7 ms·

Show HN: In memory of Bob Ross, a simple painting generator, Gogh

90 points by ngokevin 14y ago

Currently features the sky, the ground, and a tree. Happy little clouds are in progress.

morsch 14y ago
Very nice. I was sad to see it stop when it had done the tree. The Joy of Painting is great (Bob Ross Incorporated, not so much). I don't think I'd ever hang one of those quaint images on a wall. But the quick techniques to achieve a certain effect are fascinating, at least to an ignoramus like me, e.g. pushing down with a certain brush to get tree branches, or swooshing down on previously drawn stuff to create reflections on water. Incidentally, I've always thought there was something almost algorithmic to it: the motives themselves were really formulaic, and the techniques reminded me of certain Photoshop tools and brush effects. The submission is a fantastic start, but I think you could go much farther than that.
- ngokevin 14y ago
  Thanks for the encouragement! I'm still going to keep going, but I wanted to submit it close to Bob Ross's anniversary. I was planning to do mountains next.
moepstar 14y ago
Nice - but needs more happy little clouds :)
- Vivtek 14y ago
  Or a happy little bird.
Toshio 14y ago
I may use these generated pictures as backgrounds for slide presentations, so it would be nice to hear if the author is fine with that. What license is the resulting picture subject to?
- wolfhumble 14y ago
  I am not the creator, but in the spirit of Bob Ross the only natural thing would be to liberate it: "It's your world" :-)
- ngokevin 14y ago
  It's under the Bob Ross license. Go for it. These are CPU suckers, so I'd probably turn down the frame rate.
dsego 14y ago
Happy little trees :)
inetsee 14y ago
Snow-capped mountains :)
Vivtek 14y ago
Cute: "on the second day, ngokevin built the sky [ngokevin]"
lsb 14y ago
It's beautiful. And it's further a demonstration of how magical Bob Ross was; without his narration, it's just an insipid landscape, if the clouds are not happy and little, and the left cloud does not have the right cloud as a friend.
zachinglis 14y ago
This is gorgeous. Though, if in memory of Bob Ross, why is it named after Gogh?
- taybin 14y ago
  The brushstrokes are more in Van Gogh's style. (not the author)
j2labs 14y ago
Where are you based? If you're in NYC or Berlin, you should present this at Hack And Tell! It's great!
- ngokevin 14y ago
  In Oregon. If I was in NYC, I'm not too sure if I would venture out into that weather.
reitzensteinm 14y ago
This is absolutely fantastic! It would be interesting to expand this to allow user control - a bunch of procedural high level brushes. The goal would be to get someone who can't draw able to drastically influence the output, but still make the result look good. Do you mind if I pinch the idea and see what I can come up with in that direction?
- ngokevin 14y ago
  Definitely, go for it. That's what GitHub forks are for right? :)
hannes0x21 14y ago
totally reminds me of http://www.schlussdienst.net/html/canvas-flowers/canvas-flowers.html http://www.schlussdienst.net/html/canvas-flowers/canvas-flow...
tinco 14y ago
Are you guys looking at the same picture as I am? What I see is a weak copy of Bret Victors landscape generator with horrible colours and MSPaint-like strokes. I mean it's nice to have such a thing on your CV, but why post it to HN? (and why upvote it?)
- eru 14y ago
  Could you link to Bret Victor's generator, please?
spideyunlimited 14y ago
Beautiful
inoop 14y ago
For those interested in tightly-coded procedural graphics, have a look here: http://pouet.net/top10.php?type=procedural+graphics&platform=any+platform&x=29&y=16 http://pouet.net/top10.php?type=procedural+graphics&plat...
michaelhoffman 14y ago
I'm going to fork this and make a new version in memory of Vincent van Gogh, which I'll call Bobross.
- ngokevin 14y ago
  Well played.
stinky613 14y ago
This is really cool. How apropos that I just last night started reading PG's book "Hackers & Painters"!
bitwize 14y ago
That made my day -- seeing JavaScript draw me a happy little tree.
corysama 14y ago
You might also appreciate "Automated Landscape Painting in the Style of Bob Ross" http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/poster/alex_NPAR.pdf http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/poster/alex_NPAR.pdf The full paper is behind a membership wall here https://diglib.eg.org https://diglib.eg.org but you can read the first page here https://diglib.eg.org/EG/DL/WS/COMPAESTH/COMPAESTH09/115-122.pdf.abstract.pdf https://diglib.eg.org/EG/DL/WS/COMPAESTH/COMPAESTH09/115-122...
sarah2079 14y ago
Fun, thanks for posting. If this puts anyone in the mood to receive some Bob Ross affirmations, I really enjoyed PBS's Bob Ross remix made earlier this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA

90 points by ngokevin 14y ago

Currently features the sky, the ground, and a tree. Happy little clouds are in progress.

