Still the same idea, but more simplified. A large interactive paper fan.
You know, it's easy to let an idea fester in your mind when there is no tangible concept being created. I've been hunting the eBay pages for good servos. I found one that I wanted to try that looks promising. I did some light math on the torque and found it could lift about 3-4 iphones at about my arms length. I was just using my work test devices at the time. So, I could work with that ballpark range and scale down the size if I need to or choose a lighter material. If only this guy wasn't so snobby about the price. I tried to offer a reasonable $30 because it is pretty used and the wire is a little exposed. Yet, he only dropped it down to $45. Granted the servo retails for $100 new. Half the battle is getting a good price. It's in my blood (thanks mom). Anyway, while I go back and forth with this guy on eBay, back to my final project idea/design.
When I originally came up with this idea it was quite complex. Multiple fans, lights, arrangements and even fiber optic cables. You know, I don't even need the fiber optic cables anymore but now I have a spool hidden in the dark corners of my cramped locker. Along with my prototype and paints.
After discussing my idea with plenty of students and staff I decided I wanted to do simple well. One fan, my "biggest fan" I like to call it. And I want the movements to be precise and articulate (hence hunting for a discounted higher-end servo). Servo city still hasn't gotten back to me on my educational discount request but after seeing some servo mishap during the midterm I think a frame to take the load off the actual servo would be a worth while investment.
As for the size, of course I'd like it to be big and elegant to make an impact. However, I'll only be able to test the real world capabilities once I get the servo driving it. I might cave in the next week and buy one of the used ones for $45 dollars. It's kind of essential to the mechanics of the whole thing. Having the servo as my limiter will give me a design constraint which I think will help tame my appetite for a huge installation.
I want the final to be a truly finalized form of my concept. While yes I would love to make a 50 foot fan do the same thing, if I can have a spot on representation of it in a scaled down form perform extremely well, I'd be happy. I decided to toss out the idea of having too many things going on and the potential for it to look more like a prototype than a conceptual build.
I already have a little interface shell built on p5. Now I have to also focus on that. I've been using my ICM assignments to help me formulate an idea for that portion.
The last bit is the actual human interaction. Which I've still to decide on. But the way I look at it is. If I can build both the digital side and the hardware side. While I test it out in a real world scenario, I'll find the right input idea to really bring out what I feel. I've already used various input devices for other projects, so all I gotta do is pick one that I like.
All in all, I'm confident, just a little tired and worn. As we all are.
10.31.2018
10.30.2018
A reintroduction into music
There is always a sense of time travel when I go back into my old music logs. It reminds me of a time and place that is no longer present to me, just a fading memory. Like how light dims as the power drains, so do the images in my brain.
Speaking of old times here is a song I recorded in my old apartment while I had a couple beers. It was by far the most creative my lyrics have been to date. And I'm proud to say they weren't all sad stories about how I was staring at the ceiling one day thinking about heartbreak or something equally upsetting:
Anyway, looking for sound inspiration. I think I fried my brain a little last weekend with thoughts of a normal quiet life by a pond of koi fish. Maybe it was the image of temperatures hitting the lower 70s, sun on my face and the breeze blowing over my shaven head. Tantalizing.
This Monday proved difficult as I started my animation class and felt the burden of my workload just exponentially increase. Ha yea, let's do paper cut-outs. Which, I hope I don't end up doing the bulk of. I'll keep that part out of my animation post.
So back to p5 and finding inspiration. I thought I could build off the fan concept that I first started when I had this confident Epiphany of this beautifully elegant fan that would open like like a flower blossoming on adrenaline. I still dream about it but I feel tired everyday thinking about it and just want to dive in. Am I putting too much thought on trying to make these assignments relevant to me? Maybe I should just learn a small function and, you know, if I run into a project where I have to use some of these skills I'll be like, "I kinda know that shit..." and then go to "maybe I should research it more". I think that's how I'll truly learn the material, when there is a bit more passion behind it.
So here I am trying to find passionate portals of my past life in recordings of old music that I made in either my bedroom in Jersey with my parents outside probably thinking "he should be practicing computer science and become a wealthy programmer so we don't have to worry about bailing him out of debt when we are too old. Least that's what my self-confidence told me.
