89 characters. I was unhappy with the spindly arms on this one, but it's what the translator spit out. Next:
57 characters. Next:
63 characters. This build (2021.01.29A) changed placement in a significant way. Previous builds would give a direction and a clockwise-anticlockwise tie-breaker. Go in the direction, if the way is blocked, rotate around the last completed cell in the tie-breaker direction till you hit an empty cell. With the 01.29A build, you go in the direction and if the way is blocked you just keep going in that direction till you hit an empty cell. I ended up reverting to the old method after the next build because I liked it better when the gradients stayed closer together. Next:
109 characters. See how the color shifts are less harmonious? Changed placement system after this. Next:
157 characters. New build (2021.01.31A). Replaced burgundy with "cloud" in the palette. Input string is a 157-digit prime number. Fixed palette generator so it'll never break again. Added "dupe" specials (duplicates the last cell as a solid roughly 3% of the time). Back to the old placement algorithm.