256a-fall-2020/hw2

Homework #2: Sound Peeking

Due Dates

• Artful Design chapter 2 reading response: due Sunday (9/27) 11:59pm
• design milestone: due Monday (9/28) 4pm: in-class critique
• Artful Design chapter 3 reading response: due Sunday (10/4) 11:59pm
• design "done!": due Monday (10/5) 4pm: final webpage/video + in-class presentation

In this assignment, you are to visualize sound in real-time, using Unity for the graphics programming, and ChucK (via Chunity) as a sound source. Your program will visualize: 1) live microphone input and 2) a designed sound narrative written in ChucK!

Specification (part 1 of 4): Reading

• Artful Design chapter 2 reading response: due Sunday (9/27) 11:59pm
• Artful Design chapter 3 reading response: due Sunday (10/4) 11:59pm
• follow and do the Unity [Roll-a-Ball tutorial https://learn.unity.com/project/roll-a-ball]
• next, follow and do the [Chunity tutorials http://chuck.stanford.edu/chunity/tutorials/]
• download and play with sndpeek for ideas

Specification (part 2 of 4): Real-time Sound Input in Unity

• follow and do Ge and Kunwoo Artful Design TV tutorial on Visual Sound in Unity
• end up with a usable Unity project as a starting point for your project
  • basic visualization of time-domain waveform and magnitude spectrum
  • test using the microphone input!

Specification (part 3 of 4): Visualizing the Spectrum History

• implement either a waterfall plot (like sndpeek) or a real-time scrolling spectrogram or another way to show spectrums over time
  • use a simple chuck program that hooks up the microphone to the output so you can test your chuck setup as well as your visualizer.
  • (hint: in chuck, the input / microphone is adc)

Specification (part 4 of 4): An Audio-Visual Narrative

• create a ChucK program to run inside your visualizer
  • can use a combination of microphone (adc in ChucK) and sound synthesis
  • think about different "sections" or "movements", and how to transition between them
  • try to align the aesthetic of your visualizer and your ChucK program (give it personality)
  • (optional): can use keyboard input
• aesthetic goal:
  • polish not important!
  • technical fanciness not important!
  • making the viewer/listener feel something: important!!

Note

• have fun with it!!!
• PRINT OUT USAGE/KEYS TO CONTROLLING YOUR VISUALIZATION ON THE CONSOLE EVERY TIME YOUR VISUALIZER STARTS! (see sndpeek)
• comment your code!
• choose your own coding conventions - but be consistent
• you are welcome to work together, but you must do/turn in your own work

Deliverables

turn in all files through Canvas, with concise online documentation + readme

• 0) reading responses, to Chapters 2 and 3 (send URLs to Ge/Kunwoo; upload URL to Canvas), as per usual
• 1) webpage page for your project (should be viewable at http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~YOURID/256a/hw1/). It should include:
  • a name and description of your visualizer design
  • a high-resolution (screen capture or with camera) video of your visualizer in action & narrative
    • (please upload to YouTube or Vimeo and embed the video from your webpage)
  • a few screenshots that capture great parts of your visualizer in action
  • links to your files of various kinds
  • a short text section that:
    • conveys your ideas/comments in constructing each program
    • describes any difficulties you encountered in the process
    • acknowledges help you received for this project
  • send URL to Ge and Kunwoo
• 2) also submit to Canvas: source code to the project (please clean up project to remove unnecessary files + test before submitting)
• 3) also submit to Canvas: a high-resolution (screen capture or with camera) video of your visualizer / audio-visual narrative
• 4) also submit to Canvas: screenshots of your visualizer!
• 5) also submit to Canvas: URL to webpage
• 6) an additional README.txt file containing information on your Operating System and any instructions for running the project