Week 3 – Functions, Arrays, and Object Oriented Programming

Sketch

My Concept

For this project, I wanted to create a generative artwork inspired by an Instagram post I saw of a supernova made entirely with math. I was amazed by how something so natural and powerful could be represented through math and wanted to make my own version with code. I used object-oriented programming with classes and arrays to build a layered system: a static star field in the background, a clustered supernova core in the middle, and orbiting particle systems that appear when the mouse is clicked. The ParticleSystem class contains Particles as a sub-class for abstraction. The goal was to make the scene feel cosmic and expansive, with a balance of stillness and motion. The pink and orange hues of the supernova give it warmth and contrast nicely with the dark sky and moving particles.

Post Link

Code Highlight

My favorite part of the code was inside the Particle class. The update method receives origin which are the coordinates of the particles superclass, ParticleSystem. It then increments the the particle’s angle, which was set in the constructor to a random angle, by an also randomized angular velocity between 0.005 and 0.008. After that, I used trigonometry to convert the current angle and radius to x and y coordinates. These 3 lines of code are so simple, yet do very well in creating a smooth orbiting effect with any radius and speed.

// Update the particle's position
 update(origin) {
   // Orbit motion
   this.angle += this.speed;
   // Translate motion on x and y
   this.pos.x = origin.x + cos(this.angle) * this.radius;
   this.pos.y = origin.y + sin(this.angle) * this.radius;
 }

Reflection

Seeing the Instagram supernova showed me how math and code can express phenomena far beyond what we normally imagine drawing. Recreating my own version made me realize the power of classes in producing natural-looking patterns with surprisingly little code. What looks like thousands of unique particles is really the same rules repeated again and again, with variation coming from randomness and simple math. I also found that changing small details (like the radius range of the orbits or the color palette) transforms the entire mood of the scene. For me, this project reinforced how generative art is about designing systems of rules that unfold naturally into complex and beautiful results.