Final Model for Project Three/Reflection

My final Project is slightly different in the way that it has been made and the original materials and methods i had planned to use. The final model is still a sorting cube. it has tope bottom and two sides (4 sides) made out of acrylic and the two opposite faceing sides, (front and back) are made with a 3mm wood/mdf board. These two sides have been painted black. The slides i had originally made out of mdf as well but drilling holes didnt work and building a frame was too time consuming so instead i used thick cardboard. I brought a green "mesh" made out of a fishing wire type substance. By cutting out holes in the different layers in order to ulter the sizing of the gaps i was able to produce three different sized holes in the slides.

Because i wasnted the slides to be easily differenciated i chose to last minute change my colour scheme from primary colours and white, to silver (mainly becasue the white spray paint was working), purple, orange, and green. i found that when the bead were different sizes some of the little beads looked more orange rather than red or yellow, and those two colours were too similar.

I decidedto match the colour of the balls to the slides so that my concept was more clear, therefore spray painted the wooden beads to their corresponding sized beads. This just mad it clearer which ones should go through the holes.

I had tried various methods of attatching the sides of the box together but i think the method that worked best was the glue although it wasnt the neatest join it worked well and was easiest!

Cost wise, the only thing i purchased was
60x30cm 2mm Acryic board $10.80
60x30cm 3mm mdf board   $6.00
30cm of green crafts mesh  $3.00
Spray paint ( i had to buy the orange and green as already had the other colours at home) $9.00 ea

..the beads, and cardboard were things i already had at home that dont need to be replaced. It was also good as becasue i didnt use all the acrylic o could use it for my DSDN111 assignment too. Meaning that overall my project i didnt think broke the budget at all.

Time wise i got it all completed in time (JUST). If there was more time i think i would have made the overall outcome more clean cut and neater.

Reflection
I think that my model is easy to understand and reflects the if else statements well. My experimentation with materials was time consuming and because there wasnt a lot of time i think i could have done better. SOme minor details i didnt have time to fix could have made the model alot cleaner.

these details to me include:

• the slides accesibiltiy in and out of the cue- it would have been nice if i was able to create tracks so they would easliy slide in and out.This would also enusre no beads could slip down the gaps of the slides.
• the slots on the side and their width- the reason for making them so big was that it was imposible to cut out the slots smaller and keep them straight. if i had more time i would have liked them to be smaller, meaning the balls had no chance of slipping out.
• The paint job on the slides-because i changed the colours reasonably last minute i spray painted them only in time for them to dry, ideally i would have liked to of doen a second coat to make it a neater paint job.
• The joins and gluig of the cube-i htought that overall it wasnt too neat. i had trouble keeping the sides together as it was such thin acrylic. although this was neater than tape it would have been nice to of not been able to see any glue anywhere. which i can accept is porbably quite unrealisitc.

time management wise, i thought that becasue this is the third project i porbably slacked off a bit. My time management between other projects and this one should have been more even and i should have managed my time more wisely. in saying that i did get it done and i thought i had some time well spent on things like experimenting with the colours and materials which was improving my model as i went along.

On a side note, personally i liked the acciedntal effect on the beads that i created when spray painting them.

YAY! i have completed coding!

Final 200-300 word Description

If/else statements

In order to control how a program treats processes, the program uses a code called if/else statements. The statements include the code which determines when something will happen (if), what will happen and/or the alternative animation (else).
       e.g.    if (something is true)
                      run a block of code

These are effective when creating animations and are especially useful when creating an interactive animation using mouse pressed functions and other codes allowing you to control the animations.

I have created what I call the sorting cube. What this cube demonstrates is the process of the if/else statements and the idea that there is a determinant which controls the next action. In my models case the determinant for the if/else statements is the slides. The slides that are inserted will determine which balls will fall to the bottom of the cube. There are 3 different sizes of balls at the top of the cube. If you insert one of the coloured slides it will affect the placement of the balls.

