Generative Machines

Design and Programming by Michael Chang

A few months ago Michael Chang at Google Creative Labs was asked to make some visuals for Google IO, building on from the procedural circuit-board diagrams he did in the past. After spending few weeks experimenting in both Three.js and Processing, he gravitated towards one concept – the idea of a procedural exploding view diagram of “Generative Machines”.

It wasn’t enough that I simply had rivets and slots coming together, I also wanted to make an overall structure that looked as if, when assembled, became a machine that forms a whole that was more than the sum of its parts.This got me thinking about creating procedural shapes that I can cut up. My first exploration into this was creating a one dimensional exploding axis, where elements can fly forward or back, and adding a radial dimension where elements could be chopped up and exploded outwards.

The result is a collection of self-assembling machines which live on a skeleton. By modifying controls, the new machine assembles itself looking slightly different then the previous one. You can read more about the process with detail examples and steps taken to create “Generative Machines” on Michael’s blog.