Why? - Unsure.
Statement of intent:
Continuing further with my chosen statistic of '1 in 7 (New Zealander's) will experience depression at some time in their life.' The following assignment presented the task of gathering a better grasp on the statistic and dive deeper into the causes and ways this statistic exists within New Zealand.
Building from the previous knowledge I have and had gained in the last assignment, I needed to look deeper and understand this 'numbness' feeling from many perspectives. To understand why this statistic exists, I had to understand how it came about with individual's, leading to research on top of research.
Growing and understanding that there is no one solid cause of depression for individuals, I decided at first to produce an outcome that would address a range of causes. However, as time progressed and gathered peoples understanding on my outcome and idea, they suggested I focus on the idea of social media being the why I focus on.
As you will see, my work will show a shift in how I came to the outcome. Yet, I feel this was the best decision as many people within todays day and age are so in tune with social media that it soon becomes an extension of themselves that feeds them emotionally. This leads to me portraying how social media is a factor for many that may experience depression.
Week one: - Understanding
The first week I began to work on this assignment was during mid semester break. I began to further develop my existing research I had on the statistic and explore the causes and why(s) individuals experience depression.
From the research, I began to sketch concepts and ways I could approach this statistic and portray the why factor to an audience through a gif. I created mock-up story boards, other sketch assets that could be used within the same context as other ideas to portray this. From previous examples shown to us with students work last year, many produce gifs that followed the aesthetic of pixel art. I did look into integrating my pixel art into my final outcome, but I felt it did not fit the aesthetic I was aiming for.
Week 2: - Composition & code
My second week was spent creating a better image of the outcome I was wanting. As I was looking to go with a more refined gif, I looked at background silhouettes and ways they are composed, their form, shape, colour and more. I did this to gauge the idea I was aiming for and push it further into development in my mind, allowing me to put it into practice. Whilst doing this, I also aimed to improve on my current level and knowledge within coding, watching tutorials and speaking with peers and lectures on how I may achieve the certain image or flow I was going for.
Week 3&4: - Asset creation/code
The last two weeks of this assignment I covered a lot. I produced majority if my assets and code to fit the use of my gif, however, during the final week I began to feel that something was not sitting right with the current depiction of my gif.
I was beginning to code everything in and the coding went very well, the gif was doing everything I was aiming for it to do, yet, It did not feel or look as I hoped. I had the background panning on a loop, the rain was never ending from the cloud, yet it didn't look right.
Following this outcome I sought feedback from my lecturer on a way to improve on this feeling I had. From the feedback I got, I felt confident when I began to re-create my assets to change the look and feeling. I was also told that instead of covering a range of causes, why not focus on social media being the cause of my portrayal, because of this shift in focus, I also looked at how I would implement this.
Once I had altered and changed the following assets with the feedback I gathered I was able to produce a fairly well rounded portrayal of my statistic.
Code for gif: Master class
Drop [] drops = new Drop[100]; // array (amount) of droplets
PImage background; // variable to hold the background image
PImage cloud;
PImage heart;
PImage phone;
int bgx, bgy; // variables to creat panning motion
PImage[] walking;
int counter = 0;
int frameNumber = 0;
void setup() {
frameRate(60);
size(1000, 1000);// canvas size
background = loadImage("assets/2nd_bg.png");
image(background, 0, 0);
for (int i = 0; i <drops.length; i++) {
drops[i] = new Drop(); // loop of array
}
// initialise our array and load images
walking = new PImage[5];
walking[0] = loadImage("assets/walking_0.png");
walking[1] = loadImage("assets/walking_1.png");
walking[2] = loadImage("assets/walking_2.png");
walking[3] = loadImage("assets/walking_3.png");
walking[4] = loadImage("assets/walking_4.png");
}
void draw() {
image(background, bgx, bgy);
image(background, bgx + background.width, bgy);
bgx = bgx - 1;
if (bgx < -background.width) {
bgx = 0; // resets it once the first image is done
}
for (int i = 0; i <drops.length; i++) {
drops[i].fall();
drops[i].show();
}
cloud = loadImage("assets/cloud 3.png"); // load the cloud
image(cloud, 415, 30, 220, 250); // location of the cloud
//heart = loadImage("assets/heart asset.png"); // load the heart asset
//image(heart, 500, 530, 60 , 50); // location and size of heart
println(frameCount);
image(walking[frameNumber], 330, (height/2)+220);
counter++;
if (counter == 13) {
if (frameNumber > 3) {
frameNumber = 1;
} else {
frameNumber++;
}
counter = 0;
}
//String imageSuffix = nf(count, 5);
//saveFrame("data/frame_ani-######.png");
//count++;
}
Code for gif: Drop class
class Drop {
float x = random(450, 620);
float y = random(290, 0); // where the rain starts from
float z = random (0, 20); // creates the further/close rain droplet look
float len =map(z, 0, 20, 10, 20);
float yspeed = map(z, 0, 20, 4, 10);
void fall() {
y = y + yspeed;
//yspeed = yspeed +0.1; // use of gravity may not be needed
if (y > 1000) {
y = random(290, 0); // continously run from the beginning
yspeed = map(z, 0, 20, 4, 10);
}
}
void show() {
float thick = map(z, 0, 20, 2, 5); // alters the picel weight depending on how far or close droplet is
strokeWeight(thick);
stroke(0, 100, 100);
line(x, y, x, y+len);
}
}
Final gif:
'1 in 7 (New Zealander's) will experience depression at some time in their life.'
Link to Miro board: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l5HFm2w=/