Al.chemy - Software

[davi]

http://al.chemy.org/
http://al.chemy.org/download/

This is a pretty experiential program. Someone brought it up on our Ventrilo Voice chat, we've been playing around with it ever since.

The program isn't really meant to create finished illustrations in the since of a program like photoshop or painter. The program is designed to Create randomness and spontaneous design fluidly.

If you go to the first link, Android shows off how to use the program to create thumbnails of ships/creatures.

Favorite tools;
Shape: box
Over
color black foreground, toned background.
transparency full
create: median shapes, shapes or mic shapes(must have a microphone, and if you do get on ventrilo already!)
Affect: Mirror, Color switcher(with "color" turned off when active, i perfer greyscale).

I also changed my keys so backspace is 'new' and m sets to Mirror.

Other useful default hotkeys are S for shape and X for fore/background switcher.

Good luck :)


Here are some of the works I've done in the program. Hopefully others find it as fun and post some results.

420871

420873

420874

[Jabo]

Just downloaded it earlier today. It's a blast, I love it. This will be big some time.

[J Wilson]

Hehe, I actually picked it up only a couple days ago myself. As an inspirational tool, it's amazing. Like a rorschach test, it's just a matter of taking the random shapes and seeing what images it creates in your mind. I spent literally hours playing with it that first night, and it inspired enough idea and thoughts to last me months. My hat is officially off to everyone responsible for that program.

My only question is, why does it keep creating so many sexually perverse images?!!!!

[Mogster]

yea alchemy's allot of fun to play around with :) and you can get some nice clean results to boot

[MatejaPetkovic]

Hehe, I actually picked it up only a couple days ago myself. As an inspirational tool, it's amazing. Like a rorschach test, it's just a matter of taking the random shapes and seeing what images it creates in your mind. I spent literally hours playing with it that first night, and it inspired enough idea and thoughts to last me months. My hat is officially off to everyone responsible for that program.

My only question is, why does it keep creating so many sexually perverse images?!!!!

LOL You should ask your self about that. :)
M

[skvv]

looks kinda nuts. although i'm more interested in the wacom oscillator. now if only we can install a saxophone on mine. (holophoner anyone?)

[Android]

Ive been using alchemy since the first beta version, its one of my favorite new programs of 2008, its great for creating thumbnails and i also use it to create live dynamic visuals for live painting shows

[davi]

android, wanna show us the method you used with the oscillator, or is that something you want to keep close to your belt :)

[Farvus]

I tried it some time ago and it's really cool. I might use it for some random enviro designs.

[odaisu]

http://www.p2p.dm/bitbucket/36330_2072008_200536_14897814.jpg



amazing shape building app/ . of course Photoshop can make those too - but it never was such fun ))

[t11]

android, wanna show us the method you used with the oscillator, or is that something you want to keep close to your belt :)

What he said. I think I'm more intrigued by that than the software (fun as hell it may be) right this minute.

[safesheep]

yeah that oscillator trick is quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen! and this alchemy program is brilliant!

[Android]

ill be bringing out the oscillator to the new zealand workshop !

[jhgoforth]

thanks for posting the link to it, really good prog. and I needed it at this point, really refreshing change of creation of shapes.

[Farvus]

Monsters and robots are fun but what I saw here is some fantasy architecture :).

423546
423548

[davi]

haha, that's just awesome :)

[Ilaekae]

HAH! Looks like a direct photo paint-over to me...








