Using Blender to Simulate Chladni Patterns –

In order to make a successful Chladni Pattern, it is important to generate a strong tone.  Where fingers are placed on the plate is also crucial.  I have discovered that to produce a tone and beautiful pattern is not a quick or easy process.  It takes both practice and patience.  Jokingly, I feel that at the end of this process, I may not have great Chladni patterns, but I’ll probably manage a grade 8 in the violin!

Joking aside, this is a real and fundamental problem that I need to solve in order to move forward.  In order to help me work with my bow and plate I looked for a number of YouTube tutorials of which there were a few.  The people in the videos made the bowing and Chladni pattern generation look so easy! I spoke to the maker of my kit and he explained that actually it’s not that easy and practice and patience makes perfect.  Below are a couple of videos where pattern generation is made to look really simple.

Chladni Plate with Violin Bow

Chladni Patterns – Aluminium Plate and Violin Bow

Time is Not on My Side

The videos above make ‘playing’ the plate look easy!  Unfortunately, because I have so many experiments I want to explore, I need to be realistic in my own expectations.  I’ve never played the violin and I need to practice my bowing technique.  However, while searching for videos to help me improve I stumbled across a Blender tutorial, that actually makes ‘Chladni style patterns’.

I have never ever worked with Blender  before, so I skimmed through the tutorial and quickly realised I needed basic knowledge before starting.  Luckily for me my son was home this weekend and I knew he was a bit of a computing ‘whiz kid’.  I quizzed him about his Blender knowledge and he explained he hadn’t really used the software for a while.  We did however decide to give it a go.

Software tutorials take up time – a lot of learning time! Therefore, I have again recorded the time taken in the form of a time-lapse.  I am starting to become quite interested in the passage of time and the effects it has.  I have always been a great fan of  Sam Taylor Wood and her ‘Little Death’ time-lapse.

Sam Taylor-Wood – A Little Death

Hidden and Visible Changes due to the Passage of Time

I think what fascinates me the most after following the tutorial with my son, is noticing how things have irrevocably changed.  The Blender tutorial took approximately 6 hours to complete.  Potentially we could have produced results sooner but my son wanted to help me perfect the outcomes. So what changed in that time?

I am now changed because I have knowledge that I previously did not have.  My son is also changed because he learned that ‘Chladni Patterns’ can be replicated in Blender.  My blog will now change because I will document the results of the tutorial below.

Everything that we did has an onward ‘knock on’ effect.  However most interesting to me is that, although I am changed inwardly – outwardly I continue to look the same.  My appearance is the same, my clothes are the same, my eye and hair colour are the same.  Indeed my inward change is completely hidden from view.  I’ve learned something both valuable and new to me, but there are no visible markers of this.  I have experienced something, broadened my horizons and produced something I value, but I continue to appear unchanged.  I just find this concept very interesting.  I’m not sure if this is a concept that I would like to pursue in any great detail.  I think it is currently just an observation on my part at this stage.  What it does bring to mind though, is the very old adage ‘Never Judge a Book by it’s Cover!’  Could this be something that I might like to explore further in my work?  Maybe?

Six Hours Working on A Blender Tutorial

The Networks Created from The Blender Tutorial

Below is an explanation of the Blender network that was used to create the Chladni Patterns.  I am beginning to notice how interesting these networks are becoming.

In my blog post ‘Ai on the March’ I mention the tentacle-like nature of Ai and it’s networks.  In that post I also created some tentacle-like digital art using Ai created images as a base.  Looking at the Blender diagram below, I can’t help but draw visual parallels to the tentacle-like look of the network diagrams.

The Tentacle-like Nature of a Network

The Final Results – Computer Generated Chladni Patterns