Title slides for the HawkTV show. I animated these in After Effects while I designed the background in Illustrator.

The students produced the content for the show, but I helped them out by designing and animated their motion graphics. For next Spring 2014, I am adding a Motion Graphics class to our curriculum, so then I won’t have to do these anymore. The students will know how!

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Developed this opener for the HawkTV students to save time. Came out pretty well.

After Effects for the animation and compositing / Illustrator & Photoshop for the graphics creation & manipulation.

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Most of you who follow me know that I teach at the university level. I create a LOT of tutorials for all of my students, that I upload to YouTube. My moniker has become “MCOMJOHN.” Short for Mass Communications John.

I finally threw some sorta odd steampunk logo together. Or rather it’s “Sherlock Holmes-esque.”

At any rate, I think it’s rather hip, hip, cheerio, and all that good stuff. Enjoy!

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Step 01: The Processing Setup

import processing.pdf.*;

boolean recording;
PGraphicsPDF pdf;

//Declare//
// Square Brackets is an array or collection//

Boxie [] boxieCollection = new Boxie [120];

void setup() {
    background(#000000);
    size(1024, 600);
    smooth();
    pdf = (PGraphicsPDF) 
    createGraphics(width, height, PDF, "bounxerz.pdf");
   //Initalize// 
   for(int i = 0; i < boxieCollection.length; i++){
    boxieCollection[i] = new Boxie(random(0, width),
    random(0, height));
   }
}

void draw() {
  //Display FUNCTION called in Class//
  for (int i=0; i < boxieCollection.length; i++){
   boxieCollection[i].run();
   fill(255-i*20, 255, i*20, 50);
  }

}

void keyPressed() {
  if (key == 'r') {
    if (recording) {
      endRecord();
      println("Recording stopped.");
      recording = false;
    } else {
      beginRecord(pdf);
      println("Recording started.");
      recording = true;
    }
  } else if (key == 'q') {
    if (recording) {
      endRecord();
    }
    exit();
  }  
}

Bear in mind, that the code above allows you the ability to export your composition into a PDF. “R” is to record then you press “Q” to quit the process.

Step 02: The Class

class Boxie {
//GLOBAL VARIABLES: Speed, Location//
float x = 0;
float y = 10;
float speedX = 1;
float speedY = 2;
float gravity = 0.01;

//CONSTRUCTOR: How you build the class; 
what does the class need to work - call variables//
Boxie(float _x, float _y){
x = _x;
y = _y;
}

//FUNCTIONS: How to break down complex behavior; 
call separately//
void run(){
display();
move();
bounce();
gravity();
}

void bounce(){
if(x > width){
speedX = speedX *-2;
}
if(x < 0){
speedX = speedX *-1;
}
if(y > height){
speedY = speedY *-2;
}
if(y < 0){
speedY = speedY *-1;
}
}

void gravity() {
speedY = speedY - gravity;
}
void move() {
x += speedX;
y += speedY;
}

void display(){
rect(x, y, 15, 15);
}
}

The above code defines things such as: Gravity, X / Y boundaries, etc.

This is my first foray into procedural art. I watched MANY tutorials and read MANY pages in several books on using code to create art. While procedural art has been around for a long time, it hasn’t always been so popular. Most people know or have heard of “fractals.” I plan on opening up my source code to the public soon. As I have learned from other artists who have made their code open, I wish to do likewise. I feel that there is a type of freedom in sharing the “secrets” for creating such complex and beautiful compositions.

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