Changing Squares to Five Point Stars with JVR Code



  • Hi All,

    Having a ball learning drawbot so thanks to everyone who has been involved in the development process to date. Recently I been playing around with the source code for one of Just Van Rossum's StackoSquares animations. That said, I have a question, in order to change the object from multiple squares to multiple five point stars, is the solution simply changing the square object to a star object. If so how would I write the star object code. Very new to coding so any help would be gratefully appreciated.

    Best.

    Robert

    PS: The code is below this line of type.

    CANVAS = 500
    SQUARESIZE = 158
    NSQUARES = 50
    SQUAREDIST = 6
    
    width = NSQUARES * SQUAREDIST
    
    NFRAMES = 50
    
    for frame in range(NFRAMES):
        newPage(CANVAS, CANVAS)
        frameDuration(1/20)
        
        fill(0)
        rect(0, 0, CANVAS, CANVAS)
    
        phase = 2 * pi * frame / NFRAMES  # angle in radians
        startAngle = 90 * sin(phase)
        endAngle = 90 * sin(phase + 0.5 * pi)
    
        translate(CANVAS/2 - width / 2, CANVAS/2)
    
        fill(1)
        stroke(0)
    
        for i in range(NSQUARES + 1):
            f = i / NSQUARES
            save()
            translate(i * SQUAREDIST, 0)
            scale(0.7, 1)
            rotate(startAngle + f * (endAngle - startAngle))
            rect(-SQUARESIZE/2, -SQUARESIZE/2, SQUARESIZE, SQUARESIZE)
            restore()
    
    saveImage("StackOfSquares.gif")
    


  • hi. see this tweet by Just himself

    StackOfStars.gif



  • @gferreira
    Hi. That is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Hopefully I can make this work.

    Best.

    Robert



  • @FutureDays

    Hi All,

    I am now totally stuck:

    CANVAS = 1440
    
    NFRAMES = 1
    
    for frame in range(NFRAMES):
        newPage(CANVAS, CANVAS)
        frameDuration(1/20)
        
    fill(0)
    rect(0, 0, CANVAS, CANVAS)
    
    phase = 2 * pi * frame / NFRAMES 
    startAngle = 90 * sin(phase)
    endAngle = 90 * sin(phase + 0.5 * pi)
    
    
    translate(CANVAS/2, CANVAS/2)
    
    fill(1)
    stroke(0)
    
    for i in range(20):
        save()
        translate(i * 10)
        scale(1.1)
        rotate(380)
        def star(x, y, n, r1, r2):
            pts = []
            for i in range(n * 2):
                a = i * pi / n
                r = r2 if i % 2 else r1
                pts.append((x + r * sin(a), y + r * cos(a)))
            polygon(*pts)
        star(1, -95, 5, 450, 260)
        restore()
    
    saveImage("StarTest.gif")
    

    Any help would be very much appreciated

    Best,

    Robert



  • hi Robert,

    very little needs to change in your previous script to replace the rectangles with stars:

    1. add the star function at the top of your script, so you can use it later on
    2. where the rect function is called, use star instead
    # copied from http://twitter.com/justvanrossum/status/1098138752805941248
    def star(x, y, n, r1, r2):
        pts = []
        for i in range(n * 2):
            a = i * pi / n
            r = r2 if i % 2 else r1
            pts.append((x + r * sin(a), y + r * cos(a)))
        polygon(*pts)
    
    # ---------------
    # original script
    # ---------------
    
    CANVAS = 500
    SQUARESIZE = 158
    NSQUARES = 50
    SQUAREDIST = 6
    
    width = NSQUARES * SQUAREDIST
    
    NFRAMES = 50
    
    for frame in range(NFRAMES):
        newPage(CANVAS, CANVAS)
        frameDuration(1/20)
        
        fill(0)
        rect(0, 0, CANVAS, CANVAS)
    
        phase = 2 * pi * frame / NFRAMES  # angle in radians
        startAngle = 90 * sin(phase)
        endAngle = 90 * sin(phase + 0.5 * pi)
    
        translate(CANVAS/2 - width / 2, CANVAS/2)
    
        fill(1)
        stroke(0)
    
        for i in range(NSQUARES + 1):
            f = i / NSQUARES
            save()
            translate(i * SQUAREDIST, 0)
            scale(0.7, 1)
            rotate(startAngle + f * (endAngle - startAngle))
    
            # replace rect with star
            # rect(-SQUARESIZE/2, -SQUARESIZE/2, SQUARESIZE, SQUARESIZE)
            star(0, 0, 5, SQUARESIZE, SQUARESIZE * 0.5)
    
            restore()
    
    saveImage("StackOfSquares.gif")
    

    there’s one little catch: to draw the rectangles from center, we had to shift the origin point by half the square size (-SQUARESIZE/2). this is not necessary when drawing the star, because it is already drawn from center – so we simply draw it at (0, 0).

    hope it makes sense! cheers



  • @gferreira

    Hello gferreira,

    Thank you so much the reply has been very helpful. I can see that I was thinking too much about modifying all areas of the code instead of changing a small component.

    Enjoy the day.

    Best.

    Robert


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