Fireflies

You are a firefly! As you sing, the firefly creates flying trace (waveform). It flies across a flowing grassland (spectrum & spectrum history) under the night sky, along with many other fireflies. The brightness and blooming effects changes corresponding to how loud you sing. There are minimal mandolin melodies and gentle wind in the background, all generated with ChucK code.

Instructions

• Press W/S to speed up/down the firefly.
• Press A/D to turn left/right (there is a limit).
• Drag mouse to look around.
• Scroll mouse wheel to zoom in/out.

The ChucK code is here. Run the code via chuck firefly.ck.

How do I feel?

It started with an analogy: the waveform resembles a flying trace of something. Then I thought it would be beautiful to create a scenery where a firefly flies across a dark forest/grassland. I want to convey the beauty of serenity.

The process is pretty fun. I spent an afternoon learning the sndpeek_minimal.ck code, then brainstormed for one night. I started to code on the basis of sndpeed.ck on the next day. It’s my first time doing “creative coding” (I did coding before just for engineering stuff). I find the mindset completely different: I focused on my inner aesthetic need when coding for art, while for “engineering coding” I was mostly concerned with technical challenges.

I faced some challenges doing this project, but they are more fun (or less scary) because I have this great motivation to fulfill my artistic pursue. It felt magical when I sang along with the generated melody and see the world changing for me – like I’m really the small firefly here.

Great thanks to Kunwoo and Andrew’s generous help!