Creative Coding, Project Three, Blog Seven

After presenting my application as it was I have since stripped it back in order to rework it and improve it so it is even more fun and interactive.

I decided to strip it back so it was easier to work with and so I can navigate my way through my code easier when adding more interactive functions. In terms of what I stripped back, I have removed the different 'levels' and colours that went with that. This made my application look like this...

Stripped back version of my application.

Here is the stripped back version...

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/63594

I also had a go at stripping away the background as well which created a pretty cool effect, creating the ability to create some cool looking patterns...

One of the cool looking patterns I was able to create.

                                     

Another cool looking pattern

I could possibly have this as a feature in my application as it is quite a fun interaction to play with.

I then reapplied the background and tried some other types of interactions...

I looked at having the layers of shapes separate along the x-axis as the cursor speed increased, this was the result...

I don't think this was particularly successful, it's not greatly fun or awesome.

I then experimented with decreasing the size of the shapes, increasing the size of the snowflake and decreasing the number of snowflakes, I then added a flashing effect to them so the overlapping shapes spread out quickly then go back to being stacked on top of each other...

...As seen here...

This created quite a cool effect however it was quite rough on the eyes, however it could be a cool effect that results from interaction.

In order to make each shape layer stagger as the flash out, I attempted to use an array...

 In the end I found that I couldn't make the array work particularly efficiently as I still had to write out each different value (diffgap[0], diffgap[1]...etc...) and in the end I couldn't get it to work. However since then I have learnt how to make it efficient by using a loop to create the different values using a variable to replace the number in the brackets (diffgap[variable]) and just increasing by a given increment using the loop.

I also looked at decreasing the size and increasing the number of snowflakes...

I further added to this by making it that wherever the mouse position is any snowflake within a given radius disappears as shown in the images below...

I think this feature is quite interactive and with a bit more to it it could be pretty fun too so I think I will keep experimenting with it.

I have also had another look at some applications on open processing and found this one....

This starts the way it is on the left, then when you press a letter on the keyboard it forms into that letter. I think this could be a cool idea, maybe in mine if the mouse is clicked the snowflakes could combine together to make different formations.