homework 9

a) Using one of the three techniques for fast particle particle interaction, please try to make an interesting interaction (not composition) out of them. For example, we’ve seen how particle-particle interaction and vector fields can be used, also, we’ve seen how particle particle interaction can be combined with live or prerecorded video. Make something organic and playful. No particles as circles, please !!!

b) try using the spring system (springs and springs with internal forces, etc) and combine them with something else we’ve covered, like vector fields, attraction and repulsion, etc. Can you make something really interesting combing springs and other forces?

c) Take a moment and play with soda constructor.

http://sodaplay.com/

Save a good model and include a screenshot on your homework page. there is info here:

http://sodaplay.dailyforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=284

http://sodadome.com/tutorials/

ie,

http://sodadome.com/tutorials/sodaconstructor/springs_and_masses/

d) now, with that inspiration (hopefully) use the spring example with muscles (ie, springs that have their rest length changing) to make a creature that does something interesting.

+ advanced +

e) can you make flocking (or interacting) spring based creatures? I got inspired by the spring code to do something sort of ambitious. Eventually this became my final project. I took the example code where several particless are connected to a central fixed particle by springs. I adapted it by adding springs in between each particle. I had to play with the forces a bit to keep everything balanced. The system kept exploding until I adjusted the damping value to the right amount. After creating the wheel, I made triangles between all the "spokes" of the wheel. I then added a circle in front of the triangles to give the illusion that the triangles were small rounded bins. I created a class for the bins and gave it a boolean so I can flip the color on and off.

The end idea is to have a music sequencer game where blocks fly out from a center point in random directions. The player can effect the blocks with the mouse or with a swipe on a mobile device. The object is to get the blocks into the bins in certain sequences. I figured out how to get the wheel playing sounds and I have made the tempo adjustable, but I need to do some work on the blocks. Currently, I have a little dot that flies out from the center in a random direction, but each subsequent time it repeats that direction. Also, I am having trouble getting the speed that the particle moves to reset.

Eventually, I want to have the game compiled for Android. I had trouble installing oF for Android. I need to upload a screen shot to the forums and see if I can get some help to get it working.



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