Cutter is a Mini for the Bamboo Dock, created by Pieter Diepenmaat and me for Wacom Europe. Users can test their pen skills by cutting up various objects and prove their pens to be mightier than the sword. Four different scenes allow users to slice through anything that moves, or doesn't. This Mini and a new Bamboo Dock are part of Wacom's renewed Bamboo line.
Cutter
To complement their Bamboo product line, Wacom Europe offers Bamboo Dock, a widget engine intended to demonstrate their tablets' capabilities. Pieter Diepenmaat and I were asked to come up for some widgets, or Minis, as they're called. Cutter was the first of four Mini proposals we conceptualized. Minis can easily be created using either Flash or Flex and the Mini SDK, which offers support for pressure and touch.
Unfortunately, Pieter and I couldn't join up for working in the Mini's design and development, due to the project's small size, but he kept a watchful eye during the process. The main goal of this project was to make the cutting feel as perfect as possible, which only a physics engine could provide. Box2D is simple yet powerful and while limited to convex shapes, this can relatively easily be overcome. To complement the two dimensional nature of the action, I decided to go for a non-photorealistic look and feel. This was achieved by using Mike Finn's InstaSketch actions. To finish it of, the entire scene is blended with a canvas texture.
Try the demo on this page or download the Mini.
I used photos (or parts thereof) from the following Flickr users: miyukiutada, solution_63, OiMax, saname777, RomanKetchup, qorize, David Sifry and Hare Guizer. Sounds were used from Freesound users Than van Nispen tot Pannerden and kwandalist.