tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72976477299688966672024-02-08T10:42:41.050+11:00blog.bp.ioeigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-29867431463506188242010-07-07T19:00:00.000+10:002010-07-07T19:00:50.883+10:00Bye bye blogspot!After a few years using google's blogspot, I have now moved my blog to my <a href="http://bp.io/">own hosted site</a>. Here's a <a href="http://bp.io/post/212">new post</a> describing what my blog set-up is. Please update your bookmarks and feeds accordingly!eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-47933908603443988102010-05-19T17:24:00.001+10:002010-05-19T17:25:51.970+10:00Day 1156<span style="font-style: italic;">The following story is fictional and entirely unrelated to my PhD research... </span><br /><br />It's been 1156 days since I first arrived in the land of phud. I arrived on a ye olde and grande ship with a welcoming committee cheering my arrival. I was welcomed as an equal having just graduated with highest honours. These people in the land of phud all seemed so wise and what lay ahead was mysterious and exciting. I spent the first 300 days looking around my new home, examining the ground stones laid by many before me and finding a spot to build my own wondrous sculpture. I had written up the plans and documented thoroughly my understanding of this place and was granted permission to begin building.<br /><br />First, I thought, I would build a small scale replica, in order to detect any hidden flaws in my design. This took a lot longer than I expected and another 300 days later I had finished it. It was only then that I started to build my showpiece -- my home in the land of phud.<br /><br />The base and ground stones were a piece of cake, or so I thought. Cracks begun to appear early on, and much effort was put into filling them. But the fixes were quick and dirty, and sooner or later the cracks would come back and threaten the stability of the structure. Once the base was finished it was time for the main event, a wondrous tower upon which I would live. But this was a dream, and reality got in the way. The tower was built of precious stones, each more rare than the last. I ventured far and wide to find these minerals, and upon the discovery of each I was replenished with motivation to find the next. Each element of the tower required careful placement, but the cracks in the base were mischievous and repeatedly threatened the whole structure. The introduction of a new element required adjustment and realigning of base. This scenario repeated over and over (and over) again.<br /><br />Looking back at my plans I see the tower was supposed to be 50m high. Looking at it now I see it is barely 10m. I've been trying to place another element for many months, but the tower is becoming increasingly unstable. I fear that I have no more strength to lift the remaining stones. When I am awake at night I see a bright light shining from out over the water. This light promises a new life. Maybe I'll pack up my family and set sail again ...eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-20698195850342751052010-05-07T11:09:00.000+10:002010-05-07T11:09:17.220+10:00Behind the site..Up until yesterday I was using a system called <a href="http://www.ivy.fr/tahchee/">tahchee</a> to generate my website. Tahchee is a website compiler. You give it templates and content and it generates static website pages. In my case, I had a single template that models a page with a header, navigation bar, content, footer. Each <i>actual</i> page on my website, e.g., <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">http://bp.io/s/sds <span style="font-family: inherit;">is generated by applying this template to a simple file that contains the content. The content was written in a wiki-style markup called <b>kiwi</b></span></span>, which then gets converted to HTML. An example of the syntax is: <br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Simplicial Developmental System</span></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">===============================</span></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Hello, this is a description of the simplicial developmental system, blah blah.</span></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> - Point 1</span></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> - Point 2</span></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> - Point 3</span></div><br />
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I said farewell to <a href="http://www.ivy.fr/tahchee/">tahchee </a>yesterday. It's a great system but it hasn't been updated in a while, and now it seems a few bugs have creeped in -- let's call it old age. Tahchee operates by gluing together some other technologies, like <a href="http://www.cheetahtemplate.org/">Cheetah </a>templates and <a href="http://www.ivy.fr/kiwi/docs.html">Kiwi </a>markup, and adds a build system to simplify combining them all together. I decided to manufacture my own glue, and it only took a day. <br />
