I stumbled into another inspirational work, it is a website called "Recursive Drawing".
This is a cool little drawing program web app that does clever things in the background where it "recursively" drawing object that you draw in a loop over and over until it reaches certain levels and stops.
http://recursivedrawing.com/
This web app, gives you only 2 simple objects: Circle and Box. You could of course trick it so you could actually draw pixel art, like what I did here.
The concept of recursion comes from programming of course. I am not from programming background, but have heard about this "recursive effect" many times whenever I am getting my hand on programming. Not totally new concept. It comes and goes and guaranteed spending sometime in Computer Graphics, you have already seen this effects working whether you realize it or not.
I think algorithm often used in texture such as Noise and Turbulance are also using this idea of recursion. And further called the Fractals. (please correct me if my understanding is wrong).
I was really curious and a bit excited about this simple drawing program, so I tried to make few things with it last night. It was fun, but soon I found limitations and this gets a bit tiring, I mean, the fact that the computer could not handle the calculations (heavy intense loops) and there is no way to stop the recursion, and you cannot save it out too. It would be nice if Recursive Drawing app does export out Vector shapes.
Well.... I thought, why don't just create this in Blender?
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| I will just call this one Untitled. |
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| 8-Bit Spiral |
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| The Star of Mickey |
The demo video of Recursive Drawing can be directly seen here:
http://vimeo.com/41822151
RECURSIVE EFFECTS USING BLENDER
A long time Blender users must have aware of this modifier called Array Modifier. This modifier is really powerful, but also another modifier that is easily overlooked. Myself admits that I have not really played around much with this modifier either, although I might have mentioned it sometimes in the past.
This morning, I like to revisit Array Modifier, with this idea of "recursive drawing" in mind.
It is not really new idea, for sure. It has been done many times in the past. If you look for works done using Array Modifier to duplicate objects multiple times to create abstract cool looking render, there are aplenty.
I just want to see how it looks. I am writing this article as I explore the idea, so hopefully the result is interesting enough.
I probably try to replica some of the artworks above in 3D inside Blender. Use 3D Cube and Sphere and duplicates it many times.
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| Let's just create a replica of the Space Invader 8-bit art. |
Let's just work in 2D ortographic way for now. It is much simpler often to create a concept this way. I will snap the original object to be recursively copied many times in the center of the World Coordinate (0,0,0).
Ok, what next? Apply Array Modifier.
By default, you will get something like this, just an object with a copy next to it. What you would like to do is to create an Empty that becomes the reference for the array duplicates. And doing so, magically you will have recursive drawing effects.
You kind of have to play a little bit with the way it works when the Array Modifier is using another object (Empty) as reference for Array duplication.
Array Modifier looks into the TRANSFORM of object it is using at reference and then recursively does the same transform to the duplicates.
1. If you scale up the reference, the duplicates will get bigger and bigger and bigger...
2. If you scale down the reference, the duplicates will get smaller and smaller and smaller...
You get the idea. You could also try all kinds of transformations (rotation, translation) and see the result.
NOTE: Remember not to accidentally move the original object, otherwise you are getting the "inverse" recursive effect. I made this same mistakes few times. Leave the original untouched, and transform the Empty reference instead.
What I think Blender Array Modifier does it really cool is just the way it handles the Copies, it is quite memory efficient. Easy if you want to render it out.
Mind you, this is still quite a memory intensive process and really heavy at time.
And then of course, you can stack many Array Modifier and as the result is something that is relatively complex looking, but it has some kind of weird Fractal structure to it.
Since the Modifier effect is LIVE, you can always go back to original artwork and instantly getting something new.
Just keep tracking where the PIVOT reference of the recursion to happen, you can always go about and tweak that reference. Using EMPTY object as reference has advantage in which you can easily change the look of the empty and "scale" the preview of this without disturbing the actual object transformations.
Now, you could probably try doing this recursive effect in 3D, but then things easily get out of hand when you get into 3D Fractals. You need to be aware of the final look in 2D space anyway. Unless you are printing it out as 3D object.
I think the "recursive" effect looks really cool when you don't know where it starts or where it ends. But at the same time, the effect drawn you into the spiral.
Kind of like when you are looking into the stars and galaxy and when you really zoom in into the eyes, you also see one huge galaxy. I know, it's very deep.
TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
How about taking the recursive effects to the next level?
Here is Japanese Music Video for inspirations:
AZUMA HITOMI - きらきら
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBjuT1xVroEWho dares to do this Recursive Effects using Animations? Or maybe simplify it using Materials first? Have you tried using Grease Pencil and apply the recursive effect? Sapling recursive effect for some surprising result?
UPDATE:: Trying to recursively born the "instances of parent" from particles instance == Blender crash!
Let me see what you come up with this effect!
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