For the genuinely confused.
Regex is one of those massive pains in the ass that’s just too helpful not to learn. I won’t pretend it’s fun. I’d put Regex at the same level of No-Dear-God-Why-Is-This-Happening as an enema or a certified letter from the IRS. But once you wrap your head around it, you’ll be wanting to use them all the time because they make everything else just… stupid easy.
Did you know that if you go to Google Docs and try to load a csv file with 11,920 rows and 92 columns, you’ll likely get a warning like this?
Last week, I wrote a function that loops through all the characters in the first paragraph of a Google Doc. But chances are, if you’re running through all the characters in a paragraph, you’re going to need all the characters in all the paragraphs.
How the heck do you do that?
Continue reading “JavaScript: How to Loop All Letters in a Word Doc”
Did you know Google Docs are equipped for macros?! Meaning you can script some automation right into Google. Best thing since sliced bread.
Google Apps Script is based on JavaScript, so if you already know that, you’re well ahead of the game.
I know nothing about JavaScript. But I know other stuff. So… Consider this a beginner’s guide for users of other languages.
SpeechRecognition is a module that to helps Python scripts interact with outside Speech-to-Text engines. It’s important to note here that the module doesn’t actually transcribe audio on its own—it’s more like a sports agent, connecting you with talent.
And some of that talent can be had or tried free of charge. Today, I’ll be looking exclusively at those.
It’s not difficult to load Python scripts into Blender’s text editor, but there’s something reassuring about just getting them to populate in the space bar menu.
How do you get Blender to do that, you ask?
You make your script into an add-on.
You know how sometimes when the charger on your phone gets old, it won’t work unless it’s leaned at a 35 degree angle to the right while the device is hanging upside down from the cord? Duck tape. Duck tape is how I solve that problem. Same deal when the fridge handle breaks or when my rain coat gets holes or when my laptop screen gets dislodged from the body.
Duck tape.
Try and Except is the duck tape of Python. Everyone should be aware of its power.
Alright, take a look at the two versions of Starry Night above. They look the same, right?
WRONG.
There’s a Shel Silverstein poem in one of them. It’s chilling out in the different red values of the pixels in the upper left hand corner on the second Starry Night. I love this method of hiding messages.
If you convert letters into numbers, you can use those to make pixel color changes that are pretty darn subtle. Then when you send your encoded image to anyone with the original, they can use Processing to pull the message out.
Continue reading “Processing: How to Hide Messages in Images”
I have an obsession with timelines, which honestly may be bordering on manic and unhealthy. A 3D timeline has been on my back-burner for months because while I have written a function that auto-creates materials in Python, I had not yet mastered the art of applying image textures to those materials.
That’s today’s project.
Continue reading “Python: How to Bulk Load Image Textures in Blender”
Say you have a message filled with static, and you suspect there’s something off about it. The pixels appear to be random, but not quite. How, how, how might you determine if the image is indeed entirely randomized?
