
Show HN: Zen Timer – Mac app using Bézier paths to draw a tree - binaryapparatus
http://www.smartcodehq.com/zentimer/
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obstbraende
one more helpful criticism: the 'epic' music in your video, for me at least,
evokes the opposite of a zen-like, concentrated state. it brings up images of
action movies, war scenes or documentaries about bridges.

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binaryapparatus
Thanks. You got us there and you are completely right. Truth is we at
SmartCodeHQ are complete suckers when dramatic video shows up. What can I say,
this was one of the examples we looked at:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSye3T6FQZs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSye3T6FQZs)

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fsloth
As a helpful criticism: Great idea, but the execution needs improvement.

To my eyes the tree visualization is a good pre-alpha proof of concept but now
it should be productized. I.e. the growth looks like simple parenting, the
leafs are mostly awkward, etc. It does not look like a tree.

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binaryapparatus
Thanks. We have spend lots of time balancing between very rudimentary and
over-designed trees. We think this is the right balance but we listen what
people have to say.

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wingerlang
Not totally unique. I saw this app just some day ago:
[http://www.forestapp.cc/](http://www.forestapp.cc/)

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binaryapparatus
Thanks. I didn't know about that app before. It seems they are using
prefabricated graphics vs algorithm and drawing that we do. Looks like nice
app.

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ApolloRising
I just bought this for fun from the appstore in order to support you guys.
Maybe I'm missing something but there is no menubar item to show you a small
representation of how much of the tree has left to grow. I would also like to
ask you what windowless mode is supposed to do exactly?

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mangeletti
+1

I almost just bought this when I realized, "Wait, where will this thing be the
whole time the tree is growing?". A menu option or something would be good for
me, since I have 3-4 apps (Firefox, Sublime Text 3, Terminal, and iTunes) in
full screen mode all day and I don't want a fractal tree growing in a full
screen app or on my left-most desktop.

BTW (related to a comment below), the music is one of the reasons I almost
bought the app. For me, that kind of music wins every time. It made the whole
experience more awe inspiring and mystical (or something), which identified
with the kinds of things I tend to like in this context.

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binaryapparatus
Hi mangeletti. Colleague of mine uses single crowded monitor, similar to what
you are doing. He leaves Zen Timer in the background, occasionally glancing at
tree growth to get an idea about time left. I prefer two monitors of course.
Both are valid ways to use the app. It is ten minute job (plus MAS review
time) to make menu bar timer but that didn't seem as 'zen' to us. However
let's discuss that (if you want use contact form on our site), it is easy to
add on/off option for that.

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mangeletti
Shoot! I actually just went to buy it (you had me sold with your quick reply)
and found that it requires 10.9+ :(

I'm on Mountain Lion with both of my MacBook Pros. I won't be upgrading until
I sell these and buy a new one (which will be at least a couple months -
waiting for El Capitan, as I've heard too many nightmare stories about
Yosemite).

In the meantime, your eagerness to connect (e.g., via HN this morning) with
your customers is going to help you greatly. I'd definitely add the menu
option, if it's easy, but make sure it's polished and looks great on a Retina
model (Mac users have grown accustomed to helpful menu items on apps like
this).

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binaryapparatus
Thanks for your kind words. Sorry to hear that you can't try it out
immediately. Among other things it was an exercise in writing Swift code and
Swift requires 10.9 as minimum. We would like to support few older OS versions
but Apple says no.

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jlemberg
I made a similar demo too with the HTML canvas
[http://yangcanvas.com/randomtrees](http://yangcanvas.com/randomtrees)

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jlarocco
What's with the final one pixel "branch" sprouting out of the tree at the end,
after the leaves fill in? Bug?

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Theodores
Some solutions are to imaginary problems, has to be said though that none of
the trees outside my window look anything like the 'bushes' shown here!

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binarymax
Very nice! Reminds me of a small project I did a while ago (minus the pomodoro
part): [http://binarymax.com/tree.html](http://binarymax.com/tree.html)

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binaryapparatus
Thanks binarymax! Yeah I can recognize the algorithm, very nice. We wanted
something different from progress rings while doing pomodori. There is ton of
things that can be added too, this is just a start. Always a careful tradeoff
between realistic rendering, speed and minimalistic approach that Apple uses
lately. One year ago Zen Timer would be much more skeuomorphic.

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xixixao
Love the idea. I imagine the tree could be more organic and interesting
though. Lots of animations have beautiful growing trees, maybe I'm thinking of
Braid?

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binaryapparatus
Hi, Zen Timer developer here. We do have plans to introduce new algorithms and
leaf shapes over time. It is very easy to customize app as it is but with
introduction of more different algorithms tree shape will be even more unique.
Right now algorithm makes sure that each tree has unique shape, introducing
drift and wind as random math parameters.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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pbowyer
Are there good, researched algorithms for natural looking plant growth? I have
hankered after creating a growing vine for years, but nothing looks natural
(vs extending vectors)

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fsloth
I think the typically referenced softwares in this space are X Frog and
SpeedTree.

The developers of XFrog have a few references listed:

[http://xfrog.com/company/about/](http://xfrog.com/company/about/)

[http://graphics.uni-
konstanz.de/publikationen/1998/creating_...](http://graphics.uni-
konstanz.de/publikationen/1998/creating_plants_cgforum/Lintermann%20et%20al.%20--%20A%20Modeling%20Method%20and%20User%20Interface%20for%20Creating%20Plants.pdf)
(A Modelling method and user interface for creating plants, Lintermann et.
all.)

[http://graphics.uni-
konstanz.de/publikationen/1998/plant_eco...](http://graphics.uni-
konstanz.de/publikationen/1998/plant_ecosystems/Deussen%20et%20al.%20--%20Realistic%20Modeling%20and%20Rendering%20of%20Plant%20Ecosystems.pdf)
(Realistic modeling and rendering of plant ecosystems, Deussen et. all.)

