Simulation

I started with following a Coding Train video Ellen recommended I try back in week #3. After I got everything to work and felt I had a good enough understanding of how it all works, I started playing around with the concept of springs.

I tried to work intuitively — without a specific goal, but slowly tuning the code step by step to reach something that feels representative of how I feel. Almost ironically, my first draft ended up looking like Francis Bacon and Jackson Pollock had a baby on Friday the 13th. Not not representative of how I feel to be honest.

(draw with your mouse)

‍

I liked this but I wanted to try a bunch of other techniques of moving the spring (in this last image I just moved its end point with my mouse). I set out to try and move the spring with the noise() function:

‍

I found it kind of hard to fine tune. It was either not moving enough or moving too much and I didn't like how stiff it felt. I then tried to move the spring with the sin() function. I moved either the first point, the last point, or the middle one (or all of them at the same time). One of my tryouts ended up converging into an abstract animation not unlike a bird flapping its wings, although unable to move, perpetually stuck in its place.

‍

...And in code form:

‍

Lastly I tried to create something that looked like a wandering creature that wanders its tiny screen world:

‍

The next step would be creating an array of these springs, and figuring out how to make them interact with one another. I would like to look into flocking behaviors and maybe create a mix of that and the springs. I wonder how it might affect the string's "elasticity", like it might create interesting shapes out of the springs trying to avoid touching each other. Hopefully we'll see!

Thanks for reading!