Super Happy Particles | daniel shiffman

For some reason, I called this project “Reactive” when I created it. I’ve always disliked that title and am hoping to think of a new one. For now, perhaps I’ll just call it “Super Happy Particles.”

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Can an image behave? In other words, if a digital image is a visual representation of colors (i.e. pixels) on a grid (i.e. screen or piece of paper), what if each element of this grid were able to act on its own? A series of experiments in answering these questions led me to create Reactive, a live video installation that amplifies a user’s movements with exploding particle systems in a virtual space. Each pixel of the image captured by a video camera is represented as a set of particles with each particle reacting to the movements of the viewer.

Demo Video

Additional documentation from the Siggraph 2004 Emerging Technologies Exhibition

Screenshots (click to enlarge):

Photos from Savannah College of Art & Design show (click to enlarge)

http://scott.j38.net/ Scott Garner

Beautiful work!

And, ironically, almost exactly what I was trying to accomplish when I stumbled across your site looking for Processing info. Was Reactive created with Processing?
http://www.shiffman.net Daniel

Actually, this project was originally developed in C. But I do have a working Processing version of it now!
http://scott.j38.net/ Scott Garner

Very cool. Mind if I ask how you managed the glowing look of the particles? Are they actual 3D objects or just some kind of 2D mask? I’m just getting started in Processing and OpenGL, so forgive me if I’m missing something obvious.
http://www.shiffman.net Daniel

They are a just a 2D mask — a glowing white blob that I made in photoshop. Lens flares (that you can make in after effects) work great too!
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idea of amplification is interesting. i just enjoyed the experiments of yours in above pictures.