Super Trippy Computer Generated Pics

I made these pictures over a year ago when I was bored one day and decided to code a program which would produce pictures based on mathematical equations. The method was fairly simple, I just cycled through each pixel on the canvas and determined the RGB colour based on the X and Y position of the current pixel. The RGB colour can be represented as a simple integer so it was very easy to do. For instance, say I was at X=50 and Y=25... if I was using the equation C=X*Y then C (the RBG colour) would be equal to 1250, and that colour would be applied to the pixel at 50,25.

So there's nothing really special about this, but the results were pretty stunning when I used certain equations to determine the colour. I just found them on my computer again and figured I should post them because they look super cool. I wasn't really sure where to post this, we need some sort of maths/numbers/statistics/charts forum if you ask me. Now that our phones are more powerful than the computers we used to get to the Moon, anyone is capable of making brilliant mathematical discoveries, it's easier than you imagine. There's a lot we still don't understand, like prime numbers.

Pretty cool. Its a visual representation of formulae Something we usually try to visualize while attempting to plug numbers into a equation in our head in a classroom.

I love that you did this one day because "you were bored". At least you did something somewhat productive. Usually when I am bored I just surf the ATS threads.

Cool pics

reply to post by hp1229

Something we usually try to visualize while attempting to plug numbers into a equation in our head in a classroom.

Heh, I couldn't even visualise these equation in my head if my life depended on it. The results are far too complex, and I can hardly even understand them even by looking at these pictures. I'm not exceptionally good at maths actually, but I know enough to create what I need.

reply to post by Doodle19815

I love that you did this one day because "you were bored". At least you did something somewhat productive.

Well it seemed like a pretty good idea when I thought of it and I was interested to see what sort of results I would get. I had nothing better to do anyway... and doing something productive which requires thinking and brain power is much more entertaining to me, especially when the results could be something amazing.

What do you mean this isnt special? This is extraordinary. Its one of the best examples we have of how life is made. Mathematical equations, such as phi repeating over and over until you get a imagine or should I say frequency.

I find it interesting that in your pictures their is a repetitive wave like a frequency.

I think the CG pictures are brilliant like detailed electric dreams.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Very interesting. Did you use a random seed, or increment values?

I also think the patterns are too specific, more artificial than natural. However, there are many designs in nature that also follow progressive sequences.

Good work!

reply to post by Infi8nity

What do you mean this isnt special? This is extraordinary. Its one of the best examples we have of how life is made.

Well, I just meant the process I used to generate them wasn't anything highly unusual or highly complex. Although it was fairly unique, I haven't seen the same thing done before, but then again I can't say I've looked very hard.

I find it interesting that in your pictures their is a repetitive wave like a frequency.

Yah, some of the patterns are certainly very amazing, I didn't even program phi or pi into most of the images, in fact I don't think any of the images I posted here used anything but the X and Y values in some sort of equation. For instance the 3rd image, which is highly complex and includes wave-looking patterns, is produced via this equation:

C = ((X-Y) % 1+(Y/(1+X))) + ((X/(1+Y)) * (Y+X))²

That could probably be simplified to something less bulky but I was just writing out equations randomly to see what looked good. I couldn't be bothered simplifying it and I don't really have any need to.

EDIT: I just simplified it a little bit to make it easier to read. For those wondering, % is the modulus symbol. It's like the division (/) symbol but it outputs the remainder of the division.

reply to post by Druid42

Very interesting. Did you use a random seed, or increment values?

No, there's no random components in them, the process was a purely deterministic mathematical process. However, you may notice that some of them break into a random fuzz of colours which seems to have no order. That is the nature of chaos theory. Simple equations can break into chaos and produce random looking results with no apparent order. That's what I guess is happening anyway.

I also think the patterns are too specific, more artificial than natural.

No, as I said, it's a purely "natural" mathematical process and nothing more.

EDIT: what we also need to remember here is that the colours are related to the way the RGB colour values are arranged. I assume as you go from 0 to what ever the highest RGB value is, it shifts through the entire colour spectrum in some sort of way related to the Red Green and Blue colour components. I too was amazed to see how much structure there actually is in terms of the colouring.

I also have an idea some people may like. If you guys want to provide me with an equation which uses the X and Y variables, like the one I posted in reply to Infi8nity, I will test it out see what sort of image it produces. Reveal your inner mathematical intuition through my mystical formulae readings!

Try and keep the operators fairly simple... use only +, -, /, *, % and exponent operations. You could also incorporate numbers like Phi or Pi into the equations if you desire.

But I'm going to get some sleep in a moment (it's quite late at my location), so I'll get around to it when I get back, if there are any requests.

Damn, no one has any equations they want to try out? I thought it was a good idea. Oh well I'll still do it if anyone wants to try it out.

EDIT: I also discovered the 3rd image can actually be produced using this much simpler equation:

C = ((X/(1+Y)) * (Y+X))²

All I did was remove the first part because it was only adding a tiny little amount to the final value, so removing it doesn't effect the final image (very much).

For those of you who still don't understand the procedure... all I'm doing is shifting through each pixel and applying a colour based on the equation. For pixel 100,125 (X=100, Y=125), all I do is feed in those X and Y values into the equation and use the result (C) as the RGB colour. I do that for every single pixel until I've coloured the entire canvas, which could be any size I choose, in this case I'm outputting 500x500 images.