Instructions (I'd say reproduction is quite hard):

Position the mouse at the upper middle part of the screen (both outside and inside the particle region seem to work), then move it down quickly and then hold click (I think click -> release -> click again might also work) while moving faster enough so the screen "thinks" you hit two slightly separate regions (the lower one slightly stronger than the upper). Then you just have to let the particles flow. I tried to aim for horizontal symmetry, but I think the slightly asymmetry made the cool effect towards the bottom.

 

I think I got really lucky with the "sting" on the first drawing (lowest part of the screen ). I tried reproducing it today and the best attempt I got was this (I ended up "activating"/clicking three regions). One thing that helped slowing things down for more control was having another tab with google meet open and my camera turned on.

Spoiler

 

2 hours ago, Muratus del Mur said:

Those of you that i upvote (currently Aelis and Iashtal) , please see if you can provide instructions to replicate your creations, so i can reward you a wp for them. Its valid for future creations of others too. If you can't provide instructions its alright, there will still be rewards for cool creations such as these (just not wp)

It seems easier to me to let shapes emerge rather than draw them directly.

Each new "push" to the flow seem to dilute the previous ones so I'm trying to toy with non-conflicting streams and let them work until they gather a sufficient amount of "sediments". Thicker sediments can be moved later for details.

One-eyed Whatever can be replicated by drawing a clockwise circle (obviously imprecise) over and over again. In time, this creates the outer form. Once it looks stable enough you draw a smaller, counterclockwise circle inside of it. It's important that the inner flow doesn't interfere with the outer flow.

I'm trying a similar approach to obtain a tree:

I've been trying to do tree trunks with counter-rotating onion layers.  Not too happy yet.

I made some soubtle changes to give it more "vigor"

 

 

tips and tricks:

- faith in your plan.. draw shapes even if the result is not visible immediately. What you are drawing are not the particles but you are laying traces on the ground under them. With this technique you can pretty much draw a lot of shapes in a single line

- small radius circular motion will create a well defined edge

- these are like rivers, plan ahead what streams will build up and what streams will anihilate eachother

- nothing gets lost, nothing gets created. All the particles that exit the board will reenter it at a slow speed from the opposite side

- when particles are slow, they are less visible. You can counter streams with short opposing motions, this will slow them down and by that they can eventually be "erased"

- the more actions you do, the more purpose and speed each particle has, so its increasingly difficult to shape them. Do not waste actions on motions that you are not sure about. You can always start over and do just the motions that result in the desired outcome.

Spoiler

This are currently not valid anymore while i am playing with new settings:

- waiting enough will bring everything to a stop. Once stopped, the particles can be again shaped into streams and they will be more 'obedient' ..just not as in the beginning.  

- collect particles in motion groups. Often you need to gather together more particles, especially when you need to create a longer stream. you can wait it out so the stop, and then you will have again a flexible canvas, but with more particles in a place

UPDATE: I am experimenting with perpetual motion, so the particles will no longer stop , lets see how this is

Menacing eyes

Reproduction instructions: don't remember exactly 😅. I think perpetual motion makes things harder. I remember starting from the top with a couple pulls towards the bottom, then two small upward pulls on the inner part of the "eyes". After that, I made a lot of little adjustments that I don't remember and let things flow from there.

Symetry is harder to achieve than it looks.

 

Perpetual makes things harder? I am not sure about that, i found it to offer new possibilities but i am not convinced yet. Would be nice to hear what others think about it too

1 hour ago, Aelis said:

Menacing eyes

Reproduction instructions: don't remember exactly 😅. I think perpetual motion makes things harder. I remember starting from the top with a couple pulls towards the bottom, then two small upward pulls on the inner part of the "eyes". After that, I made a lot of little adjustments that I don't remember and let things flow from there.

Looks like the cat that stares into the camera

Symmetry is somewhat possible, provided one follows the same direction as the existing flow. The above was drawn by merely drawing two (diagonal) figure 8's.


This is my attempt at laminar flow:


This was achieved by moving from the top to the bottom in parallel lines in one direction only. When there are small eddy currents, these can be laminarised by simply drawing over them - again, in the same direction.