:P

[JL.Alfaro]

I've used alchemy for thumbnails before, its an awesome lil program!

saw this few weeks back
zYYSxZZzgjc

[cw]

I love alchemy, like a visual workout for me to wrangle some random shapes, here's a few bits I have had fun doodling with it-

(mini dump alert!!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/critters230308_1_progsmall.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/critters230308_1_sml2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/critters250308_1_i_sml.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/critter-020408_1_colcomp.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/critters110408_combo.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/critters140408_combo_I.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/shapes_250508_1-ii.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/shapes_250508_2-ii.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/shapes_260508_1-ii.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/shapes_310508_1-ii.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/critter_THUMBS_alchemy.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/shapes_130608_1-ii.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/shapes_140608_1-ii.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/shapes_050708_1-iii.jpg

Phew
hope you like it - you may even see some progress I feel was made in doing those doodles. :) really fun app to play with, as soon as my current crunch finishes I'm going to get some quality alchemy time in again and knock the rust off. :D

[Blue]

My first reaction was "what's so special about this?" and by the time i got to the end of the video, and saw the examples posted here, I was shocked and amazed at this thing. I really want to try this now.

[drewfarr]

I've been trying to find this app for like 3 weeks(I saw some work somebody had posted in the finished projects area, and they mentioned using it), I'm glad this thread came back up.

Just downloaded, I'm already having a blast.

[Farvus]

cw - wow. This is amazing!

Here's my new enviro sketch.

440189

440190

[drewfarr]

Fantastic enviro farvus!

[Toxdel]

haha I started using the mic feature on this program and my family came into my room thinking I was nuts when they heard me issuing all these strange noises :P

[cw]

one cool thing I noticed was that the mic-senstitive tools seemed to pick up on winamp playing in the background, so if you pop on some beat-ful music you can get some nice rythmic shapes from that too. :) I haven't tried this on the latest version though.

[Peter Coene]

ok, thats cool, I'mma gonna download.

[Noah Bradley]

Finally got around to giving this program a shot: Wow. Some serious potential for concepting. But beyond that, it's just simply fun to screw around with. ;)

[Toxdel]

ok, here is my first day at it. This is an awesome tool to have

[Toxdel]

...Gah! its hella fun doing these and sharing them. We need to make this an official "post your alchemy paintings" thread.

[vizaz]

Whooa. What a nice tool to get inspiration. I have always just drawn shapes to get the inspiration and this just nails it. Thanks for sharing.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t289/vizaz/gansgter.png

Good for making experimental comics maybe ;)

[N D Hill]

cw, that stuff is amazing.

[cw]

why, thank you!. :D

[Inimoulleb]

Tis a great program indeed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/inimoulleb/Hummingbird.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/inimoulleb/alchemythumbs1-7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/inimoulleb/mecocopy.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/inimoulleb/mecacopy.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/inimoulleb/landscapecopy.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/inimoulleb/crow.jpg

[Earendil]

one cool thing I noticed was that the mic-senstitive tools seemed to pick up on winamp playing in the background, so if you pop on some beat-ful music you can get some nice rythmic shapes from that too. :) I haven't tried this on the latest version though.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get Alchemy to "hear" my Winamp audio. Or did you just hold the mic up next to a speaker?

[Riiroi]

Whoa awesome! Thanks! Having lots of fun playing with it.

[Jazz]

Wow...that is amazing!! I SO wanna try it!!! :D :D ...Hmm, I have never used shapes in this way, so I bet it might get my brain workin' hard!

[FourTonMantis]

Gah...too bad my stupid tablet won't work outside of Photoshop and Painter. I hate Vista.

[kingshaj]

this is great
thanks for the heads up!

[bleupencil]

Yowza! So many interesting things have come out of this. Looks like fun!

[GriNGo]

it's awesome... a nice abstract tool to have. i'd love it to hear my winamp without using the microphone though... Inimoulleb, what a kick ass post!

[andrea.bianco]

Such an interesting tool! I'm spending some time on it, right now :P Thanks for sharing!

[DefiledVisions]

This is cool. Somehow though, after I've done a shape, it's still "linked" to my pen.. so when I'm happy with the outcome and move the pen away to make a new shape, it distorts the shape I just made. Is there anyway to prevent this from happening? .. or should I just experiment more? :P

*edit* .. would anyone like to share with me, the intimate secrets behind the process of having each shape listed individually like in the android movie? I don't know how..

