![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/17\/beetle05a.png?w=545\")
Made from the original, below, using Block Wave with default settings on a resized (enlarged) version<\/center><\/p>\n
I wonder how many of us, capable of doing so many things, would be reduced to only one single, useful, function if the people we live or work with could custom configure us? That’s the way I’ve come to look at the digital camera program, showFoto<\/a>. Sure, it’s probably useful for handling digital photos (I think that’s where the name comes from) but it’s distortion filter, “Block Wave”, is all I think of when I use the program.<\/p>\n Actually, I guess it’s not really a feature of showFoto but the digiKam<\/a> filter plugin that installs the incredible block wave filter. These are both Linux programs, but I don’t think it matters much since these are fairly plain and generic functions that can be found on any operating system. Although I’m not a programmer or math person, I suspect the block wave filter I’ve used, while not as common as the circular wave, implements algorithms that are relatively simple and have been in use for some time. <\/p>\n That’s where I, the digital coach comes in; paying attention to what works and what doesn’t, and directing the efforts of the passed-over, and laughed-at, filter effect and guiding it onward to Olympic, NBA, and World Cup glory. Another digital Cinderella story.<\/p>\n A few notes: -The image needs to have some fine texture or outlining in it (such as the patterns produced by the India Ink photoshop plugin) in order to produce freaky details, otherwise it just makes globby stuff, which is what most distortions usually do.<\/p>\n -a simple recipe is this: take any image, apply the India Ink plugin (unless it already has clearly defined details), then let ‘er rip!<\/i>(apply filter).<\/p>\n It’s the most creative graphics filter I have ever found; good example of what I like to call “click-art”, simple transforming effects. Better than multicrystal.8bf or uscomic.8bf (and that’s saying a lot). Most distortions filters produce predictable, distorted (ie. ugly) effects, but the effect of this one can be quite creative, although it’s probably a very simple, mechanical process. The “reaction”, or combined effect of the image and the filter, produces something neither of them can really take credit for. (The “Dick and Perry” effect.)<\/p>\n “Block Wave” doesn’t really describe the effect very well, although it may be a good description of its function. Here are some better labels I hope the developers will consider for the next update:<\/p>\n Melting Fog-Cloud Bejeweller<\/p>\n Martian Hieroglyphic Dither<\/p>\n Mayan Secret Script Revealer<\/p>\n Onion Dome Crystal Freeze Pillarizer<\/p>\n Amoeboid Diode Circuit-Board Generator<\/p>\n Alphabet Dissolving Ray<\/p>\n Secret Snail Machine<\/p>\n Alien Fingerprint Spray<\/p>\n Micro-Circuit City Shaper<\/p>\n Martian Undersea Resort Builder<\/p>\n Bubble Pillar Ghost Cloud<\/p>\n Aztec Schematic<\/p>\n Ant World<\/p>\n Liquid Light\/Dripping Mind<\/p>\n Tim Hodkinson<\/a><\/p>\n Technorati Tags: showFoto 0.5.0<\/a> digiKam<\/a> digital art<\/a> fractal art<\/a> block wave<\/a> filters<\/a> algorithmic art<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Made from the original, below, using Block Wave with default settings on a resized (enlarged) version I wonder how many of us, capable of doing so many things, would be reduced to only one single, useful, function if the people we live or work with could custom configure us? That’s the way I’ve come to … Continue reading ![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/17\/beetle05b_orig.png?w=545\")
Original, India Inked fractal from Inkblot Kaos<\/center><\/p>\n
-I don’t know why anyone would ever want to apply this filter to a digital photo, not even me, but that’s where I found it.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/17\/beetle05b.png?w=545\")
Block Waved in showFoto using default settings<\/center><\/p>\n