Welcome to the nineteenth of Altitude Foundation’s #MicroChallenges2020
Today’s challenge will draw out the artist in you (pun intended)
What’s a Micro Challenge?
These challenges are short activities to help you develop, revise or refresh your coding skills, posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Micro Challenge #19
This week, our Micro Challenges are on an arty theme. To create images, computers use pixels – tiny squares which, on modern screens, are only visible when you get very close. However on older devices, like the 8-Bit devices from the 1980s, the pixels were far more visible (you can read more about 8-Bit aesthetics making a comeback here).
Pixels are arranged in a grid and images are created based on their coordinates. See, for example, this grid.
This grid could be described as:
Black: (0,1); (0,3); (1,0); (2,0); (2,2): (3,0); (4,1); (4,3).
However, I could also describe it as:
START: (0,1) → Y+2 → X+2, Y-1 → X-1, Y-2 → 2(X+1) → X+1, Y+1 → Y+2 → STOP
The Challenge:
Using a 10 x 10 grid (see below), create either a coordinate list or an algorithm for the following:
- A diagonal line
- A triangle
- A star (design of your choosing)
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| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Review it:
- Could someone else draw your shape onto the grid, following your instructions?
- Is there an advantage to one way of presenting the pixel pattern over the other? Why or why not?
Advanced:
- Create your own image and write up the coordinates or algorithm. Can a friend/family member guess what it is?
- Use the MakeCode editor to create random patterns by designing a programme which changes the coordinates randomly
Share it
We would love to see what you have created! Please send any pictures, videos, or files of your activities to us – either via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #MicroChallenges2020 or to challenges@altitudefoundation.org. If you are emailing them to us, please let us know if you are happy for us to share your stuff on our social media platforms (with credit, of course).
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