![[OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice](https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2017/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/stop-banner.png)
My final project will mostly be focusing on animation, so my primary focus for this weeks looking outwards was aesthetic inspiration, as well as interesting ways of generating animations.
So, while doing research, my largest aesthetic inspiration came from the game Limbo, created by the video game studio Playdead in 2010.
Limbo is characterized by this sort of disturbing, nightmare-scape. I’d like to incorporate this same beautiful, nightmare mood into my own work.
I think what I admire most about Limbo is its capability to create something so disturbing, but so breathtakingly beautiful at the same time.
After that, I was trying to think of the animation from a coding sense. That’s when I stumbled upon L-systems, actually mentioned in another student’s looking outwards from a few weeks ago. After some initial research, the subject sounded super interesting, and I went looking for artists using L-systems in their animations.
William Chyr came up pretty fast when I googled L-systems, and his work seemed to adequately demonstrate to me the potential of L-systems in regards to visual aesthetic.
The above image is probably the simplest of Chyr’s pieces, but also really concisely describes the visuals of L-systems. What interested me more than just his still images, though, were the animations that developed over time.
I think that seeing the program rapidly increase in complexity to form a full image is much more impactful or interesting. It captures the viewers wonder, as he or she watches a line begin to split and branch out without any idea of what the final shape will be.