Generative Text Design

I originally wanted to create something similar to the animated text memes that you scroll upon on social media, for example: GIF 1  and  GIF 2. I really enjoy how the text moves in a wave-like motion and the three-dimensional appeal of it.

However, this weekend was extremely rough with work and I wasn’t able to dedicate enough time to creating something to the examples demonstrated above. I decided to create something else, which I was inspired to do after looking at this artwork. I really liked the concept of words falling down in a random order, people being able to interact with the text through their bodies, and form actual words which translated into poems. I wanted to re-create something similar, but because I didn’t have enough knowledge (or frankly, time) to create a body sensor and somehow combine that with my code, I decided to do something similar on a smaller scale.

My final project can be found here. I had trouble thinking about ways I can make the project interactive without a body sensor. I decided to use something related to what we have learned about making things interactive on processing – I decided to use keyPressed(). The idea was to make random letters fall, and somehow arrange them into words when I click on the letters. However, I found that too difficult to code and opted for something slightly simpler. I found a tutorial that helped me do something similar to the idea, instead of the words falling on their own, the individual who is interacting would type any word, and the letters would be placed one by one in a random order across the screen. The letters wouldn’t completely disappear once typed, instead, I made them fade into the background for a nicer effect. The outcome isn’t what I initially wanted, and it’s not something I am really happy with considering the lack of time and energy I dedicated to this due to an incredibly busy week.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *