Interactive City: Please Disturb

Previously in my conference post I stated that the animals I am trying to produce would be a collection of animated actions. However, upon reconsidering the process of actually animating the animal sketches I would be making, it seems more appropriate to first keep these animals as static images instead. Hopefully not too much of the animal mannerisms will be lost with this simplification. The rest of the project is proceeding as planned. Users will still have the option to interact with several different animals.

A sketch of two ants and a cockroach.
A sketch of two ants and a cockroach. Either bug can be used for the project since they exhibit similar mannerisms.
A sketch of three fishes, another possible animal that can be used.
A sketch of three different fishes. Another potential species that can be used for this project.

I am currently working on sketches of the animals. When completed they will be transcribed into digital images and have their backgrounds removed so that only the sketch remains. One thing which I expect will take some time is properly capturing the types of different behavior the animals will exhibit. A fish and an ant can both retreat, but a fish quickly darts once or twice before becoming at peace once more, while an ant scatters wildly for several seconds before calming down. Knowing this, I do not believe each section of code for each animal will be the same (with me just switching out images to change animals). Each animal will need to have their own script that effectively captures their behaviors.

Garrett Hsuan

Author: Garrett