For example:  If the red slide is inside the cube, the red balls will fall through; else the red balls will not hit the bottom.

                If (the red slide is inserted in the cube and the black slide is not)
                  the red balls will fall to the bottom

                Else the red balls will continue to sit at the top of the cube.

Plan of attack

Rather than completely a protoype out of cardboard i have decided to experimetn as i go. keeping in mind i have other assignments to do, and i dont have a lot of time. I often find that its with the materials you use that yu run into problems. therefore i dont want to be wasting any time using cardboard.

Here is a checklist, a list of steps in which i plan to take in order to create the cube.
1.cut out the peices for the cube (6 sides from acrylic)
2. stick all sides together minus front and back in which will have the slots in it. (this is to experimetn with sticking methods)
3. create the slides in regards to the front and back sides of the cube.
4. find appropriate sized beads for the 3 holey slides.
5. Drill holes to fit the beads through thm in each slide.
6. stick down the back side
7. insert the beads
8. stick down the front side
9. insert th slides.

i realise that this sounds all very easy but along the way i realise that time consuming trial and error may occur and that ths may change slightly however the method is a good basis for me to start with.

FInal Plan and measurements Draft (give or take)

More or less, this is a draft plan on the measuremtns i plan to follow when making the cube.

Final Idea For Project 3 and Interim

This model explains the if/else statement. IF the right sized mesh is placed in the box it will alow the balls to hit the bottom of the box. ELSE the balls will remain on the first layer.

The general design of the model, is a "box" made out of glass or some sort of see through substance. On one side of the box there will be slits/slots in which the slide containg the different sized grids will slot in. Statrting with the smaller sized grids and ending with the largest. That way it will only allow the small ones to go through when the first slide is inserted.

THe slides are the determinaning factor as to what will happen much like functions such as mousePress, mouseClick etc. etc.

Time and Cost Management
I chose not to use processing for this assignment as i find it very time consuming to work things out. therefore it seems more time efficient to stick to somehting i can manage and predict how long it will take. I will ifnd this easier than coding as i know what i am making and how i will make it. Where as in coding its alot of trial and error which can be very time consuming.
Materials i will need to investigate the costs for are..
glass
wood
wire
mesh
wooden, metal, or marble balls
and joining materials such as nails and glue

I do have a lot o these materials already at home but it wil sitll be interesting to know the cost to create my model. i will also need to keep in mind the size i want the box to be. So my next step is a detailed plan of attack.

Glass? ..or acrylic!

Making the cube..

So turns out this isnt as simple as i thought. originally i planeed to use glass. but after further thought, not only is glass almost impossible to work with it is also expensive, heavy and hard to join. Because i wanted to keep the sides transparent i decided to make four walls out of acrylic. Acrylic/prospecs can be purchased from the uni shop on Te Aro campus. It is approximately 10-12 dollars for a large peice 80x30cm ( i think) depending on how many mm thick you are purchasing. I am also using acrylic for my DSDN111 project, so i feel that it will be killing two birds with one stone. this way i can use the workshop toold to make the cube and am able to make more decidions about the outcome than if i was to use glass.

ACRYLIC IT IS..

Brainstorm for Project 3

The prupose of this project is basically to create something that can help explain a coding term or function using a metaphor. A good way to look at this assignment is to imagine that someone who doesnt knwo anyhting about coding will use my project in order to help understand a term or function. Another way of lookign at it is if a tutor was going to use my project in order to explain to their students something in coding.

From the list of examples provided i feel that i understand the if/else staements the most. As i had worked with that alot in project two, and i feel i have got my head around it finally.

if/else Statements

From the online tutorials this is the way they introduce if/else statemnts. Origjnally this made no sense to me. but after using it, it really is very simple. and i think that metaphorically it can be explained in many ways that are easy to realte to in our daily activities.

Initial Ideas

 Idea 1:

Iterative baby toy. Shapes and colours.

if you put the shape in the right shape into the right hole it will go into the circle.