I feel like typing these keys is like dancing on those colored arrows on Dance Dance Revolution. I was never good at that arcade game. Well, I was good at the finger one using the keyboard arrows, because let's be real, pressing four keys on a keyboard is far easier than moving your feet in this weird pattern that only robots walk like. Am I some kind of robot? No, I am a sleep deprived grad student with a job he doesn't quite want to be in but he has to because life is expensive and I like to eat food.
But enough with my sad blabber into the wind. I want to make a visualizer to my music. But there is already so much code available to make a visualizer. I could copy it and change a few variable names and it would be mine. Isn't that what we are suppose to do? Or do we have to make things unreasonably difficult to come up with a lackluster result. I tried making my nice little fan arc interface react to the music. Which, I got it to work but it somehow changed how the arc reacted. I'm not complaining, it looks pretty cool for being so simple. However, I couldn't progress any farther than that. What if I wanted to add another layer? Like...mids? Highs? All the other elements to sound that would add more tantalizing visual effects like a digital LSD trip.
I'm going to digress again for a moment and say that a lot of the younger IMA students like to say the word "trippy". I found this was common with one of my friends younger sisters who is slightly older than these new undergrads. Is trippy a juvenile way of saying something they cannot comprehend? I don't use that word anymore...I mean I did, when I was 18. I think? But I wouldn't remember when I dropped that phrase. I dated a woman then who liked to use the word groovy. So I tried to bring "far out" back. But I digress. I went to Ithaca. That should explain a lot to whoever is familiar with that area.
After taking Visual Language I have a lot of gripes with this blogger format. It makes me feel dated, but I like to keep the Intergalactic Shoe Store alive with my late night rants and the potential for some great project ideas in this one weird slightly damp area of the internet.
View my Sketch
Speaking of old times here is a song I recorded in my old apartment while I had a couple beers. It was by far the most creative my lyrics have been to date. And I'm proud to say they weren't all sad stories about how I was staring at the ceiling one day thinking about heartbreak or something equally upsetting:
Anyway, looking for sound inspiration. I think I fried my brain a little last weekend with thoughts of a normal quiet life by a pond of koi fish. Maybe it was the image of temperatures hitting the lower 70s, sun on my face and the breeze blowing over my shaven head. Tantalizing.
This Monday proved difficult as I started my animation class and felt the burden of my workload just exponentially increase. Ha yea, let's do paper cut-outs. Which, I hope I don't end up doing the bulk of. I'll keep that part out of my animation post.
So back to p5 and finding inspiration. I thought I could build off the fan concept that I first started when I had this confident Epiphany of this beautifully elegant fan that would open like like a flower blossoming on adrenaline. I still dream about it but I feel tired everyday thinking about it and just want to dive in. Am I putting too much thought on trying to make these assignments relevant to me? Maybe I should just learn a small function and, you know, if I run into a project where I have to use some of these skills I'll be like, "I kinda know that shit..." and then go to "maybe I should research it more". I think that's how I'll truly learn the material, when there is a bit more passion behind it.
So here I am trying to find passionate portals of my past life in recordings of old music that I made in either my bedroom in Jersey with my parents outside probably thinking "he should be practicing computer science and become a wealthy programmer so we don't have to worry about bailing him out of debt when we are too old. Least that's what my self-confidence told me.
I feel like typing these keys is like dancing on those colored arrows on Dance Dance Revolution. I was never good at that arcade game. Well, I was good at the finger one using the keyboard arrows, because let's be real, pressing four keys on a keyboard is far easier than moving your feet in this weird pattern that only robots walk like. Am I some kind of robot? No, I am a sleep deprived grad student with a job he doesn't quite want to be in but he has to because life is expensive and I like to eat food.