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First, I looked around the net at the myriad templating engines. I enumerated them all and rolled a 47 sided die. It came up with <a href="http://jinja.pocoo.org/2/">Jinja2</a>. Jinja is a general templating engine, you can use it to generate HTML, tex, txt, css, cpp, or whatever you want that is ascii/unicode based. It is available as a python library, and its syntax is similar to cheetah and all the other engines out there. A simple html template could be:<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> {{ message }}</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span></div><br />
In your python program, you then execute something like:<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span><br />
<div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">template.render(message = "Hello there!")</span> </div><br />
And you get:<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> Hello there!<br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><br />
</div><br />
That's the gist of templating engines and Jinja. The bulk of the work I had to do was to write the build system. I designed the directory structure of the source for my site as follows, this is pretty much exactly how tahchee has it.<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">makeit.py</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">build/ </div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">mysite/</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> templates/</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> pages/</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> assets/</span></div><br />
<br />
The <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">makeit.py</span> script first loads all the templates from the templates directory. It then walks through the pages/ directory looking for files that are appended with an underscore (this is my way of distinguishing between files that need to be processed with Jinja.) It then runs the files through Jinja, creating a processed file without the underscore. For example <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">_index.html</span> will be processed and then saved as <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">index.html</span>. The directory structure of pages/ is mirrored in the build directory, and any files tht don't need to be processed are copied as is. My <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">pages/_index.html</span> looks like the following. <br />
<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">{% extends 'base.html' %}</span><br style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;" /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">{% set title="bp.io" %}</span><br style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;" /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">{% block main_content_md %}</span><br style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;" /><br style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;" /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">This is the project site of Ben Porter. Currently, I'm working on my PhD project: [SDS]({{ base_url }}/s/sds). Other things you'll find here are my blog, my public code repositority, and various programs and games I've written over the years.</span></div><div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><br style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;" /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><img class="icon" description="SDS Form in Stainless Steel. Photo by JonMC." src="{{ assets_url }}/img/blob.jpg" /></span><br style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;" /><br style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;" /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">{% endblock %}</span> </div><br />
The content is written in <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown">Markdown</a>, which is very similar to Kiwi. To add support for Markdown was trivial using Jinja2's support for filters. You can also see that you can mix in regular html and markdown will ignore it. I also pass all the generated html through <a href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/">HTLMTidy</a> in order to fix any bad markup and to also lay the html out nicely (useful for debugging the engine.) If you view the source of my website, you can see it all nicely laid out. :) (Is someone screaming <b>nerd </b>right now? If so, I'm happy you've made it this far, but now is the time to rage quit!)<br />
<br />
