Rowing your boat through water - sound bite

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I'm not sure if this sound might be overwhelming in project two. Floating through a cave, and constantly hearing the water turning might be distracting in some cases...

Rain sound bite

Rain Sounds | Effects | Sound Bites | Sound Clips from SoundBible.com

Okay... so I do understand that it doesn't rain in caves, but if you listen to this sound bite, it could sound like there is a storm outside and the rain is running through the cave, plus it sounds like there must be an end to the cave somewhere close?

Tiny Frog sound bite

Tiny Frog Sounds | Effects | Sound Bites | Sound Clips from SoundBible.com

Yay for tiny frogs!
To prevent my project from sounding too gloomy and scary, maybe some frog input would be soothing (for the soul... yeah, couldn't help myself, had to add 'for the soul').

Water Fountain sound bite

Water Fountain Noise Sounds | Effects | Sound Bites | Sound Clips from SoundBible.com

I know it's not often you find a water fountain in a cave :)
Oh well... it actually sounds like running water in my opinion

Paper Development

Cave Starting Point 

Shows movement through the cave... tunnel ahead

But then I realised,
most caves have pools of water in areas.
So... I added water... and will import an image
of the front of a rowing boat to
give the impression the view/user
is sitting in a boat.

Here is my scribble at the top after talking with Ben
during our lab session! 

Rough sketch of walking/floating closely by
a spider and web...

Passing bats sleeping on cave top

Brain storming while discussing ideas with Ben!
Things to use, and things not to do...

More concept development and thoughts

Hmmm...

I found this:


Perlin landscape! (use [a] and [d] to rotate use [w] and [s] to change the gap (the space between the dots)

Wouldn't it be amazing to move about a cave made of perlin??

Concept Developement - idea developement more like!

Okay, so I was set to create this whole story line for the user to follow with my storyboard for project two... how ever, I have been told it will be too much work and instead, to focus on one environment.

Due to this, I have changed my idea dramatically. I feel that neither one of the three/four environments in my original story board are exciting enough to work on. I have taken one concept though, and changed the story line behind it.

Imagine a cave, it's dark... but beautiful at the same time.
Your point of view will be from someone walking forward through the cave interacting with the environment.
Looking at the glow worms, moving from side to side... walking through cobwebs, dodging bats.
You can hear drips of something in the background, as well as flapping and squeaking of bats. As you walk through cobwebs, the sounds of them breaking is faint but there.

The question now is how to create a 3D cave environment?
Maybe the answer is to make it 2D using parallax?
Parallax is layering of objects/images to create a 3D look but a flat 3D look.
The idea is to divide the distance by 2 (I think?) between the layers of objects and have them move accordingly
to give the idea of movement.

An example of parallax is as follows:

Initial Story Board for Project Two

Just imagine:
You're stuck in a dark mouldy room with a dim light swinging back and forth
from the ceiling. At this point, you just want to get out of there, anything is
better than this! You have three doors to choose from.

The warm inviting light from Door One gets your fingers moving.
You click your mouse on the door.
It slowly creaks open...

It's open, but the light is too bright.
What can possibly be on the other side.
The only way is to walk through and find out.

You are transported to a tropical jungle.
In the background you can hear exotic birds, bugs and a waterfall.
With the move of your mouse, the leaves of the bush move
and butterflies flutter. 

It doesn't stop there... Why not change the colour of the waterfall
to suit your mood? If you can change the mood led lights in a spa, then why not
a waterfall? Right?
After all, this is not your reality, it's your matrix.

Or... What if you picked Door Two?
There is no better place than to be sitting along the shore line the ocean
with the sun setting behind an the outline of an island.
The is an air of history though, with a supporting posts of an
old wharf mostly submerged in the water.
With the move of the mouse from right to left, you have the power to
bring on more heavy cloud.

As the clouds get bigger and thicker, it starts to rain. Now you can control the
power of the rain by the vertical movement of your mouse.
The soothing sounds of distant wind chimes and rain hitting the ocean surface
calm you.

Door Three however would have taken you to a glow worm filled cave.
The movement of your mouse lights of different areas of the cave.
In fact, your mouse is actually a fire torch. As you sway your fire torch from side to side
you can hear it hiss and crackle.

The question is, what else is lurking in the cave with you?

Eventually everyone has to go back to reality unfortunately...

Reflections - So Far...

Project One -

Where do I start? I found this project both tiring (too many hours put into it) and exciting.
I love the idea of finding a concept/emotion or message I want to portray through design/art.
This Wallpaper project gave me the opportunity to do this through code; to create something on Processing, that would have been almost impossible to create on paper.

I think that was one of the ideas behind project one - to get us to understand how much easier it is to create some images/patterns by code rather than by hand on paper.

During this project though, I had way too many ideas. I don't know where to draw the line. This is an area I need to continue to work on. I need to do my research, find something I like, and stick to it.

With my final concepts and the development stages, I found out how to pointillize an image on Processing.
My aim in this project was to produce sketches with a 3d look. I wanted images to jump out at you. To make the viewer reach out and touch it. Or look in between the layers.

