Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with Grasshopper and see what I could whip up. I had this idea about symbolizing stuff, you know, making abstract concepts visual. So, I jumped right in.
Getting Started
First, I fired up Rhino and Grasshopper. I always start with a clean slate, so I made sure I had a new document open. Then, I thought, “What’s a good, basic shape to start with?” A sphere! Classic, right? So, I dropped a Sphere component onto the canvas.
- Create a new Rhino document.
- Open Grasshopper.
- Add a Sphere component.
Playing with Parameters
Now, a plain sphere is kinda boring. I wanted to give it some life, some meaning. I decided to play with its radius. I added a Number Slider component and connected it to the Radius input of the sphere. I fiddled with the slider, watching the sphere grow and shrink. It was kinda mesmerizing, actually.
Then ,I added second Number Slider and connected it to the sphere,I wanted to observe the effect.
- Add Number Slider.
- Connect to Sphere’s Radius.
- Add second Number Slider and connect too.
- Adjust slider to see changes.
Adding Some Color
Next up, color! I wanted to represent something with the color, maybe like intensity or energy. I grabbed a Gradient component and hooked it up. I played around with different color combinations – reds, blues, yellows – until I found something that felt right. It’s all about feeling it out, you know?
- Add Gradient component.
- Connect to sphere’s color input (you might need a Custom Preview component for this).
- Experiment with colors.
Trying to Symbolize “Growth”
My main goal was to symbolize “growth.” I thought, “How can I show that visually?” I went back to the radius slider and started thinking about animation. Grasshopper doesn’t have built-in animation tools, but you can fake it!I used Anemone plugin to do the loop.
I set the slider to a range small value. The basic idea is that the radius grows, so I made a small loop that keep add a value to the slider, the sphere will be bigger and bigger.
It was super simple, but it worked! I could see the sphere pulsing, getting bigger – visually representing growth. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
That’s all I want to show today,see you next time!