[cw]

@Earendil - there was no mic involved, somehow alchemy was picking up the audio - i have soundblaster x-fi cheapo version as my soundcard.

lemme try this again to check and post back- I'll see if there are neat steps to repro.


<edit>
ok this is how to set it up:

in windows (XP Pro) go to sound volume panel, and in menu optios->properties choose to view 'recording' in the 'adjust volume for' bit at the top. In the checkboxes bwlow this there should be one checkbox named 'what u hear', tick it.

When you go back to the volume panel you can tick 'select' for the input you want to use and doing this for 'what U hear' somehow lets alchemy see the sound from whatever is playing on your pc.

good luck! have fun! :D

[Earendil]

@Earendil - there was no mic involved, somehow alchemy was picking up the audio - i have soundblaster x-fi cheapo version as my soundcard.

lemme try this again to check and post back- I'll see if there are neat steps to repro.


<edit>
ok this is how to set it up:

in windows (XP Pro) go to sound volume panel, and in menu optios->properties choose to view 'recording' in the 'adjust volume for' bit at the top. In the checkboxes bwlow this there should be one checkbox named 'what u hear', tick it.

When you go back to the volume panel you can tick 'select' for the input you want to use and doing this for 'what U hear' somehow lets alchemy see the sound from whatever is playing on your pc.

good luck! have fun! :D

I found that if I plugged in my headphones and turned the volume all the way up, it would pick part of the signal up on the mic line. This is much better though, thank you!

[cw]

no problem, it's wicked fun! :D

[andrea.bianco]

A 30 min work based on an alchemy thumb. Inspired by the beatiful artworks cw posted in this thread, but nowhere cool as em :)

[andrea.bianco]

another speed painting I did, based on an alchemy thumb (kinda 1h) :

[andrea.bianco]

Speed vector with alchemy :

[The-Hand]

some thumbs i made using this software.

[Vorace]

cool thumbs The-Hand!

tons of fun with this program.!! I use it to draw some random faces just to warm me up before long drawing session hehe.

[kab]

Damn, you guys are doing some cool stuff, I´ll spend some time with it tomorrow, so far I´ve failed at coming up with anything I feel is worth showing :)

[David Giraud]

Hi!

there is some very inspiring artwork on this thread!!!
I 'm just starting out so it's not great but I still wanted to participate :)

I usually do sculptures mostly digital sculptures but my first love was 2d I discovered al.chemy a few months ago and since I'm doodling constantly :)

congrats to the programmers of this program!


http://fc36.deviantart.com/fs37/f/2008/268/b/8/Sad_by_mojette.jpg

http://fc53.deviantart.com/fs36/f/2008/264/b/3/Mantis_Alien_concept_by_mojette.jpg

http://fc83.deviantart.com/fs36/i/2008/278/c/4/weird_dude_by_mojette.jpg

http://fc36.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/277/6/f/Alien_love_by_mojette.jpg

http://fc53.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/278/8/4/doodle03_by_mojette.jpg

http://fc93.deviantart.com/fs36/i/2008/276/3/3/october__s_Alien_doodle_by_mojette.jpg

http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs36/i/2008/278/a/a/robot_doodle01_by_mojette.jpg

http://fc84.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/278/d/a/skull_doodle_by_mojette.jpg

[inverse catheter]

quick alchemy > zbrush demo : http://al.chemy.org/videos/

[Oden]

Hey guys, I've been fooling around on this a bit--I don't have a tablet, but the mouse is perfect for random shapeyness.


for some reason, though, when I "save page," the opacity on stuff gets bumped down. ie. if I've been doodling in some facial features with opacity cranked, and then save it, the stuff I've done turns semi-transparent.

Has this happened to anyone else, or does anyone know the reason? I'm not very computer savvy, so any help is...helpful.

