TITLE
🌆Day to Night🌃
DESCRIPTION
🌆Day to Night🌃 presents two similar objects growing in two different places. The two objects represent me and my twin sister at the time that I studied away in New York and my younger sister was in Beijing.
INSPIRATION
The first time I used noise function and found out it can be a very ‘lifelike’ function. The randomness of the function is very like the randomness of human relationship. Also, we used nature of code to present many nature phenomenon like birds flying, star shining, etc, so I’m also curious about how it turns out if I use it to express the relationship between people.
So I decided to tell a story using coding. And instead of going for narrative, I tried abstract storytelling for the first time in my life.
RESEARCH& PROCESS
After researching online, browsing the Nature of Code book and talked to Moon, I decided to use the creature plant to represent me and my sister.
Professor Moon said either go for complicated background with simple objects or go for simple background with complicated protagonist.
1⃣️ So firstly, I went for the former and tried with simple objects. However, I found that if the background is too complicated (in terms of the color), there will be some limitation to do with the objects. I also tried using frameRate to control the background color and realized that the changing is not that organic so I then gave up working on the background and went for changing the objects.
2⃣️ The I decided make the background as simple as possible (just black and white) so that I have more possibilities to work on the objects. For the objects, Moon, mentioned X-Ray flower and it looks really like flow field, which is something I want to play with. So I used the flow field to mimic twin flowers.
3⃣️ And then I played with different color and size of the flower to add more variety to it. I tried with different brightness for the flower and found out that if I want the changing of the color to be more obvious, the changing of the brightness must be very big, which turned out the petals of the flower became black at certain points. So I went for changing saturation according to the time.
3⃣️I tried with background switch when the flower change, however, it’s not very comfortable to look at.
4⃣️After the presentation and according to the feedback, I realized there are not much interaction between the two flowers. So I added a a mouse interaction at a certain time. Even though it destroys the flower, however, I feel like this add more changing to the objects.
CODE
1⃣️ Control the flower using frameCount
2⃣️ Two different kinds of flower
POTENTIANLS
I think I still have lots of space to improve for the project. First of all, add some interaction between two objects to make the story clearer. And also can make the two objects have slightly difference in terms of the shape and behavior, because according to CiCi: ‘your sister and you are not exactly same’. Adding a little difference can be a small surprise in terms of the design.
(Surprisedly, since I used different background [b n w] and played with the saturation, even though the two flowers are exactly the same, the background make them looks differently)
For the presentation form, I think it can also be printed as a book, because in this way, people can see the differences between two flowers and different patterns. However, in this way, people might see the kinetic movement of the flower.
CONCLUSION
I’m satisfied with the visual part of the project, it is very satisfied to watch. However, for the storytelling part and the interaction part (two objects interaction), it can be improved a lot. Even though I went for abstract, the relationship of this two flowers can be conveyed clearer to the audience.
Also for the presentation, I feel like it would be better if I can show the making process to the audience instead of just showing the work. I feel like showing the failure steps can also help them understand your project better.
This is my first time use coding to tell a story and this is also my first time to do experimental storytelling. Experimental storytelling is always something I want to try and never find a chance or a story I feel like can be told through experimental storytelling. Interestingly, by using the abstractness of coding, i made my first try. Although there’s many space for me to improve the final result, it is a nice start and I develop a little confidence in experimental storytelling.
Before this class, I haven’t touched coding for one and a half year. During learning nature of code this semester, I start picking up my coding skills gradually and recall the programming logic. Thanks to the step by step coding in-class.
REFERENCE
Thanks to Professor JH Moon and Leon Eckert for helping me with the project.❤️