2022 National Chengchi University "Introduction to Generative Art" course record

Last year, 2022 was invited by Mr. Tao Yalun, Director of Digital Content Program of National Chengchi University, to teach the "Blockchain Application" course for one semester. Originally, the teaching content was not specified, as long as it conformed to the course name. In terms of "application", everything from smart contract development to NFT or DAO should be included. But since it is up to me to open it, of course I will teach the generative art that excites me the most! So although this course is called blockchain applications, I will actually call it "A Preliminary Exploration of the Metaverse-Introduction to Generative Art"

I used to lead workshops a lot. Recently, generative art has gradually emerged. Occasionally, someone would ask if it is possible to open a generative art workshop. But it is not easy to fully teach about generative art because of the wide range of knowledge covered. The reason why Generative Art has developed in the past two years is closely related to NFT technology. If you only teach creation but don't teach the operation of the blockchain, or let the works be sold on the shelves, then it doesn't feel like itching. But if you want to talk about the blockchain, it usually takes 2 hours just to talk about the basic concepts, not to mention teaching creation. Usually a 3 hour workshop is not enough time

So this invitation by Teacher Tao, I think it is a good opportunity to make good use of the whole semester to teach slowly from the beginning. Therefore, I planned the blockchain-related knowledge, together with the production technology, into an 18-week class. Since more and more people are interested in cross-disciplinary teaching and blockchain, NFT, generative art and other topics in recent years, I will record the process and experience of the semester here for your reference

school background

National Chengchi University is a research-oriented university that is biased towards the literature group, and it is the top choice for business, communication, and literature-related departments. (Although science and engineering may be relatively seldom mentioned, there are actually many masters of NCCU, such as Lin Yiwen, a master in the WebGL field and an artist living in the UK, is also an alumnus of NCCU.)

The "Digital Content Course" I taught this time is a double major course. The students come from different departments across the school. The only thing in common is that most of them are interested in digital creation. However, students generally do not have the ability to write programs, and generative art is a creative method that requires writing a lot of code, so how to teach practical skills is the biggest challenge of this course

Course Design

In terms of content, the courses of the whole semester can be roughly divided into three types: marketing, appreciation, and creation

The market part introduces some basic knowledge related to blockchain and NFT, as well as some consensus rules in the NFT market. For example, tools on the chain operate Tzkt.io, Better-call; identity authentication tools Tezos Profile, Tzkt Profile; and the concept of version & pricing of NFT, how to observe the market performance of artists, etc. The current flourishing of generative art is inseparable from the development of the entire blockchain, so it is also very important to be able to understand currency and markets

The appreciation part introduces the aesthetic evolution of the current generative art NFT. Since ArtBlocks launched the function of on-chain casting, generative art has ushered in an unprecedented prosperity, but I personally think that the explosion of aesthetics will come after the appearance of fxhash in 2021. Because ArtBlocks is audit-based, the release of works is slow, while fxhash is a completely open platform, and anyone can upload works at will. In just one year after the appearance of fxhash, nearly 20,000 works appeared on the platform. Quantitative changes have led to qualitative changes. A new and popular style will soon be tired of everyone, and then a new style will evolve in the market, so the aesthetic iteration is advancing rapidly.

In the final part of the creation, we used p5js as the framework of creation, and designed a total of 8 practical lessons, from simple algorithms such as random, picture collage, and noise; to more advanced recursion, fluid force field, etc. Every practical class will make a complete work from scratch, so that students can understand how to develop the work from scratch. And in the process, I also extended a few personal creations from the course exercises, and attached the source code for the students' reference, so that the students can understand how to do it if they want to extend and optimize from the classroom exercises

In addition to the 18-week course schedule for a semester, I also arranged about four extracurricular online teaching activities. Some are additional supplementary content, such as a time when a classmate wanted to ask how to draw gradient colors; there are also several sales activities on the chain, such as the online interview and sales observation of the release of artist Lin Yiwen's new work The Fire Within (the live broadcast will bring you Look at the hot spot from Tzflow) After all, the more active "world blockchain time" on the chain is about 23:00 p.m. ~ 02:00 a.m. in Taiwan, so there are several online teaching plans at ridiculous times (One event started from 22:00 in the evening to 02:00 in the morning, but there is no way, who told us that we are in the Asian time zone)