The layout of my site is now done using the <a href="http://blueprintcss.org/">Blueprint CSS Framework</a>, which offers helpful grid-based layout support, some nice typography, and some cross-platform neutralisation. I will eventually incorporate some css into my site generator, in order to make it easier to maintain and change the palette and style.<br />
<br />
The last piece of glue is the build system. I have been using <a href="http://scons.org/">scons </a>for a little while now, including in my main project (courtesy of BV), and so it was an obvious choice. I have a simple scons script which makes sure the makeit.py template runner is executed, and then it copies over the remaining pieces, such as <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">assets/</span> which stores all the static content such as the css and images. Oh, and lastly, it's all versioned using <a href="http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/">hg</a>.<br />
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I have moved my website hosting over to a VPS (<a href="http://linode.com/">linode</a>). This is so I can do some more complex server-side thingymajigs, which my last shared website host did not really support.eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-28306594573378801162010-04-22T11:12:00.000+10:002010-04-22T11:12:37.272+10:00SDS-Blender delayedJust a quick note, I've decided to delay the release of my generative organic software until later this year, probably around the end of the year. This is because of two main reasons.<br />
<br />
Firstly, as the software depends on the latest in-development build of Blender, I want to wait until at least the scripting API of the software is frozen and stable. The Blender team is working hard on the 2.5 release, and I think at the moment they are working on the scripting API, so finger's crossed.<br />
<br />
Secondly, my own workload has increased significantly as I'm trying to get new results, write a paper, and write my thesis. My submission date is < 6 months from now, and once I've submitted I'll have some time to adapt my software to fit Blender's latest scripting interface. Luckily, Bart, who built the interface between SDS and Blender, did so in an excellent manner and so adapting to the new API shouldn't involve much work at all.<br />
<br />
Also, my backup hdd is now playing up ... is a PhD = the work you do between all the things that go wrong??eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-17278125331345513862010-04-18T15:20:00.002+10:002010-05-09T21:30:33.623+10:00Sleep is death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8wCvt2y4D50LkqLCDJHZeH_IlTuJjMxs-EH03lDWBXsdingYGkfWbTKGo538xxtzsO6KCAw5H1VNUX4ooii97yesQSw1_b5xf7ZFoK48vtXIyJmAhqNrdr9aqva9VPdtSC59VEiq1zQr/s1600/00003.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8wCvt2y4D50LkqLCDJHZeH_IlTuJjMxs-EH03lDWBXsdingYGkfWbTKGo538xxtzsO6KCAw5H1VNUX4ooii97yesQSw1_b5xf7ZFoK48vtXIyJmAhqNrdr9aqva9VPdtSC59VEiq1zQr/s320/00003.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Jason Rohrer's <a href="http://www.sleepisdeath.net/">latest game</a> appeared out of nowhere for me. It's a role-playing/interactive fiction tool with which two people can create a story together. The <i>controller</i> of the game concocts a story, makes the artwork and music, and then controls a set of scenes to make a story. The <i>player</i> is assigned a character and can move, speak, or apply verbs to things, like <i>pick up</i>, etc. The controller and player take turns, both adapting to the actions of the other, with the controller generally trying to take the story on some intelligible narrative arc, or not. <a href="http://sidtube.com/gallery/168/">Here's an example</a> game that has been played.<br />
<br />
I've been thinking about this <i>type</i> of game ever since reading a book called Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson. A game where a person, or persons, in real-time direct out the game that a player or many players are taking part in. As an alternative to creating smarter AI to direct our games we could spend time developing tools and a culture of humans directing games. In the future, could their be an equivalent of a highly paid movie director whom directs games in real-time? I can't see why not.<br />
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Anyway, back to Sleep Is Death!eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-2345263674260698512010-04-14T13:48:00.000+10:002010-04-14T13:48:25.114+10:00The end in sightI started my PhD research in March 2007, over 3 years ago. It's been a long, strange, and lonely journey, but it's almost done! I'm on the last stretch now, and hopefully will have submitted my thesis in 4-6 months. Here's my latest simulation and it is typical of the kind of result I have for my thesis. Not quite what I had in mind when I started, but this part of my life needs to end soon and I have to move on to the next thing. : )<br />
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<br />
