Monday, 30 May 2011
The Final Poster Series
Here are the final jpg versions of my 9 piece poster series for the 'if/else' programming function.
300 word description of my project
Looking and analysing the if/else programming term, I began to understand that a real life metaphor for this particular concept hinged and was essentially focused all around making one, or a series of decisions.
My exhibition piece looks at this concept through my chosen medium of a poster series, which visually tries to capture the catalogue of decisions we have to make in order to reach a final outcome. I chose to look at a ‘decision making topic’ that most people at the design school who would be viewing the exhibition would easily be able to relate to and understand, and that was the subject of looking through the Victoria University course guide book, and having to make the slightly painstaking and labouring decisions on which courses one should take.
I attempted to portray a series of decisions in a way that would appear visually striking and catch the viewers eye, with the poster series coming to a powerful metaphorical climax in terms of decision making that we all had to come to. And that was the challenge of choosing and making the decision of whether we wanted to become industrial, media or culture and context designers.
‘If’ DSDN 104 is chosen for example, that leads to pursuing Industrial Design. ‘Else’, DSDN 142 gets chosen, hence going along the lines of Media Design. A simple coding breakdown of the process.
Inspiration for the poster series
Here were a series of posters that provided the inspiration for creating a progressional poster series.
I also found this poster that was the kind of aesthetic style that I wanted to go for throughout my poster series, focusing on that explosion of other images from a focal centre point.
Another idea change
After looking into my idea of using projectors/a lighting system to portray graphics that get prompted by a user, I researched the possibility of actually obtaining such equipment that I would require for the project. It soon became apparent that the cost of getting the required equipment was just too much to be reasonable, so this prompted yet another change of idea and plans.
I looked through the first 3 ideas that I had come up with, and I felt that my idea 1, the poster series, was the most reasonable idea that I could attempt in the time that I had available to complete this project.
I made some alterations to this original idea though. Instead of the singular figure that remains the same in the series of posters, I decided to make a more relevant and fitting 'if/else' metaphor by using the Vic course and subject choice book, focusing more particularly on the school of design and choosing the option between industrial design or media design, in particular showing a more distinct, 'if I choose these courses, I will do industrial design, else, I'll do media design instead. I felt the subject of course choices at the design school would be quite fitting and relevant for people, as they would have had to go through the same decision.
I looked through the first 3 ideas that I had come up with, and I felt that my idea 1, the poster series, was the most reasonable idea that I could attempt in the time that I had available to complete this project.
I made some alterations to this original idea though. Instead of the singular figure that remains the same in the series of posters, I decided to make a more relevant and fitting 'if/else' metaphor by using the Vic course and subject choice book, focusing more particularly on the school of design and choosing the option between industrial design or media design, in particular showing a more distinct, 'if I choose these courses, I will do industrial design, else, I'll do media design instead. I felt the subject of course choices at the design school would be quite fitting and relevant for people, as they would have had to go through the same decision.
Monday, 16 May 2011
An idea rethink
I thought that my third idea was far too similar to my idea 2, so I came up with a new concept and here it is.
New concept for Idea 3:
An interactive exhibition using projectors/projections of images onto a particular medium such as screens or a sculpture of some sort like layered cubes. The interaction of this display would come through how people react with a certain set of buttons maybe? Different buttons will trigger different images that the projectors will display. Maybe a mood sensor if that's possible? Having a camera that the user will look into and based on the shape of their face, a corresponding image gets displayed.
Possible interaction ideas
New concept for Idea 3:
An interactive exhibition using projectors/projections of images onto a particular medium such as screens or a sculpture of some sort like layered cubes. The interaction of this display would come through how people react with a certain set of buttons maybe? Different buttons will trigger different images that the projectors will display. Maybe a mood sensor if that's possible? Having a camera that the user will look into and based on the shape of their face, a corresponding image gets displayed.
Possible interaction ideas
- virtual dice
- heat sensor
- face shape sensor
- distance sensor
- microphone? Audio capability - image changes depending on how loud you clap for instance.
Project 3: Planning and ideas for the exhibition
Right. Here we are onto project 3, the biggest and last project for creative coding. The coding function that I intend to take and form a metaphor out of is the 'if/else' function.
The if/else function is basically categorized into making decisions in the application based on information given to it. It's a conditional. It relies on other variables to function.
Essentially, the if/else function is like a metaphor for decision making or something along the lines of choosing your path. A crossroads in a way. However, the if/else function or metaphor isn't only related to a 2 pronged decision - "Should I do this or should I do that?" Instead, it is able to present itself with many different courses of action, much like real life situations where decisions are required.
