Kaia Vintr
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kaiavintr.bsky.social
Kaia Vintr
@kaiavintr.bsky.social
170 followers 290 following 830 posts
Art college drop-out who became a software developer.

they/them will do
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kaiavintr.bsky.social
Seasonal real-time rendering experiment I did (radiosity-based lighting) within Shadertoy's constraints (not loading any textures or meshes, no compute shaders)
#GraphicsProgramming #webgl #glsl #shader
November 1, 2025 at 9:54 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
It makes me happy that sometimes 2D Fourier transforms look like this...
#math
A visual representation of a 2D discrete Fourier transform (showing the magnitude of the coefficients only). There are many bright shapes with four spikes going in opposite directions that look like stars in an astronomical photo, except there are patterns in them. The background is mostly black, with diagonal stripes made up of the faintest "stars". It is a transform of real-valued data, so it has rotational symmetry (opposite quadrants of the image are identical, but rotated). As an applied mathematics and signal processing tool, it is a way of visualizing or measuring the frequency components of 2D data, e.g. to see if it has any repeating patterns and how predominant those patterns are. The stars indicate clusters of particularly strong frequency components, with higher frequencies appearing further away from the center of the image. They have "arms" that extend across many frequencies because the pattern doesn't fit exactly into the dimensions of the input data.
February 18, 2025 at 6:44 AM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
Trying to debug code that renders intersecting spheres, using messy random data, instead of sensibly using simpler data to test it (but no regrets).

#creativecoding #graphicsprogramming #glsl
A web-like pattern formed by intersecting spheres, rendered by path tracing (computer graphics algorithm). If you can see it as a 3D surface (I couldn't at first) then it resembles the inside of a wasps' nest. Blue-gray, with a faint graininess that makes it look a bit like watercolor. The code is buggy, so the simulated rays of light in the path-tracing intersect different spheres in inconsistent ways, leaving many overlapping arcs, with their own gradients, where there should be a smooth gradient. The planes where adjacent spheres intersect are brighter, making it possible to see the overall shape. A different version of the previous image (rendered image of intersecting spheres), this time rendered mostly in pink (I was trying to use multiple colors to debug something, but almost everything turned out pink). Some bugs were fixed, so there are fewer arcs, and it's less chaotic, with more coherent lighting. A different version of the previous two images (rendered image of intersecting spheres), now rendered much brighter (in blueish gray again). Most of the bugs are fixed now, and you might be able to see it as 3D, possibly a very clean, bright wasps' nest. If you see it as 2D, it looks more like crystals in a slice of rock, or very magnified metal. The lighting is mostly correct now, but it's hard to figure out what is going on because of the unusual geometry. It still looks like an abstract painting rather than a real thing. A different version of the previous images (rendered image of intersecting spheres). Now it is rendered as a cutaway view, sliced along a single plane that passes through some of the spheres. You can see the outside of some of the spheres now and it's probably easier to see it as 3D. The cutaway plane passes through only a small part of some of the spheres, leaving dark holes. It looks like something that insects made, or like something from a Hieronymus Bosch painting.
February 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
Version with the sphere depths more random...
A computer-rendered square image of many blue glass spheres of different sizes, at different depths, packed pretty closely together (like pebbles or gravel, but maybe a little less packed). The view is unnatural (orthographic projection), looking straight down on the spheres, with an unoccluded sky above. The sun is not visible in the sky (because that would be harder to render) so it looks like twilight. Each sphere reflects and is shadowed by the neighboring spheres, leaving a circular or irregular-shaped patch of sky reflected in the middle of the sphere. In some spheres the reflections around the edge are like the iris of an eye. Spheres below are faintly visible through the upper spheres, distorted by refraction.
February 2, 2025 at 11:25 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
Simple path-tracing renderer written for a math-y experiment (subsurface scattering model) but it can make fractal-like pictures too...
#creativecoding #technicalart #shader #graphicsprogramming
A computer-rendered square image of around 200 blue glass spheres of different sizes (with more spheres below them, in shadow) packed pretty closely together. The view is unnatural (orthographic projection), looking straight down on the spheres, with an unoccluded sky above (the sun is not visible in the sky, because that would be harder to render, so it looks like twilight). Each sphere reflects and is shadowed by the neighboring spheres, leaving an irregular star-like patch of sky reflected in the middle of the sphere. The spheres below are also visible faintly through each sphere, distorted by refraction. A zoomed-in version of the bottom-left corner of the previous image. The more shadowed spheres behind the top layer are more clearly visible. The individual neighboring spheres reflected around the edge of each sphere are starting to become visible, producing a wavy or scalloped border. The blue looks pretty intense (perhaps ultramarine blue). A zoomed-in version of the bottom-left corner of the previous image, with only portions of spheres visible. The neighboring spheres reflected around the edges of two of the spheres are clearly visible, looking like waves. Elsewhere the layered reflections and refractions are hard to separate, with some almost swirly lines. A zoomed-in version of the bottom-left corner of the previous image, showing overlapping pieces of three spheres, very enlarged (though the curvature is still visible). They look a bit like fabric or ice. The bottom one looks like the surface of a planet. The three sphere edges frame a smaller dark area, through which mysterious shapes are faintly visible, very deep blue.
February 1, 2025 at 4:38 AM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
where to have fun in Toronto
A piece of Google Maps' map of Toronto, showing a green area between Queen St. E. and Lake Shore Blvd. E. labeled "Main Sewage Treatment Playground". Woodbine Park and Beach Skateboard Park are also visible, and Ashbridges Bay is to the south
April 28, 2024 at 1:47 AM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
More accidental art (testing 3D rendering code). Why are simple images like this so satisfying?
