03-23-2020, 05:16 PM
I got the feeling that the general-purpose plugins Parameter curves and so on do not raise much enthusiasm. They are mathematical, and my experience is that the mere word mathematics tends to put people off.
So I thought that it might be good to derive from them some specialized plugins. The first one is now available: it draws spirographs.
According to wikipedia, 'spirograph' is a registered trademark. Perhaps I am too sensitive, but I decided to call the plugin 'Spiropath'. It draw spirograph-like curves as Gimp's paths (approximations).
Gimp already includes the plugin SpyroGimp, which I guess comes nowadays automatically when Gimp is installed. But it does not output paths.
I found an old plugin
https://gimper.net/resources/spirograph.624/
that creates paths. But it seems to rely on placing control points densely on the curve. It does allow the user to diminish the number of control points, but then it turns out that between two successive anchors it simply puts a straight line segment.
My plugin outputs a path with a sparse set of anchors, yet it is reasonably accurate. So, it seems that nothing similar exists previously, or am I too optimistic?
To get the plugin, go to
http://kmarkku.arkku.net/
follow the link 'Applications', and click the Download button there. That gives you a .zip file. Unzip it, put the sole .py file into your Gimp's plug-ins folder, and restart Gimp. The plugin 'Spiropath' resides in
Filters/Render/Parametric curves/Special cases
That is a long path, but I don't want to add more items in Render, and I want to separate the special curves from the three general curves. I plan to put there a couple more soon.
A drawback of the plugin is its size: over 5000 lines. I constructed it by putting together most of parametric_curves.py and the example file which draws a spirograph and then developing things a little further.
I hope you will enjoy. At least the curves are pretty.
So I thought that it might be good to derive from them some specialized plugins. The first one is now available: it draws spirographs.
According to wikipedia, 'spirograph' is a registered trademark. Perhaps I am too sensitive, but I decided to call the plugin 'Spiropath'. It draw spirograph-like curves as Gimp's paths (approximations).
Gimp already includes the plugin SpyroGimp, which I guess comes nowadays automatically when Gimp is installed. But it does not output paths.
I found an old plugin
https://gimper.net/resources/spirograph.624/
that creates paths. But it seems to rely on placing control points densely on the curve. It does allow the user to diminish the number of control points, but then it turns out that between two successive anchors it simply puts a straight line segment.
My plugin outputs a path with a sparse set of anchors, yet it is reasonably accurate. So, it seems that nothing similar exists previously, or am I too optimistic?
To get the plugin, go to
http://kmarkku.arkku.net/
follow the link 'Applications', and click the Download button there. That gives you a .zip file. Unzip it, put the sole .py file into your Gimp's plug-ins folder, and restart Gimp. The plugin 'Spiropath' resides in
Filters/Render/Parametric curves/Special cases
That is a long path, but I don't want to add more items in Render, and I want to separate the special curves from the three general curves. I plan to put there a couple more soon.
A drawback of the plugin is its size: over 5000 lines. I constructed it by putting together most of parametric_curves.py and the example file which draws a spirograph and then developing things a little further.
I hope you will enjoy. At least the curves are pretty.
