Tiny Mega Land: The Place Where Drawings Come to Life!
Made by 8BitsAndAByte / 3D Printing / Art
About the project
I’ve always wanted my drawings to come to life, so I made it happen!
Project info
Difficulty: Moderate
Estimated time: 1 hour
License: GNU General Public License, version 3 or later (GPL3+)
Items used in this project
Software apps and online services
Story
I’ve always wanted my drawings to come to life, so I made it happen using Processing, Adafruit’s Circuit Playground, an old LCD monitor and a snow globe.
Full Project VideoThe first step is transferring drawings from a piece of paper to the computer. I simply take a picture with my webcam.
Next, the drawing needs to be usable. With Processing, I analyse the image and turn all the pixels into either black or white. All the white pixels are made transparent, while all the black pixels remain. This turns the drawing into a usable digital version, like this cute little monster.
Drawing of a Monster on a whiteboard.
A digital version of the same Monster drawing!
Here are a few hanging out together in a first version of Tiny Mega Land.
A first version of Tiny Mega Land.
To interact with the monsters, I use Adafruit’s Circuit Playground.
The movements of the accelerometer and the color of the LEDs are sent to Processing, via serial connection.
Adafruit's Circuit Playground in a 3D printed case.
By tilting the Circuit Playground, you can move the monsters on the screen. The LED’s on the Circuit Playground keep changing color, and the background bubbles on the screen follow.
The Circuit Playground is very cool, but it’s even cooler when it’s placed underneath a snow globe. A 3D printed part holds it all together, and it makes for a very nice controller!
Snow globe controller
Last but not least, the old 2nd hand LCD monitor needs an upgrade. It looks so much better now, doesn’t it?
Screen transformation!
Code
Credits
8BitsAndAByte
We’re Dane & Nicole, two makers that create tremendously terrible tech, which we happily share with you on our channel! https://www.youtube.com/c/8bitsandabyte
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