Drawing my Form

These are some of my sketches on developing my final form that I will use as my start point. Because I am still not feeling very confident about the coding as I have never done any computer science etc before I really want to go for a shape that is VERY BASIC but will give me plenty of options to generate different sequences.

Tutorial 3: Using the Grid and Variables

Grid Game:

This tutorial was all about seeing the processing canvas as a grid and understanding what the numbers mean in terms of plotting basic shapes and how to apply that.

Instead of creating shapes using code I loved how we instead had to compete to be the first to physically drew the shapes on a grid.

This activity really clarified how simple it should be to create a rectangle/circle/line and position it correctly.

Variables: 

This tutorial also introduced the idea of variables. This is something that I think I will need to give a lot of practice to get my head around as I found it a lot to take in all at once. 

This was a far as I got on my own re-creating the shape we used in tutorial using variables rather than plotting each line. I can see how it is a lot faster and a much more effective option and I will have to practice using it for my final form.

Ways to Change Parameters...

1st Lecture -

These are my drawings from the lecture on thursday about different ways to change the parameters of a form. I will definitely use these examples in my sequences as they are simple but effective ways to make the same form appear like differently.
Examples : Position, repetition, angle, enlargement/reduction, line thickness etc.

I think its a good way of getting ideas by drawing them down on paper like this before putting them into code.

Learning the Basics

Tutorial Number 2:

At the tutorial we got straight into learning the basics: lines, ellipses (circles), rectangles plus how to set up your sketches with size, background/line color etc. 

Although these are the absolute basics in coding it still took me a while to get my head around the way they had to be set out and what the numbers and symbols actually MEAN rather than just copying it all in. 

Once I got the idea of the sketch canvas just being a grid with the top left corner being 0,0 and the bottom right being 500,500 (in this particular case) it all became a lot easier. 

Above, a screen shot of my first attempt at coding using only basic shapes. Obviously very simple but was a good way of getting to grip with how all the plotting and format works.

Tutorial One: Writing Instructions

The exercise we had to complete in this tutorial was deigned to show us what it is like for the computer to process the instructions we give it and how specific we have to be.

The object that i chose to write instructions for was my tube of lip balm. 

This a picture (above) of the instructions I wrote for my object. Although it is hard to read the instructions in this photo form, it is still easy to see that it took nearly a whole page of instructions to produce the drawing below. I decided to create my object using only lines and simple shapes yet I still had to include huge amounts of detail so the person drawing would understand what I was asking for.

I thought this was a very successful exercise as it really showed how we have to be super clear in what we want the computer to do otherwise it will not understand and you will end up with the complete wrong thing. I found this when having to draw using my neighbors instructions as even though it seems completely clear to them what is being asked and what they want you to do, if its not perfectly accurate you can so easily interpret  it as something else entirely. 

Favorites from Open Processing

These are my two favorite sketches from the website www.openprocessing.org:

1.   http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/6742

I particularly liked this one because of its interactive element, wherever you move the mouse to more layers of the sketch appear, but also because it looks as thought it has been hand drawn with pencil or fine black pen. I love the idea that a sketch can look so fluid and detailed and real but is actually generated using numbers and code.

2.    http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/12399

Possibly a lot of peoples favorite sketch as is definitely one of the most fun and playful on the website. I was extremely impressed with the amount of different interactive functions involved in this sketch from being able to choose the background to the style of the 'hair ball's' hair.

Reflection on first tutorial experiments..

Of the three experiments we tried (eating an oreo, drinking lemon juice and drinking colored milk) I think it was the lemon juice that I found most helpful in clarifying the idea of giving someone an unexpected experience.

The experiment was simple and clearly filled the project brief. The idea of combining the senses of smell, taste and sight yet keeping to so practical made it easy to use and understand. 

It was obvious straight away what the unexpected feature of the project was as after smelling the scent of a raspberry/sugary smell and seeing the bright red liquid, you expected to taste a sweet drink, instead find it to be very tart.
I personally was very surprised to find it so bitter and sour despite having watched other people in the group do the experiment first and knowing what to expect.

The experiment with the milk was a good way of seeing the different effects of playing on our senses had on each of us individually. When we were told to choose and drink any of the colors I was most inclined to drink the white tester as it looked the most natural of all of them. However, others found the colored testers more appealing as they liked the idea that certain colours meant the liquid was flavored etc. This was a good way of showing how different people are inclined to go about experiments different ways when given options.