Programming for Creativity - Pong presentation

As planned we came in today early in the morning and did the final touches on the program. I decided to do what I could to spice up the title page to create a Pong ball in motion with random colors provided you held the space bar only unfortunately as there were issues with the loop but I managed to create something physically attractive at first glance in my personal opinion. Then we worked together with Daniel to add more features ranging from, increasing speed with every collision, and making it completely two player where one player used the up and down keys on the keyboard and the other used the mouse for left and right. The scores were also printed to count the amount of bounces and was made to state the winner based on who let the ball out of the screen. I was a bit nervous at first but was glad there were others there with me as I spoke while they demonstrated and I believe that it went pretty well as we had many features and it had good presentation features. One of the best presentations yet!

Programming for Creatvity - Pong!

Seeing as we've done everything thus far individually it only makes sense that it was time to combine what we've learned so far together with others in a group. So I formed a group with Daniel Lee and Jack Yang and on another wave of inspiration we managed to get going quickly and spend the day well. We got the paddles moving, we got the ball moving and we even got our own start page to function properly. We did the base of what we needed to do for Pong so we figured after a hard day's work it was time to head home, come back early in the morning and finish up the final touches.

Programming for Creativity - Inspiration??

Well, today came to me as quite a surprise. Exercise 21 had stumped me completely, and I was hoping I'd find a random source of inspiration and well I did. I got a random spark and zoomed through Exercise 21, finishing it and moving onto a new day of activities. Quite the achievement for me personally even if I did have to leave out Exercise 14. I tried my hand at creating a Paint Program too but I had no idea where to start so that's another one for revisiting.

Programming for Creativity Returns!

Well I got a good relaxing weekend, but it's time to get back into it. I decided to take this day to really focus on this thing and I did good in my opinion. I managed to finish everything but the last exercise from day one, Exercise 21 - Create a grid of squares (each colored randomly) using a for loop. And obviously, I still had a long ways to go on exercise 14. But as for day one it was pretty much done.
I presented my program even though it wasn't too complete as the only thing i managed to add in the morning unfortunately was the motion of a target to shoot at and the gun to move according the the x and y coordinates of the mouse only.

Programming for Creativity - Shooting Game

I created the gun from scratch and pure programming and plotting coordinates. This was something I was quite proud of personally. I did have to stay up later than usual but I managed to finish the gun and even make it shoot via mouse clicking. Even though I had to stay up later than usual I finished what I aimed to for the day. My next plan is to come into uni early and make something happen, fingers crossed.

No Class!

No class! =)

Programming for Creativity - Catch Up

With a bit more programming know how, I made the decision to do Thursday's work on another day and backtrack a bit to day one. This time around I managed to speed through most of it until I had to come into a road bump. Exercise 14 - Implement a four-letter word generator. I thought I was doing good but this one kept me staring at the screen for a time too long. I went around seeing who knew how to do it but came empty handed. I searched the books and the net but it was no help and the best thing I can do now was come back another day and hope I get a random source of inspiration on it. By the day's end what we had to do was create a gun shooting gallery style game. This was something I personally sought out to do at home even at decided to use the next few days for just that across the weekend as well

Programming for Creativity - Art?

So we got another tough task to do unfortunately, Using computational methods our task today was to recreate artworks. Luckily, having done art history last year, I already had ideas on which artworks to do in my head immediately, and my choices were replicating Jackson Pollock's action paintings and Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Can. I managed to learn how to input words today and understand coordinates. I also managed to understand the random function quite a bit and I was ready to present today. But only when I got up there did I realize that I went about the wrong way as I was told that having about 1600 lines of repeated functions wasn't the best idea and I completely agree so this is something I have to come back to fix again on another day I guess.

Programming for Creativity

Today was my first introduction into proper programming. I didn't know what to expect but I could help but feel excited as to what was coming around the corner. And as usual, we were introduced to yet another new program to learn and understand, Processing. This program was done through the use of inputting commands for the program to run and admittedly it was a confusing day. Personally I felt like I was falling behind having not done much today and I didn't really get anything at all, but hopefully It'll get better as the days go on.

Wearable Interface - Last Day!

Unfortunately, It's my last day to work on this now.. And the time has obviously finally come but luckily for me, I've actually made huge progress on this thing. I've finished the patch and I've combined it using chromakey, key object, jitter grab, and a whole lot of toggles and bangs and the sort. And this is all shown in the image above. It's pretty simple but I did manage to understand it completely. I've left comment boxes across the whole thing too just in case to make the whole process that much more easier and I decided to keep it neat with straight lines connecting each function to each function. I've tested it out and the hat and the glove work together fine and are completely synchronized with the web-cam and the video. So I managed to cross fade me into the pokemon video bit by bit with a light cross fade into a flickering effect and lastly into a full transition from live feed into the pokemon video completely. Admittedly I really do feel accomplished to actually understand something pretty much completely. I've finished the patch, got the wearable interface garment, went out to buy a new journal, made a reflective statement, have video documentation and finishing up the blog now. But the one thing I admittedly didn't really do is any real research as this was all done through the Max/Msp tutorial and my own knowledge pretty much. That's the unfortunate part but I did manage to learn a lot despite the fact that I had to learn from many many trial and errors. But I guess that's it for me from this holiday and back to university.

