BLOT-1 (We are surprized with what we made...)

BLOT-2 (Giving life ...)

BLOT-3 (Music for listening ...)

BLOT-4 (Flip'n'Fly)

2024/04/27

Posted by t0 On April 27, 2024

I'm going to tell you here just a few important things that will help anyone who is ready to try it to get started. Actually, I think the best way is to try it out, so I'm attaching the Gimp file. You can download it, just see how it's done, and even experiment with it. Gimp is a legal free Open-source application: https://www.gimp.org/ Basically everything in it is organized very intuitively, I'll talk about some things that are not so obvious right away, and they are really worth telling you about.


For example, people often underestimate how convenient keyboard shortcuts are. It may be too difficult to use them right from the start, but we get used to them very quickly and then do everything as before :) 


Layers and masks are also very important. Since childhood, we know that you can draw something on paper and then erase it with an eraser. But when we have layers, it's more convenient for us not to erase the parts of the image that we want to remove, but simply cover them with a mask. We can create masks using free selection tool, edit them with brushes, or even just create an empty mask right away and draw on it, then smear it, change it as we want. It also adds a lot to the convenience and speed of work, and, accordingly, pleasure, too, if you immediately get used to using hot keys for zooming. Perhaps I'm using some custom keyboard shortcuts that are not the default in the last versions, but you just need to check. I've been transferring the same settings from version to version for decades, sometimes just tweaking them a bit...


Clone stamp is also not an immediately intuitive tool. It transfers pixels from one place to another. But besides just cloning, it is often used for face retouching. If you set the opacity to 30% and turn on alingnment, it's very convenient to soften wrinkles, pimples, or other skin imperfections, or lighten the skin. My sample-file has a separate layer with such manual retouching. The layer names tell you where it is. You can try adjusting its opacity and get different results.



We also have a wide range of filters for different types of images. There's no point in telling you much about them — you just have to try them. When it comes to face retouching, we mainly use different types of blur and sharpening. In addition, I'll show you the incredible G'MIC, which can be used separately or as a plug-in in Gimp. It will be in the filters menu if you install it. It contains a collection of extremely fancy, but classically algorithmic filters. I hope that I have managed to provoke you to try it yourself, and I wish you success and maximum satisfaction. There are also earlier posts on this blog that deal with 2d pixel/vector graphics (few basic steps, required to make various graphic compositions from small flyers, labels and booklets to big calendars and posters), you can check them out later, they are generally still quite relevant: http://blotproject.blogspot.com/2013/12/cddvd-cover-tut.html






You can also see a few examples here, all done in the ways I've already told you about, I just have to say something quite obvious, and in this case it really works — skill is achieved by practice.

Does it make sense to do this at all when we have incredible AI capabilities, or, more precisely, machine learning (artificial neural networks)? I think in some cases, yes, there is. I am over 60 years old, and for half my life I have been doing what I am doing now in a virtual (digital) form, in a "molecular" form, so to speak. And has "molecular" art disappeared during this time? And there is another important reason why I think so. Sometimes people still care about authenticity. If there are their loved ones in a picture, people often want to have a picture that may be worse in quality, but it's genuine. The fact is that nowadays, artificial generative networks are engaged in improving images or videos. It will probably remain so. That is, what they produce is a some fantasy, they are hallucinating, as data scientists call it. In the original, we have some pixels, and nothing more. What is there is there, the rest has to be generated, and this is a limitation that will remain for a very long time. Perhaps at some point in the development of civilization, the surviving civilizations will learn to recover information that is inevitably lost from our field of vision. It doesn't disappear completely, at least according to physicists 🤔. But first, we need to survive. We have an incredible, promising future, but only if we manage to preserve the achievements of our civilization and multiply them.


2023/06/03

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On June 03, 2023

 It was impossible to resist trying it out. Of course, AI is much more than funny stories or pictures. After all, it's a good way for us, the artists from the 'tonux.gix' group, to start thinking about the design of robots for our virtual environment... But what happens next? We will have to decide how to interpret AI creativity, for example. We will also have to interpret in some way our AI friends which will come about. Perhaps not so much for their sake as for our own.

 

 

AI can change us more than, for example, the emergence of languages or technologies. It's hard to believe that this is really happening to us now. Many thousands of generations of people have lived on Earth before us, and now something is starting to happen to us that we don't really understand yet... I think there are much more opportunities in this than dangers, and we should definitely not be afraid of our future.


