Happy Place renders the resulting configuration of a system of friendly nodes. They are connected at random with preferences to nodes closer. Connections between nodes are considered friendships.
Nodes position themselves with only two goals in mind:
A. Move close to friends but no closer than some minimum distance. B. Distance self from non-friends as reasonably as possible.
1000
1001
1002
1003 Groups of friends sometimes move as a group
in some general direction.
0000happy place with 500 friends
0001an error in the vertical movement created this strange thing.
Friends are initialliy placed around the perimeter of a circle. Immediately after the connected system is started, a rudimentary best-fit structure takes form. Nervously, it re-arranges its configuration as a result of the individual desires of the nodes it is composed of.
500 x 500 pixels
101 friends
no exposure
The Java serlet example above shows the underlying system used to generated the larger renderings. The nodes are represented as squares. Connections between nodes are shown with a dotted line.
To render the more complex images, only the connections between the friends are drawn rather than the friends themselves. Connections are drawn using a Sand Stroke object (see Sand Stroke) to add depth and texture.
