Final collation of images

This shows my final 4 images, collated into one final image. Starting with a structure made from snowflakes, it moves into a noisy image, made from the same flakes, but dispersed. The image relates to how snow moves and breaks apart from the original fall.

Background

The background ended up looking quite sparse and bare and this detracted from the general flow of my images. So I decided to add a light pattern. This was made up of large snowflakes which were an almost see-through blue, overlayed over the original code. In contrast to the main snowflakes these patterns go from noisy to structured, giving a juxtoposing feel to the images.

These two shots show a close up of the first and last images and how there is a subtle pattern of large snowflakes in the background. I didnt want these snowflakes to be too noticeable but still something to break up the white areas.

Colours

Originally I thought that I would go with warmer colours to contrast the usual notions that come with seeing snow. I had planned to go with a warm orange colour to show how some people feel when it snows and how it can be a joyous occassion. However I felt that in the flow of the project, a light ice blue ended up looking more effective as it suited the natural, gentle flow of the snowflakes. I also added an opacity so that the more the snowflakes clumped, the darker the colours became. This creates a realism that relates the image back to real snow fall. Originally I had a darker blue but I felt that this created too much focus on where the snowflakes clump together and worked better with a slightly transparent colour. Also, when the snowflakes merged/overlapped together a fuzziness could be seen which mimics how snow seems soft when it falls together, but when examined by its self it is actually a hard, defined structure.

Final panel- how it falls

 These show the development of

how the last panel would flow. The image to the left looks to linear for noise and not naturally flowing across the page, so I developed it to fall downwards. However in the end I felt that the snow should originate on the left and float up as well as settling on the ground, shown in my final work.

Layout options

These show sketches of how the panels could flow across, from structure to noise. Originally I wanted to go with an original large snowflakes, made or smaller ones, which then broke into noise. However this didn't imitate or reference the way that natural snow moved and I wanted to relate to it in some way.

I then thought of the different ways i could adapt this, shown in my notes to the left.
    

Here I developed the different approaches once I had decided to make the snowflakes float across the page as opposed to the original idea of coming from and original point.

The first idea shows the original large snowflake which then was blown across the page by wind. This mimicked the way that real snow would act, but as the individual snowflakes would hardly show the curve of the wind because they would be spaced out, I decided it would just seem too random.

In the second idea I originated from the large snowflake, but then moved the flakes across the page more naturally. This idea seemed to flow well apart from the disjointed first two panels. I chose this to develop.


The last idea skewed away from a large snowflake and veered towards the idea of medium sized snowflakes made up of the small ones which then broke apart and floated across the screen. However this still seemed too disjointed.

Small structures making up larger one

Originally I wanted to have a snowflake like this, made up of the smaller snowflakes. This creates a different aspect to the design because it creates structure within structure. This could also relate to the fact that the noise in the later panels would be made up of smaller structures.

Snow movement research

Here I looked at the different ways that snow can fall and how synthetic snow can be made to look natural. 

Coding the base snowflake

Here I created the snowflake that I would use as the base for my structure and then moving into the noise. I felt that this flake looked spindly enough to create a complex design that wasn't too busy. For the code, I used basic lines and variables to create the structure so that it can be easily adapted if I wish to change it throughout the design.

void snowflake()
{
  float x = xp;
  float y = yp;

  float h  = 50*s;
  float h2 = 35*s;
  float h3 = 10*s;
  float h4 = 8*s;
  float h5 = 5*s;
  float h6 = 8*s;

  //vertical large
  line(x + h/2, y, x + h/2, y + h);
  line(x + (h/2-h5), y - h5, x + h/2, y);
  line(x + (h/2+h5), y - h5, x + h/2, y);
  line(x + (h/2-h5), y +(h+h5), x + h/2, y + h);
  line(x + (h/2+h5), y +(h+h5), x + h/2, y + h);
  //horizonal large
  line(x, y + h/2, x + h, y + h/2);
  line(x - h5, y +(h/2-h5), x, y + h/2);
  line(x - h5, y +(h/2+h5), x, y + h/2);
  line(x +(h+h5), y +(h/2-h5), x + h, y + h/2);
  line(x +(h+h5), y +(h/2+h5), x + h, y + h/2);
  //top left to bottom right
  line(x + h3, y + h3, x + (h-h3), y + (h-h3));
  line(x +(h-2*h4), y + h4, x + (h-2*h4), y +2*h4);
  line(x +(h-h4), y + (2*h4), x + (h-2*h4), y +2*h4);
  line(x + h4, y +(h-2*h4), x +2*h4, y +(h-2*h4));
  line(x + 2*h4, y +(h-h4), x +2*h4, y +(h-2*h4));
  //top right to bottom left
  line(x + h3, y + (h-h3), x + (h-h3), y + h3);
  line(x + h4, y + 2*h4, x + 2*h4, y + 2*h4);
  line(x + 2*h4, y + h4, x + 2*h4, y + 2*h4);
  line(x +(h-2*h4), y + (h-h4), x +(h-2*h4), y +(h-2*h4));
  line(x +(h-h4), y +(h-2*h4), x +(h-2*h4), y +(h-2*h4));
}

Types of snowflakes

I decided to use the snowflake as my precedent and have begun to look at different types of snowflakes and their forms. Below I sketched out different types of snowflakes that would be simple enough so they wouldn't create too much noise in the original structure, but enough complexity so the form will be interesting.

I also researched different types of snowflakes to aid my drawings.

I ended up going with the top left version of the snowflake as it is complicated enough to be interesting, has a good differentiation of length between the diagonal lines and the straight vertical and horizontal lines but is simple enough to not be too noisy.

Precedents

 Cell structure: To show how branches of objects can cause a structure which also looks noisy

Dandelion pattern: The repetitive structures are made up of smaller structures which then break apart. This technique taken from nature will create opportunities for different structures to create noise by clashing smaller structures.

This image shows a dandelion converting its smaller structures into snowflakes. Since these are two of the natural precedents I have been looking at it was interesting to see the two in relation to each other, despite the real objects being in different habitats.

I am using this dandelion to show the different structures that smaller structures can make up through basic repetition.

 These 6 images are pictures of crystal membranes, usually made when freezing water and I found it interesting that the basic structures resemebled snowflakes and how each branch of the membrane is a simple repetition of the others.

25 iterations

Array of my iterations

Arrow base

I have uploaded this photo to show how an arrow can be represented by simple, base shapes. This made me think about how my iterations can stay true to my form while also being transformed and changed.

5 iteration notes

Through more exploration of my form I have decided that my original 5 forms may be too abstract and not truely represent my original code. Because of this, I have decided to replace some of these iterations with new ones which are more true to the original form.