Coding Assignment – Week #2 – The Buzzing Bee

For this weeks assignment, I decided to go with a bee’s movement as I was inspired by the flies around campus annoying me around the palms but wanted something a bit cuter. I wanted to make sure the bee’s movement wasn’t smooth and a bit static. I also want to incorporate images in my second IM. project so learnt how to handle images. The following is a bee video of the inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_pQ3DyzHg

This was my initial code but it made the bee images simply move smoothly.

class Bee 
{
  constructor(x, y) 
  {
    this.position = createVector(x, y);
    this.velocity = createVector(random(-0.65, 0.5), random(-0.75, 0.5));
    this.acceleration = createVector(0, 0);  
    this.img = bee_img;
  }

  update() {
    
    this.acceleration.limit(3);

    // Update velocity and position based on acceleration
    this.velocity.add(this.acceleration);
    this.position.add(this.velocity);

I added some additional behaviours and randomness, alongside a ‘slow down’ vector to have the acceleration decrease whenever the acceleration was a bit too high.

constructor(x, y) 
  {
    this.position = createVector(x, y);                  //positioning of the bee
    this.velocity = createVector(random(-0.65, 0.5), random(-0.75, 0.5));          
    this.acceleration = createVector(0, 0);               // start acceleration 0
    this.personality = random(-0.1, 0.25);       // random multiplier
    this.slow_down = createVector(-1.5,-1);      //for when the bee comes close to y-borders
    this.img = bee_img;
  } 

  update() 
  {
    let randomForce = createVector(random(-5, 5), random(-5, 5));//even chnace
    randomForce.mult(this.personality);
    this.acceleration.add(randomForce);
    
    this.acceleration.limit(3);        //no faster than 3

    this.velocity.add(this.acceleration);
    this.position.add(this.velocity);

    this.velocity.mult(random(0.55,0.65));      //slow down as a way of showing air       resistance
    
    
    if (this.position.x > width) this.position.x = 0;
    if (this.position.x < 0) this.position.x = width;
    if (this.position.y > 350) this.position.y -= 150;      //if hits top/bottom borders
    if (this.position.y < 50) this.position.y += 150;
    if(this.acceleration.x > 2.6)                            //if acceleration too high
    {
      this.acceleration.add(this.slow_down);
    }
  }

 

I also had some problems when it came to uploading images from the URL so I learnt how to get it from GitHub making sure it would always work on any device.

What would I do differently next time?

I want to try and add some more insects and items in nature that attract bees like honey so that there is a chance the bee will buzz around a certain area.
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My final code

https://editor.p5js.org/kk4827/full/1Mx0g_u9n