<object height="640" width="800"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10911771&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10911771&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="800" height="640"></embed></object><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/10911771">A growing tentacled thing in a box.</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/eigenbom">Benjamin Porter</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
More geometric morphogenesis.eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-90434164884743974152010-03-15T23:17:00.002+11:002010-03-15T23:39:14.458+11:00bp.ioI have moved my website to a new location: <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><a href="http://bp.io/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">bp</span></a>.</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"><a href="http://bp.io/">io</a> </span></b>(because it's <a href="http://www.tiny.cc/">oh</a> <a href="http://bit.ly/">so</a> <a href="http://tr.im/">cool</a> to have really tiny urls and means that I need only remember 4 characters -- the limits of my memory.) This blog also has a new location: <a href="http://blog.bp.io/">blog.bp.io</a>.<div><br /></div><div>The top-level (io) stands for the British Indian Ocean Territory that has a population of 4,000. They've opened up the .io top-level domain for international registrations, like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.cc">Cocos Islands</a> (.cc) and many others have done. It's now big business for small countries with cool abbreviations to do this. And it's lucrative ... consider the €60 I just paid for one year's registration, compared to about €5 a year for a .net.au or .com, etc. Thinking relatively though, it just means that I have one less cafe latte every week -- which is a good thing.</div><div><div><br /></div></div>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-55380034585614979792010-03-01T11:42:00.003+11:002010-03-01T12:06:38.858+11:00End of thecemadaily.blogspot.comI'm closing the <a href="http://thecemadaily.blogspot.com/">cema daily blog</a> today. My original idea was to publish results from a half hour experiment per week from the crew at cema (my research group), but, like all things, this idea suffered from entropy and the few things become one thing, and then half a thing, and now no things. I'd like to thank the cema people for helping with this experiment (especially <a href="http://kowaliw.ca/">Taras </a>who contributed a third of the posts!)<br /><br />In retrospect, I think that the idea applies more to my own personal development than something I could impose on others. Here's a collage of the contributions I made to that blog -- my highlights were: the ben scribble, the hierarchical voronoi space partition, the dandelion, and the random city. My experiments in gfx/code will continue but I will post them here instead of there.<br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Hx0wEOR3gwv0_PzWM7Lepw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5lrMDD2q-LBIqa-LtwI4JMXKwuepYRJXjB-_WYloOEaFDv91TKBwLM4r94nle2oDbnfdVE1DZ2dFaM3B3pnhPTGB5TvfZrmYo_tXSwy6JPJguM83oQ2REVmms2hvSncC1lEn6QJMjz_B/s800/summary%20131008.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/benjamin.porter/Misc?feat=embedwebsite">Misc</a></td></tr></tbody></table>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-50556101854020995982010-02-24T20:24:00.002+11:002010-02-24T20:30:52.672+11:00Website updateI updated my website (<a href="http://users.on.net/~eigenbom/">http://users.on.net/~eigenbom/</a>) yet again. I removed the tag system I was using and cleaned up the design a bit. I'm making space for the upcoming alpha release of my generative form software.eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-16658512919360558592010-02-05T17:25:00.003+11:002010-02-05T17:42:41.101+11:00Aidan's flu<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2s7gv1o9IJ3tyKomDGiX-KmJSTiMuDNcXEf2wbzO6fL2NlQOdghRQYxz5WraW7JlYzmcmw0-Cv5OlosFG6VQtQS-iNm3PEa2r4sX8bD_UgfUdTDVLArTRA_w73aeDNCtKdwCcUiJETpe/s1600-h/0edit.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2s7gv1o9IJ3tyKomDGiX-KmJSTiMuDNcXEf2wbzO6fL2NlQOdghRQYxz5WraW7JlYzmcmw0-Cv5OlosFG6VQtQS-iNm3PEa2r4sX8bD_UgfUdTDVLArTRA_w73aeDNCtKdwCcUiJETpe/s400/0edit.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434645956732287202" border="0" /></a><br />My research is reaching its apex. There are only a few months left on my candidature, and then I will be free. Here's an organism I cooked up last night. Baked for 15 hours on roughly 200 degrees. I call it "Aidan's Flu".eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-87149774661323880472010-01-24T20:02:00.004+11:002010-01-24T20:08:44.180+11:00sss+ao+voronoi+raytraceHearken: Object lost, big reward! Click to embiggen!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAEkQ0WkEhB2o8cmtoVyjJPmi1UxPY6LSGlCre87PhOa_tZOmXOXnlngOQfrsoy8HE_1yuqJmmkti58cSDc4fELIMdlcN01arWFHfvEHhKNtSkxsnpuVTAY_kyqk-UHTkvpelFwygnSmA/s1600-h/sss.