12 ms·

Show HN: PolyGen App, turn gradients and photos into pretty low poly patterns

108 points by nbartlomiej 12y ago

robinhoodexe 12y ago
I like it
btbuildem 12y ago
Crop seems constrained to the aspect ratio of the original image - is that a bug or a feature?
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  Crop aspect ratio matches the "Size" setting, located one screen earlier; so it's a feature for now. I plan to revisit the crop screen sometime in future and bring more control there. Thanks for your comment!
andrewrice 12y ago
Reminds me a bit of "trianglify", a low-poly background generator built on d3.js: https://github.com/qrohlf/trianglify https://github.com/qrohlf/trianglify
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  I've tried d3.js, but decided to go with iron wallaby's delaunay (https://github.com/ironwallaby/delaunay https://github.com/ironwallaby/delaunay) implementation for performance reasons. The difference was especially visible when working with photos.
mbrock 12y ago
I'm curious about how well this works on videos...
KnightHawk3 12y ago
Why did you decide to make this mobile only? Personally I would use it the most from my computer, considered a port ;)
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  I'll be happy to make a desktop version if users want it. Comment here, reply to this tweet (https://twitter.com/polygenapp/status/560846810735206400 https://twitter.com/polygenapp/status/560846810735206400 ) or let me know in any way if you're interested. Edit - And as for "why mobile-first", I wanted to make the app casual and approachable. You can take a photo of your teacup and have a cool low poly version of it in an instant. Or generate a pretty colourful wallpaper with one tap. But I'd love to build a desktop version too. Larger screen and finer control over the pointer would give some new possibilities. Edit 2 - In case somebody didn't notice, you can generate a wallpaper for your desktop from the mobile app. Just choose a desktop option in the "Size" setting.
  - lumpypua 12y ago
    My upvote on this comment is my indication that I'm interested in the computer version. :)
  - welshguy 12y ago
    Me too :-)
  - windsurfer 12y ago
    10 years ago, I would never have guessed that I would be finding a new application on my laptop, sending a link to my phone, installing the app on my phone, generating an image, and then emailing myself an attachment back to my laptop to be used as my desktop background.
- sfall 12y ago
  the app does have built in resolution for macbook retina displays
gravitronic 12y ago
my favorite bot in this gene is on twitter: https://twitter.com/lowpolybot https://twitter.com/lowpolybot
- rev_bird 12y ago
  Took a look at what it was doing, but recently it seems to mostly be engaged in ongoing conversations with other bots spitting out nonsense images.
WhitneyLand 12y ago
It's nice, good work. I wonder if you might be better off without the ads though. Not much revenue, and without them you can possibly build a bigger user base as a reputation point for your resume.
- ctdonath 12y ago
  $1 may be too much friction at this point. Not something most people consider must-have, but willing to put up with ads to fiddle with.
  - kristopolous 12y ago
    I think the suggestion was to give a clean version of the thing away
- juliendorra 12y ago
  The ad made me buy the in-app purchase instantly, even before trying (it's placed nearly in the way of the action button). So in my case, the ad worked as a immediate trigger to pay. (I would have bought it a 1€ directly in the store, without any hesitation, too. So it made no difference in the end. I'm just a little annoyed that in the future I might have to restore my purchase).
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
o0-0o 12y ago
Crashes constantly using a google galaxy Nexus. I would love to have it work though.
ThomPete 12y ago
I am surprised nothing showed up on the mac app store for "low poly art" I would pay for such an app.
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  I'll be looking into it. Similar topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8967391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8967391 .
- jawngee 12y ago
  http://dmesh.thedofl.com http://dmesh.thedofl.com
ubercow 12y ago
I'm getting a force close when trying to choose a picture on a Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note II. I have no experience with android development and don't know how the force close reports work, but one was sent and I hope you can figure out the bug. Really looking forward to trying this out! Will be great for wallpapers.
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  I'll be looking into it. In the meantime you might experiment with a different camera (pick "System" in the "Camera & Gallery" option). And many thanks for your comment.
  - AndrewHampton 12y ago
    It looks very nice, but it's crashing on my LG G3 as soon as it loads. I see a white background and red/pink banner at the top for about 3 seconds, then it auto-closes. I'll keep it around and watch for auto-updates and hope it's fixed.
    - nbartlomiej 12y ago