Course Token MixMix Coin

In addition, in order to promote discussions and exchanges among classmates, I opened Discord and designed the course token MXC (MixMix Coin) for students to use in transactions. Because in the blockchain world, anything can be monetized. Whether it is a list of artists worthy of attention, sales information of new works, or even assisting others in program debugging. These "goodness" that were willing to share in the past have become valuable in the world of monetization, and may be traded for profit because of the information shared by classmates; classmates helped debug works and achieved good sales results after they were released. These are very direct benefits . Since there are such direct benefits, of course these good deeds should be paid. Therefore, I hope that students can use these MXCs to reward those who help themselves, and actually experience the empowerment of cryptocurrency decentralization

This currency will be issued every time a class is held. Although I verbally said that the course will not be called by name (it will not affect the score), the Learn to Earn mechanism itself has become a disguised roll call. In addition, in order to make MXC itself valuable, I designed an auction using MXC tokens at the end of the term, and I can use MXC to purchase my NFT works. Because NFT itself is highly liquid, almost all of them can be directly exchanged into legal tender without any problem, so MXC itself will also have value. I even opened a liquidity pool on quipuswap, so that students can buy if they want to grab bids. Finally, on the day of the auction, there was indeed a small increase in the price of MXC (laughs)

However, in the actual implementation, due to the lack of discussion design in the course itself, the entire Discord is still more biased towards the teacher’s announcement and clarification of students’ doubts. There are very few situations where students share information or teach each other, so MXC has not exerted the original discussion effect. , into a pure reward token

But interestingly, this MXC later accidentally played the role of identity authentication. Because fxhas is an open platform, copyminter often puts "fake products" on the shelves. The so-called copy-mint refers to stealing other people's code to sell on the shelves. We will consider this kind of work as "fake". In order to prevent buyers from being deceived, the management unit of fxhash often temporarily hides the works published by new accounts. When the students put their works on the shelves at the end of the term, because the accounts are very new and there are not many records on the chain, it looks very suspicious. But because the administrator recognized my account (newyellow.tez) and saw the records of my distribution of MXC tokens, I knew that these accounts belonged to my classmates, so the works of my classmates were generally put on the shelves smoothly.

Semester Pass & Classmate Feedback

Because this course is taught in the digital content course, the students come from all departments of the school, and most of the students have no programming foundation at all. Generative art actually uses a lot of programming skills. It must meet the fxhash’s shelf specifications. If the work is good-looking when it is sold, it needs to deal with the RWD (picture resolution), so I am actually quite worried about everyone’s end-of-term problems at the beginning of the semester. situation. But in fact, after a few weeks, the students generally said that although it was difficult, it was very fun. It was very hard to follow in class, but the results were very fulfilling

However, it is still a bit of a barrier to use programs to create, so many students chose to use Image Composition for the final final project. Although it may be a bit tricky in terms of the strict definition of "generative art", but with the interesting concepts and wonderful electronic drawing and hand-painting execution of the students, I think the final result is quite good

At the end of the semester, a total of more than 40 students’ works were put on fxhash, and each of them was successfully sold (at least I would buy one, teacher, but usually I am not the only one). About 16 of them were sold out, There are about 6 pieces and there is a pretty good secondary market. For young artists who are fledgling and lack of community status, such sales results can be said to be very good!

Finally, the following will introduce the works of each student one by one, and will attach the links of the works. If you see the works you like, you are welcome to collect them!

Appreciation of final results

For the end-of-semester project, students can choose to work in three major directions: market, appreciation, or creation. The creative category is to put works on fxhash; the market category can be the transaction result analysis report, or the price analysis of the artist; the appreciation category can be the aesthetic context analysis article, or an online art gallery, such as using akaVerse Or an art gallery tool like Deca. But in the end, only one student chose the market report, and the other students were all creative

Our end-of-semester presentations are online, with a video archive. The work and time are marked in the description of the video. If you are interested in understanding the creative concept, you can take a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyd3EeJc80M

Then I will introduce and comment on the works of my classmates one by one, and attach my brief comments. Of course, aesthetics is subjective, and my comments may not be completely correct, but I still provide them for reference by those who want to create generative art!

Evanescent Night

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/evanescent-night

This piece is amazing! The main mountain shape is simply drawn with noise, but through multi-layer superimposition, an atmosphere full of aura is created. The texture and delicate color changes are handled very well. It is a very excellent work! Yamagata's work is not difficult technically, but there are so many related works on fxhash, so how to deal with it to have its own unique style is very difficult, and I think this work has done it very well, And even if you look at the entire fxhash Yamagata works, the presentation of this piece is first-class beauty!