And you can listen and download a full lenght soundtrack for free here: https://archive.org/details/tonux-gix_Funny-Dream

 

2022/09/04

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On September 04, 2022

 

A little bit of noise again, this mix seems to be one of our most chaotic ones. There is also a sense of anxiety in it. Not surprisingly, the year 2022 has brought anxiety into our lives. I think all the inhabitants of our little lost planet today, consciously or not, feel it. I hope it will go away soon... 

 

 

I'm sure most people around the world hope it goes away, too. But this planet is one for all of us. The evil invader is holding the staff at the nuclear plant at gunpoint at this very moment. International organizations are probably doing all they can, but it goes on. Russia is committing terrorist acts on a global scale, and not for the first time...


The people who are confronting these international crimes today need support. Each of us can make a small contribution to this global process of cleaning our world of this evil with a donation:
https://savelife.in.ua/en/
https://armysos.com.ua/
 

More links to our tracks is in the previous post: https://nuxproject.blogspot.com/2018/02/some-sound.html


2021/12/06

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On December 06, 2021

 Perhaps our time will go down in history as the moment when our civilization moves on to the next phase. S😎 far, of course, it still sounds a little strange to us, but it seems that we are indeed becoming a virtual civilization. We still perceive it only as a game, but now this process has received a decisive boost of support in the form of a connection to awesome blockchain technologies. I probably don't even need to explain anymore that blockchain is a form of implementing direct ('p2p' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer) interactions between active agents. Including people, or, for example, IoT devices etc.

For everyone for whom creativity is a way of life, or at least who dreams about it, this is good news. It gives us hope for a chance to become financially independent and make our lives much more interesting. It also gives us a chance to make new friends more easily and to feel resonated with them in exciting collaborations. There are already many exciting projects and new ones are constantly emerging. It's easy to find the latest information about them in places like this: https://nftplazas.com/metaverse-news/. In short, the term 'Metaverse' means mixing our usual, 'molecular', reality with virtual. Perhaps it's indeed a transitional phase for us as a civilization.

It is also positive that similar projects are appearing for the big players. For example, after 'Meta' (former 'Facebook') announced its program, the capitalization of some projects, such as 'Decentraland', 'Sanbox' etc. doubled! Announcements already have been put forth by Microsoft and other serious IT industry members. But at least a half of big game developers will insert cryptoeconomy into their projects. And also representatives of other industries such as Amazon, Wallmart, Burger King, Nike, Addidas etc. make statements about this. Of course, the best is yet to come. That's the beauty of the moment! From the looks of things, the technology will still evolve. 'zX' wrote a few words about it on our blog (https://convexproject.blogspot.com/2021/10/vertex-colors-interesting-problems-of.html), dedicated more to technology than to dreams:)

There's also already a post there about the basic principles of 3D virtuality: https://convexproject.blogspot.com/2020/06/what-really-is-3d.html. I hope it's easy to understand and suitable for those who are not very familiar with it, as well as for those who are a little bit familiar with the subject.

2021/06/11

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On June 11, 2021

This is incredible experiment, I just can't resist to sharing it. There was new publication in Neuroscience News, researches has been going on for years, some of which is in the open access, you can look.

 


So far, third thumb is controlled non-invasively, by buttons in the shoe. But imagine what would happen if you combine this with neural interface.The interesting thing is, it seems to me, that it's easier to get used to it than to get used to being without it :)

 


It's actually a lot more serious than it looks. I think it's worth keeping an eye on this topic, there will be many more interesting things to come...

 

More links:
https://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/6/54/eabd7935/
https://www.daniclodedesign.com/thethirdthumb
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/icn/research/research-groups/plasticity/body-augmentation
https://plasticity-lab.com/body-augmentation

2019/09/24

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On September 24, 2019
 This piece is very simple really. Almost like K-pop or J-pop, probably. Of course, the style here is different - some quasi-avantgarde techno, similar to global-stage artists



 The piece is very sensitive and optimistic, like comics, it seems to me. We mixed this up from our older pieces, mostly this one: https://youtu.be/nvA5_dmSh2w.

 We used only open-source software for most of our projects, and for music of course. LMMS and Muse Sequencer for initial sources and Ardour or Mixxx for polishing. In intermediary stages Audacity comes into play. And we used some new original loops as well.


