04 – Page 2 – Interactivity and Computation • 60-212

qazxsw-Creature

The idea is to allow users to create their own “pet”. I want users to be able to control the look of their creatures and interact with them.

The species is called “DIVOC”. The size of each individual is controlled by the amount of time the user presses their key. The position of each DIVOC is the same as the position of the mouse. When created, each DIVOC can be dragged around by clicking on the particles around their body. The eyes of DIVOCs also follow the mouse.

The project is created using Matter.js. I spend most of my time learning it, and I think my project could be further improved if I am more familiar with its library.

Koke_Cacao-Creature

Title: Creature (Spider-man: Yes. spider-man, not a spiderman)

The version with only 3 rect
The version that is more elaborative

Originally I wanted to make a worm using the joints that are shown today in class. Because the act of showing made the project less interesting, I decided to add more to it using some PID controls that I have not implemented myself before. But suddenly, the spider-like movement comes into my mind and I have long admired to reproduce this effect. So here it is. The problem is more non-trivial than I thought. It takes some hack. Rotation of the spider legs is harder to implement, so I did some tricks to fake it.

Some sketch on paper — Some sketches on paper

04-Creature

My original idea for this piece was to create a single mega-creature made out of a large quantity of identical “cells”, much in the way that mold grows, where each individual cell functions mostly independently of its neighbors but end up in large groups due to each new cell growing directly next to its “parent”. I followed this idea directly into my final piece, where I tried to describe a three dimensional “mold” through its two dimensional growth and the intensity of the mold at any given point. The relationship that the user has to my monster is one of a cultivator and artist. I tried to create the type of control that a landscaper would have over their trees – not complete control but still a high level of ability to shape the growth of their plant. One can create a mold that grows in only a few directions, one with many interweaving branches or a very dense and “tall” one. I believe that I was generally successful in what I set out to achieve, but an issue that I was not able to solve are the random very intense bits of mold that sometimes appear along the edge of the screen. I also wish that the mold grew in a more random/independent of mouse way.

The name of my mold is quadrata cellularum.

Dr. Mario – Creature

This is my curious but cautious bug, “Lord Scuttles the third of Celastria”. This little guy is very curious about the red dot you’re dragging across the screen, similar to a cat trying to catch a laser pointer. However, due to his parents overprotective nature while raising him as a prince, he is very fearful of anything unknown that comes towards him causing him to run away shaking. To us he may seem like a simple pet, but back in Celastria he is a big name in the royal family and has appeared in the people’s favourite prince magazine every year since his success in developing a truce between the their kingdom and the honey badgers that frequently torment them, establishing mutual protection and sharing of resources.

I really liked how my project turned out, a very simple idea but it has a lot of personality to it. I tried adding microphone inputs where the sound would increase the range at which Lord Scuttles stays away from the mouse, but no matter what I tried my browser never wanted to pick up an input from my mic. Originally, the bug would just move towards the mouse and run away from it if you came towards it, but I thought it didn’t have any emotions to it, so I added changing colour and shaking to make it seem like he was traumatised by the approach of your mouse. Overall, I’m a fan of Lord Scuttles the third of Celastria, I think he came out great.