Module 1 Stick Man Grinding and Burnout
A touch-controlled ESP32 animation about overwork and recovery.
Hold the wire and the stick figure runs faster. Keep holding it and he burns out.
- Theme Transition
- Hardware LilyGO TTGO T-Display ESP32
- Code Project_1.ino on GitHub
Video demo
Idea
For Module 1, the theme was Transition. We were making a generative piece for the Milstein Center, where students also spend long nights studying. I wanted to show the transition from working hard to burning out. People do not just burn out overnight. It happens gradually, and grind culture can make staying up late or packing your schedule look like a badge of honor.
On the screen, a stick figure walks across a mountain background. There is an exposed wire connected to the ESP32, and holding it makes him run faster. It looks like he is getting more done, but his health is falling the whole time. Keep holding the wire and he starts limping below 30% health. The colors get darker too. At zero, he collapses and stops moving.
Holding the wire represents continuing to put pressure on him. I did not want letting go to fix everything immediately. If he is already burned out, he still limps and recovers much more slowly even after you release the wire. You have to leave him alone for a while before he can return to a normal walk.
How I made it
I drew the figure and the mountains directly on the display with lines, circles, and triangles. The mountains scroll as he moves, and the figure and background change color as his health changes. I used four states so the transition would happen through the movement and the screen together, rather than just switching from healthy to collapsed.
| Photo | State | Input |
|---|---|---|
 |
Resting | Wire released |
 |
Grinding | Wire touched |
 |
Burnout | Wire touched |
 |
Collapsed | Wire touched |
The wire uses the ESP32’s capacitive touch input. Its reading can change with the surroundings, so the sketch takes 50 readings at startup while the wire is untouched and sets the touch threshold from that average. The sketch then updates the figure’s health and state as it runs. The button recalibrates the wire while he is active. If he has collapsed, the same button resets him.
The reset brings him back to full health, but holding the wire again starts the same cycle. I wanted the person interacting with the piece to notice that releasing the pressure is part of the action too.