Infinite Nothing

It's time for your weekly...

🤖 TODEPOND TIMES 🤖

What's new this week?!

Where did tode go?

Last week, tode went missing! They disappeared from (most of) my avatars! Where did they go!? It seems like they were taken by... something?

Ok, it's been fun making the upcoming video IMPACT the REAL WORLD in some way. And I really appreciate all the positive feedback and interest it has generated. Thank you everyone!

I've been working hard to make that 'upcoming video' too! I've enjoyed stitching together a bunch of different animated bots in it. And I'm now about half-way through editing together the video!

The video's format is closer-than-usual to a traditional video tutorial. It's sort of a "how to make some cool stuff" video... but with the usual TodePond twists of course. This means that the process of making the video has been slightly different to usual. Instead of the usual quick-cuts, I've been going for longer 'one-shots'. It reminds me of some of the earlier tutorial videos I made on my channel (that I mentioned in the 🗻 SandPond Saga video)... but with a big face-lift!

I'm now at the point where I need to do a bit more coding again. To show you how to make Water in the video, I want to be able to use a not-yet-finished feature. So that's what I'll do next! Hold on tight - we're getting closer... gradually closer...

Phyllotaxis

I've been trying to make some trippy visuals for the upcoming video. I've been making more spinny/spirally/swirly animations of my made-up 'tode language'! Someone pointed out to me that it looks similar to phyllotaxis (which I'd never heard of). Neat!

Either way, hopefully the 'glyphs' of the made-up language end up being mysterious to look at. I would really like to make my videos more mysterious. Please let me know if you know how to be mysterious.

But also... I enjoy making this made-up language for the same reasons I like making programming languages. I see a lot of similarities between the two - and I would love to show BOTH "programming people" and "non-programming people" that the two are connected.

I've been theory-crafting how to make a drag-and-drop editor for the made-up language. You would be able to slot different shapes together to make different 'tode-glyphs'. One day, I hope to make it! It'll be a linguistics-programming crossover megamix.

Finite Infinite Screens

Sometimes I fancy coding during my downtime (eg: at the weekend) (don't worry - I do have a social life too) (as far as I'm aware). And currently, my project of choice for that downtime is... ScreenPond! (an engine that will let you make the droste effect by combining together different 'screens')

It's the engine I'm making for 3-videos-time. In other words, the third video of the MISSING TODE TRILOGY.

The MISSING TODE TRILOGY
🤖 Nothing
✨ New Cellular Automata
📺 Screens in Screens in Screens

So far, I've found many many dead-ends of how to actually make the engine. I've refactored the way it works about 5 or 6 times now. But I think I'm starting to settle down on a concept that works...

Instead of keeping track of what's inside EVERY SINGLE screen you draw... It just keeps track of what's inside ALL screens AT ONCE - seeing as they will contain the same thing? Does that make sense? NO? Ok... back to the drawing board... Let's see if I can come up with a better explanation next week.

I really can't express enough how thankful I am for your support. To all my new and long-term patrons this week, I say: You're Froggy Heroes! See you next week! 🤖

Days since tode went missing: 7