bookooBread – Creature

Species: Deep Sea Fourier

The idea for this creature began while doing some serious research on FFT’s after Golan told me it would be interesting if I could find a way to apply that to my spring creature. I was trying to think of all the ways I could use the frequency bins as a way to change some variable in my creature, so I coded up a quick sketch of a simple FFT using lines. When I saw what this looked like, the idea immediately came to me of this sort of deep-sea skeleton, gelatinous fish creature thing. I thought that the mic input could be used as a force to make the springs move in and out, sort of like a jellyfish-type movement. I drew up this sketch and the ideas just started flowing with all the different ways I could change its movement and look. I decided to use the look of the anchor/bob points on the spring as actual parts of the creature – so the anchor points were larger and stacked closer together to make a spine and the bobs on the end represented the sort of node things you find on a sea cucumber. I also wanted to make it have a sort of wriggle/slither effect so the movement in the water looked natural while it followed the mouse which is where that sinusoidal displacement comes from. When I first made the mouse-following functionality, the creature did not turn in the direction of the mouse because I was just using translate(). It totally took me out of the environment because it looked so unnatural, so I researched how to make something turn as it followed the mouse. I found a function that calculates the linear interpolation of an angle, and with Connie’s help because it was super last-minute, applied it onto my creature. The glowing, inspired by angler fish, was made by creating these donut shapes in a for-loop that decreased the alpha value with each iteration. The particles in the background were created using seamless noise loops and two arrays. The background was made with lerpColor() and lines mapped to the size of the canvas within a for-loop.

https://editor.p5js.org/bookooBread/sketches/l6dKqBEty

Things I didn’t have time for:

-Initially, I wanted to connect the bobs on the ends to each other going down, but I had to nix that idea for now.

-I also couldn’t figure out in time how to apply the second wiggle functionality that Golan and I did during office hours which was sad 🙁 it was so cool.

-I was going to put more sea creatures/sea plants in the water to make a more immersive environment

-Make the sound responsiveness more significant so it would read better

fr0g.fartz-creature

You can find my code here.

Here is a photo of my piece.

Here is a video of my piece.

Screen Recording 2021-03-17 at 2.21.33 PM

I created this plant as a self-help activity. It is basically like a to-do list, but instead of writing things down that you feel good about doing in your day and not writing things down that you’re ashamed of doing in your day, it just accepts whatever you did during your day and shows you a growing plant.

Monday – Creature

Dust Bunny Disco! Download Video

For this project, I wanted to focus on an old-timey, peaceful vibe, so I created dust bunnies! I’m very interested in abandoned/ruined settings and was inspired by the game Unraveled and its tiny protagonist, so I stuck with a smaller scale with weathered-down objects. I found some old phonograph music from Free Music Archive, and the images from free stock photo websites.

In the program, you can interact with the dust bunnies and feed them pollen particles to grow them and create more bunnies, and they’ll track your track your mouse cursor with their eye if you’re close. You can also play them music ( which they love) and drag them around the screen only if they are not dancing (you don’t want to be rude).

Link to Sketch Here

minniebzrg-Creature

code

File “Monster”

Video

Sketches

Process

First I started by sketching out my idea on paper with coordinates, functions I needed, and footnotes about the concept. This was the most important part for me to begin. Then I created the background of the desktop first. The concept is of a “file monster” that would eat the files. So I created a function of a file that appears whenever you click on the screen. I had trouble with the background color being in setup and when I created the waves using noise, I ended up making a big mistake. With Golan’s help, I fixed the issue and the waves work perfectly. Then I inquired of Connie’s help to draw the starfish according to the points on the hand. I was able to tweak with it more and create the final fish. I added some seashells as well that is attached to the waves. I would have liked to add a function for the files to disappear when the fish touches it, but I didn’t get to that.

YoungLee – Creature

Link to Code

Process:
The name of my creature is Pearly the Parrot. I originally wanted to make a fish out using the same concept of using the finger heart as a way of displaying the creature. However, when I started making it, it looked more like a bird than a fish, so I changed my creature mid-way. For my parrot, the beaks of the creature are linked to the ends of the thumb and index finger. The eye is linked to the joint of my index finger, the feet to the joint of pinky, and the body to the joint of my middle finger. I liked how it turned out, but I do think you have to position the hand very well to get the image you want.

Sketch:

Open Palm position:

Finger Heart position:

anna-Creature

you can find the sketch here.

Slothicus Sleepicus

I originally wanted to make a sort of Depression Edition dress-up sloth, as a representation of my depressed self, but eventually pared down the concept into a moving sloth whose eyes open upon audio input. Major thanks to Golan and Connie (and also Paolo Pedercini) for the help! You can see an image and recording of my sketch below:

Here are some images of the moving parts I drew and colored for the sloth sketch:

rathesungod – Creature

For this project, I wanted to emulate an environment that I’ve experienced every time I took the subway in New York. Stuck with my headphones in my ears and loud noises coming from every direction, I daydream the most random things as I wait for my next train. It almost feels as if my eyes are springing out as my mind roams freely. So, I created Fern, a turtle -frog mixture that is patiently waiting for his next train to arrive.

When pressing the mouse on the screen, his eyes should appear to spring out all the way down to the screen. I created a black and gray tone that flashes back and forth as a subway would when traveling through tunnels. But when pressing the mouse continuously, the colors of the subway windows should change quickly like a disco party.

Code

shrugbread-Creature

My Sketch

In this project I wanted to experiment with interactions based on camera input. I used the set up and code from handsfree.js for the tracking of the hardpoints and used vectors to add gravity to the spiders as well as to add bounce/springiness to the springs connecting to the spiders. This project taught me a lot of new tools though. I used an array to remember the updated position of the spiders, as well as a classes so when I wanted to create a new spider all I had to do was ask for one to be drawn at a designated anchor point in one line of code. I ran into many many walls with the details of this, specifically with understanding how classes worked and the idea of calling the spider an “object”. Right now the spiders can only connect to one hand at a time, and I transfer “ownership” of spiders between hands by shaking one hand so that the tracking points disappear and the spiders automatically link themselves to the most recently drawn set of hand points.

bumble_b – Creature

Name: Mr. Cat, the Dumpster Cat!

Code

I originally wanted to create a sleeping creature that would wake up to your voice, but after seeing Connie’s uploaded audio/song code, I was inspired to create the cat that used to live in our alleyway (haven’t seen the lil guy in awhile…) that used to come out and meow at me when I played music out on the balcony! I called him Mr. Cat back then in an attempt not to name him, but it stuck.

His eyes follow the cursor, and if you click the speaker, music plays and he bobs his head to vibe!

I originally wanted his tail to move too, but I honestly couldn’t get it to look the way I wanted to. If I were to go back, I would definitely pay more attention to that detail and get it implemented well!

peatmoss-Creature

Code: https://editor.p5js.org/noonmarkart/sketches/HJ00lL1uz

Creature Name: Thing of the Mists
Species: Unknown, colloquially known as Walkers

After seeing how sort of janky the handsfree library can get, I really wanted to create something creepy that could, feasibly, “glitch” out of its own reality. This creature is built off Connie’s base example, so thank you Connie! And Golan taught me how to layer the mists. The background is made using a vertex based shape at the bottom for the rocks, and random noise in the background for the far mountains. I think in the future I’d want to smooth things out, maybe make the shapes more elegant? I believe this could add some more character to a new creature. For this though, I’m sorta glad it looks a little weird and janky. It lives at the bounds of our reality, why should it be bound by something like visual continuity?

Videos:

thing of the mists01 thing of the mists02