a) (working on paper) make one reasonably complex drawing with one line (one connected line only). this could be a one line signature, or a cursive word, or something else. Then, working on pieces of tracing paper over the drawn line, try to “approximate the line” with a certain number of points, for example, if you were to draw the line using only 10 connected points, what would it look like? I would like you to try “resampling” the line with 20, 15, 10, 5, and 2 points. think about what information is preserved and lost between the resamples.
b) (working in code) make a drawing tool where you use the distance formula to sum up the length of the line being drawn. Do this for one stroke only (so earlier code could be useful, or you can limit the gesture to one stroke, etc). In addition to calculating the total length of a stroke, can you also identify the shortest and longest section (ie, pt 6 -> pt 7) ? for the mega nerds, can you calculate the mean value (average value) and the std deviation of these section lengths? [download src]
c) using the stroke / angle / body code we did in class, can you create an interesting drawing tool? think about how the size of the body of a stroke could be varied. for example, in the second code example now, fast motion = larger stroke, could you reverse so that slow motion leads to a larger stroke? Could you draw it in a more interesting way? think about incorporating media, such as images, into how you draw. make an elegant stroke machine :)
For this exerccise I extended the previous assignment and aimed at making a Jackson Pollock-like stroke machine. Each stroke color is determined by the speed. Slow strokes create "cool" colors and fast strokes create "warm" colors. Also, fast gestures create thin strokes and slow gestures create thick strokes. [download src]