<<

Descriptions of Programs which produce evolutionary art

Form

Raytraced[a sample form picture called webgood] Previewed[a sample form picture called webgood] This free program written by me, Andrew Rowbottom, uses a simple language to construct the organic objects. Form comes with a fairly quick on-screen previewer in grey scale. These shapes can be mutated, mutations can be selected on screen and saved, or new mutation created based on the selected shape. In normal mode the preview screens can be saved as gif. For qulaity rendering some other sort of output must be generated.
It is also possible to morph between different mutations, saving each screen to produce an animation.
Form produces output for POV, DXF, VRML and VIVID.

Lparser

Raytraced [a sample lparser picture called airhorse] Previewed [a sample lparser preview of airhorse] This free program written by Laurens J. Lapre uses "L-systems" to produce shapes, an l-system is a rule like description of a 3d form, fractal and recursive forms are very easy to describe in an l-system.
These L-systems, which to me seem very abstract, can produce quite intricate shapes. These shapes can be mutated, and I'm not sure but I think it may be possible to produce sequences of frames between mutations for animation.
Lparser also comes with a good quality 3D full perspective previewer which can produce camera information for POV.
Lparser can produce POV, VIVID and DXF output.

Biomorph

Example Image[example biomorph image called Dulux doggie] This program is a Web based implementation of Richard Dawkins Biomorph program. I'm still looking for a link to the real thing! For more information on biomorphs see Biomorph below, or follow the link to the interactive biomorph page.

Doodle Garden

Example Screen[example doodle screen snapshot] Introduction from the Help file

Doodle Garden uses a technique called Genetic Programming to evolve new drawings.
A small computer program draws each doodle. You can Mutate (randomly change) a doodle program, or you can Cross programs (attach part of one to part of another) with interesting results. You guide this process by selectively breeding your favorite doodles.
Click on your favorite doodle and a Button Bar will appear. This bar protects the doodle during breeding. You use the buttons to mutate, cross, load, save or view a doodle. You can gain more control over your results by adjusting the breeding parameters and drawing functions.
Animate will automatically generate new doodles every few seconds by mutating and crossing the currently protected doodles. You can even use it as a Screen Saver.
Doodle Garden starts with random graphics. For best results, we suggest that you start by loading a previously saved doodle. Just push the buttons on your favorite doodles to explore Genetic Programming and a fascinating visual space.

Doodle Garden was written by Andy Singleton

Imogenes

Example Screen[example IMOGENE screen snapshot]

this is an attempt to reproduce a Karl Simms Genetic Images program in 256 colours.

Basically I found that this was quite a fun program with a polished interface, unfortunately the code doesn't go far enough, there is no way to save or reload the "program" that make up a picture. I also had problems saving the pictures as bitmaps, the whole program gives a feeling of being unfinished, I'm trying to contact the author to see if there is a more recent version around.

Introduction derived from the Help file

Imogene lets you interactively generate pictures which dynamically adapt to your own aesthetic sense over successive generations using genetic programming.
Each generation contains 9 images laid out in a 3x3 grid. Each of the 9 images is generated by a mathematical formula which is applied to each (x,y) co-ordinate in the image to produce a palette index (and thus a color) for that co-ordinate.
In the first generation, the formulae are generated randomly based on a set of primitive formula elements, such as addition, subtraction, logical bitvector operations, and the formula input (the x and y co-ordinates). The neat thing is that, for most formulae, the pattern which results from the application of the formula to all the points in the image is coherent and sometimes even beautiful.
In generations after the first, the formula for each image is no longer generated randomly. Instead, for each image, two formulae are chosen from the previous generation. These formulae are combined and mutated to form a new formula. The chances of a formula being selected are based on its fitness.

RandPic

Example Screen[example RandPic screen snapshot]

This is another program based around Karl Simms Genetic Images program.

Trees

Example Screen[example Trees screen snapshot]

Summary: This program produces "trees" for POV

The user interface is not too complicated, but I did have to skim through the short but adequate doc file to control the program properly. Unfortunately I have been unable to actually produce any POV output from this program.

Bomb

Example Screen[example Bomb screen snapshot]

Commercial Applications

I can insert a link to your evolutionary page here, just email me. or you can send me a short description and a sample gif.

Cybertation

Example Screen[example Cybertation organism]

Cybertation is a cheap (10 UK pounds) program that was released with the Evolution of Life CD Rom which creates complex 3D coloured "animals". You can mutate and cross breed these to produce wonderfully complex children. The "animals" are created on screen in full colour, full 3D, multitasking real time, although you can lower the quality of output to suit the complexity of the organism and you machine. There is a good selection of starting points for your exploration.
Tip: clicking on an area outside an object allows you to add more "mutated children" to view and cross breed.

A professional piece of software although the help file is just a small text file the program doesn't really warrant any more.

repliGATOR

repliGATOR is a stand-alone program which takes already existing digital images (scanned photographs, files from digital cameras, computer generated graphics, etc.) and changes them with Object Xforms into new image ideas.
It can be used in an evolutionary manner, by using the "wizard" Function key 7 really, and repeating until a suitable variant is found, re-using variant as the basis for another sequence of variants. Its primary purpose is to create logo-like images based on an already existing plain image.
Although the demo version was a beta version I had absolutely no problems with it.

Organic Art

Organic Art is a program developed by Artworks, who include William Latham, Mark Atkinson and Chris Jones. This program runs as a Windows 95 program and screensaver.

It is of course the definitive Latham organic art program.

There is also a detailed review at PC Format

http://www.futurenet.com/pcnet/howto/features/graphics/organic/organic.html Artworks Home Page

Biomorph

Preview Still to be generated

A Commercial implementation of Biomorphs (also known as "The Blind Watchmaker Softwareo") is available from W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. although I have not seen it in action. I also have seen a conversion for IBM PC compatibles by SPA Ltd of a program designed and written by Richard Dawkins to demonstrate how even simple seemingly arbitrary selection could produce intricate apparently "designed" objects. An excellent primer program.

Biomorphs are computer generated creatures whose evolution you can examine and control using selection, drift and 'genetic engineering'.
When the computer draws a biomorph it is really drawing a simple branching tree. However, these simple trees give rise to an extraordinary variety of biomorph shapes, some abstract, many biological, sometimes grotesque, and often very beautiful.
The shape of a biomorph is under the influence of nine genes, each of which has a value represented by a number. The numbers influence the shapes because some genes affect the angle of tree branching, others the lengths of the branches, the angles and lengths being taken from the numbers.
The biomorphs can reproduce asexually, and when they do their children carry random mutations. That is, their gene values differ slightly from their parents. The USER SELECTS option in the EVOLVE menu allows you to choose one of the litter of mutant progeny from which to breed. You can then choose one of its children in turn as a new parent and so on generation after generation.
I am trying to discover the commercial availabilty of this program

Artifical Painter

Following from Henrik Hautop Lund one of the authors, the Homepage also has a limited interactive demo.

The Artificial Painter derives from our Artificial Life simulations using Genetic Algorithms on Neural Networks that represents small organisms (see e.g. my paper in Artificial Life 2:2). The Artificial Painter was originally developed as a research project financed by ABACO s.r.l. and the Italian National Research Council. Later, there appear to be great public interest in the Artificial Painter, so we are now negotiating with different companies like Benetton, Swatch and Sector on selling the rights or licenses to the use of the program. Further, the artist V. Vucic from ex-yugoslavia is using the Artificial Painter (on a special license) as a way of new enformel or non-figurative painting. His project is connected with multidimensional perception and developing skills for dynamic and contextual thinking and percpetion which is crucial for those who suffer from trauma or for those who face a lack of information and positive stimuli from their environment.

The Artifical Painter Homepage

© and maintained by Andrew Rowbottom
This page has had 11193 hits since March 7, 1997[TextCounter Fatal Error: Could Not Increment Counter].
Updated: 10 January 1997