But enough with my sad blabber into the wind. I want to make a visualizer to my music. But there is already so much code available to make a visualizer. I could copy it and change a few variable names and it would be mine. Isn't that what we are suppose to do? Or do we have to make things unreasonably difficult to come up with a lackluster result. I tried making my nice little fan arc interface react to the music. Which, I got it to work but it somehow changed how the arc reacted. I'm not complaining, it looks pretty cool for being so simple. However, I couldn't progress any farther than that. What if I wanted to add another layer? Like...mids? Highs? All the other elements to sound that would add more tantalizing visual effects like a digital LSD trip.
I'm going to digress again for a moment and say that a lot of the younger IMA students like to say the word "trippy". I found this was common with one of my friends younger sisters who is slightly older than these new undergrads. Is trippy a juvenile way of saying something they cannot comprehend? I don't use that word anymore...I mean I did, when I was 18. I think? But I wouldn't remember when I dropped that phrase. I dated a woman then who liked to use the word groovy. So I tried to bring "far out" back. But I digress. I went to Ithaca. That should explain a lot to whoever is familiar with that area.
After taking Visual Language I have a lot of gripes with this blogger format. It makes me feel dated, but I like to keep the Intergalactic Shoe Store alive with my late night rants and the potential for some great project ideas in this one weird slightly damp area of the internet.
View my Sketch
10.17.2018
10.10.2018
A Miller High Life
Sunday was filled with the outdoors and relaxation. I spent time with a friend and we ran through Prospect Park. Neither of us had ran all year so just a little pain in the legs the next day, or two. After we parted ways I'm not sure what I did. Perhaps I cleaned my room. Sometimes my rest days are only a haze.
When night started to fall I thought about a painting I started a while ago, before classes started. I bought two beers at the bodega. Coney Island pilsner and a Miller High Life or the "Champagne of Beers" spoken from one of my best friends from high school. He's Swedish. I drank the Coney while I danced and then when I tired out I turned to the painting sitting on my laptop stand on the coffee table beside my bed.
I've always liked impressionism, how the contrast between colors gave way to an image. It was otherworldly. To have something lo-res but detailed at the same time. I patted a few brush strokes on the background. Halfway through I cracked open the Miller. It was refreshing. Some argue that light beer doesn't taste good but I think this is the perfect moment for one. End of the night and cozy under the hue of a lamp fixture that took me weeks to find the right bulb to emulate that feeling of intimacy and accuracy.
My eyes started to sink and I decided to cap my progress for the night. Another time, when the moment is right, I'll pick it back up again and add another swatch. I sat by the end of my bed, legs up on the mattress and head on the floor. As I stared at my ceiling I felt at peace. There is a Japanese fan pinned up above my bed. I bought it seven years ago during the sweltering heat of Tokyo summer. I was inspired by a business man on the train. He fanned himself until the A/C alone was enough. He snapped the fan closed and placed it the front pocket of his blazer. The entire motion without a second thought. I thought that subtlety was beautiful and effortless. I wanted to be able to do that. So, I went out to find my own. Not one with noisy patterns. One with a black bamboo handle. A deep blue accordion with a subtle stripes of white on the creases of the fan. A single red stripe accented the white.
Then, I took out my phone:
I saw an idea for a concept. My final project. I decided to sleep on the idea.
The next day I had work off. I slept in. It was unusual to go straight to school after I woke up. I've been so used to my routine of work then school that I didn't really know what to do. There were no classes on Monday and even if I had so much time to do my other work, I couldn't get the concept I thought of last night out of my head. I told people on the floor about my weekend and naturally I said. "I have an idea for my final project." I tried articulating it, but it's only very clear in my head. In reality it's a lot of hand motions and talk about I need to start buying parts now.
***
I've always liked impressionism, how the contrast between colors gave way to an image. It was otherworldly. To have something lo-res but detailed at the same time. I patted a few brush strokes on the background. Halfway through I cracked open the Miller. It was refreshing. Some argue that light beer doesn't taste good but I think this is the perfect moment for one. End of the night and cozy under the hue of a lamp fixture that took me weeks to find the right bulb to emulate that feeling of intimacy and accuracy.
