Rendering Finals - Quartz Composer - 'Opaque Wavelength'

For my Quartz final, I wanted to try and take my audio visualiser experiment a bit further in which I could use the stop watch patch to generate the lines at different times to make a shape. I have also added an audio input which codes for the start and end length of each line so the more noise the mic picks up, the longer the lines. Lastly, what I have done to this final is add an opaque parameter to the lines. When the user moves the mouse along the x-axis, the opacity of each line becomes more or less opaque respectively.

Unfortunately due to time constraints and understanding of this programme, I have not been able to take this final as far as I would have liked to, but I am really interested in using this programme so I may look at it for next assignment..

A link to my files are at this address:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zfjzhspcuphz1v5/AAAl1Xnb39Jv63svknZbM9_ca?dl=0

A video of my final composition is as follows:

I have included this second video - not sure why it isn't HD too? Anyway instead of leaving my first video going for like two minutes as time progressed and more and more lines were added, I decided to stop and then come back to it..

My design process to get to the above videos is below:

So I have taken inspiration from my audio visualiser experiment - this is the code from that experiment. Very basic code I know, but the composition conveys the idea I was trying to achieve.

So I have started off by using the exact same code as my previous experiment however I simply changed the form of the line family to something more aesthetic and soft. Unlike my previous experiments I am not going to post all of the tests with changing attraction points and start positions etc, because it will simply take way too long. So these are the parameters that I am using to create this particular form. The only parameters that are not constant are the start and end lengths which are determined by the audio input. 

The next step was to duplicate the line family patch and then change the parameters accordingly so that I could continue to create an aesthetically pleasing form.

Line Family Form Finished:

So I have skipped a few steps in order to try and streamline this annotation process, but I have duplicated the line family and audio input patches another three times in order to create the form below. They all have slight differences in their respective parameters but nothing too major. Again their start and end line lengths are all influenced by the audio input of the mic. To create consistency I have kept each of the line families having a line count of 373. I wanted to clear that up because due to a couple of the line families twisting onto itself, there are sections where there looks like there are a lot more lines than that and it is uneven..

Adding the Stopwatch Patch:

The next step I have done is add two stop watch patches to each line family. I have done this so that they control the line count. Every second more lines are added to slowly reveal the form as time goes on.. Due to the audio input as well, the lines are changing length to help disguise the form for as long as possible. The following images are a time series from the start with only a very low line count through to 1000's of lines - just to reiterate their length are all being influenced by the audio level.

 

Finally, Adding Opacity to Line Families:

What I have done now is add two patches - first the mouse patch which is connected to the input function of the colour transformation patch. As one moves the cursor along the x-axis the line families either become more or less opaque. This is also helping to convey the idea of slowly revealing the form. It is a bit hard to take screenshots due to the fact that they will either be black or with my line families hard to see through to what is already above. Check out the above video to see it in action.