Missing Mysticeti - Thesis

My thesis, ‘Missing Mysticeti’,is an abstract animation and designed to be displayed on 4 wall-sized screens in a room.

Nature Of Code played the key role of creating visuals of this project.

Especially, ‘Screen 2’ and ‘Screen 4’ are processing sketches, whereas ‘Screen 1’ and ‘Screen 3’ are movie files animated and rendered in After Effect with the imported movies which had been created with and exported from processing.

Let me get into details.

‘Screen 2’ is based on Box2D library. All started from ‘Blobby’ by Daniel Shiffman. First, First, I put particles inside one blob and didn’t meet any problem. However, I got in trouble, collision problem, when I created more blobs with particles. I began with 4 blobs having their own objects in them and placed them in two layers. That means, the blobs in the same layer should collide with each other but should not collide with the blobs in the other layer. I solved this problem with ‘filtering’ functions of the library, ‘groupIndex’, ‘categoryBits’ and ‘maskBits’.

Second, I tried to give texture to one blob. To use ‘texture’ function, I changed the world from 2D to 3D. In this stage, ‘Surface tension’ had to be considered to recover the original shape of blobs after colliding with other objects and boundaries. I created one center body and made it connected with the centers of skeletons of blobs.

Here is the processing sketch of this stage.

The third, after finishing the basic animation, I made ‘Screen 2’ communicate with Pure Data by OSC(Open Sound Control). I intended to make blobs enter the screen from the bottom when they would get the message from Pd. And after enter the screen, they should move about and collide with others. I, first, removed the bottom boundary and set the gravity of the world ‘0’. Changing ‘applyForce’, blobs moved up first and then moved randomly after entering the screen and reach around center of screen. The important thing was adding boundaries for each blobs in order to prevent blobs go out through the bottom of screen again.

Finally, I made particles in two blobs created according to the incoming message of corresponding sound from Pd.

(You can see animations by click on images below)

‘Screen 4’ started from ‘springs’ in Processing site and I added the flower which was created based on the ‘Oscillation’ by Daniel Shiffman.

'Screen 1' is the movie file which is animated and rendered with 3 processing animations with After Effect.

( shine animation, wave animation and twinkle animation with 'intersection' by Daniel )

April 1

I took black and white pictures for the assignment of Digital Imaging Reset class.

Progress of my thesis

My thesis project will be a kind of abstract animation which consists of visual, sound and motion. It will be displayed on 4 screens connected each other.

4 sketches for 4 screens.

Sketch for Installation plan

Processing sketch of Screen 2

( Click the image to run the processing sketch )

Movie file of Screen 1

I'm working on sound with Pure Data which controls whole timeline of both sound and animations.

MIdterm Project

I had to experience trial and error many times in order to create satisfying collision between objects using box2d library in my project.

Here is the slide for presentation.

Snow storm

Snow storm came again.

However, I had to take pictures for my panorama assignment for Digital Imaging Reset class.

It was my first time to take pictures in the middle of heavy snow.

I could make two panorama photos.

And I practiced depth of field more after taking panorama pictures.

My husband was with me and gave me a great support.

Depth of field

I practiced depth of field for the assignment of Digital Image Reset class.

Thesis

This is the sketch for one scene of my thesis project.

I'm trying to realize my imagination with processing.

This is the test for it.

Midterm Proposal for Nature of code class

For my midterm project, I'm planning to visualize some imagination for my Thesis.

My thesis project will be a kind of animation(I'm trying to define my work).

Here is a reference sketch.

I'll use box2D library for creating the water drop or bubble like objects which have their own objects inside them and flow in a space.

Unidentified Object

This week’s assignment is using a physics library such as Box2D and Toxiclibs.

I tried to make an object which looks like flowing in a liquid environment and has snowing particles in it.

Processing Sketch

Flower

This week assignment : Try incorporating the concept of forces into the environment by affecting only the acceleration. Create a formula for calculating a dynamic acceleration, one that changes over time based on any number of factors. Make more than one object by creating an array.

I tried to make flying petals by wind. After making petals flying, I also tried to make receptacle move by wind for more natural expression. However, it is still difficult for me to express naturally swaying motion. Will it be possible by using oscillating motion? Beside gravity and wind force, I think, there is one more force, the force of receptacle holding petals. I hope I can figure out as the class is going on.

Processing sketch

White Balance Test

I tested various white balance for week 2 assignment.

I’m using Cannon EOS 400D and set ISO 1600.

First, I took pictures after taking picture of ‘white card’ according to the Cannon manual.

Second, I took pictures after taking picture of ‘grey card’ according to the class requirement.

Finally, I tested various pre-set mode of white balance in my camera.

Auto White balance

Daylight(Approx. 5200K)

Shade(Approx. 7000K)

Cloudy(Approx. 6000K)

Tungsten light(Approx. 3200K)

White fluorescent light(Approx. 4000K)

Green Leaf

I tried to express shaking leaf by wind for my first assignment of Nature of code class.

Assignment: Take a look at these two examples of a square randomly moving around the screen: Walker without vectors, Walker with vectors. Find an example of real-world "natural" motion (preferably in the form of an online video) and develop a set of rules for moving the Walker.

Square version

Green Leaf