Now comes part two of my Processing documentation for Momentary: an algorithmic animation of a cherry tree, drawn in a pen line style.

After working on the mountains, it came time to work on other components of the scroll.  I started playing around with different tree sketches that others had written in Processing.  The one I finally chose to work with was a drawing by Luca Ongaro.  In his animation, every time the viewer clicked their mouse, a new tree would be drawn with branches and blossoms.  It was a rather static piece that only varied in the frame between clicks.

Since the animation for momentary was about dynamically drawn content, it was up to me to deconstruct the code and reformat it so that each line was drawn methodically and over time.  Since I was interested in simulating line strokes, I rewrote the code so that all the intersection locations were saved in an array and then the points that composed the branches were drawn, point by point, in continuous strokes, with the cherry blossoms being after thoughts that bloomed on the branches as soon as the were given life by the artist.

I have several versions of these stroke drawings, each surveying slightly different purposes.  The trees used in the final piece did not have the cherry blossoms.  I included this version since I put in the effort to allow for a growing item in the piece which was never fully realized in the final piece.  There is no point in leaving it to simply languish on my hard drive without ever being realized in the vast world.

Thus, I post a sample and the code for you to use as you will.  Attribution and a link back would not be unappreciated.

Related posts:

1. Painted Mountains
2. Big Screens
3. UFO

Today I thought I would do some makeup documentation, as promised in my earlier post on Momentary

My first, and possibly the only worthwhile, contribution to Momentary (Let’s face it, Eyal was the brains and the computational brawn of this project) was my algorithmically drawn mountains.  You can see them as a constant theme throughout Momentary.  They derive from an earlier little experiment on perlin noise that I did back in my desperate attempt to get into Shiffman’s Nature of Code class.  We can only be so lucky, I suppose.

This version includes a fade function so that the mountains fade out in a water color-like look.

You can run the applet and download the code on the mountains webpage. (For some reason it is rather finicky as a web applet. I swear, it’s fine when run from Processing)

simulating mountains painted with watercolor.

Related posts:

1. Cherry Blossoms
2. Big Screens
3. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature…but it has to go

It occurs to me that, in the hectic events of the past month, I have let a great deal of documentation fall to the side.  On December 4th, ITP students, faculty, and followers gathered in IAC’s loby to stare in wonder at the company’s 12o by 12 foot screen and conceptual animations designed by students in Dan Shiffman’s Big Screens class.  One of these animations was Momentary, an animation by Eyal Ohana and myself.

Momentary is a short animated interpretation of Japanese scroll art developed in Processing and Adobe AfterEffects. The piece explores the momentary nature of the present and how nothing lasts, including the natural elements that are dynamically drawn and fade away.  Eyal was the mastermind behind the work and the AfterEffects magition who stitched it all together.  How he made some of the pieces I will never know.

My own contribution, relatively limited in comparison to Eyal’s work, was writing algorithmic scripts in Processing that dynamically drew mountains and trees to then be incorporated into the piece.  I will be including sample code for the mountains and trees on our webpage: http://www.momentarymotion.info.

The event itself was fantastic.  It occured on my last day of work for NBC.  Thus, not only was I celebrating the conclusion of one of my classes, and the resulting accomplishments, I was also celebrating the end of my work at an event with free wine in the back.  In fact, what most amused me all night occured after I had made an announcement welcoming everyone to the show.  I walked up to the bar and asked the gentleman behind it to be a bit more generous with the pour.  He objected, “But you are preforming in a bit.”  To which, I happily replied, “It’s all automated, fill her up.”

Oh, it was a wonderful event.

Related posts:

1. Painted Mountains
2. Cherry Blossoms
3. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature…but it has to go

Having graduated from mountains, I am now working on developing a tree drawing program that is equally smooth…it’s rather fragmented right now.

Related posts:

1. Painted Mountains
2. Cherry Blossoms
3. Big Screens