Mukashi

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23477

The main shape of this work is relatively simple, but in fact some delicate textures are handled quite well. If you simply draw the geometric shape, it is easy to look very simple, but this work adds light and shadow to the shape, as well as the texture of the background, so that the result will not be too monotonous. However, the pity of this work is that I think the random shape changes are relatively small, which can increase the number of geometric shapes generated, and even add some different geometric shapes, such as triangles and regular polygons; or make squares To do oblique rotation, etc., can make the overall change performance better

Eliey's Garden

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23750

Using the method of multi-layer superimposition, it can make a garden-like effect. It has created a popular texture of plush codes, and the color changes are also rich. It is quite a good piece of work.

Instinct

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23743

Although the style of Image Composition works in the hunting style is soft and beautiful, but if you look closely, you will find that the author seems to have a strong taste (?). There is no doubt about the hand-painting skills. If you manage your artist status well, you should be able to have a very good development!

Block of Trials

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/block-of-trials

Use simple geometric shapes to make random changes, and create layers and richness of the scene by dividing them into front, middle, and back layers. The middle layer uses relatively fragmented and small shapes to create a complex and delicate feeling. I think the degree of completion is quite high A piece of work!

Hanabi

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23854

Basically the effect made with the Flow Fields fluid force field. Although Flow Fields are very common, I feel that I have implemented it once. In fact, it is not easy to make it look good visually. This work has mastered the concept of "complexity" that I talked about in the course, so that the visual texture is very delicate, so the overall visual effect is not bad

Clouds over the Mountains

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23284

Very bravely opened the 256 edition, and the works sold very well! The work is also a basic mountain shape, and the texture of the mountain itself is handled well. The biggest advantage of this work is the rich color chips. Various color combinations make the overall performance very rich and beautiful

Starry Trail

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/starry-trail

Add some changes to the basic mountain shape, and create a complex and delicate feeling through the multi-layered arcs and the dots and stars in the background. Although the color of the background is a fixed color chip, it is quite soft and beautiful, and the overall performance is very beautiful

Imaginary Beings

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/imaginary-beings

Best selling work in class! Although it is a technically simple image collage Image Composition, its excellent hand-painting skills and funny animal shapes have successfully won the favor of the fxhash market. I think this work is very good in the processing of the frame, which makes the whole work feel more complete. In addition, painstaking efforts have been made in the fusion of different animal parts, so no matter if any different parts are put together, it will not feel awkward. I really hope that the degree of variation of this work can be increased by more than 10, and then the edition can be opened to about 200 editions. It should be a very excellent work

TILES

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23735

Works inspired by the concept of tiles, the changes in concept and shape are quite good! However, most of the colors are warm/orange. If the color has a higher degree of variation in hue, it will be perfect!

Burger/Sandwich Generator

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23052

Image Composition works based on burgers, with a variety of rich and ridiculous toppings are quite interesting. One of the most surprising is the concept of "stacking". Generally, Image Composition will have a relatively rigid frame (for example, the fixed number is a face, a headgear, a hand-held object, etc.), but the number of layers of ingredients in this burger is completely random, whether it is sparse or pitiful with too few ingredients, Or the crazy absurdity of too many toppings, all help add another level of variety to this piece!

SUSHI <3

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23532

Randomly generated sushi platters, and special snow elf spy sushi hidden in it, both sushi and surrounding decorations are rich in diversity, great Image Composition works!

JINGA Series

https://www.fxhash.xyz/pkh/tz2BEu5nvbVuY5XhPVZxAvxdcULveZPcFtPs

This classmate posted three works! However, they are relatively conservative in sales, and they all adopt the strategy of 0 yuan mint. The visual detail is not bad, and the works also have good secondary sales, but some of the students who challenged the calculus have created their own style (but they are all relatively sketches)

Opus 1. The Flow of Souls

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/opus-1.-the-flow-of-souls

Strictly speaking, this person is not a classmate. He is a teaching assistant of the digital platform and a former classmate of mine. However, because of his continuous attention to NFT, this time he came to attend this class with almost full attendance. Hao Yun’s work is based on the concept of “generating album cover”, using the same song as the base, allowing the work to generate images in time according to the sound, and also adding random elements to make the visual changes, so that everyone has a unique one. single album cover. Since this production takes time and it is a dynamic work, I was afraid that the market would not accept it well, but I did not expect it to be sold out after the price was reduced to 3t. It can be seen that the moving music has captured everyone's hearts!

