Story Board

 

New concept

I will have a 'ground level' where the user can rub the mouse along and have grass grow accordingly. This grass will keep growing until they stop moving the mouse and then if they swipe across the grass the mouse will be used like a knife and will cut the grass at that angle.

I will also add small features to keep it interactive as I develop it further.

This is interaction as opposed to control because the user will have to 'rub' the mouse over the spot they want to grow and so therefore they have to do something to make the grass grow and the grass which is cut is according to the user's movements. 

Colouring

As the grass grows there will be a gradient to show how it reacts in real life

It will slowly turn yellow to show how the grass in real life does the same

Basic concept change

I have had to change from my concept which involves tree as they will be too difficult to manipulate within the code.

Therefore I have adapted the idea to one with similar techniques but simplified slightly.

Fractal trees

I have investigated fractal trees and how the coding of these work. I've found this really interesting and plan on using it within my design. I've also coded the tree to be planted wherever the mouse clicks as I've shown below. 

More development will be focused on making it more interactive. For instance the trees will be "planted" by rubbing the spot with the mouse instead of just clicking. 

Style

Within my project I am hoping to have a certain style which is achieved. For inspiration I looked at a few sources.

One of these source is the Tale of Three Brothers, from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Specifically I looked at 0:30 - 0:45s and how the tree sheds its leaves, which at the start could be mistaken for birds and how this was achieved. Also I looked from 3:00 - 3:10, which shows birds sitting on a spindly tree and then flying into the distance. This is probably the most relevant as I will study it to see how they created such believable movements and style.

Another inspirational source is the computer game "Limbo".

Within this game the style stays very simplistic but hugely effective which is how I wish to present my idea. For instance the trees in the above image show how simplistic things are and how they have simply used fading to create depth.

The two styles shown above are very simplistic and use opacity and dull colours to create an interesting atmosphere which I will try to study and possibly replicate.

Inspiration for trees

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/8752

This processing example is a programme which, when the user clicks, creates a new tree. This is one of the basic elements of my design and so I will definitely look at the code for inspiration.

I also appreciate the style of the tree which is created as some I have seen are too thick where as this one seems delicate, giving it a sense of life.

However the programme above has the tree's trunk starting at the exact same place which has already been determined by the programme. In my interaction I am hoping to have the user decide where to put the starting point so that it creates more interaction and less control.

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/52945

This programme also generates random trees everytime the user clicks however is more lifelike in the way that it has greenery which represents leaves. However for my interaction I want the colours to be minimalistic because I don't want it to draw away from the basic idea.

Inspiration for birds

Both of these videos show how birds migrate from a tree and, in the second video, how they move to another. This is the type of movement that I am hoping to represent in my interaction. It may just be an abstract representation or I may try to create small birds, but they are likely to be quite simple.

Carnival vs Nature

From the inspiration that I collected I found two different concepts that I could go with.


One of these was carnival which would use inspiration from carnival games to create simple interaction.

The other concept I looked at was based around nature and birds specifically.

Android game inspiration

This example shows how the interaction could be based on the user having to be logical and think a lot. However I feel that this would be less focused on coding an interaction and turn into a game situation. As this is not the main goal of the brief, I will try to stay away from it.

This example demonstrates the type of coding that I would like to attempt in the way that it uses simple clicking and direction to create a fun interaction. It is also simple, but entertaining and so I will think about how I can use it for inspiration throughout my project.