Oh wow, I was wondering why there were no prices in their "prices" page. Talk about situational blindness, I was about to reply that there were no prices there when I saw them. I think they should make them stand out more, it's probably because I was ignoring the dimensions as well (inches mean nothing to me) :/
Stunning! Can you give us some technical details? How are you producing the images (libraries, custom scripts, etc.)? I've thought about a project like this (your execution is light-years ahead of anything I could accomplish) using Nodebox -perhaps- as an excuse to learn something new about python.
Edit: I see it's in JavaScript? Excellent! Any other tools or techniques you found helpful would be interesting to read. Congrats!
Yep. Replays are exact, which was a conscious choice on my part.
I plan to explore inexact replays in the future. It's not difficult, just a bit of fooling about with the random number generator.
The main issue right now is that you can't tell the difference between two similar Silks unless you have them side-by-side. Solving that problem is something I'm looking into for future versions. :-)
As someone who never uses "desktop" or "background" images, I actually do think the example images are beautiful and enjoyable.
I'll admit there are probably very few idiots like me who refuse to use background image decorations, but let me explain why as well as what.
The background image I use on X is called the "root weave" and although it is horribly ugly, it is exceedingly useful. The "root weave" image is designed to help you detect errors in display rendering. If there's something wrong in your display drivers, display settings, or even cable connections, the refresh makes the root weave look like it's moving and can show other very obvious signs of corruption.
I got into this function-over-fashion mindset many decades ago when it was very easy to destroy a very expensive display by configuring or driving it the wrong way. Modern displays typically have safe-guards to prevent destroying equipment, but my ancient habit is still very useful for debugging.
The X.org and XFree code base includes the rootweave and a few other similar images designed to help identify display problems. You might have fun incorporating the ideas behind these test images into something more beautiful to look at?
That's a pretty interesting idea; do you have links to the "root weave" image? I googled but the search didn't turn anything up.
I'm not sure it's quite the direction I want to take Silk, but thanks for sharing -- I never thought about using desktop images for a pragmatic purpose such as that.
In the past I've read analysis/explanation regarding the various test images, why they were created and how they should be used, but that was a very long time ago. You'll probably need to do a bit of digging to find such information.
Pure beauty is commendable as well as commonly desirable. Pure function is also commendable but far less commonly desirable. A blend of both is often superior to either.
I think would be unwise to cater function solely towards people doing debugging since it would severely limit the market, but making something both gorgeous and useful will have a stronger appeal than just gorgeous.
Root weave is a rendering definition, rather than a bitmap image, so that's probably why you're having a hard time finding it. Someone could probably grab a screenshot for you though.
Apparently root weave was done away with in X11R7.5, who knew? (Can still be enabled with the -retro flag.)
Congrats on a very slick web app, btw. Often when I see a project posted here I think to myself, "I could have done that, but am too lazy." :-) However, your idea is highly original and superbly executed. Well beyond my ken, not that that means anything.
You just mesmerized my four year old — she sat still longer than I've seen in ages. If beautiful interactive visualization ever gets old I think you have a future in toddler mind control...
It's cool to see this sort of technology in a web browser, although for the iPhone/iPad I think some of the pre-existing generative art apps are currently better: Art of Glow, SpawnHD, Little Uzu, etc. I'm sure this is still a work on progress, but just make sure you keep an eye on what's already out there.
Alex, try hitting 'e' once you've woven a Silk. The little transparent <img> that pops up to the top right is full-size. Right-click it to save, and double-click it to hide.
I'll definitely look into this. Sorry for making you you guys press hilarious keyboard combinations! I'm astonished you even figured out double-shift. =p
Absolutely beautiful. I am not very "artistic" but it sure gave me the feeling like I was. Can't wait to see how the experience turns out on the mobile devices. I hope you decide to give it a go on Android devices as well.
I love how the instructions are presented one at a time each time you start a new Silk. It's subtle and it's great as I can immediately get started and each time I do it again I have a new feature to play with.
I would imagine excanvas would struggle with this... however..
If Yury hasn't already, definitely give it a shot with FlashCanvas: http://flashcanvas.net/ Its performance is somewhere around 33x faster than the vml-based excanvas. (Yes, 3300% better.)
My guess is IE 9 doesn't supports the 'lighter' globalCompositeOperation on the canvas which is key to making the effect work. Without it I bet the lines look pretty dull.
As it turns out, it works pretty well with the latest IE9 Platform Preview, long as you switch IE's user-agent to one of the supported browsers. I think you're onto something though, because it does look less shiny in IE than in Chrome.
Absolutely gorgeous. Will be interested to see how our iOS version goes. I'm not sure if it will be of any help, but I have written an interaction "helper" library that is designed to make handling mouse and touch events consistent. If it is something that is useful, then let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Damon, the iOS version is being written natively for that platform in Objective-C. I've got many ideas to explore on the iPad and iPhone/iPod -- what's on the web is just a taste.
But thanks for the link! I'll keep it in mind if a use for it crops up.
Great work! I was just inspired to start learning to work with canvas myself today, which will be my first graphics programming since the C64. It's pretty exciting once you start thinking about the possibilities of math applied to colors.
The replay button reminds me of the Achron game (an up-coming Meta-Time RTS). Basically, you can start drawing, then press Replay and draw some more on the replay, and then press Replay again... looks amazing :D. Nice work :).
I applied to Kickstarter last night after it began getting all this publicity. Unfortunately, their FAQ states that they need 1-2 days to get back to me after the initial application.
Stay tuned, though. It will be on Kickstarter soon.
Small bug report: releasing the mouse button outside of the viewport doesn't get recorded (mac and windows). if the mouseup event isn't being signalled, maybe an onclick event would be?
Sweet! You can make the canvas arbitrarily large -- on Chrome, right-click > inspect element, and change <div id="silk" style="..." to whatever dimension you want.
Amazing. Are you going to blog about your experience building it? It'd be great to here some details. Plus it gives it a human story thats just might get some great press.
It would be very cool if it would be possible to export a hi-res PNG of a Silk render to be able to print it or use it on MyKEA. I would even pay for it.
Check out Fracture - http://www.fractureme.com/ - I bet they would look unreal printed with their tech.