Assignment: Build a particle system
Idea
This week, I wanted to make a system of blobs that looked like bacteria moving around the screen. I envisioned a mix of different bacteria with a bunch of common characteristics, but different colors and perhaps shapes or other features. I wanted to use the “extend” functionality of JavaScript to work with inheritance and give these different bacteria unique differences.
To do this, I started by modifying Shiffman’s Coding Challenge to create a blob with bacteria-like qualities, using things like p5 Vectors to get it ready for object-izing. Code here
I knew I would need to create a blob class that I called “Blobject,” which would have its aesthetic characteristics in a “display ()” function and other characteristics, like its ability to update/move, in other functions.
I also knew that I would need to pay special attention to where the blobject started on the screen, likely through its Vertex coordinates.
Finally, I would need to extend the Blobject to create another object (I called it a “Bluebject”) that could get added to the sketch from a “Blobject System” object.
Along the way, however, I got tripped up trying to make all of these things happen. I started with existing code examples and began modifying — but I may have been better off trying to write functions from the ground up, as I think I spent more time trying to backwards engineer code that wasn’t perfectly suited for my use case.
I feel like I’m close, but I have to cut myself off right now for the sake of not staying up all night. In my eventual- particle system sketch, I have this:
I need a bit more time to finish debugging, but I’m going to make it happen!