Link to the sketch: https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1476237
My project is a clock that measures time through the petal-like formation of a cosine polar equation. The highest petals count the hours, the medium count the injures, and the small ones are the seconds. Additionally, the background changes overtime, from a right blue during the day to a deep purple at night. I had somewhat been introduced to the concept of polar equations back during the assignment to make a spiral in p5.js, and it really opened my eyes to how useful and interesting they could be. I had learned about them in my calculus class in high school, but seeing them used in this creative coding environment led me to see them in a new light.
I found using these polar equations to be surprisingly difficult, as I for all three shapes I had to modify the start and end angles in order to make the radius of petals start at zero and end at zero. I couldn’t really find a consistent pattern so I had to eyeball it, but I think it works pretty well and is pretty accurate and legible. One thing that I definitely think can be improved about this piece is its presentation. I did spend a lot of time on it, but right now it’s pretty plain. I did had ideas to implement different “themes” depending on the time of day, like it would look neon at night and more like a regular flower strong the day, but I didn’t get to chance to really flesh this out. I definitely do want to go back and implement those ideas.
This is what the clock looks like during the day:
and this is it at night:
Here are my sketches:
