He Has the Voice of an Angel(fish) (June 22, 2020)
A Creative's Guide to Channeling the Absurd
Ain't it beautiful?
The wiring operation (in progress)
The studio set up for the video shoot
NOTE: This is a pretty odd story. Hang in there until the end for an explanation. Sometimes the most unusual journeys can drop you off in rewarding places.
It started with a trip to the thrift store in December 2019. I stumbled across a novelty singing fish. Actually, just the box. I had to track down the actual fish a few aisles down. They wanted $4. An absolute steal! I had ideas for it.
Time to Operate...
I sliced him open. He had three motors inside — one for the mouth, body and tail. There were six wires coming out of the main body. I quickly figured out which pairings went to which motor. Then I hooked them all up to an Arduino Nano and control turned out to be pretty simple. Now do I use an IR remote? Or Bluetooth?
Then I remembered I had a small Wii Nunchuck adapter I bought a while back. That would allow me to use a Nunchuck to control the fish. After some trial and error I put together the code needed to map the joystick to control the different fish motions,
And with a little tinkering, I put together a proof of concept and it worked!. Now I went on to put my idea into motion...
Lolla-Pond-Looza 2020!
Since all of the summer concert festivals are cancelled, here's the only one that is still on (mainly because it will happen underwater).
Check out the promotional video for the most anticipated show of the season:
What's the Purpose of All This?
Great question! Although it may not seem like it, there were 2 big benefits from taking this ridiculous journey:
Learning!
I'm always looking to learn new things. If you find something you're invested in or passionate about, that makes it easier to learn. The singing fish inspired me and here's what I was able to do because of it:
- Learn how to control the motors with L298N DC motor drivers.
- Write C functions for controlling the analog joystick and buttons on the Nunchuck.
- Get a little bit better at green screening video.
- Understand how to use motion tracking in After Effects.
- Improve my video editing skills in Premiere
Smiling!
It made me chuckle. There are a lot of awful things happening in the world right now. If you are able to make someone smile or laugh, go for it. Humor won't save the world, but it's a positive & optimistic outlet and has the ability to change people's outlook.
So every once in a while take the opportunity to look around and find something to smile about. It'll do ya' some good :)