don’t it will be very hard. If you’re just learning c++ it may be worthwile to try.

Not sure where I’m going with all this, as usual it was just something to do. Hope you dig it.

It’s a little redundant since the same thing can be accomplished a number of different ways but after a discussion with another BR BUG member I thought I’d take a swing. So here’s the script (right-clk>save as)

camera_marks

Just uncompress, then copy the script to your addons folder and then activate.

You get a panel in the 3DView>Toolbar that lets you add, delete, and change marks.

It saves the loc/rot/dofdist/lens to a textblock called CAMERAMARKS. I know this is a hacky implementation but I’m a hack and that’s just what I do. It’s super rudimentary now but it was only about 3 hours of coding and most of that was looking through old code to remember how to setup the UI, which I needed a refresher on anyway so this was a good little project. So tell me what you think, if it’s useful, what it needs to become useful, etc.

I still have a bunch of planks left too.

Hope you like. Thanks.

Thomas

It took me awhile to get the thing recognized on Lubuntu. Had to add a rule in udev, also had to get qthid2.2 to update the firmware so I could use qthid3.1. Then had to compile quisk and finally started getting lots and lots of static.

Then I started reading more about HAM radio and found about about IF and OF and got far enough to get some garbled non-static from the local NPR station. Then I took a little video on my phone. Then I uploaded it to youtube, then I typed this. So here it is.

Looking forward to spending lots and lots of time learning and playing with this thing.

Maybe by next post I’ll have decoded some telemetry data from an AMSAT. That would be cool.

—–UPDATE—–

Another great meeting everyone!
Next meeting will be January 21st, 2012 – at the Cajun Clickers HQ – 3:00pm-6:00pm

—–UPDATE-DEC17th—-

Great meeting everyone. I enjoyed sharing Blender with some new folks, and I enjoyed meeting some local BlenderHeads I didn’t know about and as one 3D veteran offered “It’s good to know you’re not in a vacuum.”

December 17th is the date for the next meeting, at the Cajun Clicker HQ. (See below for link to map.)

I’ll probably make another flyer with the new date and send them out so you can send them to anyone you’d like to share Blender with. Or print them and put them up at your school or work or something if that’s appropriate.

I’ll also be working on scheduling a beginners series, and since we had some interest on Game Engine and Texturing we’ll work on putting together some workshops on those too.

So thanks again for the great meeting and feel free to contact me!

—–ORIGINAL POST—–

On November 12, 2011 from 4:00pm – 6:00pm the Baton Rouge Blender User Group will meet at the Cajun Clickers Computer Club. (MAP)

BLENDER USERS
If you’re a Blender user or are interested in learning to use Blender, the free, open-source, 3D content creation suite, then come to this meeting!

Meet other Blender Users in the Baton Rouge area and find out more about the exiting developments in this rapidly growing software!

MEETING TOPICS
At this meeting we will discuss some of the new features in 2.6 and the Google Summer of Code and other branches that include 3D audio, the new photo-realistic rendering engine Cycles, and camera tracking integration in the Tomato branch. We’ll also check out Sintel, and look at some impressive work from Project London.

Baton Rouge area Blender users are encouraged to bring their artwork and demos to show off! Feel free to send it in advance or just bring a thumb drive with some .blends and/or renders.

We will also discuss plans for another Blender introduction class series for beginners and plans for group projects.

MEMBERSHIP
If you use Blender and live in/near Baton Rouge then you’re already a member of the Baton Rouge Blender User Group!

The Cajun Clickers Computer Club offers a wonderful classroom facility for learning Blender and also offers a wide range of other computer related classes.

Blender User Groups members will be encouraged to join the Cajun Clickers Computer Club and enjoy all the classes and opportunities offered for a very reasonable price of $40/year for a whole family.

RSVP
If you plan to attend please let me know through this contact form, or reply to this post, or email me at teldredge at funkboxing dot com. Also if you can’t attend but would like to know about future events, please contact me.

PC’S FOR BLENDER USERS
The system requirements to run Blender are very modest. If you are looking for a PC to run Blender we can work with the CACRC to provide you a PC to be used as capable Blender workstation. The cost may vary depending on need and availability but I will try to arrange for a workable PC (no monitor) for around $180.00. The CACRC has monitors for sale from $60.00. If you are interested in a dual-monitor setup or something specific we can work on that too.

CACRC Blender PC Specs
OpenGL 2.0 Capable Graphics Card
PentiumD 2.8Ghz
2 Gb RAM
80 Gb HDD
Preloaded and tested with Ubuntu Linux and Blender

A class session at the Cajun Clickers.

A NOTE TO ATTENDEES OF THE 2009-2010 CLASSES
If you atteneded these classes and have not heard from me please email me. I am sorry to say I’ve lost some of your email addresses since then so I’d love to hear from you and to get you back on an email list.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you there. In the meantime and as usual- keep Blending!

teldredge (Thomas Eldredge)

That means it’s an ‘official’ add-on but is not included in the trunk.

I’ve been using and coding in Blender for nearly 5 years this is a very special moment for me. Blender means a great deal to me and this script is the least I can do to show my appreciation.

I am very proud and honored to have some of my code accepted as part of Blender. I am also very grateful for the intelligent and friendly support I’ve received from Blender coders and from the author of FSLG. I sincerely hope this add-on proves useful to the Blender community.

Thanks to the Blender community for everything. I will keep doing what I can.

Thomas

After that it was a pretty straight forward phase adjustment series that brought up the d-gains inside a tracking relay I established about 2 degrees clockwise from the EM band.

Long story short- I got another message from outer space. It’s nothing new, just a poetic rephrasing of the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.

Here it is.

Hey future hyper intelligent apes of the future, careful with that hyper intelligence, it can make you stupid.

• Blinded with Science – Lasers: Pointing to the Future
• Blinded with Science – Freestyle Science, Part II: Cryptozoology
• Blinded with Science – Freestyle Science, Part I: Paranormal Research
• Blinded with Science – 2012: Countdown to the Big Whatever
• Blinded with Science – Who Gives a Crap about Open Source Software?
• Blinded with Science – Television: Better than Reading
• Blinded with Science – Election Technology: Rise of the Voting Machine
• Blinded with Science – Criminal Chemicals
• Blinded with Science – The 300 Million Dollar Battery
• Blinded with Science – Mr. Wizard: The Last Action Hero
• Blinded with Science – Picking Bones
• Blinded with Science – Relativity – Part 2: General
• Blinded with Science – Relativity – Part 1: Special
• Blinded with Science – Stem Cells: The Root of All Evil
• Blinded with Science – Earth: Magnet for Change
• Blinded with Science – Thinking: The Mental Challenge
• Blinded with Science – E.T.: Illegal Alien
• Conservatruth is Stranger than Fiction
• Blinded with Science – Cellulosic Ethanol: Tomorrows Fuel for Drinking and Driving
• Blinded with Science – War on Wires
• Mortal Values
• Blinded with Science – Super Collider? I barely know her!
• Blinded with Science – Trekonomic Incentives
• The Curses of Science Fiction
• The Calculus Conspiracy