Edited September 8, 20232 yr by Aia del Mana

Exercises in symmetry, trying to obtain a Chewbecca-ish face:

Staring contest

On another attempt I got the left one to get a really nice "eye". Unfortunately the other side looked terrible, so I cut it out:

I created this mask by placing a slow, tiny upwards line in the centre. After letting the heat flow and form it's initial lines, I used a process of clicking in a single location without applying momentum to influence the desire lines, creating the five lines around the top. Particle distribution is uneven because my single point clicks weren't exactly symmetrical, but these subtle manipulations are quite effective and fun to do.

Edited September 9, 20232 yr by Kyphis the Bard

I've been working on creating this isolated circuit by first placing four unconnected lines, then using single point clicks to weaken the feed in flows. Haven't quite isolated it fully; cancelling out the currents inwards is very difficult.

It's likely that different locations to perform single point clicks will achieve the desired isolation faster. The pattern shown above cancelled almost all of the counter clockwise momentum, but didn't do enough to mitigate the clockwise momentum (unsurprising, since the core circuit is a clockwise momentum)

On 9/3/2023 at 5:20 AM, Muratus del Mur said:

You can create a sharper line by putting in two converging currents and letting them flow for a few seconds. You can then pull the resulting current around where you want for more defined results. For sharper corners, just create currents longer than your desired line then cut it short with your new current.

The "D" ended up eating the rest of the heat 🤣

Sharpened the whole thing up by starting over and adding an outflow line

Edited September 9, 20232 yr by Kyphis the Bard

Smile! I created these "teeth" by placing short currents downward opposed by short currents upwards.

The whole thing collapses after a few seconds so it took me quite a few tries to get it to work satisfactorily. Below is what the above turned into after a further 15ish seconds.

People that get a wishpoint for their creations and/or efforts to explain how they might be reproduced are:

Ailith, Aelis, Aia, Iashtal, Kyphis

for now. 

 

This contest ends within a week, and i will be more strict for future creations.

 
And there is a change: I am boosting up the rewards, but remove the reward for less awesome creations. I had to change this because many posted trivial creations that maybe look nice but they represent not big effort to reach them.. so, its either wishpoint for creating something very cool and at least trying to explain how to reproduce it.... and i am adding a winner reward, a spell, for whoever gets the most likes (counting any sort of positive votes)

(a spell? what spell? .. the heat spell. If you already have the heat spell, you can pick any other except admin spells, summon and chase)

 

Please give me some feedback on how you find the current perpetual motion mode vs the previous mode where particles eventually come to a stop. My personal opinion is that this mode allows for more variation and more techniques, especially a better outcome for "waiting" it out. Let me know what you think, so i know if i should change it back or leave it like this.  

Gotr icon

 

Pentagram (inner lines later on disapear into a clear star)

 

2 hours ago, Sunfire said:

Gotr icon

 

Pentagram (inner lines later on disapear into a clear star)

 

Thats a beautiful star..but thats no gotr logo sadly

A first attempt at the GoTR challenge:

 

And a second attempt, using a similar technique:

 

Given that creating flow will eventually devolve into something somewhat less orderly, I found it was useful to capture these images well before they settled. Additionally, touching up abnormalities will tend to create more heat, which will decrease the contrast. Nonetheless, the touch-up of the second image resulted in this, which perhaps has more semblance of the alliance logo.

Try starting with the top branches as symetrical and unconnected as possible, down to up movements, this will make them conect later on on themselves, and as fast as you can draw the bottom roots contour. The particles from the brnaches will emerge on the bottom as they exit the top, and will feed the roots contour.

I lack precision to make the bottom roots as nice as you did, but i believe you can do that better. After a while, i also get an angry face , probably the way you look when you see you missed that moment when to make the screenshot.

The creation does not last long at all

Wings

I like the symmetry in this one. It's the best "circular frame" I got so far. To get this one, I pulled a continuous stream from the bottom and another from the top, with a slight difference in length on the latter. The trick is not to pull all the way to make the streams meet. I left some space between them to create the center shape.

I will lock this topic here pending final review of your entries. Will be unlocked once awards are announced.