Idea 2:

especially when working with animations i think of the if else statemnts as controlling what will occur. sort of like a car gear box. where each gear will effect what happens with the engine. although this isnt as clear as some of my other ideas. It what i initially related to if/esle statments when working with animations.

Idea 3:

Board game. Although it is not original it makes the concept quite clear. if you at each intersection you could roll a 4 sided dice. (the triangular looking one). depending on which colour you land on will determine which path you move. this make the determinant part quite clear.

Taking advantage of my uncreative and very intellectual ffamily members. I decided to explain my concepts to them and recieve some feedback on whether it makes sense. Out of these they all are very different concept and i had to use a lot of words to get my point across. I then came up with my final idea, which they agreed to be visually easy to understand. 

My Final Submition for Hand-in

I was meant to hve this up on my blog yesterday, but my internet at home was not working. I have come to the end of my assignment. It has been put on the victoria R Drive and has been uploaded to the classroom on open processing (this was commented on that i hadnt done it in my last project).

My Final for Project 2

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=28071

At the begining of the project i wrote that my goal is to figure out how to construct my design using processing. I would like to further my knowledge and experience with the programme learning how to incoporate human interaction, animation, and transformation and sound. From this project i have achieved that, and through help and experimentaion i think my overall understanding of "neat" coding and the prinicples of coding have improved.

Recoding my work

I woul dbe lying to say i got all my work done in the first week. Other papers work took far longer than i anticipated so before i went away i had not completed all that much. In fact all i had done was created the first two mouse clicks and what had happened. a handy variable i added in which was suggested to me by a classmate was the circle size variable. this mean that in each mouse click count i can just change the circles sizes by using the variable rahter than transfroming them like i did in my other code. I think that what i have done will make it easier for me to carry on. I have missed the tutorial as i was away on the 21st which is bad as i am not a very experienced codeer. but oh well.

I have decided that the logic behind the colour wheel pallete and the small circles inside was a bit out of it, it would make more sense that inside the circles there were two little circles that show the resulting colour if that big coloured circle was combined with ither of the surrounding circles. I have decided that in order to progress my code i will make it sort of never ending by making the circles transform out and then back track back in. I am definitely goin gto keep the idea of the changing circle sizes as thats what was the main idea of my intial plan that makes it different and visually exciting.

Another class member told me about a blog he was reading and a code they uploaded that was just siomple circles but as you moved the mouse over the circles they would split into four. This has opened my eyes, that i dont do enough investigating on open processing, therefore im constantly doing everything from scratch which is just making more work for myself. so i have decided to start looking at more sketches and their code, in hopes that it will inspire me or that i can even use some of theyre code in my work.

Devlopment

So far i have created my image so that it is in stages and goes form a big black dot-small black dot with 3 big black dots-big black dot 3small black dots and 3 big blakc dots. this is the basics of my design and so now i need to include sound and create some better effects. Instead of having the dots inside each other im going to make them only appear when the mouse is over the dot. this will make it more interesting.

Development 2

I have staged the clip so that it can reverse. I have looked at other open processing clips, but to be honest even the effects i would like to use i cant figue out how to relate them to mine and include it. So i think il just have to continue.

I have added in tones. I used Ben's advice and used soundcipher, and for each stage there is a tone. Finding three or four tones that sound good together, proves harder than expected. but i have found three tones to relate with the three stages.

WHen the mouse is over the circles if the frame rate is high it is unberable repetitive and sound like a beeping or ringing. so i had to slow the frame rate down to make i sound better as i cant figure out how to make it only beep once over the hovering circles. It sounds nice when its repeated though slower, the only constraint is that my clip is less smoother, but i dont think this is huge thing to stress about.

I also think i t will be cooler if i incorporate some more colour or something. as although it is effective having white space and then the coloured dotes. it would be nice to have something more interesting happen when you press the dots. i will have a play around.