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAEkQ0WkEhB2o8cmtoVyjJPmi1UxPY6LSGlCre87PhOa_tZOmXOXnlngOQfrsoy8HE_1yuqJmmkti58cSDc4fELIMdlcN01arWFHfvEHhKNtSkxsnpuVTAY_kyqk-UHTkvpelFwygnSmA/s400/sss.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430229647569812562" border="0" /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-62497739223212139912010-01-06T15:47:00.003+11:002010-01-06T16:06:42.161+11:0020102010. Finally! The future is here! I've been waiting for so long. Here's the first picture I have made this year. Using Blender and LuxRender with pretty much the default settings. Ah, instant masterpieces at the click of a button.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdAxA48-00q_WmR9V10Cshv_rjK3RaR1s8_G8uVmSydplr6BKgE9sUqA3KpMABBGNsf9styvYjxQEyxBJ0vHLHf6OS1F0CBr_3dbZQf-oTZIPbVUkPkyTc1DBkON-qp4M8qxYU26P71WC/s1600-h/lux1.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdAxA48-00q_WmR9V10Cshv_rjK3RaR1s8_G8uVmSydplr6BKgE9sUqA3KpMABBGNsf9styvYjxQEyxBJ0vHLHf6OS1F0CBr_3dbZQf-oTZIPbVUkPkyTc1DBkON-qp4M8qxYU26P71WC/s400/lux1.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423487155236223746" border="0" /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-23912673761803677562009-12-24T12:04:00.002+11:002009-12-24T12:06:58.625+11:003d starfish<p>Hi all, been super busy lately, working towards a deadline in early Jan! Been simulating like crazy, my latest result is below. Have a good break everyone, I won't be posting until late Jan. Seeya!</p><br /><br /><br /><object width="800" height="640"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8348663&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8348663&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="800" height="640"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/8348663">Starfish on a rock</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/eigenbom">Benjamin Porter</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p><p>Growing 3d geometry.<br /><br />A biological & physical simulation causes the form to grow within the specified environment (on top of the rock). Rendered with Blender.</p>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-83739807742886750652009-11-27T11:48:00.001+11:002009-11-27T11:50:08.192+11:00Orange Tentacle<object width="640" height="480"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7843562&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7843562&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="480"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7843562">orange tentacle (2)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/eigenbom">Benjamin Porter</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p><p>Simulated growth of a tentacle with gravity.<br /><br /><br /><br />A (glitch?) causes the tentacle to attach to the ceiling after some amount of time.<br /><br /><br /><br />Rendered with Blender.</p>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-83991418020816036292009-11-12T11:59:00.001+11:002009-11-12T11:59:59.617+11:00Green 4prong<object width="400" height="320"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7561884&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7561884&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="320"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7561884">Green 4prong</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/eigenbom">Benjamin Porter</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-18817196176366859652009-11-09T18:05:00.001+11:002009-11-09T18:06:53.569+11:00partitioning spaceSome work I did today. Hierarchical Voronoi space partitioning. Looks nice!<br /><br /><a href="http://thecemadaily.blogspot.com/2009/11/hierarchical-voronoi-space-partitioning_09.html">http://thecemadaily.blogspot.com/2009/11/hierarchical-voronoi-space-partitioning_09.html<br /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-14202300496303848882009-11-08T12:27:00.001+11:002009-11-08T12:28:37.558+11:00spaghettibrain<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTvnJzINgDdGmMx7dLbg4_8504RVUkIDUQNqkIkFswzW8r0vF6SSepDbL0rfimefwfs2nfcnX0WPB-7ayKD0j0fSXoRNT6DdXFOJxI2Zykd_2NOqi0pQ2Gpd6RDtFHfZIc8mQmBZDmInf9/s1600-h/spaghettibrain.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTvnJzINgDdGmMx7dLbg4_8504RVUkIDUQNqkIkFswzW8r0vF6SSepDbL0rfimefwfs2nfcnX0WPB-7ayKD0j0fSXoRNT6DdXFOJxI2Zykd_2NOqi0pQ2Gpd6RDtFHfZIc8mQmBZDmInf9/s400/spaghettibrain.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401538575521912562" border="0" /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-78905804030864454592009-11-03T11:07:00.004+11:002009-11-03T12:04:06.540+11:00indie gamesIt's no secret that I'm a huge fan of anything game or game-like. I'm especially fanatical about independent (indie) games. They are games that are usually developed by a very small team (often just one person) and that are self published. These games are generally more experimental and innovative than commercial ones -- this is because they cater to a smaller niche and can afford to try something new. So without further ado, here's some of my favourite indie games of the past couple of years. I'm sure I've missed some, but it's a start.