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2D & 3D / 3 inch wide pixels and a 12x8ft display + audio processing = Pixel Heart
« on: August 04, 2013, 07:16:31 pm »
Hallo! It's been a while since the 72 hour game dev competitions that used to have me frequenting these boards 
This past year I started a project using individually addressable LEDs to create a large-scale pixelated display. It's a 48x32 pixel resolution screen, but every pixel is 3 inches wide making the display 12x8ft. It's huge and fun to dance in front of
The spirit of the entire project is a throwback to pixel art and the nostalgic feelings it brings to so many of us. By physically not enabling anything more dense than .3 ppi it restricts what you can present - akin to the low-resolution displays of yesteryear - while being so large that you can stand in front of it. It's like being transported into an pixelated world!
The display is called the Pixel Heart. It's run using a piece of custom software that displays animations we've built for it. The software processes nearby audio in real-time and provides the animations with a breakdown of the sound. This makes it easy to build things like pixelated hearts that beat to the bass line and flowing colors that speed up as the music intensifies.
Video showing this audio processing in action:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100484041939097
So why am I posting about this here? After seeing the new Low Spec Art section on the forums here I felt that this new project fit into that niche fairly well. I'm tossing this out here to spark conversation and to see what other pixel artists think of the endeavor as we continue to play with the idea.
We've been hosting some small events in San Francisco and taken it to one music festival thus far. Our next big adventure is to bring it to Burning Man, one of the biggest lighting explorations on the planet. We love collaborating with anyone on this project and hope that it intrigues people here the same way it does us If you're planning to go to Burning Man this year, it would be rad to work together to create new pixelated animations and get to see them out there!
And a video:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100582350388177&set=vb.255597347908570&type=2&theater
Really glad to see these forums still running strong!
♪ Pixels ♥ Beats ♪
This past year I started a project using individually addressable LEDs to create a large-scale pixelated display. It's a 48x32 pixel resolution screen, but every pixel is 3 inches wide making the display 12x8ft. It's huge and fun to dance in front of
The spirit of the entire project is a throwback to pixel art and the nostalgic feelings it brings to so many of us. By physically not enabling anything more dense than .3 ppi it restricts what you can present - akin to the low-resolution displays of yesteryear - while being so large that you can stand in front of it. It's like being transported into an pixelated world!
The display is called the Pixel Heart. It's run using a piece of custom software that displays animations we've built for it. The software processes nearby audio in real-time and provides the animations with a breakdown of the sound. This makes it easy to build things like pixelated hearts that beat to the bass line and flowing colors that speed up as the music intensifies.
Video showing this audio processing in action:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100484041939097
So why am I posting about this here? After seeing the new Low Spec Art section on the forums here I felt that this new project fit into that niche fairly well. I'm tossing this out here to spark conversation and to see what other pixel artists think of the endeavor as we continue to play with the idea.
We've been hosting some small events in San Francisco and taken it to one music festival thus far. Our next big adventure is to bring it to Burning Man, one of the biggest lighting explorations on the planet. We love collaborating with anyone on this project and hope that it intrigues people here the same way it does us
If you're planning to go to Burning Man this year, it would be rad to work together to create new pixelated animations and get to see them out there!And a video:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100582350388177&set=vb.255597347908570&type=2&theater
Really glad to see these forums still running strong!
♪ Pixels ♥ Beats ♪