Development 3

Its the night before hand- in and i have figured out how to make the colour of the dot that has been selected flash. this makes the whole clip more visually appealing and exciting. I think it is ready for hand in now which is exciting.

Reflection from presentation

During the presentation my code did a wierd thing and didnt show my final step. So after the presentation i played around with it and turns out that because it hasnt been put in stages it only does what its meant to now and then . less than ideal. Although i have tried to avoid it, its become clear that the way i have done my code has just made it way harder for myself and im going to end up running into lots of dead ends if i carry on, so i might as well, during the holidays start over and organise my code better. Now that i have the knowledge on using transformation and have breifly touched base on incorporating sound i think this will be much easier for me, then it would have been at the beginning when i started creating my code. I also have the advantage of the two week holiday so i will have more time to learn what i need to, and request help on the things that are beyond me.

Because my code hadnt gotten as far as i would have liked it to by this presentation there wasnt much to see, therefore not much for the tutors to give feed back on. The general idea of the feedback was to make it more clear in my head (and others) what exactly my clip is trying to achieve/what experience should the person get out of my work. I also need to keep moving forward and experiment with different ways to make my simple idea more visually appealing and interactive.

After the presentation i was sort of at a mind blank at where to start and what to do next. But my first step would be to recreate what i have already achieved but include functions that will make my later code easier such as mouse count, "states", and variables for the circle sizes and placement, making my clip run more smoothly. After i have created the basic idea i hope to have more time to include more interesting code to make it more interactive.

The brief clearly states it has to include transformation, sound, and interaction in order to get good marks. I want to use sound effectively but i am unsure how to go about making it look good. Ben in our class was telling me about the soundcipher or something that he used in his which uses tone scales to create noises, and suggested i use the same with the circles going outwards and back in to make a cool sort of pianoy type effect. He has a lot of experience with coding and knows what hes talkiong about and i like the idea. I have asked him to help me out with the sounds after i have finished my work. So at least i have a rough idea on sound now.

I have to keep in mind that in the holidays i have other assigments work as well as my easter weekend in australia. So in order to stay on top of my work i will spend the first week working on my code fixing up my existing code and getting something basic to hand in (in case i run out of time) and then after that hopefully playing around with other features. I have kept my blog up to scratch on word as broadband is limited outside of uni. But will upload them all as soon as i can.

Final Result Before Final Presentation

I have been wokring away hard at my project. the println code has worked out very well for where to position my other circles and i have managed to make them move in the right positions. I am still however struggling with the changing size of the circles.

I have began to experiment with sound but havent had enough time to programme each dot with sounds. I also need to code so that each step is in states or continue using the mouse click variable in order to then from there work backwards to the black dot. looping the animation.

Before Final Hand in i would like to work on
-finishing my code!!
-organising code into states, so that the actions can loop
-Prgramme sound effects to each colour
-Make transitions between each transformation smoother
-possibly experiment with other effects that could be added to the final result

Soltuion

I have talked to my tutor and we have found out a soltuion from the stage that i am at now. howvere this isnt actually so great as now i have to try and actually do it. The way to approach my issue is to create a mousepressed function that prints the co-ordinates of where you press. then i need to roughly click as close to the center of each circle as i can in order to print those co-ordinates from there i need to draw  the circles in the middle on those co-ordinates.

I also realised today that my colours arent actually primary colours as i was using the RGB code, so i need to find out the code to make yellow on colour schemer and use that instead.

I also have thought realistically about my code and what im trying to achieve and realised its not possible within the time frame for the final hand-in if i carry on working and understanding at the same rate. I have now decided to stage my code and make the dots come form center going out and then reversing back the other way.

To incoporate sound i will need to programme the sound into each circle once i hae figured out how to do that.

time is of the essence!

STUCK!!!

So it has taken me a very long time to try and figure out how on earth i will do the next step of the animation. After talking to the tutor it turns out that becasue i have sort of "cheated" and used transformation rather than making objects i now cant find the center point of the circles and have no idea where on the page they are.