Possible project ideas. Visual metaphors.
Idea 1
Poster series trying to highlight how different decisions will lead to different outcomes and scenarios for the same person.
So have person standing there in the same pose, looking over their shoulder maybe? But the location/scenario in every poster is different, however the person in each poster in always performing the exact same pose, so there is a sense of continuity.
Idea 2
Short movie clip. First person clip. Attach a camera to an individual's head, and track progress throughout the day or something like that. But then replay, and maybe animate it like a video game so that each decision making moment, list options or buttons appear showing all the different possibilities that this protagonist could take and then 'pressing' the desired chosen option.
Inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUyHwoVPFA
Idea 3
An interactive idea of idea 2 maybe? Where users are offered the opportunity to select choices and the clip re-enacts those options that are chosen... So almost like a visual interactive piece.
The if/else function is basically categorized into making decisions in the application based on information given to it. It's a conditional. It relies on other variables to function.
Essentially, the if/else function is like a metaphor for decision making or something along the lines of choosing your path. A crossroads in a way. However, the if/else function or metaphor isn't only related to a 2 pronged decision - "Should I do this or should I do that?" Instead, it is able to present itself with many different courses of action, much like real life situations where decisions are required.
Possible project ideas. Visual metaphors.
Idea 1
Poster series trying to highlight how different decisions will lead to different outcomes and scenarios for the same person.
So have person standing there in the same pose, looking over their shoulder maybe? But the location/scenario in every poster is different, however the person in each poster in always performing the exact same pose, so there is a sense of continuity.
Idea 2
Short movie clip. First person clip. Attach a camera to an individual's head, and track progress throughout the day or something like that. But then replay, and maybe animate it like a video game so that each decision making moment, list options or buttons appear showing all the different possibilities that this protagonist could take and then 'pressing' the desired chosen option.
Inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUyHwoVPFA
Idea 3
An interactive idea of idea 2 maybe? Where users are offered the opportunity to select choices and the clip re-enacts those options that are chosen... So almost like a visual interactive piece.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Project 2: The final transformation
So here it is. After a fair bit of aesthetic changing, but not too much physical code changing, I've been able to come up with my final piece of work for the Project 2: Transformation.
The link to it on open processing is: http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=27965
The link to it on open processing is: http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=27965
Slight changes
Because I had a lot of trouble with my previous version and my inability to get the balls to bounce of the rectangles and make sounds as they did so, I decided to change my idea slightly. After having a listen to the sounds that I was using, the mysteriousness and eeriness of them made me feel that, instead of a neon theme to my transformation project, I would go for more of a space/depth vibe to it. And that way, I would be able to incorporate my sound properly, as I knew how to code sound to play for when the balls pass through different parts of the screen, instead of my inability to code sound for bouncing balls.
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| Some pretty awe-inspiring nebulae |
Progress over the holidays
The 2 week easter break was a perfect time to be able to fix up all the issues that I had surrounding my current work. Seeing as the batch of problems that I was having with my code seemed to be very numerous, I decided to re-write my code from the start again, therefore hopefully being able to come up with a fully working final piece of code that would be clean, and properly functioning!
Thursday, 14 April 2011
The final
Well here is my final. After much frustration, I wasn't able to code the sound to play when the balls bounced through them so I just coded it so that when the mouse runs over a specific rectangle, audio gets heard, so that you get some kind of an idea of the sound effect that I was intending my interaction to have.
The link to it is:
http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=27122
The link to it is:
http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=27122
Stopgap
As a stop gap measure, and to make sure that my sound files work correctly, I coded it so that if the mouse cursor ran over one of these rectangles, it would play the desired sound. This however just seems to bog down the application massively and after around 10 seconds of runtime, it comes up with the error message saying that I need to increase the memory because it just can't handle what I'm trying to run.
More frustrations..
More frustrations..
Inserting sound.. And more problems!
Now that the basic idea of my code had been done, I just needed to make it so that when the balls bounced through the different rectangles, different sound effects that I had would be played. But I couldn't do it! I kept on getting an error message stating that 'static references could not be mixed with non static'... hmm.
Beginning coding... And running into problems
Now that I had my idea sorted, I began to start coding for my project. Tutorial 8 on bouncing balls and arraylists was a huge help in this. However in my concept, I had envisaged the emitted balls to have been able to bounce of the rectangles in the lower half of the page and create a sort of randomly induced interaction. The actual coding of this however was just far too complicated and I decided to alter my idea so that the balls will just pass through the lines and a resulting sound will be heard.
