Category: Deliverables-02

gaomeilan – Valentine

Generative Valentines [link]

 

Process

I first started by creating a Bezier heart. Then, I made various transformed copies of it that were all colored based off of a randomly generated color background. Then, I added bordered Comic Sans text with two generative variables, following the format “Have a(n) [adjective] [synonym for Valentine’s Day] Day,” that would produce a different result every time the Valentine’s Day card generator cycled through the 12 names in my generator.

I originally had the generator randomly choose from a list of my classmates; however, I realized that it made it harder for the generator to consistently produce a result for every classmate. Instead, I changed the algorithm to cycle through the names in a predetermined order, ending the loop after one Valentine was generated for each classmate.

I also modified the code used to save JPGs of the Valentines so that it would name each card “Valentine_[classmate’s name]” rather than “valentine_[number]” to make accessing the downloaded files easier.

 

10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal Problem

I feel like I am starting to achieve some of the Oatmeal Problem, as I think that the varying colors + generative text gives my cards some degree of uniqueness, however, their overall composition is static, which is an aspect that makes them less interesting from each other.

 

I struggled a lot with this assignment. I just couldn’t settle on a design that I could pull off within the time constraints. The above iteration maps each name to a specific message while the heart in the background moves in a circle while the below valentines completely randomize the color of the heart and text as well as the arrangement of names and messages.

bookooBread-Valentine

So even though it wasn’t required for us to do something animated, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to try it out. I really liked the idea of making a beating heart, but with how complex my heart was, it was really a challenge. I probably spent way more time than I should’ve to make the pulsing function and it still wasn’t quite there, so I asked Connie for some assistance and she showed me a wayyy more efficient way of doing it.  She also helped me with figuring out how to make the individual hearts beat within my for-loops instead of all of them beating in one unit. I was originally going to leave all of the text static, but I thought it would be more eye-catching for the “Happy Valentines Day” to pop. To do this, I added the same scaling factor I used for the hearts onto textSize().  I also randomly generated a unique shade of pink for each card (using hex values) and a randomly generated name from an array.

In examining my project in regards to the “10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal Problem,” I think I definitely could’ve done more to make each card more unique. I did spend most of my time figuring out the functionality behind my card, and I think I may have neglected some of the design aspects, mainly in making each one really different from one another. Other than the background color changing to a different shade of pink and the name, there wasn’t a whole lot of change from card to card. Originally I wanted to stay within the valentines day color range, but looking back now, I think it would’ve been more fun to use colors from out of this range as well. Then, I could’ve had more options to make each one really differentiated. I did want to stick with the more simplistic message so the hearts would really pop, so in that area, I think it was okay that it didn’t change.

rathesungod – Reading02

Kate Compton’s “10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal Problem” has sparked a new view on orientation and possibility based on procedural generation. Compton states, “I can easily generate 10,000 bowls of plain oatmeal, with each oat being in a different position and position and different orientation, and mathematically speaking they will all be completely unique, but the user will likely just see a lot of oatmeal.” From this, you can really see the way procedural generation can be viewed to the viewer and from the generator.

One example that Compton’s blog got me interested in were tattoo shop deals on days such as Friday, the 13th and Halloween where tattoos are given for free but at the expense of not knowing what their tattoo looks like. I think about how a random generator can be part of the process of your daily life and implemented as a “thing” that happened in your life, or a meaningful destined tattoo. But in conclusion, Compton’s blog opened my eyes to the definition of purpose and meaning in our choices, emotions, and environment.

 

rathesungod – LookingOutwardsDo2

@helena.sarin

Latent Boids: The Fatherhood
too weird to live, too rare to die
#gen2GAN

always finding the way to plug in some reference to Ralph Steadman and Hunter S. Thompson

I found this piece to be eye catching and fluid at first glance. I was really interested in the line work and primary colors that worked together against a white background.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDywAHFFKJ_/

 

rathesungod- Valentine

I first developed my project by playing around with the basic shapes and colors to explore a spectrum of possibilities. It was a difficult and confusing process to make the heart. I don’t remember the amount of times I restarted certain codes because I always got confused of my order. But once the heart was done, it was definitely easier to make different patterns and shapes surrounding and within the heart. Also by using the digital color maker, it made the process really fun for me because I enjoy experimenting with different tones and colors. I also had a really fun time incorporating text and fonts into the card.

10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal:

As for Kate Compton’s “10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal,” my eyes have been opened to the much bigger reality of infinite possibilities. Whether it’s for oats in different positions or a random name generator, the uniqueness of every possibility can affect one’s emotion and environment. But Compton’s blog post also widened my eyes to how a random generator can also be considered “destiny or fate.”

 

shrugbread- Reading02

The 10,000 bowls of oatmeal problem is particularly interesting because it is a problem that resides almost completely in the mind of the viewer, and not a truly tangible problem that the computer recognizes. The problem is essentially of relative minuteness in variation when generating something using code. You can create a generator that spits out every variation of a specific ruleset. These variations can be incredibly minute such as a single leaf on a tree being missing, or a single oat in a bowl of oatmeal having a different orientation than it’s other variants. This variation is completely true in the eyes of the computer, but has a lack of significance in the eyes of the viewer.  The problem then becomes how to make the permutations both complete and significant enough for them to be interesting.  It may not even be a problem for some types of projects, such as simulation, where every slight variance can provide a different result when some type of time changing variable is added, but is particularly unhelpful when trying to create games as sometimes the variations are too slight to have it worth implementing.  The problem then becomes how to make visual significance in every variation, such as paring down your parameters to certain key variables.

minniebzrg-Valentine

Minnie’s Valentines

In my valentine code, I generated a pattern of hearts from the original one I made. For this, I had to copy and paste my function rather than creating a new one. I’m still a little unsure how I did this, but it worked and all it took was two buttons. The generative aspect is the color. I had to look up how to create a function that would change the red, green, and blue values at random. I incorporated this into the background and also the heart fill command. Each frame, at a frame rate of 2, produces a different background color and heart color in reference to each other.

Three Examples:

Process photographs/sketches: