Ripple

“Line Art Amplified”

Ripple is an app I created for iOS which allows the artist to interact with simple lines. The controls are intentionally hidden so that the art is always the main focus.

An artist can just tap or drag anywhere on the screen and “peaks” begin to form in the lines. To select a single line, the artist will slide their finger along the side margins, move inward towards the center, and then “draw” the line by moving their finger up or down.

Colors can be adjusted by accessing the super secret menu (two finger drag). The artist can choose two colors and the gradient will be created automatically. They can also change the background between white and black. Eventually I would like to add a watercolor texture.

This app was inspired by Joy Division’s album cover of “Unknown Pleasures” which was inspired by “Radio Observations of the Pulse Profiles and Dispersion Measures of Twelve Pulsars”, by Harold D. Craft, Jr. (The length of the title foreshadows the depth of knowledge in the book). This article talks all about it!

The lines are created with simple bezier paths with capped edges (I can’t stand rough edges). The secret is how to obscure each subsequent line. That took some clever thinking and I give all the credit to a nice walk in Central Park :)

This was built with UIKit and to be honest the code is a mess! It is definitely an early app. I have been working on a new version using SwiftUI. The paths can be animated so easily!