“Dewdaisy: encounter a little timid creature specialized in disguising” by Joselyn Jiang

Brief Description:

A resident lives near the lake noticed something weird happened in his neighbor's garden, which had been abandoned for decades.  At night, faint green glows flicker like distant stars, while by day, daisies seem to wander to new places -- yet when he steps into the garden, all remains eerily unchanged -- which is precisely the reason why he called the authorities and you guys are here researching this tiny creature as biologists.

Abstract:

This project invites viewers to step into the role of biologists and interact with dewdaisy, a tiny insect-like organism. Though individually fragile and short-lived, these creatures have mastered survival through collective cooperation and remarkable mimicry, thriving in their ecosystem while remaining nearly invisible. Throughout history, humans have drawn inspiration from the animal kingdom—bat echolocation, the structural efficiency of honeycombs—nature has always been a reservoir of technological wisdom. Studying dewdaisy not only highlights the power of unity and the ingenuity of nature’s designs but also prompts deeper inquiry.

As we examine dewdaisy’s camouflage mechanisms and adaptive strategies, we are led to profound philosophical questions: Could extraordinary phenomena simply be undiscovered realities? Do we, bound by cognitive inertia, dismiss the unfamiliar as mere illusion? Imagine if the lake’s residents had lacked curiosity—this perfectly concealed species might have remained undiscovered forever. This very dilemma urges viewers to reconsider the boundaries between reality and illusion, reflecting on the inherent limitations of human perception.

Images:

1) Process: Design and Composition

At first, I had almost no idea how to design an interactive creature. A microorganism? A tiny spirit? Too many ideas swirled in my mind. I sketched a roulette fairy (which my classmate immediately rejected), a pink spider (which my friend found disgusting), and a small daisy—though, for fun, I told my friends it was actually an insect with a spotted sac that would burst into green slime upon touch. Eventually, my friend, looking reluctant but resigned, admitted that this so-called Dewdaisy was at least far better than the other two and could even tie into themes of harmony between humans and nature. That’s when I realized it was actually a great idea.

I ultimately designed Dewdaisy as a cute, high-saturation-colored insect living tenaciously in a “broken and abandoned” environment—an overgrown, forgotten garden. But if it's such a brightly colored creature, why has it remained undiscovered until now? To solve this, I made it a shy, timid species, adept at camouflage—naturally, it could blend into a daisy! Since we had learned about noise, trigonometric functions, and rotate, I decided to make this round little creature move in circular paths and tremble when startled. I started coding based on these ideas.

During office hours, Professor Leon mentioned that programming this movement pattern wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. Only when I actually tried did I realize that handling multiple entities without using arrays was incredibly difficult. In the end, I had to abandon my original plan and limit the interaction to just one Dewdaisy at a time—when it dies, the remaining ones form a daisy. I also expanded on the idea of its fear of light, adding flashlight mechanics and other external stimuli, which made the project much more interactive.

2) Process: Technical 

I began by drawing the background with randomized grass, dew, stones, and flowers.

To let them have a randomized effect each time I run the program, but fixed effects for each frame when I draw it, I used bg = createGraphics(800, 500); to create an image variable, so I can simply load the image bg at the beginning of the draw() function.

The creature is quite difficult to draw since it has multiple states, and I have to deal with them separately. The most difficult part is the pseudo-randomness within the code of drawing spots on the creature. I initially spawned the spots in a grid-like pattern, and shifted them according to a parameter sin(i*cX) to make them plus or minus 1 pixel from their original position in the grid.

Those were the initial parts of my project. Based on the user test, I added the rebirth of a creature based on the time cycle of a day, and made the light ray movable.

3) Reflection and Future Development

In my initial design, Dewdaisy moved in a circular path and reacted in two ways when touched—either vibrating or dying. I think I did a great job on this part. I used frequency to gradually reduce the vibration amplitude to zero, perfectly achieving the effect I wanted. However, I am not very satisfied with how the remaining creatures form a daisy after one dies. The movement generated by lerp still feels a bit stiff, but I haven't found a better solution yet.

After the user test, my classmates suggested adding weather changes to create a gradual passage of time. They also pointed out that my creatures die too easily, which might confuse the audience and make interaction difficult. The flashlight’s beam made them want to move it, but I hadn’t programmed it yet. Additionally, they mentioned that the eggs were too inconspicuous, blending into the background and making them hard to find.

To improve this, I set the weather to cycle, creating a sunrise and sunset effect. I also adjusted the creatures’ lifespan to one day so that new ones appear daily, allowing continuous interaction even after some die. I programmed the flashlight so the audience can control it with the keyboard, and I made the creatures stop moving under its light. I added a yellow outline to the eggs, but they are still not very noticeable.

Based on feedback from the presentation, if I had the chance to continue exploring, I would adjust the overall scene color according to the weather, making the garden look darker at night. Also, after learning about arrays, I think I could create more Dewdaisies, allowing all creatures in the garden to interact.