Wearable Interface - Fall Back

So I've finally decided and being aware of the time like I am I know that I won't be able to just finish with something big like I'm hoping to. Fortunately enough I can still go with the pokemon theme but instead of having a large range of features like a flashing screen, blurring effect and subtitles my aim is to keep it nice and simple and ensure I finish. I'm quite disappointed that I can't come out with what I really want but I guess I don't really have much choice at this point. So I spent the day properly gluing on what I need to with the hot glue gun. After rummaging through the house I found some unused copper wiring and I attached that to the glove wires running through the thumb and index finger on each glove via the hot glue gun. Using the same hot glue gun I also attached the very same Hacked USB device that I hacked before the Easter weekends. I'm just glad I decided to keep it personally. So the plan is now that the tip of the copper wiring on the thumb and index will touch the tips of the wire on the hat. So obviously I have to use to key object function to get the effect working. I'm confident that this will work so I'm definitely going to have to work hard.

Wearable Interface - Issues

So it's actually Friday now and I haven't managed to do enough. The main issue is that I'm going back and forth through my ideas and patches and I just can't seem to mix anything together. I'm thinking big but right now I'm thinking that thinking big is the only thing i need to focus on. I've come across too many issues in the course of this project and I'm really doubting if I can actually get anything done but, that only just means that my only option is having to put even more time and effort into this. I've learned that I can't just fuse what patches I want into a single large patch if I don't actually understand how anything works. I can understand each patch separately however from the key object, to the chromakey, to using subtitles but it's not going to be easy I'm thinking. So right now what I have to decide is that whether I should stick with something simple or aim big because, with the time I've already consumed I'm unsure if I can just do it with the time I have. I will keep the same pokemon theme with the same old styled pokemon video that I found that actually dates back to my primary years. I will also keep the live feed but for now I have to spend a lot of time thinking on this.

Wearable Interface Assignment - Dilema

So after my little shopping session I did manage to decide on and find stuff I can use. So I ended up buying not only one but two gloves for those who are left handed and right handed for convenience sake and a hat. All trademark items in pokemon that the main character used so why not? So now I just have to come up with an idea on how to use them with Max/Msp and I also managed to find webcam which is a good backup just in case.

Intro Into Week Two

So unfortunately, it's second week already and D-day is drawing ever closer for me. Now I've had little time over the weekends to do anything but I finally managed to however make my first patch. The only thing that I've managed to do on it is my very first patch from what I've learned of the first week. Basically what I've done is to understand how the Quicktime videos work and how live feed works. So I've managed to get them playing both at the same time. Pretty simple I know but I've never had much practice at this kinda stuff unfortunately. Next for me is to think of what I can do with the two videos. I've learned about chromakeying and I've learned about the simple stuff like blurring videos and colors. Now the next part is to go shopping now that I've finally decided on what to do. I've decided to stick with an old favorite. The good old Pokemon theme! I've got a good pokemon video. I've got a webcam only on the laptop though. So obviously what I need is the garments, and another webcam just in case. I just hope it won't be too costly. So I'm going to head out pretty much after this and have a little look around.

Wearable Interface Assignment - First Week

Admittedly, it's pretty late in the night. Basically got home late from a little something that I'll be posting up once I finish all of my events blog. They'll have their own little section that you'll end up finding about once the time comes. So until then I guess everyone sits tight.
So I've been spending quite a lot of my spare time trying to understand anything and I've pretty much come up with zero. All I've managed to do is come up with concepts and later disregard them after realizing coming faults and difficulties with each concept and idea. I tried my hand at a little programming from program but it just doesn't seem to work for me. Max/Msp is definitely a lot harder than I expected and I've spend almost all if not actually all of my time just reading tutorials and trying them out. I really hope that I actually get an end result by the end of this.. Once again, for now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed I guess and work that much more harder to get any results.

Wearable Interfeact Assignment

Well I'm hoping I managed to use the Easter weekend to get out most of the relaxing so I'm able to focus on the task at hand. My first Monday and first real week of the holiday, basically my plan here to is get ready for the day, get some food into the stomach and research and learn about what I need from the net and Max/Msp.

Good Friday!!!!!

So finally what I've been waiting for Good Friday. Finally I get chance to take a break from University even though I only just started. Been kept pretty busy from time to time I got to admit but all in all, a really good start to the year. I've been introduced to a variety of workshops where I get to work with soldering equipment, drills and the good old heavy stuff, not something I've spent a whole lot of time with in my lifetime but I definitely would love to give it a try now that I finally get a chance. With each new day this course has only intrigued me increasingly more with new programs and new projects to work on. I'm really hoping that it'll stay this way or better yet, demonstrate new ways to surprise me furthermore.
We did spend this week wrapping our heads around my holiday assignment however, The wearable art interface. I've got to admit I got only concepts but truthfully I have no idea how to really do it. Lets hope I get my brain working across the break.