My eyes started to sink and I decided to cap my progress for the night. Another time, when the moment is right, I'll pick it back up again and add another swatch. I sat by the end of my bed, legs up on the mattress and head on the floor. As I stared at my ceiling I felt at peace. There is a Japanese fan pinned up above my bed. I bought it seven years ago during the sweltering heat of Tokyo summer. I was inspired by a business man on the train. He fanned himself until the A/C alone was enough. He snapped the fan closed and placed it the front pocket of his blazer. The entire motion without a second thought. I thought that subtlety was beautiful and effortless. I wanted to be able to do that. So, I went out to find my own. Not one with noisy patterns. One with a black bamboo handle. A deep blue accordion with a subtle stripes of white on the creases of the fan. A single red stripe accented the white.
Then, I took out my phone:
I saw an idea for a concept. My final project. I decided to sleep on the idea.
***
The next day I had work off. I slept in. It was unusual to go straight to school after I woke up. I've been so used to my routine of work then school that I didn't really know what to do. There were no classes on Monday and even if I had so much time to do my other work, I couldn't get the concept I thought of last night out of my head. I told people on the floor about my weekend and naturally I said. "I have an idea for my final project." I tried articulating it, but it's only very clear in my head. In reality it's a lot of hand motions and talk about I need to start buying parts now.
I started ordering a few parts that I knew I would need. And I could use them for other projects too. The materials to build the installation will come later once I find a concrete concept. I'm debating whether to make it 360 degrees or a horizontal piece, with cascading fans, almost like waves. It'll come to me once I start to piece it little by little. Where I will derive my input is also something i've been pondering about. Should it be musical? A direct input from an analog instrument to create even more of a performance? Or universal, so anyone who approaches can interact and make it feel personal to them. Both? These are questions I will keep in mind as the weeks go by.
It's all a work in progress.
Overthought Lines
So, looking at past examples of the postcard designs, about 50% had a sandwich in them. I decided to keep the sandwich.
I started off simple, then was like no...that doesn't look right. Nor does that. And I used pen. Which it looks so nice when you get it right. But when you get it wrong...damn it's hard to fix a hard black line going in the wrong direction. This is like "destructive editing" in Photoshop...which I also do out of bad habit because it takes longer to make masks and multiple layers. Or at least at the time it feels so.
Maybe I should not use pen.
(To add 3 composition exercise later)
Ha ha, destructive editing at it's best. I overwrote this file already. So the grids are here to stay.
This was more experimental. I wanted to change this text around. But again due to my stellar editing skills i cut up the photo so much that I'd have to start from scratch.
I like this one.
Bee-lieve in Yourself
I went to a K-pop concert over the weekend. A friend of mine had an extra ticket and I thought to myself that would be a new experience. Why not? BTS was playing and this was the first time a major artist from Korea had a tour here in the states. Gotta represent my Asian brethren.
My mom is Filipino.
Well, after the trek to Queens Citi Field we grabbed a bite to eat because I was so hungry I could of had a small hotdog eating contest. I settled with the 'shroom burger at Shake Shack and wayyy to manny fries. I even kept eating other peoples fries after they turned cold. I couldn't stop. It was a french fry loop with no stop condition.
Then the band emerged with fireworks, smoke, dazzling lights. The audience purchased these handheld light objects that seemed to work in sync. I'm guessing, location sensor to run a coordinated light show. All I kept thinking was ICM ICM P COMP P COMP.
So back to bees. Bees are objects, flowers are objects....I am an object? Sounds a little lacking when I use it to describe real life things. I started this assignment in last class knowing I wanted to control the direction of the bee. MouseX and Y was the easiest to program. While it would be fun to turn the orientation of the bee with the keys, change speed based on how long each key was pressed, and then add some cool effects, my main focus was to make my object look like something familiar and not turn my brain into mash potatoes this week. The initial bee was easy to create. But I wanted something extra –moving wings. This is where my brain was tested in math, for 2 hours before I found the eureka moment and made the wings stay on the bee for one, then I could change the speed they flapped at with a few tweaks.
(I wish I could insert my reaction to when it finally worked, maybe I should set up a reaction cam while I code to capture these moments)
The rest was the flowers the bee would interact with. Originally nice purple orbs, I wanted something to look like a flower. Aha! I'll just use an image of one.
