For my assignment, I created a ball that looks like it’s refracting light. There is a leader that is a large white ball that moves along flow lines. The rest of the vehicles also move along the flow but have randomized colors and draw a line from their position to the leader’s position. There is also an afterimage on everything to make it a bit more lively. Here is the sketch:
The code is taken from the flow line base we looked at in class, which I then modified slightly. I gave it a higher resolution of 10, to make everything move a bit more erratically. I also slightly modified the edges function for the vehicles, so that the vehicles won’t end up clumping into one of two flows. Instead, when reaching the end, they start at a random y position on the right of the screen, so the vehicles are more spread out.
The line effect I created was a pure accident. I was doing a lot of experimenting with code when I accidentally made an error with an algorithm. Originally, the idea I had was to have a really high-resolution flow field because it created a really cool effect, and then have lines that would run through the flow lines, and perhaps pulse a bit before disappearing. The lines I was trying to make were instead appearing around (0,0), but it made a really interesting-looking effect that made me decide to pivot my idea. The other issue with my original idea was that having the flow resolution be 1 made the program extremely slow, so I don’t think it would have worked properly and froze a lot.
Probably the only code of note is the parts that create the actual visuals, since in the back most of it is not changed:
show() {
if (this.isLeader) { //leader is a white ball with a "glow"
noStroke();
fill(200, 50);
circle(this.position.x, this.position.y, 50);
fill(255);
circle(this.position.x, this.position.y, 30);
} else { //rest follow flow lines, but also draw a line from its position to leader
stroke(this.red, this.blue, this.green, 150);
strokeWeight(5);
line(
this.position.x,
this.position.y,
leader.position.x,
leader.position.y
);
}
}
}
I think there could be more to improve visually, but I couldn’t figure out what else to add. Perhaps adding a simple particle system on the leader to make it more visually interesting could be interesting. I also had some trouble with the color blending. I can’t tell if they are blending or not, and I experimented with different blend modes but they all looked much worse. I also tried to put a glow on the leader but it doesn’t look too realistic, I’d have to research on how to make it look better. It probably would be a good idea to add some interaction too, to make it less static.