Week 4: Generative Text

Fullscreen sketch

Main Concept:

My main concept is the first home screen you see when you buy a new phone. There are so many “hello” messages in different languages popping up, and that makes me shiver and feel like I’m really getting a new phone. For this assignment, I wanted to replicate that feeling of “I’m getting a new thing.” I also thought generating “hello” in different languages would symbolize that even though we are divided by languages, we are all connected with each other, and it is important to understand and embrace one another.

 

The part of the code I’m proud of:

The part of the code I am most proud of is the update function. In order to calculate the time that has passed after the word was generated, I had to learn a new function called millis(), which basically gives you the number of milliseconds that have passed since the program started. I used multiple if-else statements to make the word gradually appear and disappear based on time intervals. For instance, the transparency of the word gradually increases from 0 to 255 within 1 second so that it does not pop up immediately. This was meant to imitate the iPhone’s way of generating “hello,” which gradually fades in. I also used the map() function, which we learned in class, to map 0 to 1 second to 0 to 255 in transparency. I am happy about the fact that I was able to fully utilize the concepts we learned in class in this update function inside the Hello class. 

update(){
    let passed = millis() - this.beginTime; 
    
    if (passed < 1000){
      //gradually fade in in 1 sec 
      this.alpha = map(passed, 0, 1000, 0, 255);  
    } else if (passed < 3000){
      //full transparancy after 3 secs
      this.alpha = 255;
    } else if (passed < 5000){
      //gradually fade out in 2 secs
      this.alpha = map(passed, 3000, 5000, 255, 0); 
    } else{
      //word faded out
      this.over = true;
    }
  }

Sketch:

 

Reflections & Future Improvements:

For future improvements, I would like to change the color of the word each time it pops up to make it more colorful and enjoyable for viewers. Furthermore, I want to avoid generating the same word two times in a row. I think I will be able to do this by using an if-else statement to control the conditions. Overall, I am happy with the outcome, as I was able to replicate a simpler version of the iPhone’s starting screen.