Observations on the Impact of Participation in #fxhashturnsone on Artists' Sales

https://www.fxhash.xyz/article/observations-on-the-impact-of-participation-in-fxhashturnsone-on-artists'-sales

The only student who challenged the sales analysis report sorted out the sales changes of the author who issued the fxhash one-year celebration that just happened during the semester. The students have used the tools taught in the classroom to retrieve and analyze the data on the chain, and the structure of the article is clear and the data is well organized, which is very commendable! However, the article itself will expect a small argument (such as a conclusion or suggestion) that I did not see, which is a relatively small pity

Poker -- Strolling in the Night

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23664

The work using poker cards as the concept, the hand-painted shape is fresh and soft, and the style is quite consistent. If all of them are printed out, it will really feel like a whole deck of playing cards. However, I personally think that it would be better if the numbers and symbols next to it were also hand-painted. The current one looks a bit too sharp

Visualize Math

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23368

Drawing through mathematical formulas is one of the few works that challenge dynamics. I think the dynamics and the final shape are quite interesting. Looking at the results, you will find that the changes are actually very rich! However, the overall Layout feels that there is still room for development. How to make such things look good or have a sense of beauty is the biggest challenge for this type of work

Sprinkles

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23739

Challenge to make a small game on fxhash! The concept is actually quite interesting, but the degree of change can be further developed, especially in addition to vision. After all, as a small game, the pursuit is not the final visual result. If even the "scoring method" can be randomly generated, it may be more in line with the concept of generating a small game

Digitized Me

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/digitized-me

There is a very interesting concept. The generated algorithm actually has special processing, but unfortunately because of the relationship between the image processing, the final result may be a bit like a simple set of filters (but if you look closely at the process, you will find that there are several differences. random texture). Then there are actually three different ways of generating, but unfortunately there is no difference in the degree of change so that there is an obvious change in the vision. Finally, it is because the pictures are all celebrities. Although the pictures themselves are generated by AI, but because these people are so famous, these images will overshadow other things a bit.

Over the Moon

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/over-the-moon

The Yamagata work, with the huge sun (or moon) in the middle sandwiched between layers of mountains, I think is a great concept. But more work is needed on the fineness

A mess A MESS

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23803

In fact, this student originally wanted to make a Yamagata work, but because he accidentally damaged the work on the eve of handing in the assignment, and didn’t know how to fix it, he temporarily made a new work and put it on the shelves XD In fact, it produced visual dynamics Personally, I think it's pretty good-looking, and there is still room for development, but it's on the shelves because it's the end of the term, which is a pity. In addition, a friend said that he thought this work was some kind of conceptual or performance art, and it would be quite interesting to put it in the context of course works

Still Life

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/still-life-13

Students who challenged 3D independently, we did not teach 3D in class, so we praised the spirit of taking risks! The concept is actually not bad, and there is room for development. Unfortunately, the shapes are arranged too neatly. If the front and back are scattered and a little more perspective, the visual appearance will be richer

Life is like light

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23367

For the works using the Flow Fields technique, the color and the texture of the brush are probably in one direction, but the sense of change can be stronger, for example, the change of color, or the geometric shape of the brush can be different (for example Not only circles, but also squares, triangles, and even some are not solid, but frame lines)

Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23337

The work that uses graphics to replace the radicals of the text is very interesting in concept! But it is a pity that the degree of change is relatively small. There are only 3~4 kinds of changes in the radicals of the characters and graphics, which is not enough for works with a common generative style. If there are 20~30 kinds of changes in the radicals , will be a very good work

At night

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23754

The feeling of neon lights flashing on city streets at night is quite good in concept, but some details still need to be worked on. For example, the silhouette of the foreground can be more detailed, and the point feeling of the lighting can be more subtle, or the straight line of the street can be expressed through line segments. Personally, I think there is quite a lot of room for further development. (However, this work has not been sold yet. Someone contacted a classmate and said that he forgot to enable it, but he never responded, so let’s do it XD)

HARRY'S HAUNTED HOUSE

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/harry's-haunted-house

The Image Composition work based on the concept of a haunted house is quite interesting, but the main visual shape seems to be a sofa. Personally, I think the degree of change in this part can be added a little more (especially for Image Composition, I might expect 20~ 30 variations)

Time will tell

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/time-will-tell

The change of Yamagata works, creating a misty feeling through the multi-layered mountains, this part is not bad. Then I added a small flying saucer, I personally feel that the style is a bit inconsistent XD

Rooms

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23809

The special thing about creating a room through Image Composition is to make the things in the bookcase look highly variable, so the whole bookcase is not a whole picture, but the things on the cabinet are also randomly generated. This part is in Image Composition works are quite special

Eyeball after final Exam

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23748

The classmate said that he wanted to use Flow Fields to make works at first, but he didn't know how to do it, and finally changed it to express bloodshot eyes. I think it's quite interesting!

