MDDN 251: Lights in the Dark

This is the screen lighting up to music in complete darkness so that you can see the lights more effectively and the pattern they play. The pattern sort of links up with the music because of the analog serial number outputs the peak numbers which link the speed of the lights to the volume of the music.

MDDN 251: Video of Light response to Music

This is the final prototype of the lights responding to audio. The closer and louder the music gets to the microphone, the faster the lights begin to flash. Then once the music is silent, the lights slow to a stop. It continues to flash once ever few seconds, but that may be background noise being picked up slightly. Overall, the lights responding to Audio was quite successful and responded in a way that i had envisioned.

MDDN 251: Images of Final Prototype

MDDN 251: Process of connecting the Lights to the Microcontrollers

I completed the circuit that was posted earlier and here is the outcome:

This circuit only uses half of the LEDs on the display so in order to use the rest, i must connect the overflow of the first microcrontroller to the data of the second microcontroller and complete this circuit here and create a Dual Shift Register:

That process went relatively well and i ended up with all of the lights being able to brighten up. Then with the code provided applied, it made them flash one after another in the sequence that is shown in previous videos. This is great progress on getting the screen to work. Now i must struggle to get the microphone to connect to the screen.

MDDN 251: Faster Light Patterns and understanding of the Code

I understand the code that has been applied to create these patterns and lights. There is a simple number change to change the speed of the lights. By changing the DELAY of the lights, it can be made to go faster (when there is a low delay of 100 or less) or slower (when there is a delay of around 300, that is the speed of the previous video posted). To control these speeds, a simple IF statement is needed that states IF the number recorded on the serial monitor increases by 100, the delay will decrease by 25. So if the slowest delay speed was 300, by the time the serial monitor reaches 1023 (typical peak digital recorded number) the delay will be 50-25, which means the lights will be shining as fast as they are shown in the above video.

MDDN 251: Working Light Pattern

MDDN 251: Audio Input

So i got an electret Mic with a 100x amplifier attached that i can connect up to create the audio input. When connected to the arduino however, there is an issue with the digital output in the serial monitor. the numbers it outputs are as follows:


814
815
814
820
818
819
814
814
814
813
816
813
814
816
814
816
814
814
813
815
813
814
815
814
814
811
811
813
811
809
812
809
810
810
809
809
810
809
808
811
809
808
809
811
810
808
809
810
810
811
809
812
811
813
809
812
810
812
810
810
813
811
811
812
811
809
813
812
809
811
811
809
812
811
809
808
808
807
810
810
811
808
806
807
806
809
806
809
806
808
809
812
806
806
808
809
809
808
807
808
807
806
808

Now this is good, its actually picking up something, but at the same time, its picking up nothing. During that bracket out output, i shouted, i clapped, i turned on loud music, and yet the numbers remain the same. The code im using for it is a simple serial monitor output code:

int sensorValue;

void setup()
{
   Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
    sensorValue = analogRead (0);
    Serial.printIn (SensorValue, DEC);
    delay (100);
}

This code seemed simple enough, and it should show results right? But no matter what i do right beside the microphone, the number output doesn't change so it isn't registering what i'm doing.. Also, i copied the diagram that it showed me on how to wire up this particular microphone to the wire. I'm stuck..

MDDN 241: Environment

Ive put a lot of thought into the environment and how to tie it in together with the characters. I have come up with the idea of a junkyard style city that is driven by cogwork and gas. Therefore in the background of the animation i intend to have the distant silhouette of a trash cogwork city. You'll be able to see the cogs moving as they will be huge things and there will be smoke rising, giving the scene a large sense of depth. After researching into images of cogwork and junkyard cities, i found an image that i think is most accurate to what i am looking for. Further development to this style of architecture with the addition of smoke plumes and cogs rotating will make this appear to fit in with the structure of the characters.

This environment appears to be a cluttered junk yard with buildings rising up out of it, but also appear to be made from the junk bits - Cracked glass, broken concrete walls, rusted metal etc. The amount of pipes that are visible on this also make a good ground point for the placement of cogs and steam vents.

MDDN 241: Origin and Personality - Character Two

MDDN 241: Origin and Personality - Character One

MDDN 241: Character Wheels

MDDN 241: Final character designs

MDDN 241: Three Inanimate objects

So ive finally decided on my three inanimate objects for 'Materiality', 'Motion' and 'Meaning'.

For Materiality I have chosen the object 'Barrel'. Now this might sound a little weird, but there is a reason behind this. The material that can be found on barrels can be flaked paint, or thrashed metal, which makes the material that i can use rough and quite old looking. This means my characters can be old forgotten things or appear as if they were made of junk.

