Form Generator

Click to generate forms. Press any key to clear canvas and restart the form generator.

Description

Having studied astrophysics as an undergraduate student, for this assignment I was inspired to make a form generator that creates star forms. In my sketch, users can click the canvas to create layering star forms. The exact form that is generated is random by having the size, shape, and color randomized. To start over, the user can press any key to clear the canvas.

Click here for the link to the p5 editor and sketch.

Design Process

The first step was to design what the smallest and largest forms would look like. Above are the preliminary drawings of the forms. I wanted the form generator to somewhat mimic stellar evolution, so I wanted to show a star seemingly expanding. My preliminary designs were inspired by red dwarf stars and blue supergiants, the smallest and largest types of stars respectively. So, I had all stars produced by the form generator will be along the red-blue spectrum representing the transition from the red dwarf to blue supergiant stages of stellar evolution. I did this by having the red and blue values be random outputs while the green value remained zero for the RGB color fill input. For the shape, I used a simple star design made up of four triangles to create the cross that shows up in photographs of stars due to diffraction spikes. I have one small blue star that begins the form generation to represent the fact that at the core it is the same star. Much like the color, the size and proportions of the star forms are randomly generated as well by adding/subtracting randomized values to the triangle arguments that determines the coordinates of each point. I also wanted to capture the way that stars grew and expanded during their evolution, so I added four spike to the initial cross design if the generated star form is above a certain size. Lastly, I used the blendmode “hard light” to make the forms translucent so that you can see the previous forms and colors layer on top of one another. When many forms are generated, this produces an almost 3D effect.

Below is an image of several examples of what this star generator can produce. I put them in size order capture the idea of an evolving form.

Reflection

The most difficult part of this assignment was creating a form generator that generated forms that looked intentional while also making the generator somewhat random. For example, keeping the overall shape of the star design while allowing the generator to randomize its size and proportions was a challenge. I found that the fastest way to solve this problem was by using math rather than just directly thinking about how the sketch would look. I also initially thought perhaps I should generated a brand new form each time the canvas was clicked, but then I saw that when the forms layered on top of one another, it created so many more interesting outcomes.

When rethinking the form I chose after this assignment, I realize just how different it looks from real stars, which are at the end of the day hot gaseous spheres, and yet I believe people from all over the world would see the forms created by this form generator and recognize that it is a star. I also hope that since the only stars people see are either the sun or the white lights in the sky, this form generator will make people wonder about the vastly different shapes, colors, and compositions stars around the universe come in.