The question is 'where is that line between too little and too much?'.
Okay, so I have decided - the horizon in my cave was a stupid idea. This has been removed! Yay for the cave!!
I've actually gone as far as removing the water too. I thought this may pose as an issue but it doesn't. It actually makes you wonder where the water stops and the cave ceiling begins. I have perlin noise on the lower half of my screen to create glow worm reflection. But instead of directly mirroring the ceiling, I've rather created wave lines of perlin noise to represent moving water.
The fire torch - I have had night mares over this silly torch. I can get the particle smoke system working (sort of) in place of the temporary torch... but I can never actually get it to look realistic. Eventually I put my foot down (okay, it wasn't my foot, it was my finger) and removed all the tens of tens of lines of code in charge of the 'smoking fire torch'. Instead, I have now created the affect of moving flames and varying transparency of the glow from the fire to illuminate the screen. This isn't what I originally fantasized about but I got into too much trouble from the grumpy boyfriend for spending too much time on this sketch. Moan moan moan...
Have I mentioned how much I hate arrays?? No I don't think I have. Well, I HATE dealing with arrays!
My dreaded goal is to become more familiar with them and use them without issues in future projects.
2.5.11
Creating this glow worm cave and the little extras
For the Friday night presentation before the uni break, we had to finish our Transformation Project up to a stage it could be used, but unpolished. During the break we were to use the constructive critism given by our tutors to polish up our projects.
Above is the very laggy development final.
a= turns left
b=turns right
right mouse click=water drips and circles are created in area of water
left mouse click=torch sounds
This was yet to have fire flies added, using a particle system, plus the torch was going to be replaced with a realistic torch, leaving a smoke trail.
Something I didn't have quite enough time to figure out was why my hidden leap frogs didn't appear out of the water when I placed my mouse over that region of the screen.
This was planned to be fixed by the next stage of developement until I was advised to tone it down, and that less was possibly more in my case.
The sounds are too blatant in this sketch, and this is something I had to work on for my final hand in.
Another question that arose was "why is there a horizon in a cave?". The reason I created the light at the end of the tunnel (yeah yeah, it doesn't look like much of a tunnel), was to give the illusion that you were going somewhere. You could call it false hope. :)
I have removed this for the next development sketch.
Above is the very laggy development final.
a= turns left
b=turns right
right mouse click=water drips and circles are created in area of water
left mouse click=torch sounds
This was yet to have fire flies added, using a particle system, plus the torch was going to be replaced with a realistic torch, leaving a smoke trail.
Something I didn't have quite enough time to figure out was why my hidden leap frogs didn't appear out of the water when I placed my mouse over that region of the screen.
This was planned to be fixed by the next stage of developement until I was advised to tone it down, and that less was possibly more in my case.
The sounds are too blatant in this sketch, and this is something I had to work on for my final hand in.
Another question that arose was "why is there a horizon in a cave?". The reason I created the light at the end of the tunnel (yeah yeah, it doesn't look like much of a tunnel), was to give the illusion that you were going somewhere. You could call it false hope. :)
I have removed this for the next development sketch.
9.4.11
Processing development
I'm currently working on my perlin noise cave ceiling. I've experimented with both P3D and OPENGL in the size parameter... I've found P3D to keep the image smoother than OPENGL.
Update on concept stage!
At this very moment, I am looking at using perlin noise, although, I plan to control the perlin noise, and restrict it's output to create the cave ceiling AND reflection under/on the water below.
I also plan on using another kind of perlin noise to create a swarm of glowing fire flies.
Now, after thinking (yes I do a lot of that surprisingly), I realise if I use perlin to create the cave ceiling, there may not be any point to designing glow worms. This is because the cave will already look like it's covered in glow worms. That is why I'd like to introduce perlin glowing fire flies instead.
The water I plan on creating with ripples etc, but to create the reflection of the ceiling in the water, I will have to create an mirror image of the ceiling under the layer of water. This way it should appear to be a reflection rather than a mere cheat.
Bats... how do I create bats hanging off a perlin cave ceiling? Hmm... This could pose as an issue at this point.
I am thinking of creating the illusion of the end of the cave/tunnel coming nearer and nearer (without actually reaching the end ofcourse!). This may relax the mood a little in the sense it creates hope.
I also plan on using another kind of perlin noise to create a swarm of glowing fire flies.
Now, after thinking (yes I do a lot of that surprisingly), I realise if I use perlin to create the cave ceiling, there may not be any point to designing glow worms. This is because the cave will already look like it's covered in glow worms. That is why I'd like to introduce perlin glowing fire flies instead.
The water I plan on creating with ripples etc, but to create the reflection of the ceiling in the water, I will have to create an mirror image of the ceiling under the layer of water. This way it should appear to be a reflection rather than a mere cheat.
Bats... how do I create bats hanging off a perlin cave ceiling? Hmm... This could pose as an issue at this point.
I am thinking of creating the illusion of the end of the cave/tunnel coming nearer and nearer (without actually reaching the end ofcourse!). This may relax the mood a little in the sense it creates hope.
Rainforest sound bite
Sounds | Effects | Sound Bites | Sound Clips from SoundBible.com
This may be useful in a cave environment, it will suffice as background ambience
This may be useful in a cave environment, it will suffice as background ambience
Torch sound bite
Torch Sounds | Effects | Sound Bites | Sound Clips from SoundBible.com
As you move forward through the cave, imagine moving your torch to see what is lurking to the right of you. This is the sound you should hear!
As you move forward through the cave, imagine moving your torch to see what is lurking to the right of you. This is the sound you should hear!
Rowing your boat through water - sound bite
Sounds | Effects | Sound Bites | Sound Clips from SoundBible.com
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...
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?
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').
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
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! |
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| Rough sketch of walking/floating closely by a spider and web... |
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| Passing bats sleeping on cave top |
 |
| Brain storming while discussing ideas with Ben! Things to use, and things not to do... |
7.4.11
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??
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:
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... |
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| 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? |
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| Eventually everyone has to go back to reality unfortunately... |
28.3.11
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!
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.
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.
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