@toThePixel Definitely! I also like to trick the perception of space, mixing 2d design with 3d elements. Not using a conventional 3d engine allows that ! Glad you got to the point you aimed at 🙌
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zancan 🌿
7.5K posts
zancan 🌿
@zancan
Former oil painter, longtime programmer. Lushtemples. Garden, Monoliths. Blockchain & Broderie. #generativeart
Bordeaux, France Katılım Eylül 2007
1.6K Takip Edilen41.1K Takipçiler
Line to line occlusion. A seemingly very useful utility for pen plotter that is surprisingly challenging. I threw this to AI, it failed as I expected, so I spent the day writing it myself.
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@rolandojones @toThePixel Oh yes. The biggest performance bottleneck. Computing AABB for the current shape being tested against the mask, and then do getImageData for that zone once (instead of per pixel lookup). That improved performance by a factor 10 for me.
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@zancan @toThePixel I recently had GPT-5.4 review my masking code and it identified some chunking recommendations for the masking so the browser could become more responsive. It also coded a solution to load only relevant parts of the mask. That alone saved me 20s of rendering time.
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I understand. I have been leaning toward this as well, getting closer to the behavior of a z-buffer. Using the 255 range as depth. The difficulty was to compute a gradient instead of a single color when drawing into the mask with canvas' path function.
After that, adapting the pixel occlusion code was rather trivial.
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@zancan That is a very, very powerful solution indeed! I was considering all options, and because I really want to try and create interwoven strokes, where shapes are not billboards but instead their segments are each unique z depths I went this way.
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😎YESSS zancan OG
Nice, obviously that technique is the perfect use case for shaders. On the other hand, one shouldn't overlook the power of built-in JS canvas functions to draw in the mask and achieve many tricks. For instance with blend modes you can confine a complex line pattern inside a random shape. You can manage safe space around shapes and strokes by just drawing the outlines in the mask with bolder strokes (@toThePixel 's current topic it seemed). I've been using this on my plots to avoid penetration of strokes into each other and get rid of many plotting artefacts.
Lots of fun tricks when using the R/G/B channels of the mask for different purposes. In the paper the performance of JS can be dramatically improved when optimizing the getImageData usage which is the real bottleneck, so eventually the benefit of turning on the GPU would be just for real time clipping, otherwise straight JS seems very fine to me.
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I couldn’t say it better. I saw a lot of criticism lately on my feed, felt very uncomfortable about it. Knowing the people in the team, the challenges they face everyday, the relentless work to push the space forward no matter what, they are the most precious assets.
UnknownCollector@UnknownCo123
This is an appreciation post for @objktcom. They are a small team doing a job that most people underestimate. Day in, day out, showing up for artists, collectors, curators, trying to keep something alive that is bigger than any single person involved. And they do it in a market that has been anything but easy. You can feel that they care, the willingness to listen, even when the feedback is harsh or unfair. They haven’t taken shortcuts that would have been easier or more profitable in the short term. They never sold out. And at the same time, they are a business. Not a non profit. They have to survive, pay people, make decisions that keep the platform running. And still they choose to put in all this extra work for the community, for artists, for the space as a whole. That balance is not easy and the work under appreciated. They are holding together big parts of this ecosystem that gave thousands of artists a place to start, to experiment, to be seen without needing permission or big budgets. A place where collectors could discover work early, support directly, and build real relationships. I saw some criticism coming up lately and I feel it comes from frustration. And frustration is understandable. Everyone wants more visibility, more support, more recognition. But it often gets projected onto the very people who are already doing the work. Calling it gatekeeping is easier than looking at the full picture. There are real constraints like limited time and resources and tough decisions that have to balance fairness, sustainability, and growth. You can’t please everyone at the same time, especially in a space where expectations are high and attention is scarce. And still, they keep trying to include the community. They open up conversations. They test new features. They give space to different kinds of work. They don’t just build for the top of the market. They keep the door open for those who are still finding their way. That’s not something to take for granted. Negativity comes from a place of personal expectation. People want to be seen, supported, pushed forward. But it can turn into entitlement without noticing. Into the idea that if something doesn’t benefit you directly, it must be broken. That mindset misses what’s actually being built here. objkt has never been about serving a few. It has always tried to serve many. Keeping things open while still maintaining quality. Supporting growth without losing direction. Surviving without selling out. Some people act like they know it all. This is hard. Platforms are closing left and right. objkt is still here, doing the work. My deepest admiration👏
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@hen_collector That is intriguing to say the least. May I ask what OS and browser your mobile is ? That URI is correct.
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@zancan 🤣 Weird, highly likely I'm missing something then, that first image is straight from the artifact ipfs link on my mobile, also how it appears on objkt for me on my mobile >
ipfs.io/ipfs/QmPravPhi…
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Finally!! Over 5 years of collecting & I have just 1 regret. Taking 3 weeks off in 2021 & missing @zancan's gorgeous seminal work; Garden, Monoliths; before the surge.
Since then, been waiting and biding my time. Finally, it hit. Some days are good days, this was one of 'em.
