Solar Winds Disturbing Migration

In the distant future humans have been forced to leave their home in the Milky Way Galaxy due to the inevitable Andromeda collision. They now travel through space within giant bio-mechanical space birds acting both as vessels and guides ushering the last of the human race around the stars in search of habitable planets. It has been a journey lasting generations, their numbers are strong, but with increasing unpredictable solar storms the quest is suddenly becoming a failing effort.

Music: So Close – Jordan F

Audio interactivity – created in processing.

Click through to see the code –

//Solar Winds Disturbing Migration
//by AJ LeVine 2014

//thanks to the coding help session with ryan and mike for teaching us how to make rain
//thanks to João Pedro Gonçalves for helping explain minim to me

//initial variable setup

//import Minim
import ddf.minim.analysis.*;
import ddf.minim.*;

Minim minim;
AudioPlayer player;
AudioInput in;
FFT fft;

//numbers of raindrops and birds on screen
int numRain=200;
int numBirds= 100;

//speed and rejuvination of raindrops
float x[] = new float[numRain];
float y[] = new float[numRain];
float speedY[] = new float [numRain];

//speed and rejuvination of birds
float xx[] = new float[numBirds];
float yy[] = new float[numBirds];
float speedXX[] = new float[numBirds];
float speedYY[] = new float [numBirds];

void setup () {
//size of screen
size (960, 700, P2D);

// audio setup
minim = new Minim(this); //Create minim
in = minim.getLineIn(Minim.STEREO, 512); //setting mic input
fft = new FFT(in.bufferSize(), in.sampleRate()); //config FFT
fft.linAverages(10); //divide frequencies into ranges
//musicplayer
player = minim.loadFile("exbirds.mp3", 2048);
player.play();

//setting up placement movement of initial raindrops
for ( int i=0; i < numRain; i++) {
x[i] = random(width);
y[i] = random(height);
speedY[i] = random( 5, 10 );
}

for ( int b=0; b < numBirds; b++) {
xx[b] = random(width);
yy[b] = random(height);
speedXX[b] = random( 1, 3);
}
noStroke();
}

void draw() {
//redraw background or maybe an image soon
background(10);

//setup audio
fft.forward(in.mix); //get mic audio

float fft1 = map(fft.getAvg(1), 0, 10, 1, 10); //setting the mic input to eventually control speed of birds

//place random raindrops on screen
for ( int i=0; i < numRain; i++) {
fill(random(60), random(60), random(120));
ellipse( x[i], y[i], random(5, 10), random(15, 40) );

//rays of light and bizarre solar wind giving our birds a difficult time during their migration
fill(random(255), random(255), random(255), random(60));
triangle(x[i], y[i], random(10, 20), random(10, 20), random(10, 20), random(10,20));

if (y[i] > height) {
y[i] = 10; //ensure that they start towards the top of the screen when regenerated
x[i] = random(width);
speedY[i] = random (5, 10);
} else { y[i]+=speedY[i];
}

}
//place random birds on screen
for ( int b=0; b< numBirds; b++) {
fill(random(255), random(255), random(255), random(255));
rotate(0.9); //rotation not only rotates shape, but movement as well, it did what I wanted but when I tried to unrotate the movement it made things even weirder
rect( xx[b], yy[b], random(10, 60), random(10, 60) );

if ( xx[b] > width || yy[b] > height) {
xx[b] = random(width);
yy[b] = random(height);
speedXX[b] = fft1; //random(1,5);
} else { xx[b]+=speedXX[b];
}
}

}

void stop()
{
player.close();
minim.stop();
super.stop();
}