📌 Assignment
Using the random walker as a model, develop a sketch that experiments with motion.
✍️ Process
For this week’s assignment, I began by just playing around with the random walker base code that we were given.
I tried changing the stroke weights, stroke colors, and the step amount. This was all well and good but I decided I wanted to create a sketch that emulated something found in the real world. I recalled having watched this video (which I think is just a rip-off of a coding train video) for a project last semester and wanted to attempt to create a tree generator using random walkers.
I decided to utilize randomGuassian to create a random walker that will most often increment its y position but will occasionally trail left or right. (shown above)
I then played around with mapping the standard deviation to the y-value so that it was more likely for the line to travel left or right as it traveled up the ‘tree.’
Here, I got kind of stuck on my tree idea. I was having trouble figuring out the best way to generate realistic branches. The problem with the random walkers I was using is that they had an equal chance of going left as going right, meaning they double back on themselves and created a generally straight line with a few curves. I needed to create some sort of variable that allowed the stroke to favor one direction or the other.
I decided, in the interest of time, to shift ideas. In some of my earlier tests I realized that the wobbly vertical lines looked a lot like grass or wheat stalks. So, I limited the height of the lines and added a grower object so that multiple stalks could be growing at one time. The amount of objects is limited to 10 just because I felt that if it was too high, you kind of missed out on the fun generation action.
🤭 Final Project
My main constraint with this project was time. I started it with not enough time to fully build out the tree grower and had to settle for a quicker simulation. I do, however, feel I have a strong grasp of how random walkers function and how randomGaussian works. Using the growers as an array of objects was also a good refresher for how that process works in p5.
Future Developments
- User control – sliders to manipulate the height/amount of grass
- Wind simulation – wind that blows the grass left or right in a realistic manner
- Tree grower – finish the tree grower and find a way to make it look realistic
Questions
I had a small issue with randomGuassian: If I set the mean value to 10 and used 9 and 11 as the two limits for switching between movement directions, the wheat favors growing right.
Thus, I had to use the limits of 8 and 11, which doesn’t seem to make sense, but this makes the wheat grow equally left and right. Why would this be happening? Also, sorry if this makes no sense!