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| The balls just bounce through the rectangles now instead of bouncing off them |
Audio creation
I used garageband to create that smooth synth sound that I wanted to imitate. Here is one of my trial attempts.
Audio ideas
Once more I decided to take to youtube to find some ideas as to what kind of sound I thought I should use for my interaction. I wanted to stay away from those sound generating websites where you can get sound for free, because they don't usually sound that good. I ended up finding this video on youtube of a smooth synth pad that I felt would be nice and suitable to try and imitate as my sound effects
Aesthetics
While searching for ideas on how I would make the aesthetic interface of my interaction design, I came across this video on youtube of american neon motel signage, and that really inspired me to give my design that kind of a feel.
Here, take a look
Here, take a look
The chosen concept
After deliberating over my concepts and taking in advice from the tutors, I decided to settle on concept 3, the emitter idea. In particular, I felt that this would be the best way to go as concept 1 was a bit too simple in it's interaction, while concept 2, while being in theory a fairly cool interactive concept that could end up nicely indeed, I thought that the programming skill required to do what I had in mind would be way higher than what I'm currently able of achieving. So with these reasons, I decided to settle with concept 3.
That being said, I think that concept 3 offered a solid idea that offered the best form of interaction over the other two ideas. the variable bounce of the balls coupled with an emission system meant that you could spend quite a while playing around with it and seeing what kind of effects that could be made.
That being said, I think that concept 3 offered a solid idea that offered the best form of interaction over the other two ideas. the variable bounce of the balls coupled with an emission system meant that you could spend quite a while playing around with it and seeing what kind of effects that could be made.
Inspiration for my storyboard concepts
Here are some of the images that I looked at that served as inspiration for my 'transform' application.
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| A simple vector based arrow that could be appropriate as the 'hidden' image for concept 1 |
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| A spiders web. An amazing and ornate structure that flexes and warps a lot, but still manages to keep it's shape. |
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| The emission of water from a hose. |
Project 2: My concepts and storyboarding
Well we're now onto project 2 and here are my storyboards and ideas for what I want to base my 'transform' project around.
My first concept was to base my interaction around a supposed 'hidden' image. The user would begin with a blank screen. Unknown to them is that, invisible, are strips of bars that combine to form a particular shape or pattern. Attached to each of these strips will be a specific audio file. So when the user begins to interact with the blank canvas by clicking, these strips will show themselves and with them, audio will be played as well. The idea is that if the user drags across the screen fast enough, an interesting shape or graphic will appear as well as an interesting combination of audio.
However, I thought that this idea maybe a little basic in it's interaction with the user. For once the image is discovered, there is little more point to the animation other than to make random noises.
As a result, my second concept takes a more complicated approach. This concept is about focusing on the idea of a web of lines all connected by small circles. These small circles all have a particular soundfile coded to each of them. Clicking on these circles will subsequently play that piece of audio. But to make things more interesting, the circles are able to be moved around in their web, and since they are all conjoined through lines, the movement and wobbling of these lines as a result from the movement of the circles will cause warping or bending in pitch of the audio.
In thinking about what my third concept would be, I decided to focus on a simpler idea that would be sound to make but still provide solid interaction with the user. I came up with this idea of an 'emitter'. This emitter would emit random balls that would fall onto these randomly placed lines or rectangles across the bottom half of the screen. As the balls from the emitter hit these lines, specific audio will then be played.
My first concept was to base my interaction around a supposed 'hidden' image. The user would begin with a blank screen. Unknown to them is that, invisible, are strips of bars that combine to form a particular shape or pattern. Attached to each of these strips will be a specific audio file. So when the user begins to interact with the blank canvas by clicking, these strips will show themselves and with them, audio will be played as well. The idea is that if the user drags across the screen fast enough, an interesting shape or graphic will appear as well as an interesting combination of audio.
However, I thought that this idea maybe a little basic in it's interaction with the user. For once the image is discovered, there is little more point to the animation other than to make random noises.
As a result, my second concept takes a more complicated approach. This concept is about focusing on the idea of a web of lines all connected by small circles. These small circles all have a particular soundfile coded to each of them. Clicking on these circles will subsequently play that piece of audio. But to make things more interesting, the circles are able to be moved around in their web, and since they are all conjoined through lines, the movement and wobbling of these lines as a result from the movement of the circles will cause warping or bending in pitch of the audio.
