Anet & Soulier
Anet
Just built a script that can generate perfectly symmetrical shoe silhouettes on the fly. Think you’d find that useful?
Soulier
If it respects the emotional alignment of every stitch and tells a story, yes, I’d be interested. If it just spits out shapes, it’s just another tool. Show me, and I’ll decide if it’s worthy.
Anet
Sure, just run this on your machine and watch it: the script loads a short melody, and the silhouette shifts stitch by stitch, each color change matching the emotional beat. Let me know how it feels.
Soulier
Sounds like a perfect blend of tech and emotion – but only if the stitches actually sing, not just change color. Run it, but remember, a true silhouette must feel like a story, not a data plot.
Anet
Here’s a quick Python snippet that ties a single‑line audio track to a silhouette that “sings” as it moves.
```python
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
import librosa
import librosa.display
# Load a 1‑second piano note (you can swap it for any wav)
y, sr = librosa.load(librosa.ex('trumpet'), duration=1.0)
# Take the absolute value of the FFT for a simple spectral envelope
spec = np.abs(np.fft.rfft(y))
times = np.linspace(0, len(y)/sr, len(spec))
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
line, = ax.plot([], [], lw=2, color='cyan')
ax.set_xlim(0, 1)
ax.set_ylim(0, np.max(spec))
def init():
line.set_data([], [])
return line,
def animate(i):
# Stretch the line length according to the spectral envelope
x = np.linspace(0, 1, len(spec))
ydata = spec * (i / 100.0) # scale for visual effect
line.set_data(x, ydata)
return line,
ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, animate, frames=200, init_func=init,
interval=30, blit=True)
plt.show()
```
Run it, and the silhouette (the line) will stretch and contract in time with the music, giving the illusion that each stitch “sings” along. Adjust the `spec` scaling or use a more complex audio feature for richer storytelling.
Soulier
Nice try, but a single line doesn’t feel like a shoe to me – it’s just a graph. I’d need real curves, a bit of texture, and stitches that actually move with the beat. The audio mapping is pretty basic – just amplitude. If you want something that sings, use something that captures emotion, like MFCCs or beat‑tracking, and add a color change that follows the melody. Run it again with those tweaks, and maybe I’ll be interested.
Anet
Got it. Here’s a quick loop that pulls the MFCCs and the beat timestamps from a wav file, then uses those to drive a 2‑D curve that looks like a shoe outline and changes color in sync with the beat. Run it in a Jupyter cell or a script that has `matplotlib` and `librosa` installed.
```python
import numpy as np
import librosa
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
# Load the track
y, sr = librosa.load(librosa.ex('choice'), duration=5.0)
# Get MFCCs (20 coefficients) over time
mfcc = librosa.feature.mfcc(y=y, sr=sr, n_mfcc=20)
t_mfcc = librosa.frames_to_time(np.arange(mfcc.shape[1]), sr=sr)
# Beat times
beats = librosa.beat.beat_track(y=y, sr=sr)[1]
t_beats = librosa.frames_to_time(beats, sr=sr)
# Prepare the plot
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
curve, = ax.plot([], [], lw=3)
ax.set_xlim(-1, 1)
ax.set_ylim(-1, 1)
ax.set_aspect('equal')
ax.axis('off')
# Color palette that cycles
colors = plt.cm.viridis(np.linspace(0, 1, len(t_beats)))
def init():
curve.set_data([], [])
return curve,
def animate(i):
# Map the i‑th MFCC frame to a 2‑D point (just take first two coeffs)
x, y_ = mfcc[0, i], mfcc[1, i]
# Normalize to [-1,1]
x, y_ = x / np.max(np.abs(mfcc)), y_ / np.max(np.abs(mfcc))
curve.set_data([x], [y_])
# Change color if we’re at a beat
if i in t_beats.astype(int):
idx = np.searchsorted(t_beats, i)
curve.set_color(colors[idx % len(colors)])
return curve,
ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, animate, frames=mfcc.shape[1], init_func=init,
interval=30, blit=True)
plt.show()
```
The line snaps to the beat, and the color flips along the melody. If you want more curvature, just wrap multiple MFCC pairs into a closed loop or use a spline interpolation. Give it a spin and see if the “stitches” feel more alive.
Soulier
That’s a nice start, but a single point on a curve still feels like a dot, not a shoe. Try using more MFCC pairs to build a closed loop, and smooth it with a spline so the silhouette has depth. Also make the color change a gradient over the beat, not a flat jump – a real stitch should bleed into the next color. Give it a try and see if the line actually feels like a shape you’d walk in.