3D-rendered (not AI!) image of five thin curved shapes, like gray blades of grass, sticking out of an infinite gray plane under a clear blue sky. The shapes are all slightly different, and form an irregular line proceeding away from the viewer. It looks surreal, possibly because of the association with Salvador Dali's desert paintings, and possibly because the curves look a bit like eyelashes. 3D-rendered (not AI!) image of an irregular line of five thin curved shapes, like gray blades of grass, sticking out of an infinite gray plane, looking towards a bright horizon. The shapes are all slightly different, and are partly silhouetted against the bright sky, casting shadows towards the viewer. It looks surreal, possibly because of the association with Salvador Dali's desert paintings, and possibly because the curves look a bit like eyelashes.
February 9, 2024 at 8:08 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
Just testing/debugging 3d rendering code, and I keep making accidental art...
A 3D scene using path-tracing renderer with lots of light bounces, so the lighting is quite realistic even though the scene is weirdly simple. There are two cubes sitting on an infinite plane, all in the same shade of gray, with perfectly smooth matte surfaces. The cubes have a series of square chunks taken out of one side of them, forming inverted pyramids of steps, and light/shadow falling across these steps makes an interesting pattern. The lighting is a simplistic model of afternoon sun on a clear day, and the horizon is perhaps a bit too bright. The overall effect is perhaps some kind of airbrushed semi-abstract art from the 60s-80s.
December 9, 2023 at 4:10 AM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
Local raccoons built a better cybertruck
"CONRAD", a large sculpture of a raccoon by Novak Djogo and Daniel Joshua Vanderhorst that has appeared in various places in Toronto over the past year. Here it is in a small park on Danforth Ave. The name "CONRAD" is a reference to a dead raccoon on a busy street corner in 2015 that people started leaving flowers and cards beside as a joke, which went viral. The sculpture is composed of a wooden frame, with mostly triangular shapes, covered in pieces of transparent and translucent plastic. It looks like low-polygon computer graphics. It has the very rough shape of a raccoon standing on its hind legs with its tail curled around it. In the background there is a long three-story building that has a tower-like structure with many pigeons on it, looking ominous against the gray sky.
December 4, 2023 at 11:37 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
POV: You're the zoo exhibit.
A photo of a baby (or toddler) raccoon with its nose and paws pressed against a glass door, looking up at the person taking the photo, who is just a few inches away. Another photo of the baby raccoon outside the glass door. This time the person taking the photo is crouched very low down, closer to eye level, and the raccoon is looking curious and pensive with its front paws held close to its belly.
October 1, 2023 at 4:27 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible.
A drawing from a medieval alchemical manuscript of the snake/dragon Ouroborus eating its own tail. The scaly red and pale green dragon (or snake with legs and three horns) is making a circle, with its head and the tip of its tail (being eaten) at the top of the drawing. There is writing all around and inside the circle, which is Greek but looks unusual because it is in a kind of calligraphic, almost cursive style, with dots and strokes above/below the letters.
September 21, 2023 at 6:03 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
53 years later, no sign of a printing company at that address, but there is some pretty street art commemorating Julio Cortázar's sudden realization that all cats are telephones.
Screenshot from Google Street View showing the address 1551 José María Penna, Banfield, Buenos Aires (presumably - the street number is not visible). The Street View capture is from June 2023. It shows a low building, or just a garage, with a taller brick building some distance behind it. The facade of the brick building is curved at the top in an Art-Deco style. The front of the garage is whitewashed, and it has corrugated metal doors. In the generous space on either side of the doors are two murals, perhaps by different artists. The murals depict women with white cats. Each picture has a turquoise circle/oval in the background, and branches with pink five-petaled flowers below. In the foreground of the photo there is a tree, between the sidewalk and the street, with many dead leaves below, although there are still a few green leaves on the tree. I think it is a plane tree. Closeup of a mural, very stylized, of a woman with a long neck, white skin, and curly black hair. Her eyes and mouth are black ovals, giving her a spooky appearance. Her body is just a red pear-shaped lump, with black heart on the front, to one side. She is "holding" a white cat with a black collar saying "MAU" (via a speech bubble). There might be a tiny satellite dish on the cat receiving a transmission (a line of black dots). The woman has two strange circles on her neck, and she might be a telephone. A red telephone receiver is hanging straight down on a wire beside her. There is text all around the edge. On one side it says "Cómo se pasa al lado" (title of a piece by Julio Cortázar). At the top there is the quote: "y descubrí bruscamente que los gatos son teléfonos" ("and I discovered abruptly that cats are telephones"). On the other side, something ending in "A CORTÁZAR". Unfortunately the name of the artist is too blurry to read in the Street View images. Closeup of the mural on the right side. It shows a woman in profile, against a turquoise circle background. She has a giant, fluffy white cat's head on top of her head. Both the woman and the cat are facing the other woman. This woman's eye is very strange -- it looks like a red, almost rectangular, wing, containing a small turquoise circle against a white triangle. There is no writing here, except for "D4 17 M" (the 17 is smaller) at the bottom, just inside the background, likely the artist's signature and/or a date. The style of this image is quite different, despite the unifying motifs.
September 15, 2023 at 3:13 PM
kaiavintr.bsky.social
I love this tradition of including a page with the exact date and address of printing, like a birth certificate for a physical book. As if anticipating a future when such proofs of tangibility would matter even more.
A copy of Silvina Ocampo's story collection "Los días de la noche" that landed in the Toronto Reference Library. Photo shows a page at the end of the book with only the following text: Se terminó de imprimir el día 20 de octubre de 1970 en la Imprenta López S.R.I., José M. Penna 1551, Banfield, provincia de Buenos Aires Translation: Printing was finished on the 20th of October 1970 by López S.R.I. Printers, 1551 José M. Penna [Street], Banfield, Province of Buenos Aires
September 15, 2023 at 12:04 AM