 This screen-shot shows the basic source-loops generation with awesome LMMS (Linux Multi-Media Studio). You can download these loops here: https://freesound.org/people/tXgix/packs/27487/ 
Also you can listen, download and remix these sources and pieces for free. We published it under CC-0 License.

 LMMS source file: https://lmms.io/lsp/?action=show&file=15490
 Midi source file for these loops: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UTmlU6I7ZxlxCOq_tiSAZVXBE-sg-DgD

 Vocal parts partially generated algoritmically, partially downloaded from: https://freesound.org/people/pyro13djt/packs/

 More about our music: https://nuxproject.blogspot.com/2018/02/some-sound.html


2017/08/24

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On August 24, 2017
Order is among the main things we try to achieve in our music, 3d-enviro and everything else. Looks like it's nothing new: the Khufu pyramid creators pursuited the same goal; Schrödinger wrote about it in his work "What Is Life?". Lately scientists tend to make an assumption that we - putting it simply - "eat" entropy - and not energy, as was considered before. At "tonux.gix" we've instantly got to like such an idea - we love discussing things like meaning of life etc... What is all this richness of the forms about if all we do is simply convert energy back and forth. However, if to assume that we deal with order, things start to make more sense: every form of life on Earth consumes light from the Sun. The Sun is considered the source of life on Earth. The essense of the idea is that it's not so much energy that is crucial, but it's low entropy.

In the given case, entropy means structuredness. Something of low entropy has lower probability of emerging by chance. In mathematics, it is totally ok to assume that complex, diverse in their structure and content things can emerge "on their own" if enough time is provided. But maths says that the probability of such outcome is close to zero. And that means low entropy. On the other hand, structure that's comprised of similar elements - like say a pile of sand - is more likely to create this or another combination and thus has higher entophy. The energy we get from the Sun is concentrated in a smaller amount of protons than the energy that we afterwards put out. The Sun energy has lower entropy, thus it turns out that we consume low entropy.

Such perspective explains why we always went to great lengths to show off our highly ordered structures such as castles, temples and pyramids: we "eat" order - with our mouths, eyes, ears. It also provides us with the key to progress: it becomes clear that complex well-ordered structures at times may seem chaotic to us untill we understand them. By expanding personal capability of seeing the essence of things - with the help of tools and achievements of other people - we go down that road. It is rarely admitted, but it becomes more and more apparent that, compared to the structures found in a smartphone's software, greatest pieces of the world's architectural heritage look like piles of sand. Somehow we manage to create wonderful structures with ever lower entropy. It all began long before we were humans, and even before we began to form multicellular organisms...Now we have this unique decipherer, conventionally called the brain. Similarly to how a bicycle is an extension for the function of our legs, we've now invented an extension for the brain too. This "braincycle" will soon go out of control, and then we will have less cases for optimism :) But as of present time we still believe we exist and even discuss things like entropy. It gives us a chance, my friends!

2016/09/09

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On September 09, 2016
Everything we know, everything we live in is a bright bubble - in dusky emptiness - we try not to think about without serious enough reason. Sometimes, though, you suddenly want to. Especially, when we feel that something out there is changing too fast. Then we happen to move towards an edge of our magnificent bubble, which we've got used to and beloved... This self-remix is an intent to leave the bubble of our reality for a bit. Once something unknown to us before gains some sort of structure in our imagination - it becomes a part of our bubble. And this is wonderful! For this, we're ready to take risk.

When we was getting to do this mix, we asked ourselves few totally crazy questions (as we usually do at 'tonux.gix'). For instance: is life possible beyond our own life form? For finding out this, we can go somewhere where there are none of us yet, and somewhere we're not there anymore. For example, late heavy bombardment era, or when the Sun is going to turn into a red giant.


