H79.2402 Lecture 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Tu
The world around us moves in complicated and wonderful ways. We spend the earlier parts of our lives learning about our environment through perception and interaction. We expect the physical world around us to behave consistently with our perceptual memory, e.g. if an apple drops from a tree it will fall due to gravity, if a gust of wind blows, lighter objects will be tossed further. This class focuses on understanding, simulating, and incorporating motion-based elements of our physical world into the digital worlds that we create. Our hope is to create intuitive, rich, and more satisfying experiences by drawing from the perceptual memories of our users. In the digital realm, so far, only games have incorporated the behavior of our physical surroundings into their environments. In this class, you will learn the fundamentals to get you started in recreating the dynamics of objects in our world so you can use these effects in your own projects. Concepts covered will include linear motion, circular motion, springs, and particle systems. Class examples will be demonstrated using Lingo (with a focus on parent-child scripting), but the students can author their projects in any language.
Prerequisites: you must be comfortable with programming; proficiency in general math and geometry is a plus and will help you get the most out of this class.
