We all know the stories. But why not be part of them? Huff and Puff with the Big, Bad Wolf. Try to find your breadcrumb path in the dark woods. Spin straw into gold.
For this project, I wanted to create an interactive space that allowed kids (and adults) to be immersed in a few fairy tales. There are three parts to this project: the coding with an Arduino and processing, the building of the control panel, and the animations. But first I'll show how I planned it all out. Below are the first sketches for this project. In the end I went with using a microphone for The Three Little Pigs and a light sensor to pick up a phone flashlight for Hansel and Gretel. Originally Rumpelstiltskin's spinning wheel was a knob, but the freedom to spin was limited and fragile. After a discussion with Prof. Miller, I went with a magnet sensor much like ones used to detect if doors/windows are shut.
Act 1: The Technology
This was the toughest part for me. I have attempted coding before and it does nothing but frustrate me. It's similar to why I enjoy cooking over baking... baking has too many rules and requires exactness. However, I will say that setting up the Arduino (generic one, technically) made sense in my brain since there was a physical element. And also because I found some very good tutorials on YouTube from a lovely gentleman who loves iced coffee (link below). He does an excellent job of breaking things down and moving at a pace that does not require the video to be paused every 15 seconds.
I enjoyed learning the Arduino and the basics of electrical engineering. This is definitely something I have added to my list to learn more about...
...but on the other hand, using Processing and coding is still not for me. The parts and why it works makes sense. Knowing what to put where and why it doesn't work continues to baffle me. I may give coding one more try, but not any time soon.
Act 2: The Building
Once the Arduino was working and it was talking to Processing properly to play the videos, I was ready to make the control panel. All I needed was $7 of wood, some stains, some straw stolen from the ground at Lowe's, and a part from some old toys. My Cricut also got in on the action after not being used for over a year.
The wood became a stained "table" with holes cut for the three sensors. Each of the 3 spots got some basic text for directions. The Arduino was attached to the back. And the props were added or painted on.
Note: Charley watched but did not help.
Act 3: The Animations
Part of the reason I decided upon this project was because I had been starting to dive deeper into After Effects and wanted to attempt some slightly more complicated animations. I also wanted to work on some stylized illustrating. I took a very basic approach in Procreate and only used two brushes. One was used for all the illustrating and one was used for the shadows. It kept me from over-complicating the images and able to keep a similar style throughout all three animations. I also wanted the movement in each one to be different as to allow me more time to experiment in After Effects. I decided to go with two separate shots for The Three Little Pigs and a zoom in on the pig. I used a combination of a mask, blurs, opacity, and light background movement for Hansel and Gretel. And for Rumpelstiltskin I created a scene about double the width to allow for a long pan across the scene to reveal the piles moving, the spinning wheel, and Rumpelstiltskin himself. The vertical aspect ratio of the scenes were done so that when projected, it would be onto a page of an oversized and old looking book mounted on a wall. This part was not built.
Act 4: The Finale
And here is the final product. In this video you can see how the final control panel looks, how each video is activated, and the final animations projected. Due to being on a desktop, this had to all be squeezed into my room. Also, I did not have paper the correct size to project on without a seam across the middle and paper the correct size would not have arrived in time.
Act 5: My Insight
Overall, this actually turned out pretty close to the way I had envisioned. I enjoyed learning how to use an Arduino and it is definitely something I will continue to explore in the future. I was able to keep myself locked into a style of illustration and create some slightly more complicated animations in After Effects (my favorite is the pig and his sad tail). Everything worked the way it should have, so I guess that's a huge plus. In the end, I feel pretty good about this as a whole and kind of want to make more animations.
THE END.
Credits:
Created with an image by PublicDomainPictures - "old book bible"