At this point in the Stardust project, I was happy with the results. However, I wanted to develop the visual language further, from the glitter-like stars to a more organic system . Responding to participants’ feedback, I created a way for the stardust to move around, change direction and flow in an organic way. I created a flocking system that would feel more like stars floating around the person’s body, glowing and shimmering.
This was my first time doing this type of system, so I researched Daniel Shiffman’s The Nature of Code, and I checked other sources in order to understand what I wanted to achieve.
Murmuration. Flocking system in nature.
Flocking in The Nature of Code. I highly recommend this book.
Rules of Flocking in The Nature of Code.
I ported André Sier’s boids example and built up from there after learning about boids and vectors.
The process of how the flocking system evolved in the first stage is shown below.
Porting the example into openFrameworks and (finally!) being able to run it!
Writing up the values to get the right speed-force and cohesion for the effect (stardust, shimmery) I was looking for.
Flocking system and kinect form the user’s silhouette for the Stardust app.
Flocking system with the desired parameters.
Testing onscreen paired with the kinect before moving on to projecting on the user.