While I knew how to call a single object. To call multiple ones in an array was a little abstract for me. My previous projects did not have a need for "For Loops" but with creating multiples of one object, it was kind of unavoidable.
I looked at previous examples of arrays, and got it to work for my program. But...looking at it... I get it, but it still needs some time to sink in. I decided to backtrack a bit and relearn the foundation. Breaking it back down to a "While Loop" on a notepad seemed to help me visualize what-did-what. I re-watched some of the earlier video tutorials and it cleared it up a little more. I just need to keep using arrays until it becomes a muscle memory. They make my life easier and they are important. Right?
Anyway, I'm pretty happy with what I accomplished. It's got a little of a story. I named the variables some fun terminology to help me remember what did what. As the game progresses it kind of makes a beautiful picture full of flowers.
My Bee Program
I like it!
As a bonus here is a bunch of girls losing their shit at this neat dance move:
My mom is Filipino.
Well, after the trek to Queens Citi Field we grabbed a bite to eat because I was so hungry I could of had a small hotdog eating contest. I settled with the 'shroom burger at Shake Shack and wayyy to manny fries. I even kept eating other peoples fries after they turned cold. I couldn't stop. It was a french fry loop with no stop condition.
Then the band emerged with fireworks, smoke, dazzling lights. The audience purchased these handheld light objects that seemed to work in sync. I'm guessing, location sensor to run a coordinated light show. All I kept thinking was ICM ICM P COMP P COMP.
So back to bees. Bees are objects, flowers are objects....I am an object? Sounds a little lacking when I use it to describe real life things. I started this assignment in last class knowing I wanted to control the direction of the bee. MouseX and Y was the easiest to program. While it would be fun to turn the orientation of the bee with the keys, change speed based on how long each key was pressed, and then add some cool effects, my main focus was to make my object look like something familiar and not turn my brain into mash potatoes this week. The initial bee was easy to create. But I wanted something extra –moving wings. This is where my brain was tested in math, for 2 hours before I found the eureka moment and made the wings stay on the bee for one, then I could change the speed they flapped at with a few tweaks.
(I wish I could insert my reaction to when it finally worked, maybe I should set up a reaction cam while I code to capture these moments)
The rest was the flowers the bee would interact with. Originally nice purple orbs, I wanted something to look like a flower. Aha! I'll just use an image of one.
While I knew how to call a single object. To call multiple ones in an array was a little abstract for me. My previous projects did not have a need for "For Loops" but with creating multiples of one object, it was kind of unavoidable.
I looked at previous examples of arrays, and got it to work for my program. But...looking at it... I get it, but it still needs some time to sink in. I decided to backtrack a bit and relearn the foundation. Breaking it back down to a "While Loop" on a notepad seemed to help me visualize what-did-what. I re-watched some of the earlier video tutorials and it cleared it up a little more. I just need to keep using arrays until it becomes a muscle memory. They make my life easier and they are important. Right?
Anyway, I'm pretty happy with what I accomplished. It's got a little of a story. I named the variables some fun terminology to help me remember what did what. As the game progresses it kind of makes a beautiful picture full of flowers.
My Bee Program
I like it!
As a bonus here is a bunch of girls losing their shit at this neat dance move:
10.04.2018
Pots n' Caps, Pots n' Caps, Pots n' Caps
I took a different approach to this week's assignments. While the things we are building now are rather simple, simple things can have a large impact depending on the context. This is my Visual Language lecture starting to bleed into P comp. Also, another way of thinking I started: If this doesn't work, what will? Troubleshooting has always been a good way for me to learn the material. It can be frustrating to have expectations and things not turn out the way you'd like. However, the journey and what you learn in the process is always the most important. Let's be real, it's been a month of school and we are treading far from our comfort zones in as sorts of ways. To be more nerdy, brain interference. If we can put some low and high pass filters to tune into the thoughts we only need to hear, wouldn't that be nice?
