I watched a particle crawl randomly along the edge of a straight razor

September 15, 2007 10:49 AM

Cinematic particles is an online applet that draws watercolor-like visualizations of movie dialogs, from Apocalypse Now to Zabriskie Point. See also: Spinal Rhythms, L-Garden, SpyCamp and other online toys by Austrian artist Eva Schindling.
posted by elgilito (3 comments total)

This is kind of neat. I particularly like Blade Runner.

The explanation of how it works confused me a bit, though.
posted by dismas at 12:26 PM on September 15, 2007

Movies that are defined by rapid successions of spoken dialog produce drawings that consist mostly of black ink blobs that grow together, as the particles are constantly reset with new parameters. Movies that show long silent pauses between scenes gives particles more time to produce long lines and curves.

I was about to say... His Girl Friday makes for a very regular, solid visualization.
posted by brundlefly at 1:16 PM on September 15, 2007

Seconding that the explanation of how it works is confusion.

I like it though. Surprisingly decent selection of movies. Needs a better way to save the outcome.
posted by dogwalker at 4:19 PM on September 15, 2007