Reaction Diffusion In Photoshop

Reaction Diffusion is an algorithm that mimics the chemical process that's responsible for a lot of patterns we see in the natural world. The stripes on a zebra, the spots on a cheetah or giraffe. Fish have these sorts of patterns, plants, coral, etc. And considering how often these patterns appear in nature, its amazing how little commercial software there is out there to create them. Here's a trick in Photoshop that, while not as full featured as a dedicated piece of software, can still make some really interesting reaction-diffusion type patterns.
Based on a technique by SkyBase, original video here:
vimeo.com/6115...
To download the photoshop actions, visit here and download from the bottom of the page: www.neilblevins...
For more info and other lessons, please visit www.neilblevins...

[@miningbay9354]

I can trip with this for hours just with dots and black holes.

[@VSWRKS]

So much fun! Thank you for sharing this!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

No problem, glad you enjoyed it!

[@VSWRKS]

@@ArtOfSoulburn you rock! Your whole channel is a cornucopia of resources!

This is truly remarkable! During my experimentation, I realized that it also incorporates edge detection. I sincerely appreciate your generous contribution in sharing such an exceptional thought process with us. Thank you!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Yup, you don't have to use edge detection, but I found it helps get the sorts of patterns I'm looking for. Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@raf.visuals]

This is such a unusual video. And because of that, its soooo cool. Thanks for doing this. I need to take a afternoon free to try this out, definitely!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Awesome, glad you found it inspiring!

[@echopathy]

In psychology there's a term called Reactive Abuse. This kinda reminds me of that 😀 That they naturally find their peace/space in the world, it could act a good lesson for people and that yin yang balance of things.. Another great lesson, Mr. Blevins! Still using the maxScripts! Happy 2023!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks, glad you found it interesting and applicable to other areas of study :)

[@petermgruhn]

Original KPT... sigh. RIP. I would adore that m-set filter back. And many of the others. That was a GOOD product.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

It was super useful, so wish it still existed.

[@porkpieSamurai]

Such an exciting presentation and looking forward to trying this out to texture aquatic animals. Thanks so much for sharing this .

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks Chris, have fun experimenting!

[@ArnoReels]

Very interesting, will definitely play around with this!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Awesome, glad you like it!

[@Heisenburg17]

Thank you! That's fascinating!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Glad you liked it!

[@geetbhatt8846]

It's brilliant.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks!

[@crustysoda]

interesting, set of transformations mentioned in photoshop is similar to non-linear activation in neural network

[@studionotwar]

There is a software called reaDDy which is super cool to play with. Additionally, what I like to do with this technique in photoshop is to test how a action reacts and then edit the image to your liking in between iterations. That way you're able to steer the RD effect to your liking a bit.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Cool, will check out reaDDY. I've certainly seen a number of reaction diffusion software out there in the experimental realm, just wish there were more commercial ones. And haven't tried editing the image as I go, that sounds like a cool idea, certainly will give you more control over the results. Great suggestion!

[@DaviCamelier]

Amazing! but, why the HIGHPASS? What it do?

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

So in this case, highpass mostly finds the edges of your shapes. Give it a try in photoshop, make a set of black circles, run highpass, and see that it makes the edges of the circles white. Then the threshold make the images more contrasty, then blur causes that pattern to spread.

[@Anonymous_User69]

Quite interesting and organic results! I do wonder if there is a possibility of replicating this workflow in Substance Designer or Painter

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Likely yes. You'd just need a loop that does similar filters over and over again. I also got it working in FilterForge, another photoshop plugin.

[@Xoliul]

It is already. Built in as default node for Designer. Works instant, no need to click a macro 50 times ;)

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

@@Xoliul Cool, didn't realize they had a built in node. Will look into it!

[@RikiB]

Yeah I think designer has some very similar nodes. Maybe not exactly but close. You can use noises and edge detects and stuff

[@AEmiliusLives]

I get a 404 when I try to download the photoshop actions :(

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

So for some reason, if you right click and save as, it will download, but if you just click the link, it won't. So give the right click a try.

[@AEmiliusLives]

@@ArtOfSoulburn That doesn't work either. I did it first, and got "Failed - No file", so I clicked on it and got "404 - File or directory not found. The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable." It's not there.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

@@AEmiliusLives Ok, I think I figured it out. Because it's an action file, some virusscanners will not let you access it, in case it may be a virus. I've zipped up the file now and put the link to that. Let me know if that works for you.

[@AEmiliusLives]

@@ArtOfSoulburn That worked! Thanks! 👍