A hamster. 2 hours of video. 80 video clips. All playing at random...Sort of

Initially, the goal was to convince viewers that the video was a live streaming video-feed, giving those watching not only the opportunity to watch a hamster move 24 hours a day, but also to somwhat control his environment. Later, I decided that nobody was going to be fooled, so I jazzed up the video with series of snazzy character-intro scenes, and plopped in Journey's Final Countdown.

But the random movements worked as such....

Each time a clip would end, a series of random clips was played depending on what side of the screen Marbles walked off of. For instance, if Marbles stepped off the left side of the screen, the application would randomly launch only clips where Marbles reappeared on the left side of the screen. The purpose was to preserve the idea that what you were watching was live, because it would have shattered the illusion to see Marbles step off the left side and instantly reappear on the right like an 80s video game! Similarly, if Marbles disappeared down the center bottom, he would reappear at the center bottom.

As far as controlling his environment goes, there were a series of buttons allowing viewers to either feed him, have somebody put him in his ball, or have somebody set his wheel down. There were dozens of video clips showing these acts. Including 6 clips of me just putting food in front of him. It was hoped to, again, preserve the illusion if something was slightly different each time the FOOD button was pressed.

Overall, the project went over well, but the class was clued in that it was fake from the very beginning. Still the clips worked seamlessly, and Marbles does indeed move smoothly from one side of the screen to the other through a series of randomly launched clips.