      There's a bug in Crosswalk which causes crashes on LG G3 (https://lists.crosswalk-project.org/pipermail/crosswalk-help/2014-October/000506.html https://lists.crosswalk-project.org/pipermail/crosswalk-help..., https://crosswalk-project.org/jira/browse/XWALK-3365 https://crosswalk-project.org/jira/browse/XWALK-3365). I will be looking for a workaround. Thank you for reporting the issue.
  - AndrewHampton 12y ago
    It looks very nice, but it's crashing on my LG G3 as soon as it loads. I see a white background and red/pink banner at the top for about 3 seconds, then it auto-closes. I'll keep it around and watch for auto-updates and hope it's fixed.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
rebel 12y ago
Pretty cool app! If you're interested in adding an option to sell prints, I'd love to help. You can reach me at interest at printdropper.com
k__ 12y ago
Crashes when choosing a picture on Ascend Mate. The back-button gets hidden per default and when used he doesn't go back to the main menu but leaves the app.
ctdonath 12y ago
The regenerate button seems to cycle (inconsistently?) thru the grain sizes. Undesirable; if I pick a grain size and regenerate, I'm looking for a suitable arrangement at that size. Otherwise, nifty!
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  The "refresh" button randomises as much as it can, but you can prevent a section from being randomised by "locking" it (clicking on the tiny lock icon). So you can pick a size, lock it and hit "refresh" as much as you wish. I'm glad that you like the app, cheers!
  - ctdonath 12y ago
    Ah, didn't realize "refresh" was randomizing my prior-chosen settings; thought it should just re-apply those settings to the randomization process.
kaoD 12y ago
I can't try the app (stuck on a Gingerbread phone) but it seems fun. I'm eager to try it. As far as I can tell, the user chooses the location of triangle vertices, right? It would be interesting to try a genetic algorithm there though it probably fits best in a desktop version. Also, did you experiment with Voronoi diagrams instead of triangulation?
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  For abstract patterns, points are chosen "randomly" (grid with randomised offsets). For photo-based ones, I'm using JSFeat's YAPE06 (http://inspirit.github.io/jsfeat/#features2dcorner http://inspirit.github.io/jsfeat/#features2dcorner), plus some own customisations. I'm constantly looking for ways to improve generating photo-based patterns; if anyone has some ideas here, I'd be happy to listen. I've played with genetic algorithms, but without anything practical. Indeed, this might be more appropriate for desktops. I've experimented with Voronoi too, but the results weren't as pretty. The cells were more rounded; and the low poly style was gone.
davidrusu 12y ago
looks like it could be interesting but very obnoxious ads
- georgechen 12y ago
  You can support the developer via In-app purchase to get rid of those ads you know.
  - davidrusu 12y ago
    really.. how am I supposed to be a millionaire if I throw money away like that??
cordite 12y ago
This reminds me of voronoi diagrams, except the vertices seem to be applied as a best-fit around contrast and hue differences--then the cell being filled with the average color of such.
- ihaveajob 12y ago
  Beautiful. I bet you could get some very nice results if you use a Voronoi diagram using the color gradient as distance function. Even better if you chose points not randomly, but based on the slope of this distance, so they're concentrated in "feature points".
nuclearghost 12y ago
Running on iPhone 5 with iOS7 seeing a weird issue where only about the top third of the photo is rendering. Works fine when rendering with colors. Anyone else seen something like this?
sauravt 12y ago
Oh man I am working on a very similar app, you beat me to it. :)
mcmancini 12y ago
Neat app. A cool feature would be the ability to extract colors from a photo (like Adobe Kuler) and use those in the Abstract Colors pattern.
sunspeck 12y ago
Haven't tried it out yet, but looks nice. Surprised to see that this wasn't authored by Mario Klingemann, creator of the very clever LowpolyBot: http://lowpolybot.tumblr.com/ http://lowpolybot.tumblr.com/
tenken 12y ago
Show HN, version 3.x ..... soooo not "new" ? :) but it looks nice! downloading now.
avmich 12y ago
Is it similar to this approach - http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolution-of-mona-lisa/ http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolut... - ?
- nbartlomiej 12y ago
  No, it's different. Here I've described how I'm working with photo-based patterns: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8968113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8968113 . More technical details on PolyGen's Medium: https://medium.com/@polygenapp https://medium.com/@polygenapp .
coryl 12y ago
I've been paying an artist $15 per picture to do this for a project :O
normloman 12y ago
1996-2004 | Gradients and bevels on everything. 2005-2010 | Concentric vector circles on everything. 2011-Present | Gradients with triangles on everything. In all seriousness, this is a nice idea, but it seems really limited for just an app. It should be a photoshop filter! (or I'm sure GIMP could use some love)

