Laser Tadpole Things – WIP

./wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/09/frame-1217.pdf

My original idea for this was to have tadpole-looking creatures playing follow-the-leader with the mouse cursor. I’d hoped an image of them flocking together would be cool, but as you can see from the PDF, it may not translate well into a lasercut. (I tried filling the forms in black so the hole shapes would be more apparent). Alas, I did not figure out how to get the tails to move, how to keep them completely separate from each other, or keep them away from the edges. I could have them die if they get too close to the edge, but that would look unnatural. Also, even though I have been trying to study Daniel Shiffman’s code very closely, I’m not totally understanding the built-in functions and methods he uses, so pretty much all of the code is from his tutorials and simulation.

And that is why I’m pretty much stumped right now. But playing with the particles is actually really fun. I made it so you can click on the screen so the tadpoles will appear. I added the attractor and repeller classes, but I didn’t use them in the PDF. I saved the PDF by hitting a keyboard button. Here is the thing below:

* Note that the tadpoles are dying very unnaturally because of the shift from Java to JS