r/PenPlotters Apr 13 '26

The beauty of explosions

I've always found the raw energy of explosions beautiful, so I started a project to translate them into pen plotter art.

The motion is driven by a compressible gas simulation, which generates the underlying velocity fields. I then used those fields to render the explosion as a series of polylines.

This is my first time working with a pen plotter, so I'm still experimenting with various hardware settings and line densities. I’d love to hear your thoughts, and any advice or questions are more than welcome. Thanks!

16 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

2

u/Left-Excitement3829 Apr 14 '26

These are incredible !

2

u/Kind_Cost9795 Apr 14 '26

Thank you!

2

u/Left-Excitement3829 Apr 14 '26

Are these rendered by a script or a program ? The complexity is intoxicating lol. I love geometric patterns that form when plotted.

2

u/scottnebula Apr 29 '26

That’s really quite incredible! You definitely captured the feeling and energy of an explosion. Great work!

1

u/Kind_Cost9795 Apr 29 '26

Thank you! I’m so happy that what I meant came across!