[andrea.bianco]

Hi there Oden,

right now Alchemy is not realy taking advantage of a tablet over a mouse, so it's fine you use it for your creations :)

I post you two images here : first one is saved as pdf from inside of Alchemy, while second one is a screenshot of Alchemy workspace.

Opacity is actually different from the 2 of them. I think it has to do with pdf gamma, but I should better ask the dev of Alchemy.

I drew 3 overlapping closed shapes with black color and 50% transparency.

Do you get something different, if doing the same I did?

I'll drop a line about it in official Alchemy forums by the way.

Have a nice day,
Andrea.

[Oden]

Hey Andrea, yes, that's exactly what happens in terms of opacity...although to make it a bit more confusing, it doesn't necessarily ALWAYS happen...I'm trying to figure out what causes it. It seems to be when I save, reload, and then save again. Maybe I'm mixing something up.

[HunterKiller_]

I f***en love this program!

[Mossi]

This program is fabulous.

[Vorace]

hi everyone.

I have been using Al.chemy for the last weeks without problem. But since this morning, it's lagging as hell when i'm using my cintiq... no prob if I use the mouse, but as soon as I use the pen, there is a 1sec delay before each stroke appearance... this is really annoying. I don't have this lag in photoshop...

Any idea ??

EDIT : well the lag is also present whenever I use the cintiq, except photoshop...uhhh...

EDIT2 : Problem solved!

[Dile_]

get new drivers Vorace! make sure you delete your preference file first.. I had the same problems using vista / intuos / alchemy.

[c-hsu-run]

Yeah, I've been checking out Alchemy, and so far I've never enjoyed conceptualizing with just my right side of the brain, and then later use my left to figure it out.

I've also noticed that the blue turns dull when saved as a pdf, but the colors turns back to normal when I imported it to photoshop. :\

I'll put up some works once I'm done messing around. xD;

[Grief]

this is something i'll definitely be using this more often, there's some great chaos in its gestures.

first images attempted.
488105
488106

[LuisNCT]

Hi you all, it's great how you use in many different ways the potential of Alchemy, from figure drawing to impresive environment designs and all that army of mechs!
I have been experimenting with it inspired by Andrew Jones (your work is awesome) trying to depict some kind of psychedelic images and effects. I use to work with the mirror mode and then finish the image in photoshop. In a future I want to work without abusing so much of the mirroring, but for the moment that's what I got (all the images have been posted previously on the alchemy forum)

http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia-frag2.jpg

http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia2.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia2-frag.jpg

http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia3mod.jpg

http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia4-peq.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia4b-peq.jpg

http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/psicodelia5b-peq.jpg

And my last one, that time listening to Tool music, trying to depict that kind of deep and organic sound with a psiquedelic and sometimes tactile quality.
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/tool-peq.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/tool-detail1.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/tool-detail2.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/tool-detail3.jpg
You can see (and some parts seem that can be touched) it in higher resolution here: http://www.luisnct.com/cosillas/tool-med.jpg

I have some quick concepts too:
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/insectos.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/insectos2.jpg
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/peces2.jpg

And a figurative multipose drawing
http://luisnct.com/cosillas/alchemy/multiposedelic.jpg

Sorry for bombing you with too much images in the same post. I hope you like it

[Oksenbrutus]

Does anyone know if it's possible to draw shapes in alchemy by using a midi-keyboard, been trying for several hours now, and it's driving me crazy. Expanding shapes work, but I was hoping to get random shapes by just playing the midi-keyboard, if that is possible.

[Equality72521]

for anyone interested, Ive started an Alchemy Thread over in the Studies and Works in Progress area, where everyone can show off their stuff, i thought it would be more appropriate then posting them all over the Lounge

Found Here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2012307#post2012307

[LuisNCT]

I think isn't possible yet to control alchemy by midi-keyaboard, but it would be great. You should post that idea in the alchemy forum, here: http://al.chemy.org/forum/ideas/?sid=96a717be6c8c53b0a679575d1e0972be

[Oksenbrutus]

Thank you for the idea, suggestion posted.

