by software artist Scott Draves. You may also follow me on google+ or twitter, buy art, or join me on facebook.

May 12, 2006

Sheep Design Tools

If you run the Electric Sheep screen-saver, you can use the up (or down) arrow key to vote for the sheep you like (or not), and so influence the evolution of the flock. Furthermore, you can design your own sheep and post them into the gene pool. If your sheep are popular, they will interbreed with the rest of the flock and produce children. By mutating and crossing the genomes, variations of your sheep will appear and themselves evolve.

Windows users can run Apophysis and Mac users run Oxidizer. Linux users have their choice of Apophysis under Wine or Qosmic, a native Qt application. There's also a portable Java version.

There's a Sheep Edition of Apophysis that has exactly the right variations you'll need.

After you've got a hang of the software and are ready to share, join the genetic design email list and ask for the password for connecting to the server. Posted by spot at May 12, 2006 03:58 PM

Comments
Scott... Just a quick note to let you know I wrote about this post and Electric Sheep in a recent published newspaper article. You do great work, I hope more people notice it. The blog above has the link to the article. Posted by: Dave Kaufman - Techlife at June 1, 2006 07:08 AM
How secure is this software from invasion into the computer by users or hackers? Posted by: JDiablo at June 11, 2006 10:59 PM
ciao Posted by: Pietro at June 16, 2006 03:49 AM
is there any linux tool to design a sheep? Posted by: treor at June 30, 2006 10:27 AM
I just wanted to say hi to everyone...and I really am happy to have found sheep...I thinks its really going to let me express myself...finally... Posted by: flint joasaint at July 27, 2006 01:15 AM
i found your sheep looking for screensavers for my grandma she is absolutly in love with them and i wanting me to learn how to make them now. so i will let you know how it goes from here on out. but she wanted me to thank all of you who ahve made them they are wonderful pieces of art work. and i second that notion on that too. Posted by: Cecil at August 20, 2006 07:07 PM
I just tried installing and using Apophysis in Linux using WINE. It appears to work so far. I haven't had any crashes just poking around, but I also haven't used it completely in depth either. So... WINE is certainly a possibility but it looks like Apophysis has a good deal of depth to it and would take some real exploring to determine if it's stable under WINE or not. Anyone else running Linux + WINE should be able to explore this and post back here. I will post back here if I get the time to delve in further. Posted by: Deckard at September 6, 2006 08:22 AM
yo Posted by: mat at September 17, 2006 10:40 AM
Thanks for the totally awesome screensaver, Scott! I actually was trying out and using Apophysis for fun before I discovered ES... so I felt like it might be interesting to join the mailing list and stuff. Posted by: ProfFiendish at October 15, 2006 02:29 PM
All those electric sheep got my mid all mucked up! Raddical site by-and-by Posted by: Dace Hardlight at October 26, 2006 06:47 PM
would it be possible to use Chaoscape for this? Posted by: dyze at November 2, 2006 01:01 PM
Excellent Posted by: red5 at December 11, 2006 03:02 PM
can i get a password??? Posted by: todd at December 17, 2006 06:54 PM
flint joasaint said:"I just wanted to say hi to everyone...and I really am happy to have found sheep...I thinks its really going to let me express myself...finally..."___________________I guess I feel the same way. Sheep is great :)___ Posted by: darjee at February 1, 2007 08:36 AM
Can I have a password?? I just joined because i made a sheep. But im not too sure how to animate it... I'm using Apophysis. Any help? Posted by: Sub12 at February 7, 2007 12:09 AM
ask for the password on the genetic design email list, not here. Posted by: spot at February 7, 2007 12:23 AM
i realy like this. i am a noob and would lke help animating it if i could thank you for makeing this program. Posted by: tony at February 12, 2007 04:35 PM
ochen' interesno my site http://bosja.com Posted by: ded at March 15, 2007 04:23 AM
wow Posted by: ded at March 15, 2007 04:24 AM
Really like elec. sheep ,would like to know how to slow it down. Posted by: Ted peterson at March 30, 2007 06:54 AM
I have also run Apophysis under WINE using Linux, and so far, no crashes as well, but the rendering is toilet water. It looks pixely, half-tone...sort of like Windows 3.1 icons. That grainy look. I can't get a smooth fractal to save my life. Any help would be awesome. My email is listed. The guys at the #winehq irc channel haven't responded yet, so I don't know. Maybe the WINE API just can't handle apo's power, or can't fully utilize it. Is anyone else having this problem? This is one of two programs I downloaded WINE specifically for, and it seems, thus, bleak. Posted by: EschatologicalHumor at April 9, 2007 04:46 PM
eschatological.humor@gmail.com Posted by: EschatologicalHumor at April 9, 2007 04:49 PM
would it be possible to use Chaoscape for this? Posted by: Holly at May 21, 2007 04:08 PM
can i have the password??? Posted by: Nick at June 15, 2007 07:50 PM
I can make what I want in Apophysis but no idea at all how to animate it for Sheep. Any tutorials? Posted by: Kai at August 15, 2007 05:08 PM
join the email list linked above and ask there to get further instructions on making sheep. Posted by: spot at August 15, 2007 05:19 PM
How secure is this site from hackers?? Posted by: dmiladin at October 7, 2007 08:24 PM
more so than most. the sysadmin is top-notch. Posted by: spot at October 7, 2007 08:49 PM
why can't I save my sheep? Posted by: gerardo at November 5, 2007 07:30 PM
I want sheep in resolutions higher than vga, where can I get these? Posted by: SbiridS at November 26, 2007 05:19 AM
if you want higher resolution then you can either render your own, or buy a HiFiDreams. Posted by: spot at November 26, 2007 08:58 AM
I just wanted to let you know that this site is amazing. I love wacthing the sheep mutate and produce offspring. Hopefully, I'll figure this out soon and be able to qadd my own art into this wonderful site. Posted by: Kateyluvsheep at December 11, 2007 11:09 PM
i love this site and i am happy that i canf finally render my own sheep. now all i have to do is upload them. Posted by: twisted at February 23, 2008 05:40 AM
I Love this stuff! When voting, the sheep pops up. Thats great but I want to See whats being voted for. Is there a way to make the sheep smaller or more opaque? Ty Posted by: MysticDreamer at June 7, 2008 09:58 AM
I've been playing with Apophysis for a few years now. I'd be interested in joining learning how to turn some of my creations into sheep. I love the animations that Electric Sheep comes up with. It's a great fractal animation program. Posted by: Zaphod Beeblebrox at June 11, 2008 05:18 AM
How much bandwidth does ES use? Posted by: Antony at August 24, 2008 05:39 PM
Been working with Apophysis under linux in wine and the Java version. I'm interested in getting a password to post sheep. Love turning people on to sheep. An Epic Project I'd like to see continue and grow! Posted by: suntiger at September 28, 2008 11:34 AM
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