Oscillating Motion
Core Material
For each module, I will provide written and video tutorials on the topics. You can review whichever format suits you best. If the amount feels overwhelming, please reach out and we can help you narrow things down, and select a subset of the material to focus an exercise around. It’s a lot!
Supplemental Material
For each module, I will provide a list of additional video tutorials and readings that you may draw on for further exploration. It’s unlikely you would be able to consume everything in one week and if you are looking for guidance about what might fit with your interests and learning style the most, please reach out.
Pendulums and Springs
Polar Coordinates
Code Example Collections
Assignment
The idea for this week is to use trigonometric functions and/or oscillating motion in a sketch. This is a very loose constraint and you should feel free to design your own exercise or pick from below. Don’t hesitate to sketch your idea out on paper first and document in a blog post.
Oscillation
- Design a creature with oscillating parts (legs, wings, antennae, etc.) Consider tying the speed of oscillation to the speed of the creature’s linear motion. Can you make it appear that the creature’s internal mechanics (oscillation) drive its locomotion? Here is an extra video about the oscillation exercise and along with the oscillation exercise code.
Polar Coordinate Designs
- You can use polar coordinates a variety of patterns derived from the points along the contours of a circle. Visualize your own pattern. Feel free to start from any of these polar coordinate examples.
- You might also google “parametric equations” to find one not in the examples above like this heart GIF.
Angles and Forces
- Create a simulation where objects are shot out of a cannon. Each object should experience a sudden force when shot (just once) as well as gravity (always present). Add rotation to the object to model its spin as its shot from the cannon. How realistic can you make it look? example solution
- Create a simulation of a vehicle that you can drive around the screen using the arrow keys: left arrow accelerates the car to the left, right to the right. The car should point in the direction it is currently moving.
Pendulums and Springs
Oscillation in other mediums
- Oscillating colors? sizes? number of elements on the screen?
- Use oscillation to control the timing of events on the screen: sounds, the appearance and disappearance of elements.
- Create polyrhythms with different oscillating patterns that come in and out of phase with each other.
- Create oscillating pitch patterns in sound.
- Oscillate playback position or speed of a video.
Instructions
- Document your work on the web with a short blog post. Here are some guiding questions if you are not sure what to write about:
- What did you originally intend to create?
- Narrate the process of creating your sketch.
- What resources and examples did you draw on to create your sketch? What was most helpful / least helpful from this week’s materials.
- What problems/discoveries did you encounter along the way?
- Submit a link to your blog post to the course Brightspace.
Emoji Key
The following emoji key will hopefully help you navigate the material for each module.
- 🚂 Video tutorial from Coding Train
- 🎥 Other video tutorial
- 📗 Nature of Code book
- 📕 Other reading
- 💻 Code examples
- 🎨 Creative project references