Anatomy of a Generative Artwork #2
In each article/tutorial in the 'Anatomy of a Generative Artwork' series I'm going to dissect one specific generative artwork. Please note that the artworks/graphs are interactive, just click on them to modify them (and create your own artworks) or to download the artworks in high resolution.
Final Result

In the next sections we're going to rebuild this artwork step by step.
Step 1: Checkerboard
We start out with a very basic checkerboard pattern.

Step 2: FBM + Rotate
Next we apply some rotation and add the FBM node. FBM stands for "Fractal Brownian Motion" and simply takes checkerboard pattern as input and blends it with scaled down versions of that same pattern. This makes our checkerboard pattern more interesting, at least slightly.

Step 3: Cosine Similarity
Now we want to blend the original checkerboard pattern (from step 1) with the rotated version (from step 2). We therefore add a node with two inputs. In this artwork I chose the Cosine Similarity node for that (but many other nodes would work well too). It blends both inputs and adds a soft gradient-like effect.

Step 4: Rotate + Pseudo Edge Detection
Next we do another rotation. I just think it looks more interesting like that.
Also we apply a soft edge detection filter. Its effect is similar to that of an "Unsharp Mask" filter in an image editor. It gives the artwork more depth by causing these almost circular gradients within the individual cells of the checkerboard pattern.

Step 5: Noise
To me, noise is like ketchup, I put it on almost everything. So let's add some soft grainy noise to our artwork to make it a bit more alive:

Step 6: Colorize Cosine
As you probably noticed, so far the coloring is still a bit bland. Bringing an interesting variety of colors to an artwork is not always easy and there are a thousand ways to do it - I'll write a separate article about that later. But for now, let's choose a classic approach that is described already very well by Inigo Quilez in his article here.
In a nutshell, here's what the Colorize Cosine node does: It feeds the input (the artwork we had so far) into a cosine function with a different frequency/phase for each color dimension. It's not the most sophisticated way of coloring an artwork but it's something that one can always revert to.

Final Remarks
Reading this tutorial might leave you with the impression that I have designed every aspect of this artwork very intentionally. While such an intentional approach is certainly possible, the truth is: More often than not I stumble upon artworks by chance and through experimentation. For that I often use the randomization features present in the 'Graph Editor' or create random mutations/variations in the 'Modify' tab. Of course the experimental and intentional approaches can also be combined: I often use the graph editor to trim down or fine tune an artwork that I discovered by chance. It's also interesting to look at a graph in order to understand why an artwork 'works'. Each artwork provides an opportunity to discover new techniques that you can then also reuse in your future artworks.
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