Archives November 2021

The Art of the Turtle

turtleSpaces isn’t just about games or 3D models, it’s also about art. Although generated by a Logo computer program, some of the visuals created by turtleSpaces can be quite striking! Combined with a digital art program such as Filter Forge, the results can be very artistic indeed.

Check out this gallery of turtle art:

Images Copyright 2021 Melody Ayres-Griffiths

Activity Idea: Gone Fishin’

Build this cool island scene using turtleSpaces Logo and a few basic shapes!

First we begin with a tree. We can build a trunk using a repeat loop of cylinders that get narrower in diameter and longer as we go. We can introduce a slight curve as well by tilting the turtle up a bit each cylinder we create:

Next we need to create the leaves, which we can do using the fiso (filled triangle) primitive. We can use a repeat loop to create a series of triangles growing in size, and then a second repeat loop to create a further series of triangles shrinking in size. In both cases, we tilt the turtle down a bit each triangle we create:

Then we can use a further wrapping repeat loop to create 8 of them around the trunk:

Let’s add six coconuts to the top of the tree using another repeat loop and icospheroids:

But one tree is kind of lonely, so let’s create a ring of eight around the edge of the island using the orbitleft primitive. We can also make the island more mound-like using a domoid:

Let’s add a dock Myrtle can fish off of made out of cylinders and voxeloids:

And a hut to shelter in made out of made out of a cutsphereslice and a sphereslice:

Myrtle’s all set, let’s get her fishing! The fishing rod is created using a thick line and a thin line:

The sunset effect is created using an inverted gradient tube:

Good job, Myrtle! You can check out the island yourself at https://turtlespaces.org/weblogo/?pub=64

Just click the flag to create the island. Don’t forget that you can click and drag on the viewport to move the camera, use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out, rotate using the right button and drag, and click both buttons and drag to pan.

Check out the code to see how it’s done! Then try something similar yourself. What will your island look like? Share it so we can see for ourselves!

Introducing Environments

Environments are a cool new way to get started with Logo. turtleSpaces now provides a variety of environments in different settings to inspire Logo creation:

Starry Night and Star Platform – Myrtle builds in space!

Winter Ice Pond – Myrtle goes skating!

Pyramid Desert – Build a monument to the Gods!

Under the Sea – Shelly swims with the fishes!

Forest Cabin – Myrtle’s hideaway in the woods.

City Park – Myrtle plays in Central Park!

Parking Lot – Myrtle learns to drive.

The Moon Base – Myrtle on the Moon!

Alien Trees – A ring of growing alien trees.

Environments are available in both the desktop application and the web application. In the web application, you can find them when you start a new project (under the file menu). On the desktop, you open them the way you open examples, in the environments folder.

Environments are written in Logo and are randomly created when they are opened, so some of them may take a minute or two to fully form. You can’t see the environment code in the built-in editors as they are managed by system turtles, which can be used to program the broader Logo environment for purposes such as environments, tutorials and games that use the Logo interpreter to interact with them.

But if you download the procedures, or look at them in an external text editor, you can see the code that makes up the environments, and tweak them, or use them as a template to create your own!