Author: Diana Donatella

Assignment 2 Reflection

I really enjoyed this talk a lot! Casey Reas’ Eyeo talk on chance operations .

One of the main ideas I found very interesting was this idea of randomness. We discussed a bit about this already in class, but I thought I’d share my perspective on the topic. I do believe that in the grand scheme of things  randomness may not actually exist. This can be especially true when discussing anything technology oriented, but from what I interpreted from the talk was something a bit more personal to the individual. To elaborate, I think randomness comes down to the individual’s perception of an event. Sure, if you give a computer a bunch of random coordinates and tell it to draw something, the computer will intake that information in a very logical and structured format and execute said command. What happens to the individual when perceiving this outcome is something quite different. Because our brains aren’t designed to function like computers, this creation by a random combination of digits appears random or out of character. You may even argue that randomness is simply something outside of our expectations or ideas, which once again goes back to what our individual perspectives are.

 

A helpful tip that I received from this video was the importance of structure with an element of surprise or randomness (excuse the redundancy). When creating art through a mechanism such as coding, one must not only understand the structure of building said creation (the logical part of the creation), but also open themselves to experimentation using our favorite word for today, randomness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENT

Concept:

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I first started designing my animation. I simply went with the flow. When I was finished, I was very pleased with what I had produced. My animation shows a moving train from the side perspective. The lines are supposed to represent how fast the train is moving, and the large circles are the train’s windows! This train brought back memories of the trains I used to ride in Berlin. I’d be waiting at a stop when the train would fly by, taking my breath away with its speed. The colors and shapes become more saturated and beautifully mesh together as you move your mouse upward. 

Highlight of the Code:

 

//LAYER 1
 noStroke(0)
 fill('rgb(93,35,253)')
 circle(circleX,400,10);
  fill('rgb(243,72,137)')
  circle(circleX,300,10);
    fill('rgb(7,204,29)')
    circle(circleX,180,10);
   circle(circleX,190,10);
    circle(circleX,160,10);
    circle(circleX,150,10);
    circle(circleX,130,10);
    circle(circleX,120,10);
 circle(circleX,100,10);
 circle(circleX,90,10);
  fill('rgb(93,35,253)')
  circle(circleX,390,10)
   fill('rgb(243,72,137)')
 circle(circleX,310,10);
fill('rgb(219,243,72)')
   circle(circleX,380,10);
     circle(circleX,350,10);
 circle(circleX,170,10);
 circle(circleX,320,10);
   circle(circleX,260,10);
 circle(circleX,290,10);
 circle(circleX,230,10);
  circle(circleX,200,10);
    circle(circleX,140,10);
 circle(circleX,110,10);
 circle(circleX,80,10);
  circle(circleX,50,10);
  circle(circleX,20,10);
   fill('rgb(93,35,253)')
  circle(circleX,370,10)
  circle(circleX,360,10)
    circle(circleX,340,10)
 circle(circleX,330,10) 
  circle(circleX,70,10);
  circle(circleX,60,10);
  circle(circleX,40,10);
  circle(circleX,30,10);
  circle(circleX,10,10);
  circle(circleX,0,10);
 fill('rgb(243,72,137)')
 circle(circleX,280,10);
 fill('rgb(243,72,137)')
 circle(circleX,270,10);
   circle(circleX,250,10);
   circle(circleX,240,10);
 circle(circleX,220,10);
 circle(circleX,210,10);
 circle(circleX,150,80)

I used 10 layers of circles and colors and arranged them in different positions on the x – axis. Depending on the layer, I also changed the coordinates of certain circles and placed them in different color blocks for contrast.

Reflection and Improvements:

I really enjoyed creating this piece! I swear that I will begin to move on to different shapes in the future…lol.  For this project, I felt that circles fit best to the image that I was trying to depict. I hope to become better at condensing my code using loops since I had a lot of repetition throughout my code.

 

TRAIN VIDEO ⬇️

IMG_7377 2

ASSIGNMENT 1 SELF PORTRAIT

Concept:

Since I am very new to coding, I wanted to challenge myself a bit and make a self portrait that was somewhat accurate. I tried to create my portrait with very basic shapes and silhouettes so I could somewhat replicate my face. That’s why there are so many circles, ellipses and squares. I felt that they were easier shapes to use when recreating my face. For my hair, I used one large black circle to create the illusion of long hair and a bunch of smaller circles that framed my face to create the illusion of texture, since I have curly hair. I gave myself red lipstick to match my red shirt and pink cheeks!

A highlight of some code that you’re particularly proud of:

square(30,80,9, mouseX);
    fill('#C5D42C')
  square(100,30,9, mouseX);
   square(150,80,15, mouseX);
  fill('rgb(134,0,0)')
  square(150,80,9, mouseX);
  square(270,70,9, mouseX);
     fill('#C5D42C')
    square(350,60,9, mouseX);
   fill('rgb(134,0,0)')
     square(295,30,9, mouseX);
     fill('rgb(134,0,0)')
    square(295,30,15, mouseX);
     fill('#C5D42C')
    square(295,30,9, mouseX);

 

I was very excited to add the red and green circles/squares. They are simple, but effective. I felt like they gave the same energy as stars, plus I made them a little interactive, so they have this sort of flickering affect to them.

 

Reflection/Improvements:

I definitely want to in the future use more shapes than I did in this assignment. Using more shapes and other techniques would allow my design to have more definition and complexity. Right now, it feels very simple, which I think is okay for a first sketch. I also would love to learn how to play around with more interactive features to make my design a bit more eye catching!