Hey folks, this is the complete code for the animation I showed here: https://plus.google.com/115124694226931502095/posts/84B3q8sRJWz
Play with it, tweak it, create beautiful animations!
And please show your results here to the community.
Code: https://gist.github.com/StefanPetrick/c856b6d681ec3122e5551403aabfcc68
@Daniel_Garcia @Mark_Kriegsman In case you guys decide one day to continue the work on the library I hereby suggest to make this animation (or an improved version) a part of the official FastLED examples in case that feels appropriate to you.
Thank you @Stefan_Petrick . I wasn’t quite getting the code you posted earlier plugged in and working but I have this running now. Will play around with some of the variables since I have it running on a small 8x4 matrix. Great stuff.
@marmil Cool, please report how it goes. On such a small matrix you might need to adjust the (at the moment) hardcoded noise points which are used for the controlling. Also the factor for scale_x and scale_y might need an adaption. Or you render it as it is but use only a 8x4 area for displaying. I´ll think about how to make this more universal usable without fiddling arround. 8x4 is really small. Challenging.
@marmil : 105, 108, 112, 115, 116, 144
You can replace those 6 controlling values by any other random position within the noise array.
I used the 4 edges of the array and the right and left entry from the middleish line.
The more far away the points are from each other the better (the more alive it becomes).
Does it make sense to you?
@marmil I updated the gist and replaced the hardcoded numbers by formulas based on Width and Height. https://gist.github.com/StefanPetrick/c856b6d681ec3122e5551403aabfcc68
@Stefan_Petrick Here’s my initial venture of trying to dial something in last night. I was playing with those controlling values, but not fully understanding what they were doing. Also I imagine I should pay more attention to the x y scale since my matrix is wide (8x4).
And thank you for the code update. I just tried that out and it basically works right out of the box now on my tiny and non-symmetrical matrix. Cool.
Great and thanks for testing, @marmil . Good to know that it works even on a 8x4 now. Is there still any line in the code I could help to understand?
Lines 113,114:
scale_x[0] = 8000 + (noise[0][0][CentreY] * 16);
scale_y[0] = 8000 + (noise[0][Width-1][CentreY] * 16);
Why 8000?
and lines 124,125:
if (data < 11000) data = 11000;
if (data > 51000) data = 51000;
Why 11000 and 51000?
Good questions. Answers to line 113: 8000 is basically the minimum for the zoom factor. If it is set smaller it is more likely to happen that you see just a plain color all over the matrix. Too far zoomed in = boring. To this set minimum the modulated value is added. If you increase the factor 16 you zoom more out = very small structures. Tends to flicker. Answers to line 124: I looked at the output from inoise16 and noticed that most of the time the values are in the range between 11000 and 51000. Basically the range is 0 - 64k but most of the time the values are in this middle range. So I decided to use just this part of the given results because there “is the music playing” and I cut the rest of by limiting. That helps mainly in the colormapping to don´t waste color resolution with values that maybe appear once every hour. It´s moving permantently all over the selected range now = if we are limited to 8 bit colors we better use the full possible range permanently in order to have smooth edges. The next 2 lines (the subtraction and division) scale this limited value down into the range of 0-255. Not precisely but for sure <255. Now we have a byte value we can work with. Next question, please! 
Okay, I got the particularly erratic movements smoother now by averaging every control point over 4 neighbor noise values. The code looks really crazy now… I also added a noise influence causing the colormapping to become slightly desaturated controlled by the noise. That adds a bit more “breathing” to the animation. What do you think? Improving the effect or over the top? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFCByH6AcJc&feature=youtu.be
Thanks for the explanations of those values. I have messed with most of them now and found some values I like/that seem to work on my matrix. Here’s a new tweak with things rather slowed down so those more erratic movements are now rather subtle (but it also causes it go nearly still for a bit now and then).
I was planning to mess with the saturation too. Good idea to add another level of variety.
I really like your new version with less erratic moves and call it an improvement!
Looking good, @marmil ! And a nice dolly shot - how did you do that?
You might like to also try stuff like
ctrl[1] = (noise[0][Width-1][0] + noise[0][Width-2][0] + noise [0][Width-1][1] + noise[0][Width-2][1]) / 4;
Later you can use this ctrl[1] instead of a single point like noise[0][0][0]
It was just hand held and then stabilized.
Great! At which framerate is this running? I will show some v2.0 with even smother movements and fades soon.
~103 fps with an Arduino Nano and WS2812B.
Cool @Thomas_Runge .
Btw @Stefan_Petrick , I think my example with a Teensy 3.0 and LPD8806 LEDs was showing about 1000 fps.
Beautiful! I love the pixel grid. What did you make that from?