Link to Project:
- Transparent flower: p5.js Web Editor | Project A (p5js.org)
- Hollow Stroke: p5.js Web Editor | Project A_Hollow stroke (p5js.org)
- Solid Mold: p5.js Web Editor | Project A_Solid mold (p5js.org)
Work Process
Ideation:
I first did some research and found an interesting phenomenon, which is about the subtle growth of molds. I drew inspiration from the video “The Rise of Mold“, from Beauty of Science. The color changes of molds and the gradual growth of molds fascinate me and I wanted to develop a sketch based on this visualization. Lizan Freijsen’s mold carpets also inspire me aesthetically and lead me to develop a sketch (below): A colorful mold canvas and with molds growing.
To realize the sketch, I first developed an object of particles that has multiple points (30 in the end) that are constantly moving outwards. Then I created a particle system (fungi object) that wraps all the particles and draws the outline of each circle with “curveVertex”.
The speed of different vertexes is randomized to create the curvy, irregular shape of each “mold”.
I also added a little bit of random sine value to each vertex, so that the speed of each vertex is not constant, and ultimately makes the shape changes over time.
Then I played with color to generate different visual outcomes, which ultimately ends up with three distinctive aesthetics: transparent color penciled flower-like patterns, mold with hollow stroke, and mold with solid colors.
Reflections
If I were to have more time to work on the project, I hope to further deal with the following issues:
- each generation of mold is layered behind the former generated ones, which doesn’t really give the expected visual outcomes if the background is not taken out in the draw function. It would be better if the layer sequence is made on top of the former one.
- The logic of the generation of each “mold” is actually not right. Although each “mold” consists of 5 generations of patterns, all the generations are actually put in a single array of patterns (fungi array). This makes it impossible to make holistic adjustments for each mold (e.g. making sure that the later generated pattern is smaller than the former ones). I think it should be manageable when adding another object that is in charge of all the fungi objects (like how the fungi object creates unity for the particles).
- I initially wanted to create forces between the “molds” so that the molds can “squeeze” the other molds and create a more realistic and dynamic visual. However, because of time and skill, I don’t know how to create the force.
Work Outcome:
