Petter

an experimental vectorgraphic pattern generator.
lafkon.net/petter

Description:

Petter is an experimental ui-based Processing-App to create and save experimental visual patterns. Input and output is strictly vector-based (svg/pdf).

Use your own svg-files as input, alter the repetition and stacking of basic relative and absolute transformations, influence the resulting pattern with different effectors and export efficient vector-pdfs.

See lafkon.net/petter for a gallery of outputs created along the way with Petter.
Check Installation and Basic instructions below.

Screenshots:

Petter main-ui

petter screenshot

Animated PDF-sequences

petter animated sequence petter animated sequence with animated imagemap

Petter MapEditor and TileEditor

Keyboard shortcuts:

SHORTCUTS
========================================================================

------------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

TAB     -   Show/Hide MAIN-MENU
H       -   Show/Hide this HELP
T       -   Show/Hide TileEditor
M       -   Show/Hide MapEditor
+ / -       -   ZOOM IN / OUT
Z / Y       -   UNDO / REDO
D       -   RESET TO DEFAULT

SHIFT on Sliders    -   bigger steps
SCROLL on Sliders   -   finer steps
. / ; on Sliders    -   in/decrease sliderrange
D on Sliders        -   reset slider to default

0 (ZERO)    -   Load previous Settings
S       -   Save PDF

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CREATE
------------------------------------------------------------------------

DRAG'N'DROP SVG-FILES (on TileEditor)   
        - one or multiple SVGS to add/replace tiles
DRAG'N'DROP IMG-FILE (on MapEditor)
        - set image as transformation-map

LEFTCLICK-DRAG THE CANVAS   - repos artwork
RIGHTCLICK-DRAG THE CANVAS  - repos nfo-graphic
CTRL-SCROLL         - scale nfo-graphic

CURSOR LEFT/RIGHT   - add/remove tiles in x-space (+SHIFT: 10)
CURSOR UP/DOWN      - add/remove tiles in y-space (+SHIFT: 10)

1   - apply previous Iterator
2   - apply next Iterator
X   - change cycle-order (L>R>T>B to T>B>L>R)
R   - randomize tile-selection (when multiple different tiles are used)
E   - change tile-selection-mode (gridorder or iteratororder)
L   - change rel-transformations from tile-by-tile to line-by-line
N   - show/hide NFO-Graphic
B   - show/hide REF-Graphic

C   - show prev frame of animated-gif-imagemap
V   - show next frame of animated-gif-imagemap

------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANIM
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A   - show Anim menu
I   - set/overwrite start-values
O   - set/overwrite end-values
J   - view start-values
K   - view end-values
P   - view/testrun animation

========================================================================

More shortcuts not mentioned in helpscreen H

TileEditor

C   - copy current tile-transformations
V   - paste tile-transformations
N   - set current tile as NFO-Graphic

Installation:

Grab a copy of Processing for your OS, install it.
Download/clone Petter to your Processing Sketch-Directory.
Download and install external libraries (see below).

Basic instructions:

Check Keyboard Shortcuts above, as Petter relies heaviliy on shortcuts.

Start app, play around, read help H, open TileEditor T and MapEditor M.
Drag and drop svg-file(s) onto TileEditor to add tiles.
Hit S to save the current pattern as pdf anytime. You'll find it in the o-directory of your sketch.
Read help H again to find some new shortcuts and functions.

Required libraries:

penner.easing - http://github.com/jesusgollonet/processing-penner-easing
controlP5 - http://github.com/sojamo/controlp5 (> v2.2.3)
drop - https://transfluxus.github.io/drop/
gifAnimation - http://extrapixel.github.io/gif-animation/ (>= 3.0)

Command-line-options:

Implemented, not yet documented.

License:

Petter - vector-graphic-based pattern generator.
http://www.lafkon.net/petter/
Copyright (C) 2024 LAFKON/Benjamin Stephan

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

b3nson / petter

readme