Our task this week was succinct. Use objects.
So I started off with the “Hello world” of animation – bouncing balls.
After we moved them to objects, the below code created a new ball everytime someone clicked the screen.
Month: September 2015
Up until now, I had been experimenting with resistors as the main load of the circuit. So this week, I decided to explore capacitors as an option.
First was to use them to detect basic touch.
Since I spent a lot of time on the subway this week, I decided to have a look at the signage on the sides of the trains!
Below are some advertisements that I found quite ineffective.
Ad for motorcycle insurance
Ad for breast augmentation
Ad for real estate
A few things that caught me wrong in this real estate ad were
- More than two fonts and colours
- Too many houses in the bottom of the ad
- More than one logo on the ad which definitely led to some confusion
Here are the changes I would make to it.
However, this map of the subway route is well done, simple and conveys all the information in an organized fashion.
We were told to make multiples of something and so I started off with making dice!
I don’t know why I wanted small ones, but I did ( a bad idea in retrospect ) – but here’s the wood I started off with.
First I rounded the edges of the wood using the router on the table.
Then I cut these into small cubes using the miter saw.
The next step was to create a jig/stencil to help drill holes into the dice consistently.
I made 2 stencils – one with the number 5 on it. This was used for the numbers 1-5. And another just for the number 6.
I clamped them down to a vice with the dice below the jig and drilled into the dice.
I still had to round the remaining edges and decided to do it using the router table. However, after setup, it was pointed out to me that the dice were too small to use on the router table and that sanding the edges would be a better option.
It worked out pretty well!
The last step was to paint the dice and make them pretty!
I spent last week trying to rotate gears using angles and sine and cos. This week, I discovered transformations!!
The beauty of them is their simplicity. To just test out what could be done, I wrote this little code block and the results were simply awesome!
We started playing around with the arduino this week and the first thing we tested for IO was. lights!
So when asked to play around more with it, the first thing I wanted was a nice LED board. So below is the circuit I started off with.
As there are only a limited number of IO pins on the arduino, this circuit design helps in controlling 25 of them with 10 inputs.
Below was the first sketch that I made to create a torch. The main aim of me making this was to use the scroll saw and the drill press ( and the drill )
Below are the first materials I started of with ( thanks to the junk shelf )
After cutting the small rectangular pieces using the scroll saw, I tried to drill the holes for the walls of the torch using a drill press. Although I learnt how to use the drill press in the process, it didn’t seem to be the right tool for the job. So I switched to using the drill for this.
I found more acrylic sheets in the junk shelf and decided to use that as a refractive material for the torch. I used hot glue to put it together with the sides cut out of the wood. It was glued such that the battery holder was still visible, in case the batteries had to be changed.
The circuit to light up the torch was glued to a sheet at the bottom.
After putting the battery holder in, the torch was complete!
And some finishing touches.. and here!
M.C.Escher is an artist whose work is considered to be highly mathematical and design centric. I chose to analyze
his website’s gallery.
Grid Structure
Vertically the grid is split such that the title of the page is in the left column and the contents in the remaining two.
The same logic is used in the horizontal split.
The logo takes up a large part of the top left grid giving it increased focus.
On looking closer, there is a grid structure within the contents too
Here the vertical lines divide the grid into three with each focusing on a particular classification of work. The spheres in his work in the top half also convey the same structure.
Colour scheme
The entire page is in grayscale which reemphasises his work, most of which monochrome.
Negative Space
The negative space in this site gives it a clean look and helps the user focus only on the contents
Typography
On highlighting the different fonts in this page – the first thing that is visible is the lack of consistency. Although, the fonts do not visually clash to a large extent, there is no uniformity amongst them. There is no strong visual message provided here due to this. The only text that ends up standing out is the logo as it’s stroke is thicker than the rest.
More Grids and Spirals
As Escher is known for his mathematical drawings, I delved into the same.
Even through the chaos that he manages to establish in his drawings, there is a very rigid underlying structure that is being used.
This is an example of a drawing based off a grid. The horizontal bars are placed so as to provide focus on the sky, building and table. The vertical ones help the viewer focus on the sky in between the buildings.
The below piece follows a spiral structure. What is interesting is that is doesn’t spiral into the center of the painting but to points on the outside.
In class this week, we sat down to learn about basic circuits and switches. I will admit that I was curious as to what we could do with switches. Once class started in full swing, I was fascinated by the possible circuits and “games” that was made from just the concept of completing circuits!! The one that I was extremely amused by was the one where you have to take a loop through a wire, and if they touched, there would be a loud and annoying buzzer.
So thinking on similar lines, I wanted to create a little “toy” where if you use it right, the LED lights up. Being a huge origami fan, I went with the flapping crane.
Mathura MG 