#ms paint recursion

[ebonylark]

MS Paint metaphor

[takero2]

@phantommarigold indie-pop ending

album cover (they made it in ms paint)

bonus

recursion of this joke

[dailyproblemsleuth]

Problem Sleuth, page 937

Next.

They busily set to work building an IMPETUS COMB to transmute the bitter nectar into sweet JOCOSE HONEY. Recently collected nectar is stored between the walls of the newly erected SIERPINSKI CELLS. They labor under the instruction of their CHIEF ARCHITECT.

Author commentary: I don't know what kind of combat IDIOT shows up to a battle without packing his impetus comb. But Team Sleuth is of course the model of sound martial judgement. You would think that by definition a comb made of Sierpinski triangles would never be able to be finished, due to its infinitely small recursive nature? But somehow the bees manage anyway. The impetus comb is actually an allegory for MS Paint Adventures. I am the bees, and it, my intractable comb.

[sweatertheman]

the fact that MS Paint Adentures exists in Homestuck drives me mad. recursive reality. nothing matters

[monikam-3d-visblog-blog]

7 Common Modeling Techniques

https://www.lifewire.com/common-modeling-techniques-for-film-1953

1) Box/Subdivision Modeling

Box modeling is a polygonal modeling technique in which the artist starts with a geometric primitive (cube, sphere, cylinder, etc.) and then refines its shape until the desired appearance is achieved. Box modelers often work in stages, starting with a low-resolution mesh, refining the shape, and then sub-dividing the mesh to smooth out hard edges and add detail.

The process of subdividing and refining is repeated until the mesh contains enough polygonal detail to properly convey the intended concept. Box modeling is probably the most common form of polygonal modeling and is often used in conjunction with edge modeling techniques (which we'll discuss in just a moment).

We explore the box/edge modeling process in greater detail here.

2) Edge/Contour Modeling

Edge modeling is another polygonal technique, though fundamentally different from its box modeling counterpart. In edge modeling, rather than starting with a primitive shape and refining, the model is essentially built piece by piece by placing loops of polygonal faces along prominent contours, and then filling any gaps between them. This may sound needlessly complicated, but certain meshes are difficult to complete through box modeling alone, the human face being a good example. To properly model a face requires very strict management of edge flow and topology, and the precision afforded by contour modeling can be invaluable. Rather than trying shape a well-defined eye socket from a solid polygonal cube (which is confusing and counter-intuitive), it's much easier to build an outline of the eye and then model the rest from there. Once the major landmarks (eyes, lips, browline, nose, jawline) are modeled, the rest tends to fall into place almost automatically.

3) NURBS/Spline Modeling

NURBS is a modeling technique used most heavily for automotive and industrial modeling. In contrast to polygonal geometry, a NURBS mesh has no faces, edges, or vertices.

Instead, NURBS models are comprised of smoothly interpreted surfaces, created by "lofting" a mesh between two or more Bezier curves (also known as splines). NURBS curves are created with a tool that works very similarly to the pen tool in MS paint or Adobe Illustrator. The curve is drawn in 3D space and edited by moving a series of handles called CVs (control vertices). To model a NURBS surface, the artist places curves along prominent contours, and the software automatically interpolates the space between. Alternately, a NURBS surface can be created by revolving a profile curve around a central axis.

This is a common (and very fast) modeling technique for objects that are radial in nature—wine glasses, vases, plates, etc.

4) Digital Sculpting

The tech industry likes to talk about certain breakthroughs they've termed disruptive technologies. Technological innovations that change the way we think about achieving a certain task. The automobile changed the way we get around. The internet changed the way we access information and communicate. Digital sculpting is a disruptive technology in the sense that it's helped free modelers from the painstaking constraints of topology and edge flow, and allows them to intuitively create 3D models in a fashion very similar to sculpting digital clay. In digital sculpting, meshes are created organically, using a (Wacom) tablet device to mold and shape the model almost exactly like a sculptor would use rake brushes on a real chunk of clay. Digital sculpting has taken character and creature modeling to a new level, making the process faster, more efficient, and allowing artists to work with high-resolution meshes containing millions of polygons. Sculpted meshes are known for previously unthinkable levels of surface detail, and a natural (even spontaneous) aesthetic.

