keeran.com

Have got a bit closer to what I want to achieve with these randomly generated graphics. I have introduced what I am calling ‘paths’ to yesterday’s random movement code. Basically when the walker is generated it is issued a direction modifier and a count for how many steps that modifier should be applied to it’s current trajectory. This means I can set walkers off on randomly generated curve paths and see what happens.

Next step is to implement some kind of collision detection so that I don’t get bundles of walkers mashing up in the same area as this can create quite a nasty effect. When they do sprout off from the ‘pack’ there’s a good chance the effect will look cool though!

Demo here, Source here.

Have had a weird couple of days recently. After deciding to merge my blogs, my priority was to get a custom design for this site online ASAP, so about a week ago I was playing in Photoshop and while I could get the colours and the rough layout pretty much how I wanted it, I knew there was detail missing that I really wanted to achieve. Unfortunately I’m not skilled enough (yet) to get the blurry design ‘idea’ out of my head and onto paper *or* digital canvas, so I started thinking in terms of representing the kind of thing I wanted as code…

I remember a long long time ago, in a Flash channel on EFNet (it was either #flashhelp or #actionscript), saying to some of the regulars there that I wanted to get to the point where I could create ‘pretty’ things with code. I started messing around with movieclip-based particle systems and was enjoying where it was going, and then I got a full time job as a web developer and that was pretty much the end of my journey into what is now called Generative Art.

Well now I’ve decided to pick up where I left off, with a short term goal of creating an interesting and unique set of graphics for this site and a long term goal of flexing what little creative muscle I have and hopefully learning and developing my skills on the way.

I’ve uploaded my day-1 efforts – it’s simple stuff as you can see if you check out the source, but it’s a good starting point to build on I think.

Have a look at it here, and download the source here.

If you’re into this sort of thing there are loads of sites out there with some truely excellent work to view. A good starting point is the CodeTree project, where I have just made my first submission!

Update
After a request on IRC, I’ve uploaded 2 other versions:

Larger – Same as first but on a much bigger canvas
Larger, Dark with auto – using colours from my first tests, with mouse-click to activate auto mode

A capture from the last version posted – I’m loving the dark spacey feel it creates – I’m going to modify this to generate similar scenes rapidly so I can just see the finished result as I quite like it.

I was going to post this on GRTD but I figured this is more of a general topic. It seems the blogosphere is in the process of jumping on another productivity enhancing bandwagon, going by the name of “Flow”.

I hadn’t heard of this before…maybe I’m in the process of hitching a ride on that bandwagon, but I found out about it at this blog (which is now added to my daily reading) and the author’s comment in it’s relation to Ruby On Rails has hit the nail right on the head:

The point here is people are doing Ruby on Rails not because it comes within some whiz-bang IDE (it doesn’t) or it has a bunch of wizards and graphical builder dohickeys (it doesn’t) or even because it promises productivity boosts (they’re there, but as a result). Rather, they’re excited because with only a text editor and a copy of Pickaxe by your side, you can do some amazing things and get into that state. And that makes you happy. And that makes you productive, because you actually want to do the work.

I have been trying to get others fired up about Rails for months now. People would ask me ‘does it do x?’ ‘can i achieve y?’ etc and more often than not, I could come up with the answer or provide some kind of insight as to why doing x or achieving y might not be the best solution in the first place. What I couldn’t put my finger on is why *I* enjoy coding with Ruby/Rails so much and I think the above quote and it’s parent post sums it up perfectly.