Tode is SPOTTED

It's that time of the week again! It's the...

🌞 TODEPOND TIMES 🌞

What's new this week?

Spotted

Quite a while ago, tode (the little character in my avatar), went missing - as part of a larger trilogy of videos. This week, tode has been found! They've been spotted in a cage in this teaser video.

It's been fun having an overarching storyline (of some sort) that runs through a few different videos. I think it's something that I'll try to do again, after a few more standalone ones.

When I make a video, I think about two groups of viewers. One group is the 'newbies'. They're the ones that haven't seen any of my videos before, and just stumble across my channel by accident. The other group is the 'oldies'. They're the people like YOU. Who have probably watched multiple videos - maybe even all of them - maybe even multiple times.

I would say that some videos target one group more than the other. The recent ✨ NEW Cellular Automata video was a big attempt at targeting the newbies. The 🗻 SandPond Saga video targeted the oldies. The next video, 📺 Screens in Screens in Screens is more of an 'oldies' video again - mainly because it's quite weird.

The nice thing with the overarching 'missing tode' storyline... is that it can be something for the oldies to follow along with, no matter what kind of video I make.

Shapes

I've been on holiday this week! So I haven't made much progress... :(

But I have done a lot of thinking+daydreaming! Mainly... about new videos/projects that I could make!

I've been thinking about different ways of making cellular automata. Traditionally, the cells of cellular automata are SQUARES. Squares are great because you can line them up really neatly in a grid (or a line).

Another shape that lines up (and tessellates) neatly, is... HEXAGONS. Hexagons are also a popular shape to make cellular automata with, and I've given it a go in the past too, with HexPond.

There's one more shape that works well... TRIANGLES.

So, so far, we have three shapes that work well for cellular automata:
🐸 TRIANGLES (3 sides)
🐸 SQUARES (4 sides)
🐸 HEXAGONS (6 sides)

We skipped out (5-sided) PENTAGONS! Because they don't line up to form a neat grid. But... who cares!? We could just make a cellular automata with gaps between some of the cells. That could be interesting. We could also mix together different shapes... A cellular automata made up of PENTAGONS AND DIAMONDS. Or even just IRREGULAR PENTAGONS.

What other shapes could we use? I have plenty more ideas! And you might have some ideas too! But... we've ran out time in this week's TODEPOND TIMES. Maybe next week :)

Thank you so much for your continued support! You are really helping me, my projects, and my videos. Welcome to all my 'newbie' patrons this week (and welcome back to all the oldies too)! Have a great week! It's very warm here, indeed! 🌞🐸🌞

Days since tode got locked in a cage: 118