The landscape that belongs to you

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/the-landscape-that-belongs-to-you

The rather soft mountain-shaped sketches are processed in color, and there are two shapes of sea surface (relatively gentle curve) and mountain shape (relatively steep). I personally feel that the handling of time changes (day and night) is not bad, and I personally like the color tone at night

I need breakfast

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23779

Random breakfast series, small and cute creations! The variation of color and random placement of objects is not bad. If it needs to be strengthened, it would be great if there could be more types of random objects, maybe add another 10~20 kinds or something.

Wish You a Fortune Year

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23796

Use the 3D calculated picture and then make it into Image Composition Snow Globe work, there are many cute little elements, it is a good sketch

Rabbit of You

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23475

The Rabbit PFP made in response to the Year of the Rabbit has the flavor of Gengoya, a famous PFP house, in color and brushstrokes. There are also many small elements related to the New Year, a piece full of New Year flavor!

Flowering Cat

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/flowering-cat

Combining cats and flowers in a weird style, it looks very unique but has a kind of magic (?) The most amazing thing is that the well-known generative artists lunarean and Sarah Ridgley bought it at the beginning (they didn’t seem to buy it Check out my work QQ), it is a work with unique taste!

Lighthouse of the Word

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23741

The Lighthouse Image Composition work is made with text as the main change. The composition of the lighthouse body is very beautiful, and the color and texture of the background paper are also well matched. It is an excellent work!

Faces in my dream

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/faces-in-my-dream

The concept of using real photos to collage faces is actually not bad, and there is quite room for development, but unfortunately, the types of photos of each part are relatively small, and the positions are fixed. It would be better if there were more changes in the arrangement of the facial features

The Gentangles

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23497

Inspired by Zentangle paintings, I collage the textures of various Zentangle paintings into one piece. I think the color changes and shape processing are quite good. The only pity is that although the shape of the Zentangle paintings is changeable, after the collage is finished, the difference between each work is not obvious. If you can make a stronger difference, highlight the individuality of each work. Rare and unique, that's even better

Penguin illusion

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23756

The penguin PFP work with double face, the amazing thing about this work is that his picture is still generated by AI, and the classmate also wrote an experience on Matters seriously "I will learn it by accident!" My First AI Drawing NFT > . The work itself is quite cute, but I think it would be better if there are more changes in the variety of penguins

Is It Still Light Out

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23753

Randomly assembled city shapes, maomao code and generated animation, not bad work. It's a pity that the RWD part is not handled properly, resulting in the problem that the work will exceed the screen when previewing on fxhash. In addition, it would be better if the color change of the building and the background itself can be a little more

Roaming in Backrooms

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23749

Image Composition works through the combination of pre-calculated 3D and real-life photos. I remember when I was listening to the end-of-semester report, it was expected that there would be more room forms and character action combinations. I felt that there was not enough time for the end-of-semester, so the work was rushed to the shelves before it was completed. Of course, there will be a basic score after the completion of the shelf itself, but it is a pity for the work. When I read the final report, I was looking forward to it!

Christmas Postcard

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/christmas-postcard

Christmas snow scene card work, the background is made of snow mountains using the mountain shape algorithm, coupled with particle dynamic effects, and the thickness of snow will pile up over time, it is also one of the few works with challenging dynamics. The concept is actually not bad, if the middle pattern can be richer, for example, not just a snowman or Santa Claus, but a Christmas tree, or even a whole town, it would be even better!

Cups on Shelf

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23478

The Image Composition work that randomly composes the items in the cabinet has a cute style of painting, but the degree of variation in the shape of the items and the cabinet itself is relatively insufficient, and you can think about it more. In addition, the interesting point of this work lies in the way it is composed randomly. I originally thought that each object would randomly set its position, but the result is a group of pre-drawn pictures of objects to be stacked. This idea is actually quite interesting. For creators with insufficient program mastery, you can refer to

UniVerse

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/23732

Random dots and glowing effects, dynamic works that can interact with the mouse. The vision of pure circles is a little monotonous. If you can add some larger blocks and some lines of vision to achieve points, lines, and planes, the vision will be richer. It means that when I read the end-of-term report, there was a flickering visual effect, which I liked quite a bit, but it seemed to be removed in the final work, which is a pity personally.

Tree in the Blizzard

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/22957

This time, our course did not specifically teach how to write a tree, but we did our own research to extend the tree. It's a pity that there are not many changes in color and shape, so every version looks the same