Very nice. I was sad to see it stop when it had done the tree. The Joy of Painting is great (Bob Ross Incorporated, not so much). I don't think I'd ever hang one of those quaint images on a wall. But the quick techniques to achieve a certain effect are fascinating, at least to an ignoramus like me, e.g. pushing down with a certain brush to get tree branches, or swooshing down on previously drawn stuff to create reflections on water. Incidentally, I've always thought there was something almost algorithmic to it: the motives themselves were really formulaic, and the techniques reminded me of certain Photoshop tools and brush effects. The submission is a fantastic start, but I think you could go much farther than that.

ngokevin 14y ago
Thanks for the encouragement! I'm still going to keep going, but I wanted to submit it close to Bob Ross's anniversary. I was planning to do mountains next.

moepstar 14y ago

Nice - but needs more happy little clouds :)

Vivtek 14y ago
Or a happy little bird.

Toshio 14y ago

I may use these generated pictures as backgrounds for slide presentations, so it would be nice to hear if the author is fine with that. What license is the resulting picture subject to?

wolfhumble 14y ago
I am not the creator, but in the spirit of Bob Ross the only natural thing would be to liberate it: "It's your world" :-)
ngokevin 14y ago
It's under the Bob Ross license. Go for it. These are CPU suckers, so I'd probably turn down the frame rate.

dsego 14y ago

Happy little trees :)

inetsee 14y ago

Snow-capped mountains :)

Vivtek 14y ago

Cute: "on the second day, ngokevin built the sky [ngokevin]"

lsb 14y ago

It's beautiful. And it's further a demonstration of how magical Bob Ross was; without his narration, it's just an insipid landscape, if the clouds are not happy and little, and the left cloud does not have the right cloud as a friend.

zachinglis 14y ago

This is gorgeous. Though, if in memory of Bob Ross, why is it named after Gogh?

taybin 14y ago
The brushstrokes are more in Van Gogh's style. (not the author)

j2labs 14y ago

Where are you based? If you're in NYC or Berlin, you should present this at Hack And Tell! It's great!

ngokevin 14y ago
In Oregon. If I was in NYC, I'm not too sure if I would venture out into that weather.

reitzensteinm 14y ago

This is absolutely fantastic! It would be interesting to expand this to allow user control - a bunch of procedural high level brushes. The goal would be to get someone who can't draw able to drastically influence the output, but still make the result look good. Do you mind if I pinch the idea and see what I can come up with in that direction?

ngokevin 14y ago
Definitely, go for it. That's what GitHub forks are for right? :)

hannes0x21 14y ago

totally reminds me of http://www.schlussdienst.net/html/canvas-flowers/canvas-flowers.html http://www.schlussdienst.net/html/canvas-flowers/canvas-flow...

tinco 14y ago

Are you guys looking at the same picture as I am? What I see is a weak copy of Bret Victors landscape generator with horrible colours and MSPaint-like strokes. I mean it's nice to have such a thing on your CV, but why post it to HN? (and why upvote it?)

eru 14y ago
Could you link to Bret Victor's generator, please?

spideyunlimited 14y ago

Beautiful

inoop 14y ago

For those interested in tightly-coded procedural graphics, have a look here: http://pouet.net/top10.php?type=procedural+graphics&platform=any+platform&x=29&y=16 http://pouet.net/top10.php?type=procedural+graphics&plat...

michaelhoffman 14y ago

I'm going to fork this and make a new version in memory of Vincent van Gogh, which I'll call Bobross.

ngokevin 14y ago
Well played.

stinky613 14y ago

This is really cool. How apropos that I just last night started reading PG's book "Hackers & Painters"!

bitwize 14y ago

That made my day -- seeing JavaScript draw me a happy little tree.

corysama 14y ago

You might also appreciate "Automated Landscape Painting in the Style of Bob Ross" http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/poster/alex_NPAR.pdf http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/poster/alex_NPAR.pdf The full paper is behind a membership wall here https://diglib.eg.org https://diglib.eg.org but you can read the first page here https://diglib.eg.org/EG/DL/WS/COMPAESTH/COMPAESTH09/115-122.pdf.abstract.pdf https://diglib.eg.org/EG/DL/WS/COMPAESTH/COMPAESTH09/115-122...

sarah2079 14y ago

Fun, thanks for posting. If this puts anyone in the mood to receive some Bob Ross affirmations, I really enjoyed PBS's Bob Ross remix made earlier this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA