Week 4, Noise

Noise Chapter

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Describe what the noise() function does.
• Understand when, why, and how to use noise()
• Understand sampling, mapping, and controlling noise()
• Choose noise() vs. random()
• Describe the importance of Perlin Noise in procedural generation
• Qualities of Noise (Frequency, Amplitude, Smoothing, Layering, Dimensions)

Materials

• 12-sided dice
• 1D Noise Worksheet: Illustrator, SVG

Schedule

Duration	Time	Purpose	Format	Name
30	3:50	Review+Engage	Discussion	Homework Review
10	4:20	Study	Lecture	01 Noise
10	4:30	Engage	Activity	04 Noise Worksheet
10	4:40	Engage	Activity	Noise Circles Whiteboard Computer
20	4:50	Study	Lecture	02 Noise vs. Random
10	5:10	Study	Lecture	03 Benefits of Noise
5	5:20	Break	-	Break
20	5:25	Activate	Coding	Intro + Challenges
20	5:45	Study	Lecture	Challenges Discussion
25	6:05	Activate	Coding	05 Working With Noise

Outline

Homework Discussion

• reason for sketching

01 Noise

• random() completely, actually random
• noise() random, arranged variation with nice properties
• Perlin Noise is just one example, not the only one.
• Slides
• Many examples of noise focus on visualizing the noise. Leading students to think that the noise() function is mostly when you want something to look like noise(). On the contrary, the noise function can be used any time you want good looking variation. Also, you probably want to shape the noise a bit so it doesn’t look like straight noise().
• random() doesn’t take parameters but noise() does. Understanding what parameters to pass in is often confusing when you start using noise(). Once you get a hang of it, the parameters become the key to the power of noise().
• live code example using noise()

04 Noise Worksheet, Building Noise

• Dice, Decks, LUTs
• Roll Dice - Build an N-Dimensional infinite field
• Connect Dots - Create an interpolated look up
• Could extend to more dimensions (figures)
• compare random() (dice) to noise() (LUT)
• answer key question: where does input come from?
• Make a drawing like [ . o O . o o . O ] using dice, using noise
• Make an animation [ . -> O -> o ] using dice, using noise

02 Noise vs. Random + 03 Benefits of Noise

• random() is better when you want actually random variation
• noise() is better when you want aethetically pleasing variation
• Control Frequency
• Fractal Detail
• Control Repeatability
• Looks Good
• random() vs noise() examples
• 1D Noise Example
• Range of noise()
• Fractal Noise

Challenges

• Intro
• Coding
• Q+A

05 Working With Noise

• Calling Noise: What do you pass in?
• Controlling Frequency
• Amplitude and Range
• Detail (optional)
• Seed (optional)