
Show HN: Neural Painter – Paint artistic patterns using random neural network - dvichg
https://github.com/zxytim/neural-painter
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franciscop
I made a random SVG generator in pure javascript based on chancejs:
[https://jsfiddle.net/franciscop/819Lr84a/embedded/result/](https://jsfiddle.net/franciscop/819Lr84a/embedded/result/)

See more info:
[https://github.com/chancejs/chancejs/issues/193](https://github.com/chancejs/chancejs/issues/193)

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Jommi
Not going into any of the technical details...but does someone know what
"artistic patterns" mean? Because frankly all i'm seeing is some kind of
coloured interferance?

Not sure if I'm missing the point, but I just can't get impressed by this in
the same way the "emulate an artist's style with neural networks" did.

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vacri
I'm on a road trip at the moment, and the patterns in the gallery look similar
to some of the paintings on the walls of a couple of motels I've stayed at. It
was my first thought on seeing the gallery.

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Retr0spectrum
Although it was only made with procedural algorithms, I believe this has a
much greater artistic value:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/generative/comments/5h5796/slow_col...](https://www.reddit.com/r/generative/comments/5h5796/slow_colors/)

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joelS
If you found this interesting I recommend looking at Picbreeder
([http://www.picbreeder.org/](http://www.picbreeder.org/)). Collaborative
interactive evolution of pattern producing networks produced very interesting
results.

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chestervonwinch
Do I understand correctly? You have f:R^2 -> R^3, where the input is the image
coordinate, the output is an RGB value, and f is a neural net with
activations, weights, etc, chosen so that the image (literal and mathematical)
of the map looks aesthetically pleasing?

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chestervonwinch
Nevermind. Just read the docs of the `get_func` function:

    
    
        '''return function of [0,1]^2 -> intensity \in [0, 1]^c'''
    

... so yes.

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sherjilozair
The weights are random. No attempt has been made to make sure the generated
image looks aesthetically pleasing. That's the surprising bit: a random neural
network generates good-looking images.

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chestervonwinch
> That's the surprising bit: a random neural network generates good-looking
> images.

Despite the randomness in the weights, there's structure and coherence imposed
by the activation functions and the manner in which activations are combined
(the network architecture). There's nothing inherently magical going on: take
a rational function with random coefficients and do domain coloring [1], and
you'll get something interesting, too.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_coloring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_coloring)

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rebuilder
I've been meaning to experiment with adding random patterns into my painting
workflow, mainly as starting points. I find it's usually easier to have
something other than a blank surface to start from. This looks like it might
help, thanks!

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SFJulie
Most of my friends who are artists will tell you: art is 3 pages dissertations
to tell you how anything you produce is art. Hence the «fontaine de Jouvence»
or the monochrome of Soulage.

Met newly educated kids from university in Art they told me art is just about
the public power sustaining the market of art for the benefits of those who
sponsor art.

Hence, the real «artistic pattern» should also come with a dissertation and
evaluation of its value on the market.

If a program can produce thousands of it per hour, even at .1$ and you can
sell them, you still get rich and famous at the end.

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Matumio
I think it's poor taste to judge art by how much money someone else is willing
to pay for it. It's like judging software by how much money it can to extract
from its users, or by how many people know the name of its authors. Both
measures ignore the actual value that is provided.

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nkozyra
Definitely.

What defines art is whether or generates a visceral, human response. Is it
evocative? Does it spark emotion or memory?

An ML algorithm can luck out and get this right, provided enough training
data. But would it sustain if its audience knew there was no human element? I
think the machine behind the curtain would throttle any emotional response.

As to this implementation, I have to agree it doesn't produce much interesting
from the sample images. I haven't dug into the code to know if this is
implementation related or a symptom of its input.

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SuperPaintMan
As far as visceral human responses to abstraction go, open_nsfw nailed it.

[https://open_nsfw.gitlab.io](https://open_nsfw.gitlab.io)