With only a few days left at the time i found this out, i had hit a brick wall. In order to create objects from my design would basically mean starting again from scracth.And i would have to learn and understand a whole pile of information i currently dont know anything about.

AHHHHHHH.. im so stuck!

Creating my first Transformation

Development 2:

Now that I have selected the area and tested it, i now want to draw my first three circles in the centre of the big black circle. This has taken me a long time to figure out. Originally I was told to use mathematics and the area of pie in order to work it out. I am shocking at Maths therefore have decided to try another method. I have used rotation and transformation in order to place the circles evenly inside the circle with the same distance from the center. I made the center point the center of the circle which is a point the I know and then from there drew and then rotated and transformed three times. Although i don’t know the points they are now drawn inside the circle perfectly and i think i can apply the same method of transformation in order to make the circles bigger and in a different place once the mouse is clicked. I Have finally worked out how to do the first step and how to apply transformation! YUSS!

Development 3:

So in trying to rotate the circle I have experimented with lots of code and ended up with several weird results. Its proving harder than I thought to make the centre circle smaller and transform the middle circles and enlarge them.

This is an example of my trial and error

After hours of trial and error, (which shows me that learning the skills I need to know for this project is going to be very, very, time consuming), I have finally figured out how to make the if statement draw what I want it to draw. This was using more transformation and adjusting size.

Progress- Creation #1

I have begun creating my image. I have started doing tutorials, i would be lying to say that i have been able to withhold all the information from the tutorials but i have been able to make a good start.

My first step was to create the circle and an if statment for when the circle is clicked. This means i have to limake the mouse clicked area only inside the circle. In order to test i have done this, for the time being i made it so that if the circle was clicked it would go white. so i would know if i have been successfull.

You have to tell the mouse where to click,

if(mousePressed && mouseX > centerX-r/2 && mouseY > centerY-r/2&& mouseX < centerY+r/2 && mouseY < centerY+r/2)

{

  drawSomething();

 }

}

void drawSomething()

{

  fill(255);

  ellipse(centerX,centerY,r,r);

}



Project 2- Initial ideas for project 1

Brainstrom
In project one my conclusion was that my original idea was too complex for someone just starting out without the knowledge to make changes to my original ideas in order to improve the final result. My idea was very specific meaning that i didnt have much room for experimetentation, nor the time or knowledge. I have learnt that its ok to make changes to your original ideas through experimentation and development throughout the project.

From my reflection of the last project i have decided it is important to leave room for experimentation, and have a rough end result that you would like rather than a clear plan. This way i am more likely to experiment therefore have a better end result. I also noticed that sometimes simple ideas can be the most visually appealing. During the class vote on our favourite designs, it was generally the dsigns using basic geometric shapes transformation and effective colour were the ones that were most popular I kept his in mind whilst brainstorming.

In the last project i decided i wanted to use a logical or more structured use of colour in my work. I was then inspried and reminded of working with paint where there is a colour pattern (guideline) you can follow, that works. this is where i was inpired to use the colour wheel and the way the primary colour can transform into other colours..

From this i decided it would be cool through human interaction to produce colours from other colours, an original black dot on the screen and once pressed producing primary coloured dots and then once they are clicked producing sedimentry colours etc. etc.

I then began to think about the effectiveness of the changing size of the dots. I think it would be effective to alternate (depending on which dots have been clicked) between large dots and smaller dots.

Seen as the project is meant to include sound but i have no experience with sound, i have decided to experiment with it after i have created the image. I think it woul dbe cool however to programme each dot with a different tone or sound, meaning you could sort of create your own tune depending on the dots you click and what stage you are at throught hte animation.

Design Storyboard

Goals

My goal is to figure out how to construct my design using processing. I would like to further my knowledge and experience with the programme learning how to incoporate human interaction, animation, and transformation and sound.

