Peer Review
After reviewing all my classmates’ portfolios, many stood out me. For this peer review however, I am going to focus on Nadyah’s week 6 piece. This work jumped out to me as I am big fan of arcade games, especially the game OutRun, which was undoubtedly inspired by Pole Position. I find this piece to interesting because of its simple use of color swapping to create such a convincing animation. Through the notes and rough sketches of the program, you can clearly see each aspect of the result shine through. I think that it is through this visualization that they we’re able to create such a compelling work.
Link: https://sites.google.com/view/nadyahahmed/assingments/week-6
Project Ideas
· Music Visualizer
o Create an audio visualizer akin to the 3DO, Sega Saturn, and Sony PlayStation.
o Could have multiple modes that are toggleable via user interaction.
o Color could configurable via user input.
o Could allow for custom song selection / uploads or via pre-configured list.
o Pros:
1. Will produce a very interesting visual effect
2. Will allow me to dive into some older hardware and visualization techniques
o Cons:
1. Will need to learn a lot of skills regarding audio processing and making graphics change in response
2. User interaction feels trivial.
3. Seems like it would be harder to cover all concepts we touched on in the course.
· dan-ball Stick Fighter style browser game
o Create a reimagined version of Dan Ball’s Stick Ranger.
o This game was one of the first I played on the internet and was highly influential to me and my work.
o The goal would be to create a simple “auto battler” with customizable party.
o Would probably consist of only a few basic levels.
o Pros:
1. Will be a very interactive experience
2. Get to work with some unfamiliar game development techniques
o Cons:
1. There are many moving parts and pieces that would be better suited for a proper game engine.
2. Will require a lot of external sprite creation unrelated to the programming aspect.
· Desert sand feels warm at night interactive experience.
o Create an interactive visualizer for the album “Dream Desert”
o Could introduce variance to visualizer each song / segment.
o Have way for user to interact / navigate to difference points in the album.
o Implement simple animation via Color Cycling
o Pros:
1. Get to work with a piece that is very influential to me
2. Get to work with a technology that I have wanted to work with for a long time.
3. Have a clear plan for how to incorporate principles learned in the course.
o Cons:
1. Working with unfamiliar technology could present unforeseen roadblocks
2. Incorporating interactivity will require some creative thinking
I plan on working with the “Dream Desert” piece as I feel I have the clearest vision for this project, and I have been wanting to dive into color cycling for some time now. I also feel a deep connection to this album and want to transform it into an immersive experience that I think captures the aura of its sound. The goal is to create a doorway into the “Dream Desert”
Project Outline
I have divided the project up into logical sections and for each describe the techniques that I expect I will need to use for each section. For areas where I am lacking in knowhow, I indicate this clearly.
· Overview
o 512 x 512 canvas
o Aiming for a pixelated look, will need to look into disabling anti-aliasing.
o Will need to look into playing audio within a processing sketch.
o Tie everything to an internal clock that corresponds to current position in the album.
· Pyramid
o Construct this programmatically, I’m thinking either via an array of points, a data structure, or a recursive function. I will definitely need to noodle on this one a bit and research different approaches.
o Paying attention to translucency will be vital here.
· Sand
o I plan to animate the sand using the Color Cycling technique described above,
o I will need to manually create the base image as well as the color palette.
o The goal is to show the sand shifting like waves in an ocean.
o I will need to research some approaches to implementing the Color Cycling in a modern context as this is a pretty legacy technique.
· Beacon
o I also intend to use the Color Cycling Technique here to animate pulses of the beacon.
· Sky / Stars
o The plan is to have the sky appear to rotate as the album progresses to show the passing of time.
o Will want this to be tied directly to the current position within the album.
· Moon
o Similar to the sky, the plan is to have the moon move in accordance to position in the album.
o Will move at its own rate independent of the sky.
o Want to allow user to click and drag moon to seek through the album.
· Text
o Will probably pre generate this asset
o Need to find suitable pixelated font to create image
o If generate real time, need to import font to the sketch
Sketch
