I had the opportunity to attend Flashbelt again this year. And it was awesome.

This year’s highlight was seeing Jared Tarbell speak again, who’s done amazing work in both Processing and Flash, and is a the co-founder of Etsy, an excellent marketplace for all things handmade! For those who have kids, or like wearing really small clothing, be sure to check out Orange Rhino for some sweet threads from our very own Jess Louwagie.

Jared’s session once again left me speechless. The work was refined and elegant, the music fitting, and the presentation seamless. What inspired me the most of about these speakers, however, was not just their work. It was how approachable they all were. And how apparent it was that their work was fueled by curiosity; a willingness to make mistakes and a stubbornness not to give up.

One of Jared’s pieces that caught my eye was a series renderings that used Perlin Noise to generate forms resembling an iris (of the eye, not the flower).

While analyzing some of his source code (special thanks to Jared for providing it), and listening to Eric Jordan’s mix, Indigo, it became apparent to me the potential of using BitmapData.perlinNoise() and BitmapData.getPixel() to achieve organic, pseudo-random results.

Read on to see my latest experiments - Click the images to see the full-version. They look better …

I started with a simple experiment based on Jared’s demonstration: using the
BitmapData.getPixel()method to control the x and y velocities of an array of particles.

I Began incorporating BitmapColorChannel’s for some nice color:

Eventually started taking color samples from an external image (in this case, a stock photo of a vibrant autumn leaf):

I got bored of using stock photos, and opened up Photo Booth to provide my color palette (a little bit creepy):

I then took it one step further and attached a streaming video, taking samples of that, which looked pretty cool.
I didn’t think I needed to smile - but my tough-guy face isn’t very convincing:

Email me for the source.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 12:12 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.