I have never used any of these features and have a short time limit before the next checkpoint before mid semester break. I need to stay on top of the work, adn try and keep my method resonably simple.

Project 1: Reflection

From the wallpaper design porject one) I have widened my skills and knowledge of coding. In this project i learnt how to write my own code, rather than using the template i had been using for my other designs doen in class. Ive learned how to use random variables and include limitations, how to draw complex geometric shapes as well as experimenting and furthering my knowledge on the use of colour and opacity. During this project i also learnt the limitations, disadvantages and advantages of the pattern-maker code. I found the pattern-maker code useful for my deisgn because i was able to copy my code and make small adjustments for each pannel in order to create my final design. I have learnt the fustrations of using the pattern-maker such as when using colour and opacity and how lines can vary it opacity depending on the position and overlapping of the designs.

 

I also learnt how the random function can be unpredictable and uler the image for the worse at time. In my case this wasnt a huge issue as my design was to make the geometric shapes and lines look like they were floating therefore i wasnt seekeing even rhythm in the placement, however its important to keep in mind for future projects that it is unpredicatable.

 

In regards to my final result i think it represented my intial designs and plans quite well, however in comparisson to the other work i think it wasnt a very strong design, int hat it wasnt as visually appealing. The best designs that were the most visual designs were often quite simple designs effectively using geometric shapes, lines or dots and the effective use of colour. Although i did try to do this, i think that because i began this course with no understanding of coding (sometimes i wonder if i stil understand it) i tried to keep my design too sutle, where as i should have experimented more with colours and transformations etc.

 

In the last project i tried to stick to my originial deisgn and learn the skill si needed to create that, fearing about the time limit of the project. I think next time i need to leave more room for experimentation, which could ultiately better my final result.

 

I liked the way my wall paper flowed between each other, and that it was obvious as a set though. and i saw that many other people had done the same thing and had some effective results.

 

For Project 2, i think i woul dlike to use stratgeic (carefuly picked) colours, simple shapes, and leave alot of room for trial and error in my intial design. I would like to further my skills on pattern-maker and ultimately be able to create an interactive animation using tranformation.

Final Wallpapers

Final Images

Panel 1

http://openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24829
Lines are introduced with a consistant space between them but variations in length and transparency. These lines are continued over the series of panels and are intended to create the floating effect. Instead of using a gradient in the lin colour like originally intended i chose to use float in order to control the start and ending of the random length of lines in order to create a similar effects. Because of time restrictions i couldnt spend too long trying to firure out how to use the gradient so this method was better for this project. 

In pannel one coloured lines similar to the white lines down the page are introduced with a higher transparency and colour and bunched up at the bottom of the page. thorughout the rest of the panels these lines are to look like they are traveling diagonally and changing colours as they go over the panels.

Floating are bubbles, random sizes, shapes and transparency. This is not a main feature so i have kept them grey and there highest transparency less than 100 in order to mkae them a minor enhancement. The shapes are there to help create movement in the page but in a contrasting more relaxed manr than the lines. 
 


Panel 2

http://openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24834
Panel 2 follows the same principles as the first panel only the lines have began to start and end further up the page and the shapes are tranforming into a less elipse shape and a more sharp edged form. This starts the transformation from circles into triangles. 


Panel 3

http://openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24833
Panel 3 has a consistant increase in the lines positioning up the page and the sharp edged " elipses" have now trnsformend into a more square shape. Again using random in order to make the image look as though it is transforming as it travels across the panels. You may notice that by this panel the shapes are falling lower to the bottom across the horizontal line creating a sort of grid format.


Panel 4

http://openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24835 
In the final panel the bunched lines are obviously higher and the shape has concluded its transformation form ellipses into trinagles. The shapes are also now moving to the bottom of the page. My intetnion with the different movements was to make the viewers eye travel around the image and across the panels. the use of transparencies was in order to give it depth which didnt exactly work or turn out the way i had planned.


