Description
For this assignment, I immediately knew I wanted to re-make the fractal invaders, a project by Jared Tarbell. Casey Reas in his talk at Eyeo in 2012 (one of our assignments), discussed Tarbell’s project and showed the audience how our eyes and minds associate symmetrical images with familiar objects (example shown below), when a non-symmetrical image reminds us of simply a blob. Suddenly we see a dress, a smiley, a house, etc.
So I created my own set of many fractal invaders, shown in the second image below, with some elements of red, to make them even more unique. I think this would be a lovely thing to print out because there is a 0% chance of printing out the same set of fractal invaders in the same order again any time soon.
Code
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/* October 29, 2017 Laine Melkerte Fractal Invaders Inspiration got from Jared Tarbell's work (http://www.levitated.net/daily/levInvaderFractal.html) */ boolean played = false; int pixel = 3; // "pixel" size int invader = 5; // "pixel" quantity in one invader in one row and column, preferrably an odd number int mid = (invader-1)/2; // this will be used to determine the mid axis void setup() { size (1280, 960); //set the size } void draw() { if (played == false) { background(255); //the background will be white //the following for loop translates the grid to "make" many invaders for (int movex = 0; movex<width; movex+=2*invader*pixel) { //translate by 2x the size of each invader to leave space in-between for (int movey = 0; movey<height; movey+=2*invader*pixel) { pushMatrix(); translate(movex, movey); //drawing the invader for (int xlocation=mid*pixel; xlocation>=0; xlocation=xlocation-pixel) { //the drawing of invader starts from mid axis and moves to the left for (int ylocation = 0; ylocation<invader*pixel; ylocation=ylocation+pixel) { //since the invader is not symmetrical from yaxis, it is drawn downwards int n = int(random(0, 10)); //generate random number from 0 to 9 int red = int(random(0, 400)); //must set it large, to avoid too many red rectangles if ( (n%2) == 0) { //if the random number n divides with 2 with no remainder fill(0); //fill it black if ( red%50 == 0) { //AND if the random red number divides with 50 with no remainder fill(255, 0, 0); //color the rectangle red } rect(xlocation, ylocation, pixel, pixel); if (xlocation!=mid*pixel) { //if the xx position is not the half axis rect(2*mid*pixel-xlocation, ylocation, pixel, pixel); //draw a symmetrical square on the right side of the "invader" } } } } popMatrix(); } } played = true; } } |
How I got there
I started off by drawing it on the paper to figure out how to make it and decided to use a class at first (the initial code for a singular invader below) and then translate it later on. When the class was made, I initially wrote the code for 15 squares (out of which 10 would be translated to the opposite side), and it worked. I could not decide how to make a symmetrical opposite side without using width of the picture and how to make it into a universal code without manually writing functions for each of the squares (I had issues with locating each square properly), so I gave up and decided to start all over again after fall break.
When I returned with a fresh mind to Abu Dhabi, I looked at the initial code again and realized that it would be much easier to just use a for loop, instead of a class.
I like that the fractals are of the same size (unlike the original work, where he uses an algorithm that fills up the space). I also added red color to the invaders because it makes each invader even more unique.
Thanks to Russell’s code, I learnt how to use a boolean to run the program only once.
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final int XWIDTH = 50; final int YWIDTH = 50; final int BLACK = 0; final int WHITE = 255; class AllSquares { //class name float blackWhite, colorDecision, xLocation, yLocation; //constructor AllSquares (float xpos, float ypos) { xLocation = xpos; yLocation = ypos; } void colorSquare() { colorDecision = random(0, 1); if (colorDecision < 0.5) { blackWhite=0; } else { blackWhite=255; } } void drawSquare() { fill(blackWhite); rect(xLocation, yLocation, XWIDTH, YWIDTH); rect(width-XWIDTH-xLocation, yLocation, XWIDTH, YWIDTH); } void drawCentre() { fill(blackWhite); rect(xLocation, yLocation, XWIDTH, YWIDTH); } } //end of class //different individual squares named manually AllSquares square1 = new AllSquares(0, 0); AllSquares square2 = new AllSquares(0, 50); AllSquares square3 = new AllSquares(0, 100); AllSquares square4 = new AllSquares(0, 150); AllSquares square5 = new AllSquares(0, 200); AllSquares square6 = new AllSquares(50, 0); AllSquares square7 = new AllSquares(50, 50); AllSquares square8 = new AllSquares(50, 100); AllSquares square9 = new AllSquares(50, 150); AllSquares square10 = new AllSquares(50, 200); AllSquares square11 = new AllSquares(100, 0); AllSquares square12 = new AllSquares(100, 50); AllSquares square13 = new AllSquares(100, 100); AllSquares square14 = new AllSquares(100, 150); AllSquares square15 = new AllSquares(100, 200); void setup() { size(250, 250); } void draw() { //translate(XWIDTH, YWIDTH); noStroke(); background (255); square1.colorSquare(); square1.drawSquare(); square2.colorSquare(); square2.drawSquare(); square3.colorSquare(); square3.drawSquare(); square4.colorSquare(); square4.drawSquare(); square5.colorSquare(); square5.drawSquare(); square6.colorSquare(); square6.drawSquare(); square7.colorSquare(); square7.drawSquare(); square8.colorSquare(); square8.drawSquare(); square9.colorSquare(); square9.drawSquare(); square10.colorSquare(); square10.drawSquare(); square11.colorSquare(); square11.drawCentre(); square12.colorSquare(); square12.drawCentre(); square13.colorSquare(); square13.drawCentre(); square14.colorSquare(); square14.drawCentre(); square15.colorSquare(); square15.drawCentre(); delay(2000); } |