Inigo Quilez   ::     ::  
1402 blog posts, written between 2008 and 2016. These are mostly short observations, funny thoughts and word playing. Some are embarrasingly corny, some more deep. I keep it here mostly a little time capsule for myself, organized by month:



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December 2015
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hello 2014!!
2015-12-31
I got all E-mails from 2013 replied, finally! Hello 2014!
1/z in the plane
2015-12-29
A friend was asking, why do 3D rendering rasterizers use inverse depth (1/z) as interpolant instead of depth (z)? Perfect opportunity to do some math pseudo-doodling and kill some time in the airplane (thanks, free WiFi!).

The answer is: "if you take two points on the surface of a polgon and project them into the screen, you'll see the the difference of the pixel is proportional to the difference in inverse of their depths".

backfiring
2015-12-27
wholefoods and mcdonalds

somehow working together against universal access to quality food
there's clearly a pattern here
2015-12-25
Article: "The 10 most difficult colleges to access". Photo: cheerleaders with big boobs.

Article: "20 amazing science facts". Photo: seductive open cleavage woman with glasses and a ruler.

Article: "10 tricks you won't be able to live without". Photo: big boobs girl posing with a plastic bottle and duct tape in her each hand.

Article: "15 things about the ocean you didn't know". Photo: big boobed girl in bikini. Not even in the ocean.

We all see the pattern here. So let's ask ourselves, why do facts always come in multiples of 5?

mathematical snail
2015-12-23
This new procedural / mathematical image is probably my best so far. Right after making the last one, the mathematical Arlo, I realized that I made the big mistake to not put any story into the drawing, to not give the character an any intention. So I decided to make a new formulanimation and address this. I made a mathematical snail, leave, water drops and fuzzy background, and did the composition such that the snail is reaching for the fresh drops after rain on the leave. Because snails like doing that, if you ever had a childhood in the countryside you'll know this well.

I think it was successful. I also gave quite some love to the surfaces and lighting. In fact, I cheated the lighting the hell out of it, adding fake color bounces and silhouetting the shapes in very non-physical ways. It turned out pretty, I am happy.

Somebody mentioned the shell is spiraling in the wrong direction and in the wrong side of the body. But I'll ignore it. It's not a physically based painting anyways.

As usual, the whole formula and code is open and live for you to inspect: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ld3Gz2

then proud, now guilty
2015-12-21
Today I solved a problem at work using an Hex editor. The teenager in me was very happy, but the professional in me felt really guilty.
i despair of you
2015-12-19
on the other hand, sadly enough, it seems email threads can contain only one active though at any given a time. if more, recipients will prune the rest on their response them by addressing the first one only :(
i stress for you
2015-12-17
there are two types of people, those who like having dozens of tabs opened in their browser at the same time, and those who stress out right after the fourth one.

i am of the second, only that i also stress out why i'm simply looking at the browser of somebody of the first type.
transition times
2015-12-15
Launching VR apps from Windows 10 feels quite like when we used to invoke Win3.1 from DOS.

a glimpse to the future from an old platform
mathematical arlo
2015-12-13
This weekend I made a new mathematical image, inspired by the movie The Good Dinosaur, for which I made terrains and grass and rocks and bushes and weeds and crops and pebbles and debris and mulch and other stuff I am forgetting. Yet none of those things are present in this image below (other than some primitive rocks and a basic terrain). Instead I decided to focus on making a mathematical version of Arlo, the main character. I didn't have time to pose his head in an interesting way because the weekend was coming to and end and that was my deadline for the challenge. I eye balled all shapes and proportions of course, as usual, so it's only "inspired" by the actual character. Anyways, here it goes, a bunch of equations for your pleasure, with source code available and all:

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4dtGWM

economozing what?
2015-12-11
people who say "oh, em, geeeee" - first of all, why do you exist. secondly, what exactly are you trying to economize here?

feeling grumpy today
cannon of proportions
2015-12-09
i have a problem with exponentiation
2015-12-07
addition is commutative. multiplication is commutative. but exponentiation is not. which pisses me off. because sometimes i like symmetric concepts i suppose?

also, the logarithm seems to serve as a tool to move up and down in the scale of operations. so, log(a*b) = log(a) + log(b), which expresses the commutativeness of the product and addition once again. however, log(a^b) = b·log(a) which breaks the symmetry indeed. one needs to resort to log(ab^ab) = ab·(log(a) + log(b)) to make it symmetric.

it's almost like there's something fishy going on here.

for the science of it
2015-12-05
i did a pregnancy test last night. just for the science of it. it came negative, of course.
do your part, usa
2015-12-03
Many diseases, such as malaria, polio and religion, were recently eradicated in the western world thanks to vaccination and education. However, there's one outlier country where they have certain level of trouble with both remedies, and I plead for their responsibility to do their part and keep the outbreaks under control because we know these infections spread rapidly. Thanks.
empty and predictable
2015-12-01
Template for your Biography as a modern techno-hipster, for when you apply to a meetup, festival or conference. You are welcome!

[Your name] is an { artist | creator | maker | performer | collective } based on { San Francisco, LA, NY, Berlin } working on { investigating | exploring } the connection of { objects and spaces | behaviour and aesthetics | ideas and technologies | perception and social media | structures and rhythms } through { sensory experiences | phenomenological experiments | multisensorial media | audiovisuals | cybernetic interfaces | virtual reality } that run on custom built { designs | interfaces | software | platforms }.

In the author's { performances | installations | projects } the { interdisciplinary juxtaposition | convergence | intersection } of art and technology takes a central role, allowing { him | her } to discover { emergent patterns | artificial life | processes | generative art | chaotic phenomena | metaphors } and develop a { narrative | discourse | dialogue } on { contemporary social commentary | political critique }.