How do you create "noise" in computer designs?

T

Travis86

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I look at some designs like wwd07.com and Superchick's CD (attached) and I notice how they have "rough" areas. (The blue and white "broken glass" stuff on ww07.com and the maroon paint stuff on the CD. How do you create that on a computer? I have very high-end software (Studio MX 2004, Photoshop CS, etc...), but I've never seen a way to get that sort of effect. If the designers of ww07 had to place all of those blue triangles there by hand, it would take forever!

There must be something I'm missing. What is it?
 

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It all depends on what effect you want and what you're trying to achieve... sometimes, and I'm not saying this specifically about you, you just need plain old artistic talent and creativity. I'm sure the blue triangles weren't placed there by hand. It seems like it started out as a solid blue piece, then some sort of broken glass filter or combinations of filters were applied, then it was rotated and the perspective changed, or something similar to that... I know for a fact there's a built-in filter that can achieve similar effects in Illustrator.

For the rough edges, I found this little tutorial that may help a bit:
http://webreference.com/graphics/column21/3.html

That site probably has a lot of other tutorials on similar effects.

This site has a few good tutorials as well:
http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials/2/460
 
Well, it's certainly true that if you can't imagine it, you can't do it, but will the tools at my disposal, there's no way that I could do that. I looked through Freehand a lot and tried to find some sort of filter like the Illustrator filter you mentioned, but there just isn't one like that. There's a couple of filters that might be a little close, though.

Still, random effects in computer-generated art aren't just one kind. The ww07 and Superchick random effects are very different in practice, but very similar in idea.
I think more software is what I need, but I just don't know what will do this sort of thing.

Thanks.
 
<off-topic> sorry for ventilating my opinion, but to be honest i don't really understand why a lot of designers always tend to copy 'effects' that are 'hip' ..
i see this kind of stuff everywhere, i would rather create something new of my own..
but that's my taste/opinion </off-topic>


anyway, for creating this kind of stuff (random/generated/algorithmic) you could lokk into any software platform that alows you to actually program the algorithms yourself..
either hard-coding in c++ or java, but you could also look at for instance max/msp/jitter/softVNS, PD/gem/pdp, or scripting languages like director-lingo/-javascript, flash/-actionscript etc..
you could create similair effects dynamically on your website with flash, or even with php on the server-side. there's lot's of ways, but you need to know how to programm...
advantage of pd/gem/pdp and max/msp/jitter/softVNS is that they are visual languages, so you create 'code' by dragging boxes and connecting those with wires.

if you look here for instance: http://www.bleu255.com/
this design is mainly created with PD/GEM/PDP
This guy only created the software, and set certain parameters, the rest happens automatically, based on parameters the software gets from traceroutes to ip-adresses, and mapping network-topoligies. he also creates music with the same software.
be sure to check the movies on the right side of this page:
http://www.bleu255.com/stm3.php
(nice detail; the microsoft.com domain generated really dark and scary sound and visuals)..

PD/GEM/PDP is opensource / and available for all platforms
the rest is proprietary (except for php ofcourse)


hope this helps
arri
 
I wasn't able to get a real straight explainatoin of PD/GEM/PDP on the Internet. I think it might be sort of what I'm looking for, but I don't really know. It seems to be an audio thing mainly...

Do you know where I could find a straightforward explaination?

Thanks.
 
ehm.. well, that might be a bit of a problem yes,
there's not so much official documentation, the best is probably here:
http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/index.htm

but there's lot's of examples, and quite a large user-group,
and mailing lists
but it's a bit scattered over the net.. so a lot of googling.

i just discovered that the pure-data.org domain is not functioning anymore,
here are some links that might get you started :

http://zwizwa.fartit.com/pd/pdp/overview.html
http://zwizwa.fartit.com/pd/pdp/
http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/...tefn=TKSite.2.xml&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en
http://ydegoyon.free.fr/pidip.html
http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html
http://iem.kug.ac.at/mailinglists/pd-list/

but maybe you want to download (cycling74.com) and try max/msp/jitter first to get an idea of how the environment looks and feels.. max/msp/jitter is very easy to install, and you can try it for free the first 30 days. max and pd use a very similair approach in programming with objects (boxes) and wires, messages etc..
PureData/PdP/Gem requires a bit more effort to get it running, like installing tcl and x-windowing systems, and hasn't got that much built-in documentation

goodluck
 
if you want a grunge sort of look applied to your background/edges/images, etc then here's a fairly quick and simple trick:

1 - do a google image search for a really 'noisy' image. something with A LOT of lines and stuff that clutters it up. Cranes and docks generally are good (see the image I attached as an example)

2 - open the image in photoshop, and do the threshold to your liking, based ont he image you use. (see attached)

3 - select the black (or white, whichever has better grunge for your tastes) and move the selection to the image you want to noisy-up

4 - move the selection around the image you are working on and delete the selected (grungy) area as needed to create the effect you want.

(attached final result)
 

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You can also work with stone pictures, wall pictures, trees pictures... do non-linear edition (threshold) to create masks.
 
Okay, well i always do these grungy effects and basically there's to ways that i do it.

One basically wat Quiksan did - though i actually convert the image to greyscale and adjust the levels to my liking (though i actually use fireworks mx04)

Two - get some brushes. You can make your own photoshop brushes or just download some. Sometimes it would help if u actually used a grungy brush and use it on a new document then select it out and use it repeativly on the project your working on.

Oh and another way is use ur wand and select parts out of basically any image you will find and then use the colour fill and use that. (though it doesnt really give you the best effect).

There the simplest ways
 
Another great way to get the grungy effect of the sample Superchick image is to actually print out a rough border or image (per the suggestion above regarding using Threshold) on a piece of paper, put it on a copier and then scan the result back into the computer.

Sometimes the best raw and/or natural effects are accomplished via "analog" means. :cool:
 
Reminds me of that picture that was going around in e-mail a few years back that shows how computer-illiterate people print things out. It shows a monitor face-down on a copier. (I tried and tried to find the actual picture, but I couldn't)

Thanks for the advice, I'll see how it works.
 
Travis86 said:
Reminds me of that picture that was going around in e-mail a few years back that shows how computer-illiterate people print things out. It shows a monitor face-down on a copier. (I tried and tried to find the actual picture, but I couldn't)

Thanks for the advice, I'll see how it works.
Click to expand...

Typical Windows "print screen" procedure. Why isn't it name "copy screen" now that it doesn't end up on the printer anymore ?
 
chevy said:
Typical Windows "print screen" procedure. Why isn't it name "copy screen" now that it doesn't end up on the printer anymore ?
Click to expand...
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I am still looking forward to the day when we don't have to print anything at all. As a society, a PLANET, we're still very dependent on paper. (But this is an entirely different discussion!)

:cool:
 
let's make some noise!!!
just put in your search "grounge brushes" and you will get losts of links with downloads and tutorial about this...
if you like the brushes i've used in the pict just email me! :)
 

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Ok, brushes seem to do the trick, now it's just a matter of getting the best ones. I got the ones from Dubtastic.com and they seem to work pretty well. My little tryout picture could be better, I suppose, but it's just a sketch. Truely-Sarah.com has some interesting brushes, but they are under a very restrictive agreement.

Which grunge brushes do you use?
 

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