imaginator

imaginator is an interactive image generator!

How to "play":

• Select the image you prefer from the grid by clicking on one of the nine icons or via the num-pad keys [7-8-9 / 4-5-6 / 1-2-3]. 
• As soon as you select one, the remaining eight are replaced with mutations of your selection.
• You may select the same image more than once, if you want to explore alternate mutations of that image. 
• You may change the mutation intensity by mouse - dragging the green bar on the right, or by using the UP / DOWN arrow keys. A low mutation intensity will tend to generate images that are more similar to your selection, while a high mutation intensity will tend to generate images that are quite different from your selection.
• As soon as you discoveer an image you really like, you may save it to disk at a good resolution (1024 x 1024), by clicking on the large image or by pressing ENTER. imaginator will create a folder next to your executable and store your images there.

By repeating the selection process, imaginator tends to produce interesting or beautiful images, according to your own taste!!

How it works:

imaginator generates images by using a special type of neural networks, called Compositional Pattern - Producing Networks (CPPNs).  More specifically, the images are generated by mapping the pixel coordinates (X, Y) to a vector of (R, G, B) values, through a relatively complex network of various types of functions, such as sinusoidal functions, sawtooth waves, bell curves and others that are not typically used in neural networks. In order to generate variations of images, the system actually mutates the topology and parameters (edge weights and node biases) of those networks, by using a simplified implementation of NEAT (Neuroevolution of augmented topologies).

General information:

I have been working on this generator for some time and decided to publish it in the context of this year's PROCJAM (procedural content generation jam). It also kind-of matches this year's theme, "renewal", but that is admittedly accidental :) . Feel free to use it to generate abstract images for your own projects, within the context of the jam or for any other project!

The project is inspired by older projects that are based on the same idea, such as PicBreeder and EndlessForms. Unfortunately, both of them are built with java - based technologies that are no longer compatible with most browsers. And that is part of the reason why I decided to implement a similar system from scratch. The other part is the joy of reinventing the wheel, of course :).

Technical Info:

This project is being developed in c++ and uses the SFML library as UI / graphics layer.