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@fauxjebus Indeed the thumbnail wasn't from the GM set, the image was misleading and got me intrigued for a second. Now @hen_collector found their GM, it's Garden, Monoliths #43, 100% legit, all good 👍
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Zancan seems to be the only one that noticed that this isn’t even a real GM. 🧐
h=n collector@hen_collector
Finally!! Over 5 years of collecting & I have just 1 regret. Taking 3 weeks off in 2021 & missing @zancan's gorgeous seminal work; Garden, Monoliths; before the surge. Since then, been waiting and biding my time. Finally, it hit. Some days are good days, this was one of 'em.
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@hen_collector Ahhh yes #43 is the one ! Beautiful Skechbook full Garden 🙌🌿
The metadata is correct, both mobile and desktop render the same, so no, there's not a second GM hidden or paired 😬 I have no idea where you pulled the previous thumbnail from 😅
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Oh my
I'm not sure how to interpret your message. Super kind for me of course. But yeah it's challenging times for all of us. It turned out, timing was everything in the NFT / gen art bubble. It's ok to step back from a road that puts too much of your well being at stake. You should be proud of what you've achieved! You gave the best of yourself, you made tons of progress and blessed the world with your vision of love and beauty. That resonates in some people. Not enough I agree, yet, it's important.
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When I called @zancan “the Legend,” it was, of course, a bit of an understatement.
What it meant to us is that we have a small GenArt community here, and we even named a café where we would meet — “Zancan.”
Tonight, it seems there will be no meetings at that café, and that the Qotonana generative art journey has come to an end.
It was wild 4 years and at least it’s nice to have this kind of appreciation.
Thank you all ❤️🙏
zancan 🌿@zancan
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It goes the other way too. Artists have been using platforms, those all-inclusive set of tools, those massive development efforts, these free hosting services. Often with platform fees as little as 5%. They've been using the platforms' trust and reliability for collectors to discover our art and frictionlessly purchase it. Artists need platform just as platforms need artists, a virtuous circle, as in an ecosystem. Yes, some of them tended to extraction more than others (Basically those which decided to cease enforcing royalties or not to chase scams and copycats for profit). They are not that many. Most of them are the reason why we could sell our digital art in the first place.
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I absolutely agree, in every point... Of course.
What I was referring to is when this 'companies' use artists (and their/our art, their/our main resource) under a disguise of 'art revolution', when as you said (that fully agree) they are companies.
I absolute understand that companies are to make money, what I feel manipulative is using an 'aura of art' to give artist hope to later, ending as we already saw several times (and as companies do, they arrive to a place, extract resources, destroy the 'ecosystem', and leave... leaving the inhabitants without resources nor ecosystem.
I can even understand this, but understanding smth does not imply we must agree...
I think a lot about this 'core memory'...😅
GIF
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Remember:
Platforms are COMPANIES.
Their main and only interest is money, not art.
Don’t be so naive to think that what they do is “for the art” or “for the artists” behind this “for the culture” disguise.
The only culture they understand is money.
Good day, let’s work.
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This is where I feel I must moderate your statement, that being primarily "a company", a platform is therefore dehumanized to the point of having no interest in anything but income ? If they have employees, they need funding and profitability. That's a prerequisite to sustain their activity. I've seen most founders go above and beyond for the artists they hosted. Oftentimes being too focused on the human side put the profitability at stake and then what ? The 'company' dies, the founders burn out. It's the same for galleries. They do need bankable artists to compensate for the ones that would not break even. Profitability is more critical for companies with hosting charges and wages to pay / while artists with no income ( which is traditionally most of them ) can reduce their charges to a minimum an sustain the pain longer. With the current market I'm afraid not many will survive.
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Yes, we are individuals that manage a company.
If we were focused on money I guess we wouldnt choose art…😅
Companies are to make money.
We must be “a company” in order to develop our job, wether if we have work or not.
We are not companies, we are humans with a company.
Companies are not humans. I guess you understand me…
But companies that are not individuals, are things, they come and go.
We only come, when we “go”, we go forever.
And of course, companies are much bigger than individuals.😅
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Spotlight on @zancan ✨
Originally from the south of France, @zancan began drawing and programming at an early age. As a teenager, long before the internet era, he was already programming on early Atari computers, immersed in the experimental digital art scene.
A self-taught artist bridging oil painting and generative systems.
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Mesmerised by vegetal density — plants, luxuriant trees, nature reclaiming stone — @zancan transforms organic proliferation into mathematical structures.
Engaging with the legacy of Sol LeWitt, @manfredemohr and Vera Molnár, his work moves beyond geometric post-minimalism toward layered, living complexity.
📸 "Lushtemples NYC - Sunday" (2022), "Lushtemples - Highlights of the Hike" (2021)
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It’s been English since I was a kid (French). Back then in the 80’s there was no support for accented letters in ASCII. Reading programming language references books was my first introduction to English language btw !
It’s been a strong habit and I find it awkward not to use English for code.
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