Overview
I set out this week to explore using springs and forces + step up my object-oriented programming game. I ended up doing neither thing. Instead, I started making roses with polar coordinates and wound up getting sucked in to a game of “what does this do?” In the process, I wound up tinkering my way to a better understanding of the relationship between polar and cartesian coordinates + got a better sense of how some interesting visuals that could be incorporated into audiovisual performance can be created.
Experiments
Random Color
In my first experiment, I gave each point in the sketch random RGB values, drawn over and over in the draw() loop.
Random “K” Value
In my next experiment, I continued to use random colors while I manually varied the range of the k constant multiplied to the angle value inside of the r = 150 * cos(k*a) expression. Notice how the type of pattern changes when the k value is allowed to float rather than be an integer.
Scale
Next, I added an iteration through the scale multiple in the same r = 150 * cos(k*a) expression, now changing 150 to the variable “sca.” I played with different thresholds after which “sca” was reset, leading to different animations.
Multiply K
Next I changed the way that the “k” value was updated in the draw() loop. I multiply k by a random integer between 0 and 10, resulting in some interesting shapes.
More Experiments
I did a number of other experiments on the parameters in the sketch, captured below in rapid-fire, ultimately leading to the sketches linked at the top. Even after “finalizing” those sketches, I continued to tinker with different parameters, exploring how the relationship between variables could affect the ultimate animation. I wonder whether if instead of resetting values in my conditional statements at the end of the draw loop I decremented those variables (like sca, red1, green1, blue1) I would get a smoother animation. I’ll try that in the next experiment!