This way, we, most likely are not going to make academic scientific discoveries, but we provide our neurons a great opportunity to warm up. And dusky emptiness will look a little more bright. So, we invite you to experience these things with us. Meeting magnificent creatures, dancing, trying to understand each other, and a sense of us all being parts of the whole - all is waiting there.
Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On September 09, 2016
Our Blots >>> Sound Only >>> For Collabs

    Here are collected a fragments of backgrounds which we suggest for co-operation. Also each one who wants can use them in their own purposes or even as a soundtrack for some video, interactive artworks, websites or anything other. We release these track under Creative Commons BY-SA License which even allows commertial use of derivative artworks. Of course, we ask to inform us about such use... Finally, we can insert some changes, adapt lenght, add some accents etc. without no problem, if we'll be interested with your idea.

https://www.jamendo.com/album/109666/gix-sources-4collabssrcs

    But still, the main goal of these tracks is to suggest something for start to people who would want to participate with us in a wonderful process of creativity. We always search for talented people who are interterested in singing a vocal part with us, speak some rap, play an instrumental improvization or even add some whoops or just a few of conceptual words. I ask everyone who has a desire to send some questions or finished tracks directly to our mail tonux.gix@gmail.com without no hesitation. The only thing I want to remind about is that your track has to contain only your solo, without some noises or our instrumental.

    Later we will post here some samples of co-operation too. In any case you can hear it with a video which shows our other project - 3d intercative environment. We equipped these video with our own soundtracks with awesome vocal improvizations of fantastic talented people. Welcome:

https://www.youtube.com/user/NUX1I

And printable version of cover (Just dowload:)



#‎modern‬ ‪#‎new‬ ‪#‎music‬ ‪#‎free #sources ‪#‎soundtrack‬ #sound ‪#‎open‬ ‪#‎open-source #open source ‪#‎GNU‬ ‪#‎Linux‬ ‬ ‪ ‪#‎licks‬ ‪#‎fun‬ ‪#‎follow‬ ‪#‎followme‬ ‪#‎follow4follow‬ ‪#‎style‬ ‪#‎download‬ ‪#free download

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On September 09, 2016
Our Blots >>> Sound Only >>> Zero Point



It was a really experimental music. We wanted to know what everything consists of and we tried. Everything came as if by itself. Each time we've coming from other side and came to the same place again. And now we have it passed, as zero point. When you come in one side from it, all around becomes crystals. And if you come in other side, you feel like you're in river...

https://www.jamendo.com/album/108257/zero-point-our-pre-2005-experiments


Thanks for stoping by, please comment, rate and come again.

Printable version of cover (just download:)


2015/12/01

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On December 01, 2015
Anyone who's into complex technologies knows that various glitches often encourage creativity. Especially, when you feel you're out of your own imagination. You can even provoke the technology to tell you something new, making it go crazy:]


What's on video is a little glitch of the interactive 3d-environment game-like engine. We tested a scene where we collected several old and new, unfinished vehicles. It's absolutely crazy project - we dream to create a 3d-enviro with social network functions. It's "in the womb" now, so it's not even available online. However, we plan to share it as open-source in the future. It's really at the very beginning stage, but you can see on the video, how much fun the process itself brings us.

If to talk about the soundtrack - here are only a pseudo-glitches... We stylized it to be more like the video. We always make soundtracks ourselves, so it's no big deal for us to pump it here and there. People often say us that they thought their player glitched while playing our music:] Thanks for watching, please comment, rate and come again.

Soundtrack free download: https://soundcloud.com/tonux-gix/sets/flipnfly

2015/04/10

Posted by zigel (from 'nvx') On April 10, 2015
This is a screencaptured video from our bigest and absolutely crazy project - 3d environment called "Nux". All elements as houses, roads, vehicles, landscapes, and these videos, even music — all here is made by us from zero…



 All elements as houses, roads, vehicles, landscapes, and these videos, even music — all here is made by us from zero… At this point we have a little mess with all the files and generally this is why we didn't share these scenes with public. But we still plan to do this in some time. I think we're going to make it as a public domain - so people could use our scenes or parts of them in their projects and try them with various engines.

Last time lots of wonderful open-source game engines appeared, but we don't have enough time to test our scenes with them because 3d-mesh, textures, animation - all this takes a lot of time. Also, we consider ourselves rather artists than programmers. It's more interesting for us to experiment with 3d-shape for example. Well, and of course it's funny to play with all this when it interacts. Generally we test everything with Blender game engine based on Bullet physics platform.

In general, the sense of this project is artistic. It's a work of art for us and a self-search through creative act. A search for an understanding... understandign of the nature of reality. Maybe we can tell people about something that is worth of this with our own ways. Soundtrack free download: http://www.reverbnation.com/tonuxgix/song/23180428-flat-paradigm-feat-matilda