For Motion I have chosen the object 'Clockwork'. This means cogs and cranks that is used on old types of clocks and grandfather clocks to make the characters move. I've decided to go with cog driven wheels for the movement method. Getting these to work properly will be quite difficult by have an amazing appearance when the animation commences. A nonstop rotation of cogs on the characters when they are moving makes the motion a lot more interesting rather than just a leg or a wheel.

For Meaning I chose the inanimate object 'Forklift'. This probably sounds more weird than the Barrel inanimate object. The meaning of Forklift is that it can be both high and low, tall and short. There is a tall character and a short character. The tall character can reach the high things, like a high forklift. The short character finds a way to get high when all they can reach is low. Also, to reflect this, my short character has no hands, only forklift arms that he can pick things up with.

MDDN 241: Character Concept drawings

This is the initial drawings for Character One and Character Two. Character One is the short one, named Crank. Character Two is the tall, skinny one called Clink.

MDDN 251: Understanding the shift register circuit using 74HC595N

This is a single shift register using the 74HC595N 8-bit serial parallel shift with 8 LEDs. With the positive and the negative pins it can be translated into the lights on the LCD screen that i have.

Further down on the website there is a double shift register that has 16 LEDs. This will be the circuit that i will need to understand to link it to my LCD screen.

Found on: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/144606/Arduino-Platform-Working-with-Shift-Registers

MDDN 241: The Story

The story that i have created for my animation is quite a 'cute' story. It involves two main characters that appear to be the same but still a little different from one another, as if they were brothers or members of a same race.

The story is about Character One and character Two. Character One is short, little and a bit chubby. Character Two is a tall, skinny and smug character that always insults character one about his size. Despite this, they are good friends and always are together. 
They were travelling down a path together when they reach a series of challenges. The tall, skinny character one excelled at jumping over little ledges and climbing up a big cliff. But Character One, Character One struggled. The last part of the obstacles was a large cliff face that they had to climb. 
There was no way around the cliff, and so character two climbed to the top and awaited character one. Character One jumped and jumped, struggling to get anywhere. He runs away to bring back some rubbish, some old boxes that he could climb up and get to the top of the cliff. He struggles; the entire time Character Two laughs and mocks him. 
Finally, Character One makes it to the top after climbing over a mount of rubbish and junk. He reaches the top and pushes Character Two down, pulling the wind up crank from his back hitting Character Two's head with it.

MDDN 241: Wind up characters

Another idea that comes from the clockwork style is the wind-up crank that keeps the clocks running. The cranks would look something like this:

The characters could be run by the keys or cranks, and once the crank loses its motion the characters begin to slow down and lose their motion until they are wound up once again. This is an effective function of a clock or clockwork that can be translated into a character.

MDDN 241: Character Development

Okay so the inanimate object I chose for motion is Clockwork. This will definitely give the characters a robotic artificial sense which has great grounds for further developing the character. The clockwork will be incorporated into the character(s) through cogs that will help the character(s) move.

MDDN 251: Light Combinations

Here are some combinations of lights. Wires were attached to the notches so that they could be connected together to make random patterns. This is the effects i want to create, now i need to sort out how to connect them to the Arduino and get it to have a sequence of patterns like this.

MDDN 251: Alarm Clock screen

So this post is going to have a large amount of images. I took the screen off the rest of the clock and when connected to a 9V power source i can light up specific parts of the display. The Negative is on the red wire, connected to one of the first three parts. The Positive can then be slid along the rest of the notches and lights up their own specific parts of the display. Shown briefly in this video:

After this, I took a photo of each individual one so it can be seen clearly what each notch does.

MDDN 251: Concept Change

After receiving feedback from the Tutors on my proposal, which included the advice:

" I would encourage you to look at both the tuner AND the clock as by playing with the two you'll open up many new possibilities. Don't get too set on an idea yet."

I have decided to change my initial chosen concept to incorporate both the functions of the microphone of the tuner and the LCD screen of the alarm clock. The concept is briefly explained in the rough sketch ideation below.

So this concept uses the previous aspects from the alarm clock concept. The background 'atmospheric' noise is recorded and the volume is deciphered. The LOUDER the background sound the more erratic the patterns are displayed on the LCD screen. The SOFTER the background noise is that is recorded by the microphone, the less erratic and more peaceful the display is. This concept requires the Ardiuno system, a microphone and the LCD screen from the alarm clock. An idea was provided to me when talking to a fellow class mate. The microphone on the guitar tuner would not be effective to to provide the function I was thinking, therefore the recorder microphone that is inside something basic like a Record-your-own-message gift card would be more effective for the job.