Sam King - Beyond Bits and Atoms 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Geographix: A Slate Toolkit
Snowflakes: Creating a Netlogo Model for Emergent Properties in Aesthetics
Video
WHAT IS IT?
HOW IT WORKS
HOW TO USE IT
lines? if true, will draw lines between children and their parents colors-change? if true, each child is darker than its parent. If order is high enough, the colors can wrap around to white again. if false, everything is white.
random-min-degrees, random-max-degrees: if both of these are 0, then children will be regularly spaced around the parent. When they are not 0, then they are used as a lower and upper bound on a random number of degrees added to the regular spacing for each child. When the lower bound is 0 and the upper bound is 360, the spacing will be completely random. branch-distance-drop-factor: if the initial branch distance is 100 and the drop factor is 2, then the initial particle and its children will will be 100 apart. The next generation will be 50 apart. The fourth generation will be 25 apart, etc.
Getting a Beautiful Snowflake
Exploring Netlogo Models
Moogle Nametag
I have always played video games, and in the past few years, I have realized that they are an art form like any other.
I started out with a Chocobo, a bird that is ridden like a horse from Final Fantasy, but realized that it would be too complicated to do 3d feathers. Then, I moved on to a Moogle, a cute humanoid creature with wings and a weird ball over their head from Final Fantasy.
To start out, I used a picture of a moogle online:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iFRPl9EX3Gs/S9ZTdN0oGgI/AAAAAAAAAAM/Q8F5I....
Because I was still getting the hang of the laser cutter, I tried just etching / cutting it out on cardboard, using vinyl for the acrylic glued nose and for the name on its forehead. It looked pretty good.I realized that I would need to make a few touchups to the image for it to work. Since the cord connecting its head to the ball was too thin and fell off, I made that bigger. I also made some of the outlines thicker. To facilitate the snap-fit into the base, I also made its feet more like hooves.The process of cutting acrylic after having the good cardboard version was fairly straightforward. I needed to experiment with different pieces of acrylic because I wanted to use the spare room in a scrap piece rather than having to start a whole new piece. I ended up with some 6mm acrylics, which is thick enough for it to stand on its own even without a base. It also looked very cool to put the cardboard inside of the cut-out vinyl piece. Gluing on the nose with acrylic glue was also fairly straightforward. I tried some dummy pieces, but it was still very surprising how fast it dried.
The last step was to get the base done. My original calculations for the hooves were 3mm tall, so that meant that I needed to use a 3mm piece of acrylic. In order to account for the thickness of the laser, I did a fairly precise subtraction of .011 inches from the height and width of the squares, but because of that, I managed to get the fit tight enough that, with some forcing, it fit perfectly in without having to use any glue.
Design for Kids - Snack Hat
Our child wanted a hat with three features:
1. It would be green, his favorite color
2. He could keep it stocked with raisins so that he would always have a snack on hand
3. There would be an umbrella attached to it.
We initially worked on getting the snack part working. We made a cardboard box and experimented with ways of keep it closed tight enough that snacks wouldn't be able to escape.
Our next design used powerful magnets to keep everything together, and that proved much better. No matter how much dancing around, leaning over, or even shaking the box while the flap was facing down, the magnets were enough to keep it closed. We used foam board, green felt, tape, and magnets for the box and hat.