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Samorost 2</span>. A classic point&click adventure set in a strange, organic, beautiful world. Also check out the developer's latest game: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Machinarium</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Captain Forever</span>. A combinatorial design abstract space shooter.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Iji</span>: A classic platformer+rpg developed by one guy over a number of years. Amazing stuff!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Windosill</span>: A short puzzle game with beautiful and imaginative objects.<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.interactivestory.net/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Facade</span></a>: You arrive at your friends' place while they are arguing. Interesting concept and execution.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/">Passage</a>: </span>A short, poignant statement about life, with a retro aesthetic.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Knytt Stories</span>: An adventure game with an excellent minimalist aesthetic.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blendogames.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gravity Bone</span></a>: Very amusing spy game. Definitely worth a play, will only take a few minutes of your time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Eufloria</span>: This game is in my list because of its minimal aesthetic. Used to be called <span style="font-style: italic;">Dyson</span>, a reference to Freeman Dyson's idea of what life might be out in the asteroid belt.<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/">Today I Die</a>:</span> I read that someone described this game as visual poetry, and I guess I agree. Melancholic.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dwarf Fortress, Linley's Dungeon Crawl: </span>Some more excellent games, but definitely for the more hardcore RPG/hack fans.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.hoteloscartangoecholima.com/splash.html">Hotel</a>:</span> A story of several people visiting a hotel. <span style="font-style: italic;">Very</span> surreal.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Psychosomnium</span>: This stands out for me amongst all of <a href="http://www.cactus-soft.co.nr/">Cactus's</a> games. A crazy mess of code and programmer art. Poses some questions about our expectation of games.<br /><br />I've provided links for some of the games, the others should be easy to find by googling. For more games, try <a href="http://db.tigsource.com/top">TIGdb,</a> or check out last years <a href="http://www.igf.com/2009finalistswinners.html">winners of the IGF</a>.eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-92121746352144056452009-10-21T19:17:00.002+11:002009-10-21T19:18:42.336+11:00i got a tablet today, it's a bamboo pen and touch. yay.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD02d4gA_5xmVSSJx0vBCBH4iIqX0ttsUNuB75rqG5JP-ZjaEs9ZeuOgC_Hsv5gd_LuF9yNA4fojrxCH_XaB-LwP2IMcK3B17LlNNQ2k1nwktiZW_nSrszul5L8SrJnpLAgpM2xQEem8qb/s1600-h/mercury.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD02d4gA_5xmVSSJx0vBCBH4iIqX0ttsUNuB75rqG5JP-ZjaEs9ZeuOgC_Hsv5gd_LuF9yNA4fojrxCH_XaB-LwP2IMcK3B17LlNNQ2k1nwktiZW_nSrszul5L8SrJnpLAgpM2xQEem8qb/s400/mercury.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394964596411237858" border="0" /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-24005350803187516712009-10-11T11:17:00.002+11:002009-10-11T11:35:34.982+11:00nude1I've been busy since I got back from Europe: diving back into my research, attending <a href="http://semipermanent.com/">semi-permanent</a>, <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>and doing some life drawing every week.<br /><br />My research is going well, heavily refactoring my code so I can implement some much needed algorithms. Hopefully I'll have some results up here soon -- it's been a while since I've had to make any pretty pictures. I'll be presenting some of my work at <a href="http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/about/news/conferences/acal09/">ACAL '09</a> in Melbourne in December and I'd really like to have something new to show ... but we'll see.