top of page

Generative Animation Documentation

Wed Sep 25, 2024


Prompt:

Create an animation that shows a clock for aliens. The clock cannot display time tied to the rotation of the Earth - years, months, days, hours, minutes, etc. Instead create your own system of time - however large or small. If the clock is no longer tied to celestial movement - how else can you express the passing of time? Would the time be continuous or discrete? Cyclical or unidirectional? How would you divide it into sub-elements and what visual tools would you use to represent distinctions: color, shape, size, order?


 

Carbon-14 Decay Clock

This clock operates by tracking the decay of carbon-14, a radioactive isotope that can be used to accurately determine age of organic materials. Every "tick" of this clock represents the passing of thousands of years. As carbon-14 decays at a predictable rate with a half-life of 5730 years, this clock reflects the natural rhythm of atomic decay.




 

Process + Inspo



I sketched several directions on the concept of a non-rotation based clock including a momentum-based system with a linear movement through different shapes and a decay/growth-based system displaying the rings of a tree's life. I went with the direction of looking at the constant rate of decay of organic matter.











For the visual representation, I was inspired by fractal shapes in nature and atoms.












 

Coding



I wanted the clock to "breathe" to represent organic matter and to represent the decay of the material, the clock would be shrinking over time until it's fully decayed. In reality, there would be several items being used to track decay over time so there wouldn't be a time where there was no item available to track.





bottom of page