5) Procedural Modeling

The word procedural in computer graphics refers to anything generated algorithmically, rather than being created manually by the hand of an artist. In procedural modeling, scenes or objects are created based on user-definable rules or parameters. In the popular environment modeling packages Vue, Bryce, and Terragen, entire landscapes can be generated by setting and modifying environmental parameters like foliage density and elevation range, or by choosing from landscape presents like the desert, alpine, coastal, etc.

Procedural modeling is often used for organic constructs like trees and foliage, where there is almost infinite variation and complexity that would be very time consuming (or impossible altogether) for an artist to capture by hand. The application SpeedTree uses a recursive/fractal-based algorithm to generate unique trees and shrubbery that can be tweaked through editable settings for trunk height, branch density, angle, curl, and dozens if not hundreds of other options. CityEngineuses similar techniques to generate procedural cityscapes.

6) Image-Based Modeling

Image based modeling is a process by which transformable 3D objects are algorithmically derived from a set of static two-dimensional images. Image-based modeling is often used in situations where time or budgetary restrictions do not allow for a fully realized 3D asset to be created manually. Perhaps the most famous example of image-based modeling was in The Matrix, where the team had neither the time nor the resources to model complete 3D sets. They filmed action sequences with 360-degree camera arrays and then used an interpretive algorithm to allow for “virtual” 3D camera movement through traditional real-world sets.?

7) 3D Scanning

3D Scanning is a method of digitizing real-world objects when an incredibly high level of photo-realism is required. A real-world object (or even actor) is scanned, analyzed, and the raw data (typically an x,y,z point cloud) is used to generate an accurate polygonal or NURBS mesh. Scanning is often used when a digital representation of a real-world actor is required, as in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where the lead character (Brad Pitt) aged in reverse throughout the film.

[botvisions-blog]

Images from the ‘The New Inquirer’s Conspiracy Bot��  https://conspiracy.thenewinquiry.com/

“Machine learning algorithms, which are used by computers to identify relationships in large sets of data, echo our pattern-seeking tendencies, since pattern recognition is what they’re designed for. When seeking to program learning algorithms with human intelligence, we inevitably include our peculiarities and paranoias. Like the human brain, machine learning algorithms arrive at shallow, inappropriate conclusions from ingesting sprawls of data. 

But when it comes to machines, paranoid assumptions about the world are mutually reinforcing: When they see the false patterns we see, they validate the faults of our own pattern-seeking tendency through the illusion of computational rigor. Seeing our own judgments reflected in the algorithm, we feel more confident in its decisions. 

The New Inquiry’s Conspiracy Bot condenses this recursive symbiosis. Just like us, our bot produces conspiracies by drawing connections between news and archival images—sourced from Wikimedia Commons and publications such as the New York Times—where it is likely none exist. The bot’s computer vision software is sensitive to even the slightest variations in light, color, and positioning, and frequently misidentifies disparate faces and objects as one and of the same. If two faces or objects appear sufficiently similar, the bot links them. These perceptual missteps are presented not as errors, but as significant discoveries, encouraging humans to read layers of meaning from randomness.”

This project is a perfect embodiment of the kind of paranoia engendered by the ‘total noise’ of the internet. I particularly love the visual style used which has been coined as “chart brut”.  The style constitutes a kind of visual language for paranoid apophenia: http://gawker.com/chart-brut-how-the-ms-paint-graphics-of-conspiracy-too-1651851261

“It's a digital middle-ground between the string-and-thumbtack cork-board flowcharts favored by premium-cable obsessives like Rust Cohle and Carrie Mathison, and the meaningless tangles of agency responsibilities beloved by security-apparatus bureaucrats... the crude style of Chart Brut at large is a perfectly realized embodiment of the confused and confusing conspiracy-curious internet. The academic Kathleen Stewart once wrote about the web's love of conspiracy: "The internet was made for conspiracy theory: it is a conspiracy theory: one thing leads to another, always another link leading you deeper into no thing and no place." Conspiracy charts—literal webs of interconnected institutions, people, and ideas—are the visual manifestation of the de-centered, endlessly deferred internet.”