Project #1 Lost & Found: Brain Cell

Austin Bailey

CC Lecture - Shirley Leung & Aarati Akkapeddi

Partner - Han Lu

https://editor.p5js.org/AustinBB/sketches/AzXbXvm0p

Description

Han's object was described to me as a metobolic product. Something that our bodies create and lose over time. In other words, cells.

Reflections

When I first heard Han's description, my mind instantly went to cells that we physically excrete throughout the day, sweat, skin, and sometimes blood. The more I thought about it, I realized we lose brain cells from the day we are born. So, I re-created the classic science class depiction of a brain cell, along with two blood cells as accents to compliment the colors of the background and the brain cell.

I wanted to make the cell look as close to an actual brain cell as possible but the more I tried to move shapes and create wavy lines, I realized I am not that knowledgeable of the software and I needed to simplify my design. So, I went with a more abstract look. Using triangles to make up the membrane surrounding the core and rectangles and ellipses making up the rest of the image. Another thing I explored is using bezier lines and moving ellipses. Using them to give the cell more character that an actual cell might have - wavy tentacle looking arms and movement within the core.

One of the biggest issues I had was the use of the Rotate() function. I realized that if you don't rely on the Push() and Pop() containers to keep what you're rotating inside, all of your elements will be rotated and the grid becomes hard to manage. Overall, I'm happy with my design. I was able to utilize the small amount I know about p5.js to recreate a fun version of something that is complex to give a visual representation.