108 points by nbartlomiej 12y ago

robinhoodexe 12y ago

I like it

btbuildem 12y ago

Crop seems constrained to the aspect ratio of the original image - is that a bug or a feature?

nbartlomiej 12y ago
Crop aspect ratio matches the "Size" setting, located one screen earlier; so it's a feature for now. I plan to revisit the crop screen sometime in future and bring more control there. Thanks for your comment!

andrewrice 12y ago

Reminds me a bit of "trianglify", a low-poly background generator built on d3.js: https://github.com/qrohlf/trianglify https://github.com/qrohlf/trianglify

nbartlomiej 12y ago
I've tried d3.js, but decided to go with iron wallaby's delaunay (https://github.com/ironwallaby/delaunay https://github.com/ironwallaby/delaunay) implementation for performance reasons. The difference was especially visible when working with photos.

mbrock 12y ago

I'm curious about how well this works on videos...

KnightHawk3 12y ago

Why did you decide to make this mobile only? Personally I would use it the most from my computer, considered a port ;)

nbartlomiej 12y ago
I'll be happy to make a desktop version if users want it. Comment here, reply to this tweet (https://twitter.com/polygenapp/status/560846810735206400 https://twitter.com/polygenapp/status/560846810735206400 ) or let me know in any way if you're interested. Edit - And as for "why mobile-first", I wanted to make the app casual and approachable. You can take a photo of your teacup and have a cool low poly version of it in an instant. Or generate a pretty colourful wallpaper with one tap. But I'd love to build a desktop version too. Larger screen and finer control over the pointer would give some new possibilities. Edit 2 - In case somebody didn't notice, you can generate a wallpaper for your desktop from the mobile app. Just choose a desktop option in the "Size" setting.
- lumpypua 12y ago
  My upvote on this comment is my indication that I'm interested in the computer version. :)
- welshguy 12y ago
  Me too :-)
- windsurfer 12y ago
  10 years ago, I would never have guessed that I would be finding a new application on my laptop, sending a link to my phone, installing the app on my phone, generating an image, and then emailing myself an attachment back to my laptop to be used as my desktop background.
sfall 12y ago
the app does have built in resolution for macbook retina displays

gravitronic 12y ago

my favorite bot in this gene is on twitter: https://twitter.com/lowpolybot https://twitter.com/lowpolybot

rev_bird 12y ago
Took a look at what it was doing, but recently it seems to mostly be engaged in ongoing conversations with other bots spitting out nonsense images.

WhitneyLand 12y ago

It's nice, good work. I wonder if you might be better off without the ads though. Not much revenue, and without them you can possibly build a bigger user base as a reputation point for your resume.

ctdonath 12y ago
$1 may be too much friction at this point. Not something most people consider must-have, but willing to put up with ads to fiddle with.
- kristopolous 12y ago
  I think the suggestion was to give a clean version of the thing away
juliendorra 12y ago
The ad made me buy the in-app purchase instantly, even before trying (it's placed nearly in the way of the action button). So in my case, the ad worked as a immediate trigger to pay. (I would have bought it a 1€ directly in the store, without any hesitation, too. So it made no difference in the end. I'm just a little annoyed that in the future I might have to restore my purchase).

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

o0-0o 12y ago

Crashes constantly using a google galaxy Nexus. I would love to have it work though.

ThomPete 12y ago

I am surprised nothing showed up on the mac app store for "low poly art" I would pay for such an app.

nbartlomiej 12y ago
I'll be looking into it. Similar topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8967391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8967391 .
jawngee 12y ago
http://dmesh.thedofl.com http://dmesh.thedofl.com

ubercow 12y ago

I'm getting a force close when trying to choose a picture on a Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note II. I have no experience with android development and don't know how the force close reports work, but one was sent and I hope you can figure out the bug. Really looking forward to trying this out! Will be great for wallpapers.

nbartlomiej 12y ago
I'll be looking into it. In the meantime you might experiment with a different camera (pick "System" in the "Camera & Gallery" option). And many thanks for your comment.
- AndrewHampton 12y ago
  It looks very nice, but it's crashing on my LG G3 as soon as it loads. I see a white background and red/pink banner at the top for about 3 seconds, then it auto-closes. I'll keep it around and watch for auto-updates and hope it's fixed.
  - nbartlomiej 12y ago
    There's a bug in Crosswalk which causes crashes on LG G3 (https://lists.crosswalk-project.org/pipermail/crosswalk-help/2014-October/000506.html https://lists.crosswalk-project.org/pipermail/crosswalk-help..., https://crosswalk-project.org/jira/browse/XWALK-3365 https://crosswalk-project.org/jira/browse/XWALK-3365). I will be looking for a workaround. Thank you for reporting the issue.
- AndrewHampton 12y ago
  It looks very nice, but it's crashing on my LG G3 as soon as it loads. I see a white background and red/pink banner at the top for about 3 seconds, then it auto-closes. I'll keep it around and watch for auto-updates and hope it's fixed.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

