Theo Van Doesburg grid or maze like compositions made inside FF?

I have seen since long time ago many filtres based on maze like style patterns filtres and also some ideas on others threads of the forum like this one made for making pipes

Today I have discovered some works of the artist Theo Van Doesburg seen in this Google images search, some of them look very similar to the works of Piet Mondrian

Well, the reason for making this thread is based on this artwork shown here where there are some nice maze based grids BUT with large empty spaces inside



I have tried to make it but really do not how to make the holes and empty spaces inside, I have the idea it probable must be done with masking but can not get nothing similar

So I would like to know how could be done a generador of these kind of compositions

Thanks very much for any help

Kidding have fun tinkering.

Simple Grid.ffxml

Probably will tinker and upload as full filter. Needs something more original for it to be worthwhile.

Simple Grid Image Manip.ffxml

And you have done TWO different versions, that are complementary, and looks good.

Until now I have only used first one that is the nearest from the example image shown above in first post and for me works better than the second version, although this does not mean that I do not like the second, is also very good idea, has a great potential, and like it but it needs more work and made better.

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Skybase Try harder

Well, before putting this thread, I already tried 5 different ways to find how I could do this filter that was not really complex, and I thought I could do it, but then I could not know how to make the masking and got some grids but without missing parts.

After seeing HOW you have done it, I must agree with you have said already in other posts and threads, I am overcomplicating things and some things that are mainly simply I try to find a complex way to make it, and the solution is perhaps and probably sometimes much easier

Great how you have done the masking of the bomber using the blocks components with LARGE scale values to show that nice shapes to mask the bomber result with chances. I would have never guessed and tried this and as far as I remember I have never seen any filter that used noise components with the chance in bomber. There is still many things to learn and know about FF.

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Skybase you should upload your attempts even if they don't produce what you want. Maybe you're doing something worthy still of taking a look at

Yes, you are right, I should have uploaded what I had already done, and sorry that I did not do it, but it was a mess of things I tried, and did not want to upload it this way, now I have cleaned it and leaved only the best option I had.

I made the lines with free rectangle instead of Profile gradient, and used an image to make the masking, but your way to do it is much better, simpler, easier and works very well. As you have already said before, sometimes I overcomplicate things when the real solution could be simpler and easier as it happens in this case

NOTE:This filter does not work right, I mean that is not finished and do not give the expected results

Theo Van Doesburg Lines.ffxml

Thanks Skybase for explaining the difference between using profile gradients VS Free <insert component names> and is good and useful to know it, because until now, the reason for me to not use the Free <insert component names> components is that the seamless tiling is disabled when using them.

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Skybase Basically by design the bomber just works best with square input, otherwise the input of the design gets cut off.

Good to know that bomber works better with profile gradients and shapes done with these rather with variable size like the FREE components, but for the "cut off" of elements is available in FF 3.0 the "particle adapter" but I this does not solve always the problem because if the shape is FREE component source means that if you rotate it or go outside of the range of the available visible space of the component active part it will still cut off, so is better to use none-free components that keep the square input.

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Skybase lol funny how you connected the blur to all those params. It's valid construction but it's just simply not making sense

This was suggested by CFandM and is a way to control how tight the bomber particles are following the shape mask, and if want that some of them go beyond the mask limits.

I think the point to recognize here is that in this filter there's no need to control any of the offset nor chaos parameters. What needs to be controlled though is chance.

Thought it'd be a good lesson here's a nit-picky tip:

In terms of designing filters, I think I've mentioned this before but you shouldn't add controls for parameters specifically needing to be at a certain variable. For example the density parameter on the bomber in this case acts as the purpose why the bomber behaves that way. Capping it at values 2 and 3 might be a better option than having the intslider go full range (1 to 5).

The case and point: our goal's to make Theo Van Doesburg-esque work. The filter is designed to produce that. Parameters that add "alternative potentials" should be carefully rigged to output the desired effect. Well designed filters typically don't need millions of parameters to tinker, they only have a couple given we're trying to attain a look or feel. What makes a filter powerful is a well rigged parameter, not control.

i have found this by chance searching for another different thing and many things have changed in my life since this thread, although I still love much the crossing lines made with this filter and think that this has a great potential for making other more things, including colors and modifying the size of the lines, or other possible variations

Regretably FF does not have FILL FLOW component or script to be able to fill with a color closed shapes that are generated within the lines

i want to thanks again to Skybase for his help

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Regretably FF does not have FILL FLOW component or script to be able to fill with a color closed shapes that are generated within the lines

I mean... it's way faster doing that by hand you know?

I tried the fill node in Nodewerk and it's just super clumsy. Imagine having to use 1 node per color where you wanna fill and you have to manually input x and y coordinates for where you wanna fill. You can use it with a feedback loop but it's just silly anyway. I can bet you you'd be extremely angry at FilterForge if we had a fill node like that. lol

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Rick Duim wrote: You can use the output as alpha to do fills if you wish. You can fill with gradients, solid colors, images, etc. If you are interested, let me know and I'll show you what I mean

Thanks for your comment

Sorry, I do not now exactly what you mean with this.

Do you mean to take all the empty spaces (closed or not) from the alpha channel and fill them?

but with this it would be filled everything in the alpha channel and not only the closed parts

Please, could you put an example of what you mean? Thanks

I will put an example to show what I mean.

And here is the same one that I have filled most of the closed spaces by hand myself with 3 colors

The problem with this is that you have to see if the space is clearly closed following the shape, so this is why I suggested if there could be a way to automatically detect all the closed shapes, and fill them with different colors as shown here

I have also tested some simple things, like simply adding a spectrum component to the Bomber Tint Color and modify the Tint Amount and you get this nice graduated and semitransparent colors

Take your time on these kinds of things.

Even in huge studios with 100+ people, it takes 4 or 5 years to develop games or movies because no matter how much technology you put into it, there's always manual labour to be done. And it's really a lot of manual labour. Like probably thousands of hours worth of just moving points or filling in areas... etc etc.

Art is like 90% labour and 10% creative. For the most part we have to do long long long long hours of just doing 1 or 2 repetitive tasks over and over until we get our queue done. The "creative" part is just coming up with the idea.

If you feel frustrated, take a break. Come back later.

A lot of people who rush their work regret it later. And also, rushed art looks like trash to me.

With that being said, nice job for the stuff above. I do like the 3 color stuff you went with. That looks like a good start.

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Skybase wrote Art is like 90% labour and 10% creative. For the most part we have to do long long long long hours of just doing 1 or 2 repetitive tasks over and over until we get our queue done. The "creative" part is just coming up with the idea. If you feel frustrated, take a break. Come back later. A lot of people who rush their work regret it later. And also, rushed art looks like trash to me.

Thanks for the comments and I agree with you, I have been working as a digital artist from middle 2006 to end of 2010 and I agree with you that there is a lot of work involved behind one creative idea, asnd it takes time to develop it and may take many long hours, and must take care for all the fine details and check all the parts so it is in the best possible way

Also as you have told very well when I felt frustated, overwhelmed, confused or anything that gets in the way of the creative work, I took a break and then come back later, it can be a few minutes, or an hour or more, or leave it for next day, it depends

i agree that is a bad idea to make a artwork in a hurry and rush to make it earlier or sooner, because it will not work right most of the times, and I agree that rushed art it can be like trash

Regretably I could get little money from my artistic work, specially because I am living in a very small town, and do not know how to make art for people on internet

Congratulations to you Skybase that you are able to live and work with art and design and keep the creative flow in your life

Sorry for taking one month to answer

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LexArt wrote: Thanks to SpaceRay for making this thread, and to Skybase for making the filter that makes it possible

Hi, glad you like it and also thanks again to Skybase for making it possible and real

This could have more different variation applying different effects to the lines, neon effect, images inside, textures, colors, etc...