Point of light effects with an Adafruit NeoPixel matrix
This Arduino library uses an Adafruit NeoPixel matrix to create animated special effects for points of light. These "particles" can be used singlely or chained together to create complex animations like fireworks, fairies (i.e. "Tinker Bell"), fireflies, and fire.
When effects are chained together, they can run in series or in parallel using the wait option. For example, take a simple animation using the Move effect to move a particle from point A to point B. Add to this The Dim effect in parallel, which creates the animation of a particle moving from point A to point B while the brightness decreases so the particle is invisible by the time it reaches point B. Add to this the Pause effect to delay the start of the dim until the point is perhaps half way between point A and Point B. The Pause and Dim effects would run in series while the Move effect would run in parallel with the Pause and Dim effects. This is similar to the way a shooting star appears in the sky.
These are main classes to the ParticleFX library:
particle - This is the "point of light" that is controlled by the effects
particleEffect - The main class where all effects are derived from (see Effects section below)
particleEffectList - This class contains the list of effects that are applied to the particle
particlegfx - This class draws the particles onto the pixel matrix
Here is a list of the effects that are available in the libray:
effectDim(particle *particle, bool wait, uint16_t brightness, int16_t speed)
effectPause(particle *particle, bool wait, uint16_t speed)
effectsetColor(particle *particle, bool wait, uint8_t red, uint8_t green, uint8_t blue)
effectMove(particle *particle, bool wait, int16_t movetox, int16_t movetoy, uint16_t speed = 1, bool moveback = false)
effectFloat(particle *particle, bool wait, uint16_t speed = 1, uint16_t amplitude = 4)
effectMotionBlur(particle *particle, bool wait, particlegfx *particlegfx, Adafruit_NeoMatrix *matrix, uint16_t framecount, float dimvalue = .7)
effectTwinkle(particle *particle, bool wait, uint16_t speed = 10, float dimvalue = .5 )
In addition to this library, the following GitHub libraries are needed in order to use this library.
Adafruit_GFX - https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-GFX-Library
Adafruit_NeoMatrix - https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoMatrix
Adafruit_NeoPixel - https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel
This library was tested using the Adafruit NeoPixel NeoMatrix 8x8 board. Other matrix boards may work but they have not been tested.
The M0 and NRF52480 based Feathers from Adafruit have been tested using this library. Other Feathers may work but have not been tested.
Examples are written based on an 8x8 matrix, however it is programmed as a 64x64 matrix and then reduced to the lower resolution to create a smooth, anti-aliasing type effect with the animations.
Examples can be found in the examples folder and a are a great way to see how to use the library. This project and documentation is under development and more examples are expected to be added in the future.
Animation videos and project status can also be found on the author's twitter account @cogliano.