What i found hard
I found it hard to start my design from scratch. Prior to this project i hadnt realised how much i had depended on the development of my work to come up with new images as well as the codes that had been provided and already put into the programs. Starting from scratch and just setting up took time in titself.

Evaluation
I like the way that the image is random and not repeated. It has a sense of floating as intended however with the skills and knowledge that i have lernt whilst creating this i still wasnt able to give it the depth i had hoped for. The subtlty of the lines looked effective on the computer however after printing them and looking at the images again agin, i think its importatn to use a higher transparency in rder to make you design stand out more and make the colours more clear.

Having not much experience with computers i found it very difficult to try and start from scratch and create an image, however i learnt alot along the way. Although doing this process was time consuming and there were times where i would do hours of work and get nowhere I dont think my image conveys that which is a relief.

Making Wallpaper-problems, changes and new ideas

image of just lines
After finally figuring out the bst way to achieve my drawings and creating panel 1 i began to realise how simple my deign really looked and it became evident to me that i would need to add more to the design. making it more complex. although i like the simplicity it would be good to know challenge myself even further (trust me getting this far was a challenge). I have decided to combine the geometirc shapes with the lines. I will be combining my original drawing plan and my final sketch together. this includes the evolution of the shapes that was an idea that i liked in the begining.

Panel 2- Hexagons, i decided the best way was to use the shape draw. It involves alot of maths to figure out the positioning and in the end the shapes all turned out quite defromed but i liked the effect and in the end i thought it amde the transformation from circles in panel 1 to the triangles in panel 4 a cool transition.

image of hexagons only

I have decided to not include the vertical lines as with the geometric shapes it begins to look to much and far too random. TO void this problem with the shapes i have decided to keep the shapes a subtle feature by making them more transparent and grey to give an embossed effect on the background.

In the lecture we were given a couple of useful site i have been using to help me with the codes for certain shades of colours. I used colourschemer.com as i thought it was the easiest to use.

The tutorials provided gave me alot of the information i needed in order to create my design, but i found them hard to understand and to withhold the information. Throught trial and error i was able to understand how and what to do in order to create my images.

Project 1- Original Ideas, Brainstorms and Final Plans

TASK
Create a set of four aesthetically pleasing wallpapers for the big cupboards in the first year studio space. The final size of each paper should approximately be 1x2 meters.



Original Brainstorm
Key ideas when brainstorming was to create movement and/or depth to the flat walls in order to make to visually exciting to look at and to be different from traditional wallpapers consisting of 2 dimensional patterninh and to Create a flow between the 4 pannels in some way. Keeping in mind my experience (lack of) with the processing program, but still challenging myself to further my knowledge and skills.

Conclusion and Inspiration
In order to find my inspiration i looked through magazines, brochures and other coding uploaded to open processing.

I have decided not to go with the illusion idea as i find it less aesthetiacally pleasing to the eye and leaves less room for originality than my other two ideas which can be worked on.

Geometric Shapes
I want to stare away from traditional repetitive patterns in my final peice. Evolving shapes and placement as well as variations in size could all be ways of making simple geometirc shapes create the sense of movement i am trying to achieve.

Lines
I was originally inspired by Inifinity, an attraction in the Gold Coast Australia. The place is uses lazers, mirrors and lights to make special effects and provide "a journey into spectacular, futurisitic maze like world of wonder". The use of the lazers is what I remember most about the place. The way that the layers of lazers and the lines created by them made the 2D walls look 3D and have the illusion that the lines were never ending. I began to look at images that use lines to create a similar effect and bring a sort of depth to the image.

Infinity website: http://www.infinitygc.com.au/

Final Sketches

My final idea is to have four pannels that are all linked. Each Panel being slightly different and continuing into the next. The lines will have a range of transparencies and thicknesses, placements etc. in order to creat an abstract/random effect and give more depth and a sense of movement to the 2D deisgns. The lines will gather and have colour within in different sections on each panel, each section mving diagonally upwards between the pannels (again making the illusion of movement. These simple lines prupose is to act much like lazers do at infinity and to capture the eye and force it to travel across the panels. As the lines move diagonally up vertical lines will travel up the panels, this creates a grid effect. By using gradients in the lines i plan to make them look as if they are travelling in and out of the background.

