Author: Felipe

My final project is a developed version of my sound project. Considering I had spent most of my effort on the landscape I designed through processing, as well as the switching mechanism of the landscapes based on “a, s, or d” pressed on the keyboard. I decided to use that sketch to turn it into a game. Working on it originally as the sound project, the hardest part was making the “scenarios” or “levels” change according to the key pressed (a, s, or d), as well as the song changing with it, making each key display and play the assigned image and song. Getting that tricky part of the way through the use of classes, I was able to further improve each level with moving clouds, changing colors, and modulating trees. Considering I already had a character on the screen (stick figure) I then decided to have falling comets as the game aspect of it, and rather than try to catch the comets (as in the rain game example), your goal is to avoid the comets and try to survive while listening to 3 different tracks I have composed/played drums for. The character is controlled by (LEFT and Right) on the arrow-keys, and he can also jump by pressing the space-bar. If you are stricken 10 times, then the visuals will not display any longer and you will then have to watch a screen telling you to listen to my music online, the only way to restart the game then is by closing and opening the sketch again.

References:

• Alyssa. “Catch The Raindrops Game.” OpenProcessing. 30th Sept. 2011. www.openprocessing.org/sketch/40047#. Acessed 29th Nov. 2016.
• Winchester, Meri.”Processing: create a gradient with a for loop.” YouTube, uploaded by Meri Winchester. 11 Sept. 2014. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIgLJz0ZQD4.
• Processing Example Used: File – Examples – Libraries – Sound – Demos – Keyboard

My goal for the final project is to create and customize my own music visualizer. I found an artist on the web who makes real time, generative art that usually consists of audio and sound. His name is Simo Santavirta, he is located in Finland and according to his blog site, he has managed to make a living being a web developer. In the past decade he has worked with real-time graphics at Odd Circle, thus pursuing his passion for computer art in his “precious free time.” I particularly appreciate the work that deals with hd, and 3d graphics that are generated in response to sound and music. It makes a listening experience a visual one as well, enhancing the journey of the act of listening to music.

Examples:
– http://www.creativeapplications.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/grid01.png

– https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a-Ht7d-tECY/maxresdefault.jpg

I changed the shape of the clock to circles with the pointers being the arrowheads just as the conventional clock. They still change color as each second/minute/hour/day changes. I attempted to create a more thought-out color scheme that followed the season but was not able to get to that yet. I did however add 4 images as the backdrop, each represents different seasons. Since it’s fall now (e.g: month >=9 && month <= 11) I added a picture I took a year or two ago of a foggy fall day on my way to school. I added three other pictures that I took as well to represent summer, spring, and fall.

My reflection to the readings is one of no surprises. A key factor that any human being living in the 21st century has to adapt and apply in his/her lifestyle is time management. Perhaps one can pick out the most successful and productive of a crowd by simply looking at their time management skills. That is true with anything one does, the more effective in a shorter period of time you do something, the more time you will have to do even more effective and productive things. The calculator did not give me any realistic numbers due to my currently inconsistent weekly schedule. I am honest about devoting a lot of energy and time into my projects and practice as a drummer/musician. I also am aware of how much time I have that is wasted in miscellaneous actives and distractions, as well as creating work in my own way (such as creating music, art, etc.), I can say that in at least two or three days of each week I feel a spark of inspiration and/or a feeling of criticism towards myself as I am aware of how much more I could take advantage of the time and resources I have available to me. That is what keeps me going. I think most of us can agree that grasping true balance on and with everything is seemingly impossible. But I hope to gain satisfactorily pure discipline and balance in my life some day where I am no longer disappointed with myself for remaining in the comfort zone.

Zach Lieberman is a new media artist that playfully surprises people through creative and interactive installations that question what is visible and not visible. He attended Hunters College and Parsons School of Design. He strives to break the boundaries of communications through the use of computer technology. Lieberman is actively reinforcing the future of computing and education, to make it a free, proactive and open form of expression. He is also one of the co-founders of Open Framework which is an open source library of a collective C++ “toolkit designed to assist the creative process by providing a simple and intuitive framework for experimentation.” Lastly, he advocates the importance of failure in computing and art, as well as experimentation and exploration.

I see that Jacob underneath this post had the same idea. Considering we had to use rotating shapes in accordance with time for the tutorial exercises. I attempted to apply those techniques to my overall clock project, using the smallest square to represent millisecond, which is so fast that our eyes can’t even see its rotation fully (but it adds a nice touch to my composition). My clock is exponential in the sense that as each square gets bigger, it represents a larger amount of time (second -> minutes -> hours -> days). Considering I decided to play it safe by not using too complex shapes and design for my project, I decided to add randomly changing colors to each square as each second, minute, hours, and so on, changes. Perhaps the user would never see the day square change color unless he/she has the program open near midnight. Anyway, I am thinking of ways to make this more complex, creative, and/or visually appealing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Here’s my notes/sketch:

Can’t sleep, got inspired and figured I’d develop this some more. Took me many hours to get to where I am now. The faces come out truly unique! Some of them come out really cool looking, although my infrastructure isn’t perfect.