Procrastination: noun. the act of delaying or postponing something.
Instead of getting on with actually sitting behind my workbench and finishing assembly or getting started on painting, I’ve recently spent far too many hours directing ChatGPT to code a paint mixing tool.
The original idea was simple: Provide a tool where I can keep track of what paints I currently have on the shelf, as well as their approximate color HEX and suggestions on how to lighten/darken those paints with others that are on the shelf.
This turned into a passion project and three main tools:
Paint Tracker
The simplest of the three – simple table of paints in the database, as well as the ability for me to add a link to models I have used these paints on, which will eventually make the ‘database’ far more personal.
Shading Helper
Select a paint and see some suggestions on how to lighten or darken that color. Two main ladders calculate, one strict (trying to use black to darken, or white to lighten) and one relaxed (where a color shift or more natural shading may occur).
Clicking a paint from any of the paint tables will hop to the Shading Helper for that color.
Mixing Helper
Select the two paints you have and how many parts per paint to see the outcome. Helpful for trying new mixes.
These tools are accesible via the main navigation menu at the top of the page. The tool is 99% of the way there, and I may even release it as a WordPress plugin, but I need to have a look at the WordPress Plugin Guidelines and their stance on AI generated content.
To be clear: I am not a developer. Whilst I understand what the code is doing, I would not have managed this without the help of AI. ChatGPT did all the heavy lifting, I just told it what to do, over several iterations, frustrations, and troubleshooting steps.
The final product has strayed away from ‘paints on my shelf’, though if you install the plugin onto your own WordPress environment, it is possible to mark paints as such and filter tables etc. to hyper-focus it to what you have at hand.