Procedural Texture using Voronoi Function

[Ldina]

I want to create a Procedural Texture filter preset using one of the Voronoi functions, but can't seem to make it work. I know there's a standard Voronoi Filter, but it is very limited...basically size and line thickness. I was hoping to be able to create a PT filter that allows me to adjust size, shape, line thickness, distortion, blur, etc. 

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, but I can't get the Voronoi functions (i.e., cellnoise, cellnoise2, cellnoisedist, cellnoiseedge) to do anything at all.

Can anyone provide some examples that work to get me pointed in the right direction?

I'm using v2.3.1 on a Mac running Ventura.

Thanks.

[v_kyr]

Just search after that materia via the net and look through the results if something matches to what you are concreate after ...

• affinity procedural texture voronoi    (generic Google search)
• procedural texture voronoi site:forum.affinity.serif.com   (generic Google forum search)
• Create texture with Voronoi. Affinity photo beginner tutorial  (Youtube video)
• Affinity Photo Procedural Textures for Absolute Beginners: 101.1  (Forum written tutorial)
• tutorial affinity procedural texture    (generic Google search)
• https://www.katsbits.com/codex/water-caustics-affinity/  (Water Caustics using Voronoi Affinity Photo)
• Procedural Texture Basics (in Affinity Photo)  (Youtube video)
• Procedural Texture  (APh 2 Online Help)
• ...

[Ldina]

@v_kyr Thanks for the links. I've actually seen, watched or read many of them before. The "Water Caustics" link was very interesting and new to me. 

Serif should provide more examples and add more in the "Notes" column for the various functions in their online help so we knew what each of them do. I'm not a mathematician or a computer programmer, so it's tough to know what most of these functions do or how to use them. If they had a more complete online guide for PT, with plenty of examples, it would make Procedural Textures more accessible to users. That would benefit users and Serif, as well. At present, it's "hunt & peck", and I'll bet many users either give up or don't even try. I'll keep "pecking away" and see what I can manage to come up with. 

Thanks again.

[NotMyFault]

On 1/13/2024 at 6:23 PM, Ldina said:

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, but I can't get the Voronoi functions (i.e., cellnoise, cellnoise2, cellnoisedist, cellnoiseedge) to do anything at all.

Some of the functions are simply broken and do not work at all, or documentation is simply wrong about number / type of parameters.

despite the procedural texture is listed as filter, it is actually less powerful and more an adjustment. 

For Vornoi functionality, you would need a blur functionality: calculate an average color over multiple x/y positions. This is not possible in PT filter. You can only access the actual x/y position but no color values from neighboring pixels.

 

PS: just raised this one.

 

[Ldina]

@NotMyFault Thanks for the response. I was finally able to get the Voronoi function to work as a Procedural Texture, (with help online and the addition of other functions....beyond my knowledge), but you are right, Voronoi lacks important functionality, like distorting shapes, rounding corners, blur, etc. The parameters often need to be very large or very small to make some functions work at all. 

Even if the PT filter is limited, it is still very powerful and should be documented better. If more people can do cool things with PT filters, without so much struggle, I think it would be to Serif's advantage. They don't have a Filter Gallery, like Photoshop, so we have to rely more on things like PT. 

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't know many of the functions are broken or don't have the parameters properly documented. That may be a part of my struggle to learn it.

[NotMyFault]

I spent countless hours to work with PT filter, apply image, equations filter etc. Really nice in principle, but so many shortcomings, bugs, lack of documentation. Even after specifically requesting documentation the answer was "this is a standard library we use" without any further details (which library, where to find more documentation).

I searched more and found loose relation to OpenGL and other GPU APIs.

[Ldina]

@NotMyFault Thanks.

Sorry to hear that. Not to beat this to death, but it seems in Serif's best interest to support these features better. They've already built the infrastructure (even f it doesn't ALL work), so why not just a little more effort to help us use it or find resources that will enable us to learn more? 

Anyway, thanks again. 

[v_kyr]

3 hours ago, Ldina said:

... Serif should provide more examples and add more in the "Notes" column for the various functions in their online help so we knew what each of them do. I'm not a mathematician or a computer programmer, so it's tough to know what most of these functions do or how to use them. If they had a more complete online guide for PT, with plenty of examples, it would make Procedural Textures more accessible to users. That would benefit users and Serif, as well. At present, it's "hunt & peck", and I'll bet many users either give up or don't even try. I'll keep "pecking away" and see what I can manage to come up with. ...

For sure the whole could probably be better documented! - However, personally I don't use those PT + Voronoi filter things in APh at all, as I'm more used to do such things -if I need them- via Python scripting. Though there you also need to know what certain functions of the several Python modules & libs therefor do offer and what they finally do (also in a mathematics sense).

[Ldina]

@v_kyr Interesting. I know nothing about Python or Scripting. I have a reasonably good understanding of the Affinity Apps, and I am trying to learn some of the basics of Blender, so my plate is pretty full. I have had some fun and success using Procedural Textures, but Serif could really help make it easier and less painful for those of us who aren't mathematicians or programmers.

Affinity's Help Manual is often technically accurate, but not always very "helpful", in my opinion. 

Despite my frustration, I enjoy the Affinity Suite, so overall, I'm happy using it.