DeeDominik Gmiterko

Physical

The physicality of art is the most fundamental way to express oneself. It's the first way to express and it's the most intimate.

Snake necklace (2011)

One of the very first wearable pieces I made - an 8 cm long snake like necklace I made from a soft metal I found.

Vest (2024)

A contemporary victorian vest. The concept design was inspired by the victorian era but with a modern twist and techniques.

Concept design

Draftings

Sewing

Final product

Traditional

When asked about the topic most people would think of good old paper or a canvas. It seems like a unseparrable part of art. Over the time I have used many physical techniques. But covering colored paper by layering impressions of hard pastels still stands up to me.

Hard pastel drawings (2016 – present)

More drawings   ▷

Digital

Another step in the evolution of art started with the digital era. As it brings new possibilities for creation and most importantly delivery. The name itself very often also refers to an input method - a stylus and a tablet. Which is by far the best way to work with digital art.

Visual space

Now, imagine that you are not constructing a single piece of art but a whole space containing many possible images. All part of a single concept - "sample space". While still being able to control how it looks and behaves.

Purposes of Generative Design

Just art

First and foremost, it’s most commonly presented just as a form of art. It can be used to create visually appealing images, animations, or even music.

To visualize

However, generative art can be utilized also for other means. For example to visually represent the significance of data to the viewer. As visual content is processed much faster and easier than text or a spreadsheet full of data it’s advantageous to let a computer generate visual representations for them.

Or simulate

Another related field is simulation and modeling. Its aim is to copy physical properties and visually understand complex systems by building their approximations - models.

Media used by Generative Design

Image and video

The most commonly used media in generative design are without a doubt images and video.

3D objects

Rendering tools became very powerful over the years. And in combination with generative design they can produce visually appealing and complex scenes.

Games and virtual worlds

The most well known example of this approach is Minecraft. I can provide you with a procedurally generated world for your game. Or it can be used as a content to fill the background of your scenes. For example an generated cityscape.

Generative Design concepts

Parameterization

I htink that the most important concept of generative design is parameterization. Script can use input parameters (for example width of the image, numbef or fish) and using them calculate location, shape, color, and movement of objects on the screen. You should be then able to tweak parameters to produce many differnet art pieces.

Repeatability

I think the second most important concept of procedural design is repeatability. Idea of this content is really straightforward: Given a script (source code) and inputs users can always generate the same artwork. So this means you do not have to store generated media as it can be always reproduced. Or you can still choose to produce new artworks by altering its code or inputs.

Randomness

The most important concept of generative art may be randomness. It can be used to alter input parameters of the generative process to produce a varied collection of artworks or assets.

You can use this concept to produce many unique but visually similar items. For example a lot of different rocks for a game, a collection of card decks where each package is slightly different, or now-so-popular NFT collections.

Transformation

Another approach to procedural art is not to fully generate the media by yourself but instead take some existing content as an input and only transform it in a way. You can take things like images, videos, text, numbers, datasets and use a deterministic script to produce new content. For example by doing geometric transformations, color modifications, abstraction, or simplification.

Visualization

A specific case of transformations are data visualizations. We can treat real world data as an input into a procedural design script. But in this case its purpose isn't an artistic expression, but a representation of information.

Simulation

And the last concept used in a generative design I can think of is simulation. This can include physics simulation, flow of fluids, or discrete agents interacting with each other.

Concept mixign

Only once you add all these concepts together you can start to see the full potential of generative design. It can be used to create art, visualize data, simulate complex systems, or even generate new content based on existing one. The most powerful use cases are still in game development. But I can imagine understanding individual concepts can help you create visuals of any kind.

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Game of Life

Let's start with one of the simplest games there is. Conway's Game of Life is a famous 0-player game turning few simple rules into a living, breathing world.

Engine or not to engine?

The age old question that seems to be brough out every time a new person enters the game development community.

Web constrains

You may find yourself in a situation where you have to work with limited capabilities. A great example of this is WebGL - a web-based graphics library in your browser.

Modding

One of the best known games that allow you to heavily modify it's content is Minecraft. Which I of course extensively used to create my own mods, plugins, and servers at the time.

Server side

Client side mods and resoruce packs

Modding (2012 – 2013)

For example I made this tiny mod that adds a cute bulldozer to the game - flattening the terrain in front of you as you drive it around.

Game engine

On the other end of the spectrum, you have game engines that are purpose built and can significantly speed up your development. Unity is a an example of a game engine that allows you to quickly create 3D and 2D games.

Building an experience

Level design

Hand in hand with game development goes level design. It's what actually makes an experience out of game mechanics. And once again, it's very often been pushed to the limits of what is possible on the given platform.

Asset pipeline

Without any assets to look at, your game world would be a very boring place. But creating them is extremely time consuming process. So there always was this drive to automate it as much as possible.

Supporting tech

Networking

In games it's not just about sending data in between players, but also about making sure it's done in a timely manner and actions are authorized properly.

"Collaborative JSON" networking (2017)

</> Browse source code

However, when it comes to silly little games even a simple client authoritative solution will do. So I tried to do as little as possible to make a working multiplayer real-time browser game. I used a "collaborative JSON editor" library to synchronize game state between players (and server bots).

Emulation

Another area where game development reached level of complexity preceeding or not at all present in other fields is emulation and platform porting.

Pushing the limits

No matter whether it comes to packing the most into limited space on cartridge, pioneering new 3D rendering tricks, or virtual reality. Games were always pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Often times long before the advances come to other fields.

I would keep my eyes open for any new developments in gaming as it's often a good indicator of what's to come. Even when it's microtransactions.

See you there.

Website development

Websites are the most common way to present information on the internet. And I have experience with building many different kinds of them. Blogs, static, eshops, internal applications, you name it.

Their development is commonly split into two parts, frontend (what users sees in their browser) and backend (what happens on the server). I've worked on both.

Later during my studies at MUNI I've joined InQool in a part time capacity:

Data engineering

It's one thing to work on a closed order like an eshop that is more or less built and delivered once. But it's a whole different story to has a little bit of sway on a constantly evolving product while it's being used by thousands of people.

Freelance development

Working in a freelance capacity, not being bound by constraints of a single company, I've had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. But it also means I had to wear many hats each day. I have done everything from gathering requirements, designing, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining. Doing it it all is not always easy, but it definitely teaches you your limits. ( For me it's

Freelance development

Na medicínu

One project in particular I would like to highlight is a set of services that I developed for study course Na medicínu.

Education

Masaryk University - Bc.

Education

Masaryk University - Mgr.