[Inimoulleb]

Heres some more stuffs

[LuisNCT]

the first one seems a burning man figure

[Dvance]

This Alchemy program is very addictive. I have currently put together a hot rod art book called The Hot Rod Art book: Masters of chicken scratch and I used Alchemy to do some of my rough layouts for the book. It gives an entirely different way to sketch.Here is a link to the book www.hotrodartbook.com (http://www.hotrodartbook.com)

http://www.futureelements.net/hamb/DesertRun5.jpg

http://www.futureelements.net/hamb/bridge52.jpg

[Androxity]

I love the way you used Alchemy Luis, my brain fires away creating infinite possibilities.

[mark malone]

Just started playing with this programme....great bit of kit as well as being free it unlocks those creative juices:
My WIP..taken into Painter:

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5633/mirror2desktopresolutio.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mirror2desktopresolutio.jpg)

[Bushido]

Great thread :D

[Venger]

I'll have to try it with the mic.
Using Alchemy 3 (stupid crappy G4)

Veeerry interesting!
1st go, after trying out the tools...
614538

[Hookswords]

Alpha 007 just dropped. It's supposed to have support for tablets with a new pressure shapes module. I havent checked it out yet, but it's sounds like a nice addition.

http://al.chemy.org/download/

[andrea.bianco]

thanks mate, I go for it :)

[Tonic]

How can I change the language in this 007 version? The polish language was done badly and I have weird characters.

[artiphats]

yup I had a few moments to play with version 7 earlier today. I REAAAALLLY love the gradiant and pen pressure tools. I'll post some work up tonight when I get home.

[Jacob Kobryn]

Awesome! I haven't used this program since A3 or so. I'll download A7 as soon as possible (which is after history homework :( ).

[maldrin]

007 is sweet. Pen pressure, gradiants, new pull shapes (bones! yay!), etc. It's really already great, so this is an excellent update. my only complaint is the same one I had with 006 - the pull shapes begin to bog the tool down. But i cope. :)

lovely tool.

[Applefin]

Wow. Like, WOW!!! This is awesome. I love this. I can't believe it's free. How have I not discovered this before? Well....got some catching up to do. All the work on these pages is great. Good job guys. Super.

[surpher]

Version Beta 008 has been released.
News (http://al.chemy.org/news/)
Download (http://al.chemy.org/download/)

FEATURES
+ SVG Export & Switching support added using the Batik Library - Big thanks to Steren!
+ Support for scaling image size when exporting as a JPEG or PNG file
+ Flip canvas, horizontally or vertically - Thanks to Count_Zero!
+ Smooth module added to smooth up sharp edges and hard angles
+ Ribbon Shapes module added, based on code by James Alliban & Eric Natzke - Thanks Guys!
+ Limit module added, to limit the number of shapes on the canvas - Thanks to hellocatfood!
+ Splatter Shapes module added, based on code by Stamen Design - Thanks!

CHANGES
+ Transparency of the background color can now be set
+ Persian Localisation added - Thanks to Omid Saadat!
+ Shapes Module: Added option to render just the outline of the shape until the pen is lifted
+ Alchemy now remembers the Export file directory between sessions

BUG FIXES
+ Fixed inconsistant coloring bug with Mirror & Color Switcher
+ Color Palette now pops up in the middle of the screen (not outside it)
+ Updated JPen tablet library, with support for Java 1.6 on mac and other improvements
+ Fixed bug causing fullscreen transparent mode to draw the background with some affect modules
+ Fixed Color Switcher bug where bg/fg colors were switching
+ Line Width UI element now updates correctly when using shortcuts

[The Crazy Dude SRD]

I certainly hope they fixed the mic shapes fuction, I loved that thing in version 6 yet once I got into 7, it did some really funky stuff.