Sine Studies
This project uses sine waves to create a series of short studies and explores how sine waves can be used to create visual forms. It also takes into account the graphical design of each form, the transitions between them and the overall structure of the piece.
produced by: Jakob Glock
Process
The concept behind this project was to create three individual studies into the use of sine waves to create visual forms. My process in creating these three studies involved setting up system and then playing around with the values to explore an array of options until I found a form that felt engaging and interesting. Once my form had been created I devised of a way in which it could then be broken apart into randomness or transformed into a new structure. This idea of destroying each form helped me in creating interesting transformations between each of my studies and aided in creating an engaging structure for the overall piece.
Study One
This study uses circles, which slowly appear on the screen and lines, which join together two circles only if they are close enough to each other. To create the movement I used a combination of sine and cosine functions, which are added together and oscillate at different frequencies. After watching the form generate for some time, I decided to highlight the fact that the form is created from individual objects and implemented a basic physics engine to make the particles scatter, bounce off the edges of the screen and eventually reduce in size and disappear, once the radius of the circles was zero I erased them.
Study Two
This study first creates a grid of vertical lines with eight rows and two hundred columns, of which the colour is set by a sine function. This sine function then moves through time at a unique speed to each row and creates the polyrhythmic structure that you can see. After watching the form generate over time, I decided to destroy the structure of the lines and give each one a random velocity which moved it towards the edge of the screen and eventually beyond it, once this happened I would erase the line. Whilst this was happening I decided to slowly reduce the alpha of the lines colour, which created the slow fade out.
Study Three
This study is similar to study one but I wanted to explore in more depth the forms that could be created with the sine and cosine functions. This study uses circles that have a low alpha value for the colour, this allows the circles to blend and creates light and dark spots in the form. As mentioned the form and movement is created using sine and cosine functions, but the oscillating frequencies for each one has a random value which changes periodically, I decided to smooth out this change so that it slides to a new value over time, this creates the chaotic transformation in-between each pattern.