Goals

My goal is to figure out how to construct my design using processing. I would like to further my knowledge and experience with the programme.

In order to succesfully create my image i will need to learn how to, or experiment with..

• colour- I havent tried to intentionally use colourin my images and will need to learn how to use it.
• gradients- I am unsure how i will create the lines.
• positioning-experiment with positioning lines on the page and determining where they start and end.
• make appropriate improvements and changes that support my inital ideas.

I dont have much experience with coding so i will need to keep in mind my time managment as it takes me a long time to figure out small things. It is important my project is printed and ready by the due date provided, Tuesday the 23rd of March.

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Other Developments

(need to upload other images created and developmets)

Ellipses

I am getting underway with the online tutorials in coding. Im not picking up on it very quickly, but it is beginning to make sense. I have begun to investigate at the effects that can be made with simple geometric shapes and lines.

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=23170

I have created a simple grid and positioned evenly spaced circles. Originally i created this image in black and white but then decided i would experiment with color. In this one i used the "random" colour code. I like the fact the the colored squares are random, however i think i need to control the colors in order to make it tie nicely together. This looks patchy, unfinished and jumbled because of the random clours so i called it "Patchwork".

Development 1

The first one was one i called "Spot" because the more you look the more you can spot (excuse the pun)

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=23171
I thought this was my 'most interesting' design. 

 By increasing the amount of circles and experimenting with the placement of lines and ellipses i have created an illusional effect. This effect was originally unintended, but i began to develop the idea after being inspired by Thang Phan's "illusion" design on open processing, learning that simple lines and shapes can make a complex effect. In his work the small line connecting to the big lines and the use of black and white space have all made up an optical illusion. In this design, the interaction between the circles, lines and grid have made other circles appear. Being new at this programme i don’t have much knowledge at using color but i think that through color and the use of layers and transparency, I could create an effective depth to this image. I definitely plan to expand on this design or build on the concept of creating shapes through the interaction between lines when i have more experience with processing.  This pattern is also very structured, it would be nice from there to create a more abstract image using some of these concepts.

Development 2 
Developing from my last image i bagan to experiment with the transformation of lines. I used the random code in order to create an unbalanced and random effect.

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=23249

I like the variety of transparencies within the image. It had a clear balanced grid but by changing the transparency of the circles throughout the grid i have created a more abstract image. The lines look like they are moving in different directions which i think is quite effective. In my next image i chose to use the transformation to develop a more clear effect of the lines.

Development 3 
 From the last image i decided to completely distort the circles and lines using transformation. Just by doing this I made completely new and unique image. I like the subtlety of the lines and think that the black and white is quite effective. another thing that could be cool with this design is to add birght colours within the subtle lines. to be able to do this i need to enhance my knowledge of colour and gradients within lines.

 http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=23252

Tutorial 1: Processing for the first time

After my first lecture, the whole coding ordeal just seemed like a burden. I am terrible at maths and to me this whole coding thing just looked like a foreign language. I have never done anything like this before so the feeling was much like when your sitting amongst a group of friends that are all conversing in jibberish, your the only one not in on it. I realize the process to get the hang of this may be long, but after trying out what and investigating the different things coding can enable you to do, i have a sudden burst of motivation and inspiration.

This first image i have created is just getting used to the program. I learnt how to determine the placements of shapes and the basics of typing code. the reference as well as my peers deserve a great deal of credit for this image. But its a start and in the end i am quite impressed with the outcome for a first time coder. I don't so much like the design as i feel it is very generic and too structured but i think this is quite decorative and maybe in some situations the structure and simplicity of this design could be effective. obviously once i have more knowledge it would be nice to be able to work on this design and better it.