Each week, while the progress might look meager, a lot is covered, and a lot is learned. It will come up in the most unexpected ways. Like next time I run into bad pots (I think I'm authorized to use the lingo now, mostly because I never knew how to pronounce potentiometer). Also now I know how those things worked...I used them in guitars and sound equipment all the time with caps (yea, capacitors too!) was kind of mind blowing. A variable resistor huh? It makes sense and I was able to wire one from the shop without thinking about the terminals because It was familiar.
In one of the labs a lot of people used a light sensing resistor. I didn't have one off hand so I used a temperature sensor to emulate the changes in the HIGH and LOW voltages emitted from the digital PWM from my arduino.
The code is relatively the same, but it needs a control value to be set first and the heat of my hand will leave an after affect. I think with some more calibration and sensors I could use this "sense of touch" that is left after I release my hand from the sensor to form a digital footprint. It is not as immediate as light and I kind of like that. The fade from the dropping voltages as the sensor went back to room temp was nice.
Next, I developed ideas and I wanted to use a motor, and started to sketch out ideas in my notebook of spinning light show. Then, I realized I needed 9v and I didn't think this simple idea was worth the application of making a voltage converter from a wall plug-in. And decent 9v batteries are a rarity on the floor.
So I went back to mechanical objects with lower voltages, aka the servo. I wrote the code first, since I knew it'd be rather simple. Then, I was what can I use a servo for. I thought, duh, an arm. But what will that arm do?
Still thinking of "what" I built the circuit and got some fun interference. The servo started moving erratically, only sometimes following the input from the potentiometer. Even when I wasn't touching anything it would spaz and convulse like it was possessed. I started unplugging things from the board to find the source of the problem. I tried multiple potentiometers from my kit and another servo but it was still acting the same. David (Dah-veed) suggested to hard-code the angles to the servo. Thanks man! This is a return for my advice one his handle bar project where he was making his life 100% more difficult. So, without even altering the code I checked the serial monitor and sure enough it was spitting out random angles while everything was untouched. I sighed and grabbed a pot from the shelf and soldered it to the board and viola! A beautifully smooth motion from my servo. Enough to make it dance:
By this point I'm tired and so was everyone else, we started forming soldering partners where we would help each other solder. The more hands you got, the easier it is, always! Especially, when your brain is moving at 10%
So you can tell that my concept stemmed from a tired brain as well. I wanted the servo arm to replicate Gandolf in Lord of the Rings and when the arm went down, it would make a staff hit the ground and light up. It'd be decked out with paper cut outs and if I wanted to get real fancy, maybe some sound effects too. But... what I ended up with was a bunch of incorrectly soldered LED lights, and a magnet that was a little too strong.
I soldered this LED for Digital output. However, what I built off of was a magnetic switch from earlier. Which doesn't need much more than a circuit to be completed.
Then of course, I soldered in the 220 ohm resistor on the wrong side of the LED. Later realizing I could have just kept that on the board...but you know. I knew it'd still light up so I went ahead and tested the bare bones.
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS" Now...just imagine a nice graphical overlay over the feeble resistor wire smashing into the ground.
You know I was excited to make a Gandalf out of paper too (or something else!). Maybe he will be active participate in another project.
Each week, while the progress might look meager, a lot is covered, and a lot is learned. It will come up in the most unexpected ways. Like next time I run into bad pots (I think I'm authorized to use the lingo now, mostly because I never knew how to pronounce potentiometer). Also now I know how those things worked...I used them in guitars and sound equipment all the time with caps (yea, capacitors too!) was kind of mind blowing. A variable resistor huh? It makes sense and I was able to wire one from the shop without thinking about the terminals because It was familiar.
In one of the labs a lot of people used a light sensing resistor. I didn't have one off hand so I used a temperature sensor to emulate the changes in the HIGH and LOW voltages emitted from the digital PWM from my arduino.
The code is relatively the same, but it needs a control value to be set first and the heat of my hand will leave an after affect. I think with some more calibration and sensors I could use this "sense of touch" that is left after I release my hand from the sensor to form a digital footprint. It is not as immediate as light and I kind of like that. The fade from the dropping voltages as the sensor went back to room temp was nice.