<br /><br />Semi-Permanent is a graphics/illustration/3d conference, which was held (for the first time?) in Melbourne. It was awesome seeing illustrators/artists like <a href="http://www.taramcpherson.com/">Tara McPherson</a> and <a href="http://www.jeffsoto.com/">Jeff Soto </a>talking about the genesis of their careers and showing the evolution of their work. It's quite inspiring to see that just be doing what you love you can "end up" happy and successful. But, I guess this applies only to a only a few talented individuals. <a href="http://www.alxart.com/">Alex Yaeger</a>, from Industrial Light and Magic, was also very interesting, showing us his work on various movies such as Transformers and Star Trek.<br /><br />Steph and I have been attending a life-drawing session in St Kilda every week. It's quite interesting and I love setting aside the time just to do some drawing. I just use those black ArtLine pens, there's something quite satisfying about a black line on paper. :) Below is one of my favourite drawings so far.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GCYbnfdaQ9M/StEkZ1iMPUI/AAAAAAAABfw/_xA0bSBFF7A/s1600-h/scan1_small.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 235px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GCYbnfdaQ9M/StEkZ1iMPUI/AAAAAAAABfw/_xA0bSBFF7A/s400/scan1_small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391130255225011522" border="0" /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-71040037994101169732009-09-15T18:08:00.001+10:002009-09-15T18:10:05.610+10:00despair<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZM8YAfaGTpJO7y6DN6PCT75re_iBHSDT3oZuJeVeYPZ423NyQHrD4ZDWUx7HZvy5HP1UqsVYbBqy_iMNSCrwA7yxMYleT3hSfXVnRrhYB54ROq5BjGNJQNnZ76uS_04hWdJYQG9koQNg/s1600-h/drunkdude.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 313px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZM8YAfaGTpJO7y6DN6PCT75re_iBHSDT3oZuJeVeYPZ423NyQHrD4ZDWUx7HZvy5HP1UqsVYbBqy_iMNSCrwA7yxMYleT3hSfXVnRrhYB54ROq5BjGNJQNnZ76uS_04hWdJYQG9koQNg/s400/drunkdude.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381603341747943826" border="0" /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-11427797023378344612009-08-10T01:58:00.004+10:002009-08-10T02:10:25.177+10:00Cube37 ExhibitAn animation I created was recently shown as part of a CEMA exhibition called <span style="font-weight: bold;">bi0t0pe</span> (previously blogged about <a href="http://eigenbom.blogspot.com/2009/07/it-looks-like-echinoderm.html">here</a>). It had been playing down at Cube37 in the Frankston cultural arts district for the last month or so. The different works were cycled daily, and my animationwas shown for the last time today. I'm sorry for not notifying anyone of the specific dates it was on -- I didn't have access to that info, and I'm also across the other side of the world.<br /><br />Anyway, here's a photo (courtesy of Jon McCormack) of the exhibition site with my animation playing on the wall.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihzr3Bfh9epP8KVIiTZWcFACF-Y95APzB_kEoXWzZfR_Oys-_yOKnv3ayxUdP-_9pDmb75ZR9QCWw6XJGUN5TyvgSFokqPmCDpmyMoLfNB8luAzZeWuCpSfqn1XHBp62VpH0Y03HgUdmwu/s1600-h/picture-2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihzr3Bfh9epP8KVIiTZWcFACF-Y95APzB_kEoXWzZfR_Oys-_yOKnv3ayxUdP-_9pDmb75ZR9QCWw6XJGUN5TyvgSFokqPmCDpmyMoLfNB8luAzZeWuCpSfqn1XHBp62VpH0Y03HgUdmwu/s400/picture-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367996074672651506" border="0" /></a>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-77281097082548021892009-07-26T01:01:00.002+10:002009-07-26T01:03:26.976+10:00Me and von NeumannI'm in Budapest, the birthplace of John von Neumann. I found a statue at Budapest Technical University!<br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/cb7-1gwbBD3Li0L_isEjQA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIAM33uZ8AtwYzcJMdeICmRNz7PaoIQKF3ojMIxVKYW4jWmAQw6CyweBtQ9YFXZiVjrGXUFf_6eEnwc3dlFvs_PC5q11QIz_9AAsBkW1XcZXvM9LTZVnRK5GrJUJX7zKp4yz4-0h-bXLSB/s144/july25%20271.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/benjamin.porter/Eurotrip1b?feat=embedwebsite">eurotrip 1b</a></td></tr></table>eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-40067381979739567082009-07-06T22:39:00.002+10:002009-07-06T22:42:19.921+10:00Off to europe!I'm off to Europe in 3 days! You can follow my adventures <a href="http://benandstephtravel.blogspot.com/">here</a>.<br /><br />I will be summarising the Dagstuhl workshop here hopefully shortly after it finishes. Besides that this blog will be quiet for the next 2 months.eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297647729968896667.post-25293917214279036462009-07-03T19:28:00.002+10:002009-07-03T19:40:11.285+10:00A Developmental System for Organic Form Synthesis (Tech Report)If you're interested in the methods I used to make the starfish animation, I have recently published a technical report describing the system: <a href="http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/pub_search?publication_type=0&year=&authors=B+Porter&title=">A Developmental System for Organic Form Synthesis</a>. Enjoy! Or not!eigenbomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04334089342971310569noreply@blogger.com0