03_generate.md

Inside the Punk Art Machinery - How To Generate 10 000 Punks (and Punkettes), Algorithmically - Paint by Numbers

The bad news - the formula for the original 10 000 algorithmically generated 24×24 CryptoPunks by LarvaLabs is a secret (and not included in the published open source code).

The good news - the "high-definition" 56×56 CryptoPunks remake on the Polkadot blockchain built with Substra(te) ("SubtraPunks") by Usetech includes the pixel art and code to generate algorithmically punks (and punkettes) with a fresh look.

Let's convert the punk_generator art machinery. Let's start with all the parts of a punk:

PARTS = {
  face:  { required: true,
           attributes: [['', 'u'],
                        ['', 'u']] },
  mouth: { required: true,
           attributes: [['Black Lipstick',  'f'],
                        ['Red Lipstick',    'f'],
                        ['Smile',           'u'],
                        ['',                'u'],
                        ['Teeth Smile',     'm'],
                        ['Purple Lipstick', 'f']] },
  nose:  { required: true,
           attributes: [['',          'u'],
                        ['Nose Ring', 'u']] },
  eyes:  { required: true,
           attributes: [['',              'u'],
                        ['Asian Eyes',    'u'],
                        ['Sun Glasses',   'u'],
                        ['Red Glasses',   'u'],
                        ['Round Eyes',    'u']] },
  ears:  { required: true,
           attributes: [['',              'u'],
                        ['Left Earring',  'u'],
                        ['Right Earring', 'u'],
                        ['Two Earrings',  'u']] },
  beard: { required: false,
           attributes: [['Brown Beard',     'm'],
                        ['Mustache-Beard',  'm'],
                        ['Mustache',        'm'],
                        ['Regular Beard',   'm']] },
  hair:  { required: false,
           attributes: [['Up Hair',        'm'],
                        ['Down Hair',      'u'],
                        ['Mahawk',         'u'],
                        ['Red Mahawk',     'u'],
                        ['Orange Hair',    'u'],
                        ['Bubble Hair',    'm'],
                        ['Emo Hair',       'u'],
                        ['Thin Hair',      'm'],
                        ['Bald',           'm'],
                        ['Blonde Hair',    'f'],
                        ['Caret Hair',     'f'],
                        ['Pony Tails'      'f']] }
}

A punk is composed of seven parts, that is,

• Face
• Mouth
• Nose
• Eyes
• Ears
• Beard
• Hair

The first five parts are always required and the last two optional.

For every part there is a matching directory (e.g. /face, /mouth, /nose, etc.) and for every attribute there is a matching image with an index number starting at 1 (e.g. /face/face1.png, face/face2.png, etc.) Find a cached copy of all images in the i/parts directory - looking something like:

/parts
├───face/
│       face1.png
│       face2.png
│
├───mouth/
│       mouth1.png
│       mouth2.png
│       mouth3.png
│       mouth4.png
│       mouth5.png
│       mouth6.png
│
├───nose/
│       nose1.png
│       nose2.png
│
├───eyes/
│       eyes1.png
│       eyes2.png
│       eyes3.png
│       eyes4.png
│       eyes5.png
│
├───ears/
│       ears1.png
│       ears2.png
│       ears3.png
│       ears4.png
│
├─── beard/
│       beard1.png
│       beard2.png
│       beard3.png
│       beard4.png
│
└───hair/
        hair1.png
        hair2.png
        hair3.png
        hair4.png
        hair5.png
        hair6.png
        hair7.png
        hair8.png
        hair9.png
        hair10.png

Or an all-together-now sneak preview:

Let's generate the famous Blond Punkette with:

• Red Lipstick (f)
• Nose Ring (u)
• Sun Glasses (u)
• Blonde Hair (f)

Note: The u/f/m stands for unisex/female/male and tells you what gender the attribute expects.

Let's code the artist known as generate_punk - a method that returns a (ready-to-save) punk image from the attribute parts coded as numbers starting at 1. If the code is 0 than the (optional) part gets skipped.

codes = [2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 0, 10]
punk = generate_punk( codes )
punk.save( './punk-0000.png' )

And here's the magic paint by number art machinery:

require 'pixelart'    ## helper library for pixel art images (in .png)


def generate_punk( codes )
  punk = Pixelart::Image.new( 56, 56 )

  PARTS.each_with_index do |(key,part),i|
    code  = codes[i]
    if code != 0    ## if code 0 - skip optional part

      ## for debugging print attributes with names (size not 0, that is, "")
      attribute = part[:attributes][ code-1 ]
      puts "#{key}#{code} - #{attribute[0]} (#{attribute[1]})"  if attribute[0].size > 0

      ## compose parts on top (from face to accessoire)
      path = "./i/parts/#{key}/#{key}#{code}.png"
      part = Pixelart::Image.read( path )
      punk.compose!( part )
    end
  end

  punk
end

Let's try for real:

codes = [2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 0, 10]
punk = generate_punk( codes )
punk.save( './punk-0000.png' )

printing:

mouth2 - Red Lipstick (f)
nose2 - Nose Ring (u)
eyes3 - Sun Glasses (u)
hair10 - Blonde Hair (f)

and let's add a 3x zoom factor:

punk3x = punk.zoom( 3 )
punk3x.save( './punk-0000x3.png' )

resulting in:

How does the machinery work? The algo generates an empty 56×56 pixel image / canvas and than adds - or is that composes - one part after the other on top all the way from face to hair. That's all the magic.

Let's generate another punk.

codes = [1, 5, 2, 3, 1, 1, 5]
punk = generate_punk( codes )
punk.save( './punk-0001.png' )
punk.zoom( 3 ).save( './punk-0001x3.png' )

printing:

mouth5 - Teeth Smile (m)
nose2 - Nose Ring (u)
eyes3 - Sun Glasses (u)
beard1 - Brown Beard (m)
hair5 - Orange Hair (u)

and resulting in:

Now let's generate 10 000, algorithmically! Yes, you can!