I first looked at filtering the image using filter() -maybe invert filter?
But searched some more and found exactly what I was looking for. Well, I found two versions of what I was looking for.
One source is Pointillism on www.processing.org plus https://gist.github.com/814187 and http://www.learningprocessing.com/examples/chapter-15/example-15-14/.

I also looked at 'exploding' an image to create a 3d look. I was unsuccessful. No matter how much time I put into it, the code just didn't want to obey.

The things I learnt over the week of creating my wallpaper sketches:

Example of use: Pointillism is used in sketches reflecting and magnifying single pixels at random from an underlying (invisible) photo, or image. This technique can vary and alter dramatically to create different affects from another pointillized image.

I found out that when creating a fill set colour, one can simply input 'pix' if an image is uploaded to the sketch. This will create varying colours stolen from the uploaded image from random pixels. Oh yeah, 'pix' stands for 'pixel'. :) Another thing, it isn't just shapes 'pix' for the fill set colour option is good for, you can create lines with this fill(pix....)...

I love the mouse function in sketches. The fact that each time I open up one of my wallpaper sketches, I can create a different image just by moving my mouse in a certain direction, whether it be left or right. In my sketches this creates smaller or larger shapes. In others, the sky is the limit!

Transparancy = depth!

Another major factor in designing sketches for print on Processing is the size of the file you end up with at the end. I had a big issue when it came down to getting the sketches printed at a print shop. I was turned down a number of times from many print shops, simply because my 20x40cm pdf file was way too large to print. I recommend PrintStop by the way. They were the only guys to take my usb stick and print these sketches.
Next time, I will ensure my large pdfs are converted to nice big clear jpegs for printing purposes.

For the next project - I would like to step even further outside of the 'box'; explore many options within the realm of 'transformation'.

I found this example of transformation on openprocessing:



"As a general rule you need to use programming whenever you need: variation, interaction, generation, repetition, calculation or scalability" Extracted from 'Programming, the bigger picture' by Ben Jack.

I also love this one:



PopMatrix! I see the sketch above uses popmatrix plus includes a whole bunch of variables, if statements. Lots of shapes used (consists of only shapes) rotated etc to make up the end object.

I noticed that 'cols' which is one of the boxtree parameters was used here; fill(col,255,255);
I thought that was interesting.

Green Wand @ openprocessing

The Beehive @ openprocessing

Civic Square @ openprocessing

Tepapa @ openprocessing

FINAL WALLPAPER CONCEPTS

My set of four wallpapers comprise of Wellington scenes/themes.
I started off this assignment looking into either working with lines or alternatively with dots.
During the assignment I decided to work with both dots and lines.
The issue was finding the balance between enough lines and
enough dots/circles.
I also played with dot/circle size.
Eventually, I tried adding triangles.
This was one big mistake. Triangles are the devil!
I wound up using squares to spice things up.

The idea between using shapes (circles and squares) at varying transparency
was to give depth for the 3D look.
I want each image to look as if you can see in between layers of pixels.

The use of lines in each composition is to:
1.) shed light on the subject.
 2.) give the "protruding" pixels a path from which they came from.

3.) Symbolise a wealth of history.   

Tepapa

Green Wand

Beehive

Civic Square

Processing Concept Development

It all started off with circles.

I wanted dots/circles to randomly slot themselves on the

screen to reveal an image - a 3D image.

I played with transparency, sizes, shapes... including triangles

which I think was a complete fail.

I introduced lines eventually to shed light and movement.

The following are examples of different stages I got to

while playing with each concept.

Found this one too dark.
I liked the overlaying of circles though.

Introduction of squares as well as circles.
I like this. 

Here, lines were added starting at the top left corner.
This however lightens the image.
I haven't decided whether it is a good
or bad thing.

O.kay... Too much line work.
Gotta get rid of it.

The contrast between the orange and purple works well
but the lines don't work.

Playing with 'symbolism' here.
The lines exiting from the centre of the image
are meant to symbolise light; wealth of history.

Good contrasting bright colours but is missing something.

Here, the lines darken the image too much.
I've tried using fewer lines, lighter lines and different colours.

I wonder where the green wand has gone?
White lines possibly a bit too much?
I think so.

This image was originally meant to look similar to
this. The white was meant to illustrate a calm,
pure, and peaceful environment.
Although, I realised the colours didn't combine well with the other
three wallpapers.
Two images above reveals this image but with black/grey lines.
I mentioned it made the image too dark. The white in this concept is the
direct opposite of the black in the other.
I found a mutual replacement which has been posted
on the "final" posting of my final four wallpapers.
Blue was the replacement colour. The reason I chose blue -
Blue also represents 'calm' and 'purity'.
It reminds me of the ocean.
Can you get any more pure than that? 

Lots and lots of circles.
Once again, good bright contrasting colours
but still missing something.

Circles and lines.

Circles, lines and squares. I know I was missing something.
It was the squares!