If you haven't seen the Qwest Sand Art Commercials, check them out (http://www.qwest.com/business/sandart.html) They are basically the inspiration for this experimentation (along with Andre Michelle). The faster you move your mouse - the more you push the sand away - hold the CTRL/CMD key to magnitize/attract/whatever.
If anyone can actually draw something with it, let me know - personally i'm pretty terrible at freehand drawing on a PC 
Enjoy!
[update]
Here is an expansion on the same concept - except this time it uses some fun new filters and is driven by a forcemap. Click and drag to attract, hold down CTRL to repel. If the map generated at first doesn't look too good, click reset and you might get one that forms the particles a little better
[/update]
11 Comments, Comment or Ping
Awesome mate, really impressive stuff, i’d love to see the some theory on how you achieved it so fluid
November 27th, 2007
Very impressive! Is it pixel particle system + glow?
November 27th, 2007
Basically – there is some color transforms thrown in as well – but nothing too crazy
@Pedro – the general idea behind it is to create a particle system that simply does a setPixel wherever the particles are. Setting quality to LOW also makes it a TON faster
November 27th, 2007
very cool
November 27th, 2007
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m293/xero-owns-us/sandskull.png
November 27th, 2007
Hello…Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts ! it was a great Thursday . WWE Lita
November 29th, 2007
the second one is like playing with bubbles in the ath
December 2nd, 2007
Interesting… Is it possible have the source?
February 19th, 2008
Hi!
We checked your sand particles demo some time ago… and we really loved it for it’s natural user interaction
Now, we’re coding as3 app for our multitouch screen and we’ve been thinking of inspiring ourselves with your demo… hope you don’t mind
Otherwise, let us know please!
thanks for your great work on AS3!
Xavi.
–
http://www.multitouch-barcelona.com
P.S-Check this spanish commercial, it’s the same concept (as Quest Business ad):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=A0DUAHBgXqc
April 5th, 2008
The sources! The sources! it’s beautiful!!
April 18th, 2008
Wow, nice work! The motion feels really organic. What kind of techniques are you using? Any luck you will release the source?
February 12th, 2009
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