
Show HN: Tinkersynth, a whimsical generative art machine - joshwcomeau
https://tinkersynth.com/slopes
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stevenhuang
This is super cute. Loving how the little diagrams change as the sliders are
moved.

One thing that might really get people to purchase a drawing is the ability to
change line colours. Imagine all the colourful patterns! Have you plans to add
this?

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akuji1993
Absolutely the thing keeping me from thinking about a purchase is the missing
possibilites to color the lines in different colors.

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joshwcomeau
Appreciate the feedback!

I don't really have many plans to keep working on this machine, but I do hope
to add new machines (with different controls, and different possible outputs),
so I'll definitely keep that in mind :)

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akuji1993
I just like really colorful design, so another machine with cool geometric
patterns or something with a lot of color control, would be awesome imo!

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pragmatick
I like it and would've liked to buy a vector download but $19 is insane. I
would've paid 3$, $5 at the max.

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joshwcomeau
Through the lens of "cost of a vector download", it is very expensive.

I've been thinking of it a different way, though. The option exists for people
who want to manage the printing themselves, and it's a much more economical
version.

The fine-art prints on my project start at $99, and while the profit on that
varies by where it's shipping to, it's always more than 20 bucks. It doesn't
cost $80 to produce and ship a 12" x 18" print.

Put another way, you're not paying for an image download, you're paying for
the creative energy (not to mention time) that went into producing this tool.

That said, you're not the first person to bring this up, so clearly the
messaging could use some work. I've lowered the price to $5 while I figure
that out.

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pragmatick
I appreciate the reply. I also understand the reasoning behind it, it's just
that it honestly wasn't worth that much to me.

I just bought a download for $5. I don't know if 5 people would pay $19 vs 20
would pay $5, but you just got five dollars more from me that you would've
otherwise :-)

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zenpaul
The randomize button in the lower right corner is the best way to see the
possibilities.

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joshwcomeau
Yeah! I had wanted to find a way to make this more prominent, since it's great
fun.

Fun fact: While any combination is possible from the "randomize" button, it
uses weighting to try and come up with pleasant/interesting combos more often
than not. I'm quite pleased with the results.

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anitil
Is there a way of 'seeding' this with line drawings?

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petersonh
I agree, this would be a cool idea and make it feel more personalized

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joshwcomeau
That'd be super cool! It would be non-trivial to implement, but that may be
something I consider in the future :) thanks for the feedback!

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anitil
If you do get around to doing it, would you mind sending me an email (in bio)?
I have an idea I've been mulling over for a long time, and would pay for
something like this.

Edit: I contacted you via the contact form at Tinkersynth

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Hackbraten
Love that easter egg!

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joshwcomeau
hah, thanks! I was wondering if people would discover it =)

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amitmerchant
Great interface. I'm just loving it!

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aljmyl
I have been working on something similar for plotter drawings [http://xn--
5ca.cc/jack-of-diamonds/#Faces](http://xn--5ca.cc/jack-of-diamonds/#Faces)

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joshwcomeau
Neat! Seems fun.

This project was actually meant to be for plotter drawings originally, and the
SVGs it produces are plotter-friendly (all the occlusion is done
mathematically, not using fills or masks).

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numbol
Pleasantly reminiscent the cover artwork of "Unknown Pleasures" (Pulsar!)

Perhaps someone in the near future will make a similar art cover using graphs
of exoplanet transits.

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exolymph
Cool, but why would I pay that much to download the image?

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mkl
This business model seems like a fascinating idea. Do you know if it will
work? Is anyone else using it?

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joshwcomeau
Thanks! Yeah, I hope some people will think the things it produces are worth
purchasing! Although I suspect almost everyone will treat it as a fun web toy
(and that's totally alright as well - the goal isn't really to make a ton of
money with this)

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rvrabec
It is really fun. Thanks for putting thought into the design and UX.

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petersonh
Loving the interface, great work!

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joshwcomeau
Thanks =)

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onemoresoop
Desktop mode only?

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joshwcomeau
There's a limited mobile experience, essentially it just gives you the ability
to shuffle (which, many people say is the single most fun control).

The reason is that the experience really only works when you can see the art
while you're tweaking a parameter, and there was no way to fit both the art
and the controls on a phone screen at once. I had them stacked, and scrolling
up to see what a control did was a miserable experience.

