10 hours...And not much to show for it.

I spent yesterday from 6pm to 4am coding, scribbling out trigonometry, and modeling circles bouncing off each other using Gerber bottle caps. I probably looked insane. I think I might be close, but I really don't know for sure. I really want these circles to convincingly bounce off each other, but it's taking more time (and a lot more inverse tangents) than I had anticipated. I think that'll be my side project so I'm not wasting any more class time trying to do trigonometry that amounts to nothing. On the plus side I figured out the functions I wanted to get stuff to move around in my other piece. Tweens are for noobs! Once I get some more images into that one, I'll post it on my website.

Give peace a chance

On second thought, I'm not a very contemptful person most of the time. I don't want my viewers to get that sense. I'd rather make them happy, or make them think, OR just space out and forget. I think I'm on to something and hopefully I'll be able to show you guys in a few days.

A little progress

I got my codes to do what I want them to do. Now I just need to implement them in a piece. I've tinkered around with fuzzy transparent brushes and it makes a really cool effect. I've linked to the animations on my personal website. Check them out. http://personal.ashland.edu/dimmel/myWebPortfolio.html#animation

looking for inspirations

I already have some traditional artists who inspire me. I know what I like as far as printmaking, painting, etc. is concerned, but I don't really have many animators who I look at for inspiration. If anybody knows of any, let me know. William Kentridge is a really good one, and I like his style, but he's more of a frame by frame drawing, non-abstract kinda guy. I would like to try something like that in the future, but right now, I want to do programming in flash (I also looked into HTML5 a little bit). I'm going to try to look up some people today and post again later about what I find.

organizing my thoughts

So I've decided that I want to do programming to make art.....I've hit the brick wall of endless possibilities quite soon, so I came here to vent out ideas and hopefully come up with something useful. I want to convey an emotion. I think my first attempt will be to convey contempt. What kind of imagery does that imply?

I think that contempt is something that usually drives a wedge through things. It is an emotion that is destructive. So how do I go about destroying things animatedly? I can have images that break apart into smaller versions of themselves. I could have an object that is moving through them and causing their division. I want to make it clear though that this isn't a "Strength in Numbers" sort of piece. I should have theses divisions experience some kind of attrition with each other. They should interact with each other aggressively and chaotically.

I will start with simple shapes and go from there. I'm thinking triangles. Something pointy. Any thoughts?

Getting Started

As my first official act as a CA3 student, I will be writing code. My idea for work is that I will be using a grid of dots to create images, much like a picture in the newspaper is made up: Big dots where it's dark, and small dots where it's brighter. The first work I do will be abstract. I will be using Flash and writing my code in ActionScript 3.0. My goal is to develop a style that is all my own using original code and animations.