In thinking about what my third concept would be, I decided to focus on a simpler idea that would be sound to make but still provide solid interaction with the user. I came up with this idea of an 'emitter'. This emitter would emit random balls that would fall onto these randomly placed lines or rectangles across the bottom half of the screen. As the balls from the emitter hit these lines, specific audio will then be played.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Project One: Reflection and where to next
Project one, our first dsdn 142 project is now complete, and looking back on it, it was quite a learning process. Coming to grips with coding and processing and using them to make something that actually looks beautiful was probably the biggest learning curve and challenge of the project, as I, and probably most people have never done something like that before. Now at the end of the project, I think I'm starting to get the hang of coding a bit better and have got a better understanding of how I have to go about making my visualisation through code.
Whenever I ran into trouble while I was coding (which happened a lot), I always tried to look at what I was trying to make, and try and simplify my coding attempts. Dumb it down and go back to the basics. Or otherwise, go back through my variables and actually read through them again and the places where I used them in my drawing code to try and refresh my understanding of what I did previously in an attempt to see if that could help me get to my next step.
I think in my next project, I'd like to spend more time on processing, do more experimental stuff to get a stronger understand of coding because I felt that my limitations in being able to code well, made it very hard to get to and create the idea that I wanted my wallpapers to look like in my head.
Whenever I ran into trouble while I was coding (which happened a lot), I always tried to look at what I was trying to make, and try and simplify my coding attempts. Dumb it down and go back to the basics. Or otherwise, go back through my variables and actually read through them again and the places where I used them in my drawing code to try and refresh my understanding of what I did previously in an attempt to see if that could help me get to my next step.
I think in my next project, I'd like to spend more time on processing, do more experimental stuff to get a stronger understand of coding because I felt that my limitations in being able to code well, made it very hard to get to and create the idea that I wanted my wallpapers to look like in my head.
Monday, 21 March 2011
DSDN 142 - The final wallpapers
Below here are my four final wallpapers created in Processing. I didn't end up being able to create the kind of 3D illusion through 2D shapes that I aimed for in my concept sketches, but I was still able to convey the theme/idea of a progression from an ordered grid into a chaotic and misplaced spread. The colours I chose were specifically chosen to highlight this progression, with the starting sky blue being a peaceful and one might think, 'ordered' colour, while the final wallpaper sports a strong red that gives that desired negative connotation of disorder and chaos.
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| Wallpaper 1 - http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24603 |
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| Wallpaper 2 - http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24604 |
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| Wallpaper 3 - http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24606 |
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| Wallpaper 4 - http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=24609 |
Slight iterations..
After realizing that my wallpapers weren't actually very strongly connected thematically, I decided to take the sketch of 'Concept 3', and couple it with the idea in 'Concept 4', which was along the lines of moving from and an ordered setup (shown through the circle based grid) into a break down of uniformity, i.e. chaos, shown through the random connecting lines and the circles. Except I would take this idea and show a gradual progression across my 4 final wallpapers using the 3D illusion, triangular grid style of 'Concept 3', in an attempt to convey the idea of moving from order into chaos, but not in an utterly random way.
My drawn wallpaper concepts
After taking a while to look through and deliberate over my 'inspiring images', I ended coming up with these 4 wallpaper concepts.
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| Concept 1 |
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| Concept 2 |
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| Concept 3 |
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| Concept 4 |
Inspirations behind my initial wallpaper concepts
When I was planning out ideas for what my final wallpaper concepts would be, I didn't actually realise that all 4 wallpapers were meant to be connected to each other in a visual and thematic way, so I looked on the web at all sorts of design images for inspiration. In particular, I focused on images that portrayed bright and bold colours, because one of the ways I aimed to make my wallpaper both interesting and striking would be through the use of these powerful colours.
I liked the elegant curves in these 3 above images and in the one directly above, I found the image and form created through just using straight lines to be very interesting.
With these two, I very much admired the ordered chaos that is going on. Particularly through the relationship between the fixed circle grid and the randomly placed circles and connecting lines.
I found the almost hypnotic patterns in these images created through vivid colours and simple but trance inducing shapes to be an interesting concept.
And finally, I found the idea of using straightforward and simple shapes to create interesting and 'coming out of the page' images a cool idea that I thought might be able to work well through coding and turning into an aesthetically appealing wallpaper.
I liked the elegant curves in these 3 above images and in the one directly above, I found the image and form created through just using straight lines to be very interesting.
With these two, I very much admired the ordered chaos that is going on. Particularly through the relationship between the fixed circle grid and the randomly placed circles and connecting lines.
I found the almost hypnotic patterns in these images created through vivid colours and simple but trance inducing shapes to be an interesting concept.
And finally, I found the idea of using straightforward and simple shapes to create interesting and 'coming out of the page' images a cool idea that I thought might be able to work well through coding and turning into an aesthetically appealing wallpaper.
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