In part one of how the ambigram generator works, I described how the ambigram generator makes a plan for creating an ambigram.
Well, that’s just the start of the challenge.
I also mentioned that the Glyphusion ambigram generator works very differently from simple letter-inversion tools that just display graphics.
In fact, there are no graphics anywhere in the Glyphusion generator!
The Glyphusion ambigram generator works a lot more like a human would in creating an ambigram. Once it establishes the best plan for creating the artwork, it actually draws the design, stroke by stroke and line by line!
It goes around each letter and traces the outline, positioning the letters next to each other and laying everything out in computer memory before “filling in” the outlines with a color. That’s why you’ll see different colored ambigrams on the different products in the FlipScript store.
Again, this is a lot like a human would approach this challenge. Rough in the outline of the design, and once it’s finalized, fill it in and call it done.
So, that raises the question, how does the ambigram generator know just how to draw the lines and characters?
Well, I’m about to get a little bit geeky here, so if you’re not into the technology side of this, feel free to skip ahead. If you want to take a look under the hood, read on.
As I mentioned, the ambigram generator draws an ambigram by creating an outline of the design in memory and then filling it in. The outline is drawn, just like a human would do, one stroke at a time (except about a thousand times faster than a human could do it!). The generator relies on a database of over 400,000 different curves to put the glyphs together…so far.
The generator even knows how to draw upside-down! About half of the ambigram is drawn right side up, and the other half is drawn upside down, and the ambigram generator switches back and forth from one direction to the other as it’s drawing an ambigram. This was a critical key in the engineering of the generator. If it wasn’t for this trick, the database would have been double its current size, and it would have been a lot more work for everybody.
Again, the generator is working a lot like a human. If you watch a person drawing an ambigram, you will frequently see them drawing some letters in one orientation, and then turn the page (or image) around, and continue drawing in the opposite orientation. The ambigram generator works like a human at just about every step of the ambigram creation process.
So, how does the ambigram generator actually do it’s drawing, and how do the designs come out so nice? Well, the final designs come out so nice because the generator uses Cubic Bezier curves for its drawing operations to make the lines very, very smooth. In fact, you could blow these ambigrams up to 10 feet tall, and they would still look fantastic.
This is the equivalent of a person with a very steady hand, and a very artistic eye doing the work.
The only “graphic” in the entire system is the one that is created right at the end of the process, when you actually need to view the ambigram in your web browser. At that instant, the ambigram generator takes the drawing it has been creating, sizes it to fit whatever space you need it to, and finally, right at the end of this arduous process…
…creates a graphic.
…which is sent to you.
So, when we say there is nothing else like it anywhere on the Internet, we’re not kidding. It’s truly one of a kind, and I think it would have made a great computer science project!
[...] Ambigram Generator, Part 2 [...]
it would be cool to have different styles of text
I need a good Glyphusion Ambigram Generator that anyone can access.