There are those popular structures we all know and love because they simply look fascinating from every angle – like the Sierpinski triangle, the Pythagoras tree or the Menger sponge.
Generative geometry is one more proof that math is beautiful no matter how basic. Recently I stumbled upon a new pattern that is also phenomenally simple but produces rather complex shapes – the “Binary Kite”. I first saw it in Mikael Hvidtfeldt Christensen’s ‘Structure Synth‘ – an ingenious tool for exploration of generative 3D structures. Basically it’s a 3D array of randomly black/white colored cubes that slightly scale(linear) and rotate(noise) per iteration on one axis.
What makes it look so interesting is that each items transformation matrix is subordinated to its predecessor on that axis. Initially, I played around with the kite in Unity 3D but quickly discovered that it can′t be animated at high iterations.
So I fired up C4D and wrote a simple Py4D generator.
The resultsI did end up with this gorgeous picture of a 30*30*500 cubes kite (5400000 polygons) (fullsize): Here is a closeup from the same viewpoint (fullsize): Want to render your own kite with even more cubes? Grab the scene file here. Update: The file has been updated to work with the R12 version of Cinema 4D. Hint:
Remember to uncheck “Optimize cache” in the Python Generator′s properties if you want to animate the parameters.
ConclusionWhile Structure Synth is awesome, Cinema 4D and Py4D are a great way to visualize generated geometry too as Cinema’s render instances enable you to work with millions of objects.
Cheers
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