rebel 12y ago

Pretty cool app! If you're interested in adding an option to sell prints, I'd love to help. You can reach me at interest at printdropper.com

k__ 12y ago

Crashes when choosing a picture on Ascend Mate. The back-button gets hidden per default and when used he doesn't go back to the main menu but leaves the app.

ctdonath 12y ago

The regenerate button seems to cycle (inconsistently?) thru the grain sizes. Undesirable; if I pick a grain size and regenerate, I'm looking for a suitable arrangement at that size. Otherwise, nifty!

nbartlomiej 12y ago
The "refresh" button randomises as much as it can, but you can prevent a section from being randomised by "locking" it (clicking on the tiny lock icon). So you can pick a size, lock it and hit "refresh" as much as you wish. I'm glad that you like the app, cheers!
- ctdonath 12y ago
  Ah, didn't realize "refresh" was randomizing my prior-chosen settings; thought it should just re-apply those settings to the randomization process.

kaoD 12y ago

I can't try the app (stuck on a Gingerbread phone) but it seems fun. I'm eager to try it. As far as I can tell, the user chooses the location of triangle vertices, right? It would be interesting to try a genetic algorithm there though it probably fits best in a desktop version. Also, did you experiment with Voronoi diagrams instead of triangulation?

nbartlomiej 12y ago
For abstract patterns, points are chosen "randomly" (grid with randomised offsets). For photo-based ones, I'm using JSFeat's YAPE06 (http://inspirit.github.io/jsfeat/#features2dcorner http://inspirit.github.io/jsfeat/#features2dcorner), plus some own customisations. I'm constantly looking for ways to improve generating photo-based patterns; if anyone has some ideas here, I'd be happy to listen. I've played with genetic algorithms, but without anything practical. Indeed, this might be more appropriate for desktops. I've experimented with Voronoi too, but the results weren't as pretty. The cells were more rounded; and the low poly style was gone.

davidrusu 12y ago

looks like it could be interesting but very obnoxious ads

georgechen 12y ago
You can support the developer via In-app purchase to get rid of those ads you know.
- davidrusu 12y ago
  really.. how am I supposed to be a millionaire if I throw money away like that??

cordite 12y ago

This reminds me of voronoi diagrams, except the vertices seem to be applied as a best-fit around contrast and hue differences--then the cell being filled with the average color of such.

ihaveajob 12y ago
Beautiful. I bet you could get some very nice results if you use a Voronoi diagram using the color gradient as distance function. Even better if you chose points not randomly, but based on the slope of this distance, so they're concentrated in "feature points".

nuclearghost 12y ago

Running on iPhone 5 with iOS7 seeing a weird issue where only about the top third of the photo is rendering. Works fine when rendering with colors. Anyone else seen something like this?

sauravt 12y ago

Oh man I am working on a very similar app, you beat me to it. :)

mcmancini 12y ago

Neat app. A cool feature would be the ability to extract colors from a photo (like Adobe Kuler) and use those in the Abstract Colors pattern.

sunspeck 12y ago

Haven't tried it out yet, but looks nice. Surprised to see that this wasn't authored by Mario Klingemann, creator of the very clever LowpolyBot: http://lowpolybot.tumblr.com/ http://lowpolybot.tumblr.com/

tenken 12y ago

Show HN, version 3.x ..... soooo not "new" ? :) but it looks nice! downloading now.

avmich 12y ago

Is it similar to this approach - http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolution-of-mona-lisa/ http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolut... - ?

nbartlomiej 12y ago
No, it's different. Here I've described how I'm working with photo-based patterns: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8968113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8968113 . More technical details on PolyGen's Medium: https://medium.com/@polygenapp https://medium.com/@polygenapp .

coryl 12y ago

I've been paying an artist $15 per picture to do this for a project :O

normloman 12y ago

1996-2004 | Gradients and bevels on everything. 2005-2010 | Concentric vector circles on everything. 2011-Present | Gradients with triangles on everything. In all seriousness, this is a nice idea, but it seems really limited for just an app. It should be a photoshop filter! (or I'm sure GIMP could use some love)