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Author Topic: Reaction Diffusion
krummrey
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Post Reaction Diffusion
on: December 1, 2015, 02:15
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I just figured out that you can do something that looks like a Reaction Diffusion in Photoshop. Tracing in Illustrator might not be the most elegant solution, but it works. Sort of...
Has anyone else tried that?

Image
kongorilla
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kongorilla
Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: December 1, 2015, 05:36
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A Grace Kelly maze!

I've never done that with Photoshop, but a fun and easy way to get a reaction/diffusion image is to use Jason Dorie's Reactor software:
http://jasondorie.com/page_cnc.html
It's hypnotizing to watch the image develop.

When the image is done, I make vector paths using Wintopo (freeware version) -- much easier than tracing in Inkscape or Illustrator.
krummrey
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: January 4, 2016, 19:55
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The CNC program didn't give me half tones, that's why I was looking for something that would look like that but preserves more tones. It's a pretty messy workflow in Photoshop right now. My programming skills are just not up there yet to code it in Processing. Working on it...

Wintopo was a great suggestion. A lot faster and accurate than Illustrator. It even works with WINE on a Mac. 🙂
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cawer
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Carlos Werberich
Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: February 15, 2016, 23:32
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Thank you guys! Programs suggested by kongorilla work like a charm!
alpal
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Posts: 19
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: February 24, 2016, 13:18
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These reaction/Diffusion Images are amazing! I treid recreating as kong explained but didnt quite get the same results. First off the reaction/Diffusion Images created by reactor are not as well defined as the examples above..am i missing something? then the size of the Image which can be converted in wintopo is limited in the Freeware Version...again any tricks to getting a examples above converted? thanks
kongorilla
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kongorilla
Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: February 24, 2016, 21:33
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The results of the Reactor program are dependent on the image you feed it -- a higher resolution input bitmap will result in a higher resolution reaction/diffusion image. I think I always use "save huge". Optionally, take the results into an image editor to get rid of all the grey pixels -- I adjust levels, increasing the white side to get the black lines as thin and disconnected as possible.

I don't think I've ever adjusted anything in Wintopo. I just use "Vector/One-Touch Vectorisation".
krummrey
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: February 25, 2016, 14:31
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What I'v been doing is different from "Reactor". I was using Photoshop and tweaked my actions so that I would get long lines that are spaced apart by the underlying tonal value. The classic reaction-diffusion gave me too many single dots.
alpal
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 3, 2016, 16:18
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hi krummrey, can you perhaps explain me, a newbie with photoshop, how to create a r/d Image using photoshop? or know where i can look it up? i searched the web, with Little success. thnks
alpal
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 4, 2016, 08:38
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i started on this Image 267kb
Image

prepared it in photoshop to this 1.09mb
Image

ran it overnight in reactor and got this: 2.93mb
Image

i think all will agree it does not look anything like the Images from kong/krummrey,

before i spend another day searching the web on how to do this can someone please help me....thnks alot
kongorilla
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kongorilla
Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 5, 2016, 05:26
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@alpal -- that is what you get out of Reactor. If that's not what you're looking for, what you really want is a tutorial from krummrey describing his Photoshop method. I'm curious about his technique as well.
alpal
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 5, 2016, 22:40
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thanks kong!
krummrey, any tips? danke schön!
krummrey
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 9, 2016, 16:36
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I have about a gazillion screenshots that I took to describe it. Haven't found the time to put it all together yet.
Basically its three steps in Photoshop run recursevly:

  • High Pass Filter
  • Threshold
  • Gaussian Blur

The larger the values for the high pass and blur are, the wider and prettier the strands get. I use values between 2 and 12. Lower than 2 doesn't work. You can got up higher than 12.
If you blend the results of the different radii you end up with something like this:
Image
alpal
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 14, 2016, 21:53
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...and another Weekend gone. So i created the Action consisting out of high pass, threshold, and gaussian blur in photoshop. I start with values around 4 for high pass, threshold 125 and gaussian blur 2.3. I run the Action about 30 times and get an Image like this:

Image
....nothing like the one shown by kong or krummrey. I have tried every Setting possible in photoshop but not getting it. Am i missing anything. Are there a valuable tip which you are not sharing? Do i have constantly Change the value for high blur? pleaaaaaase help!!!
can i send you the Image to create the reaction/Diffusion Image?
krummrey
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 15, 2016, 13:13
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@alpal You're right on track. Thats what it is supposed to look like with one layer.
Try it with two. Low values for the dark parts, higher values for the lighter ones.
I have 10 layers now. Wht you can do to increase the number of lines is to trace the blacks, the whites and the borders. That will give you a lot more density. You can start to mask out one set of lines based on the images brightness... Endless possibilities. I had to stop somewhere.
Sure you can send me the picture and I'll see what I can do.
alpal
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Posts: 19
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Post Re: Reaction Diffusion
on: March 16, 2016, 11:52
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thanks alot for the additional information krummrey, The whole process is abit more complicated than I initially anticipated, but ill give it a shot. Thanks alot again!
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