Next, I developed ideas and I wanted to use a motor, and started to sketch out ideas in my notebook of spinning light show. Then, I realized I needed 9v and I didn't think this simple idea was worth the application of making a voltage converter from a wall plug-in. And decent 9v batteries are a rarity on the floor.
So I went back to mechanical objects with lower voltages, aka the servo. I wrote the code first, since I knew it'd be rather simple. Then, I was what can I use a servo for. I thought, duh, an arm. But what will that arm do?
Still thinking of "what" I built the circuit and got some fun interference. The servo started moving erratically, only sometimes following the input from the potentiometer. Even when I wasn't touching anything it would spaz and convulse like it was possessed. I started unplugging things from the board to find the source of the problem. I tried multiple potentiometers from my kit and another servo but it was still acting the same. David (Dah-veed) suggested to hard-code the angles to the servo. Thanks man! This is a return for my advice one his handle bar project where he was making his life 100% more difficult. So, without even altering the code I checked the serial monitor and sure enough it was spitting out random angles while everything was untouched. I sighed and grabbed a pot from the shelf and soldered it to the board and viola! A beautifully smooth motion from my servo. Enough to make it dance:
By this point I'm tired and so was everyone else, we started forming soldering partners where we would help each other solder. The more hands you got, the easier it is, always! Especially, when your brain is moving at 10%
So you can tell that my concept stemmed from a tired brain as well. I wanted the servo arm to replicate Gandolf in Lord of the Rings and when the arm went down, it would make a staff hit the ground and light up. It'd be decked out with paper cut outs and if I wanted to get real fancy, maybe some sound effects too. But... what I ended up with was a bunch of incorrectly soldered LED lights, and a magnet that was a little too strong.
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS" Now...just imagine a nice graphical overlay over the feeble resistor wire smashing into the ground.
You know I was excited to make a Gandalf out of paper too (or something else!). Maybe he will be active participate in another project.
10.02.2018
Paper Dreams
New week, new me. This week I took advantage of the assignment to step away from the computer light I dazzle my eyes with all day long. I started with Photoshop and just realized I was replicating everything I would do by hand. So, I hopped over to the art store down the street and found my color palette there.
I also recently purchased a notebook. I know, I'm going real old school here.
To make 6 square compositions comprised of 6 colors that describe me.
I listed things I liked and tried to throw in some adjectives for each.
This would be the foundation of what I ended up cutting out on paper.
I started cutting out shapes, and textures I felt would emulate my ideas. Of course, If I ran into anything that looked nice it didn't really matter what the idea was previously. I actually even liked how these were placed on the cutting board. I told my friend Nick, "I like this the way it is...DONE!" Haha, just kidding.
Dividing up this board into 6 sections of 6x6in squares I started posting my compositions from top left to right. Does it emulate a story of sorts? Maybe, but it looks nice using the same color palette throughout. Even if they are separate compositions I used elements left over from each to further bring some unison. I also kept the lines in between each square invisible to make it easily seen as one big piece instead of 6 smaller ones.
Towards the bottom 3 compositions I was starting to lose it slightly by yelling out "lines, shapes, I need them!" As my cutting got faster and the blade dulled the pieces became simpler and more abstract.
I also recently purchased a notebook. I know, I'm going real old school here.
I listed things I liked and tried to throw in some adjectives for each.
This would be the foundation of what I ended up cutting out on paper.
Clean up
You'd think JavaScript would only teach you fun things on a computer. There is always that personality type that is drawn to fractal imagery and colors oozing into those pixels. But what did I do this week?
Clean up your code, maybe clean up your life too?
When looking at code it is easy to keep adding more ifs, thats, when-whatevers to make it do unusual things. But you know, I'm starting to equate this to a kid who took too many drugs at a music festival because they knew all the "right" people. Those sporadic movements and otherworldly expressions start to lose meaning to the outside world, and thus a very internal pleasure.
While you mule over the phrase internal pleasure, let me tell you about my days off. I've found that I have so little time during the week to accomplish anything for myself. Then I look at my room, with clothes thrown around and objects that were stuffed in my pockets laid out on every elevated surface I could find.
I'm looking at it this way, yes my room serves a purpose to house me for a few hours of sleep and gives me tools necessary to change my appearance...but are those little crumpled receipts under the table, or the lone army of single socks growing in the alcoves affecting me? Like, pieces of incomplete code or variables so ambiguous they start to play hide-and-seek with your mind.
These past two weeks I've invested time to organize. It seems counter intuitive to have a clutter following around in your wake because one way or another you are going to have to deal with it. Starting with my closet I put dividers IN my drawers. My socks have a place, my underwear, my shirts organized by type, baskets containing scarves, and another bin for towels. What breeze it has been to wake up and pull open a drawer and be like "ahh" like a Sprite commercial. This is the only time I feel like Lebron.
Clearing the stuff lurking beyond the folds of my brain leaves refreshed spirit. Instead of, wow my room I should clean it or wow this bathroom...what world did you emerge from? It can be like, oh shit, I have to pay rent and clean up my code.
Whatever the deal is with how we think, we all reach a capacity. Thoughts are energy and you only have so much. So why not invest in not having to think about the mundane to make something brilliant?
I appreciate clean code as much as clean room. I want that fluidity and fresh air in everything I do.
So here's the code I wrote previously. To try and clean up each function I used the comments I made for their names. I wanted three:
fish_turnaround();
background_grad();
fish_touch_sand();
I started off on the wrong foot and put the functions in set-up and would get an error:
But looking at the example we did in class, I was able to put the functions in set-up. I'm guessing is that they were objects? I looked at another classmate's example and they put their functions in draw so I tried that.
And eureka I got it to work! Well, the first two functions. Once I put the fish_touch_sand(); I got only the gradient screen. Which confuses me. The other two work fine on their own...am I missing something?
I commented out the background command and found where my things were hiding...sorta
Haha, just fixed it. Go me, real time troubleshooting:
Order matters! Organize Organize Organize.
Clean up your code, maybe clean up your life too?
When looking at code it is easy to keep adding more ifs, thats, when-whatevers to make it do unusual things. But you know, I'm starting to equate this to a kid who took too many drugs at a music festival because they knew all the "right" people. Those sporadic movements and otherworldly expressions start to lose meaning to the outside world, and thus a very internal pleasure.
While you mule over the phrase internal pleasure, let me tell you about my days off. I've found that I have so little time during the week to accomplish anything for myself. Then I look at my room, with clothes thrown around and objects that were stuffed in my pockets laid out on every elevated surface I could find.
I'm looking at it this way, yes my room serves a purpose to house me for a few hours of sleep and gives me tools necessary to change my appearance...but are those little crumpled receipts under the table, or the lone army of single socks growing in the alcoves affecting me? Like, pieces of incomplete code or variables so ambiguous they start to play hide-and-seek with your mind.
These past two weeks I've invested time to organize. It seems counter intuitive to have a clutter following around in your wake because one way or another you are going to have to deal with it. Starting with my closet I put dividers IN my drawers. My socks have a place, my underwear, my shirts organized by type, baskets containing scarves, and another bin for towels. What breeze it has been to wake up and pull open a drawer and be like "ahh" like a Sprite commercial. This is the only time I feel like Lebron.
Clearing the stuff lurking beyond the folds of my brain leaves refreshed spirit. Instead of, wow my room I should clean it or wow this bathroom...what world did you emerge from? It can be like, oh shit, I have to pay rent and clean up my code.
Whatever the deal is with how we think, we all reach a capacity. Thoughts are energy and you only have so much. So why not invest in not having to think about the mundane to make something brilliant?
I appreciate clean code as much as clean room. I want that fluidity and fresh air in everything I do.
So here's the code I wrote previously. To try and clean up each function I used the comments I made for their names. I wanted three:
fish_turnaround();
background_grad();
fish_touch_sand();
I started off on the wrong foot and put the functions in set-up and would get an error:
I commented out the background command and found where my things were hiding...sorta
Haha, just fixed it. Go me, real time troubleshooting:
Order matters! Organize Organize Organize.
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