Coding Art: A Guide to Unlocking Your Creativity with the Processing Language and p5.js in Four Simple Steps (Design Thinking)

✍ Scribed by Mathias Funk, Yu Zhang

• Publisher: Apress
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 342
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Finally, a book on creative programming, written directly for artists and designers! This second edition offers expanded and updated content incorporating the latest advancements and trends in the field of creative programming, also for creatives who want to work directly with P5.js and online. It delves deeper into the intricacies of computational art. It includes fresh case studies that explore real-world applications of coding art, inspiring readers to think beyond traditional boundaries.
Rather than following a computer science curriculum, this book is aimed at creatives who are working in the intersection of design, art, and education. Following a real-world use case of computation art, you'll see how it relates back to the four key pillars, and addresses potential pitfalls and challenges in the creative process. All code examples are presented in a fully integrated Processing example library, making it easy for readers to get started.
This unique and finely balanced approach between skill acquisition and development makes Coding Art, Second Edition the ideal reference book for both creative programming and the creative process for professors and students alike.

What You’ll Learn

• Review ideas and approaches from creative programming to different professional domains
  
• Work with computational tools like the Processing language
• Understand the skills needed to move from static elements to animation to interaction
• Use interactivity as input to bring creative concepts closer to refinement and depth
• Simplify and extend the design of aesthetics, rhythms, and smoothness with data structures
• Leverage the diversity of art code on other platforms like the web or mobile applications
• Understand the end-to-end process of computation art through real world use cases
• Study best practices, common pitfalls, and challenges of the creative process

Who This Book Is For
Those looking to see what computation and data can do for their creative expression; learners who want to integrate computation and data into their practices in different perspectives; creative technologists, educators, digital artists and those who already know how to program, seeking creativity and inspiration in the context of computation and data.

✦ Table of Contents

Table of Contents
About the Authors
About the Technical Reviewer
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Coding Art
1.2. Motivation
1.2.1. How to Talk with a “Machine”
1.2.2. Practice a Practice
1.2.3. Do It and Own It
1.3. How to Read This Book
1.3.1. Calling All Creatives
1.3.2. Four Steps, One Example, One Zoom
1.3.3. Getting Ready
Chapter 2: Idea to Visuals
2.1. Visual Elements
2.1.1. Shapes
2.1.2. Shaping Up in Processing
2.1.3. Colors, Transparency, and Filters
2.1.4. Working with Form and Texture
2.2. Canvas Secrets
2.2.1. Scaling Visual Elements
2.2.2. Resetting or Restoring the Canvas
2.2.3. Rotation and Translation
2.3. Animation: From Frames to Motion
2.3.1. Animation Basics
2.3.2. Simple Movement
2.3.3. Rhythm in Motion
2.4. Interaction as Input for Animation
2.4.1. Combining Mouse Presses and Movement
2.5. Summary
Chapter 3: Composition and Structure
3.1. Data and Code Structure
3.1.1. Creating Many Things
3.1.2. Controlling Many Things
3.2. Visual Structure
3.2.1. Composition and Alignment
3.2.2. Composing with Layers
3.2.3. Controlling Layers
3.3. Summary
Chapter 4: Refinement and Depth
4.1. Randomness and Noise
4.1.1. Working with Randomness
4.1.2. Controlling Randomness
4.1.3. Selecting and Making Choices with Randomness
4.1.4. Working with Noise
4.2. MemoryDot
4.2.1. Smoothing
4.2.2. Smoothly Working with Many Things
4.3. Using Computed Values
4.3.1. Computing Values with Functions
4.3.2. The Space Between Two Values: Interpolation
4.3.3. Interpolation with Functions
4.4. Interactivity
4.4.1. Mouse Interaction
4.4.2. Keyboard Interaction
4.4.3. Other Input
4.5. Summary
Chapter 5: Completion and Production
5.1. Making Things Big for Print
5.1.1. High-Resolution Rendering
5.1.2. Migrating to Scalable Version
5.1.3. Rendering Snapshots of Dynamic Work
5.2. A Backstage for Control
5.2.1. Tweak Mode in Processing
5.2.2. Centralizing Control with Variables
5.2.3. “Backstaging” with the Keyboard
5.3. More Stable and Less Risky Code
5.3.1. The Right Things in the Right Place
5.3.2. Avoiding Resource Bloat
5.3.3. Code Structure
5.3.4. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
5.4. Testing Before Deployment
5.4.1. Depending on Dependencies
5.4.2. Anticipating Differences
5.4.3. Preparing for Unattended Operation
5.5. Summary
Chapter 6: Taking a Larger Project Through All Four Steps
6.1. Context, Inspiration, and Starting Point
6.2. Concept and Artwork
6.3. Step 1: Idea to Visuals
6.4. Step 2: Composition and Structure
6.4.1. Composition: The Fog
6.4.2. Composition: Creating the Mountains
6.4.3. Structure: Creating the Particles
6.5. Step 3: Refinement and Depth
6.5.1. Refinement: Reshaping the Particles
6.5.2. Depth: Adding Interaction
6.6. Step 4: Completion and Production
6.6.1. Completion: Installation in Space
6.6.2. Production in Print
6.7. Summary
Chapter 7: Flow Fields and Particle Storms with p5.js
7.1. Getting Started with p5.js
7.1.1. Structure of p5.js Sketches
7.1.2. From Processing to p5.js
7.1.3. Fine-Tuning the Presentation
7.1.4. How to Spot Errors?
7.1.5. Making Your Work Publically Accessible
7.2. Generative Art on the Web
7.2.1. Flow Fields
7.2.2. From Flow Field to Particle Flow
7.2.3. From Particle Flow to Dotted Particle Traces
7.2.4. Giving Particle Traces Different Colors and Shapes
7.2.5. Painting Particle Traces As a Whole
Chapter 8: Making Sense of Touch and Sensors with p5.js
8.1. Preparing for Mobile Browsers, Accidental Interaction, and  Device Orientation
8.1.1. Preventing Accidental Interactions
8.1.2. Device Orientation
8.1.3. Grid-Based Example Case
8.2. Touch and Multi-touch
8.2.1. Working with Multiple Touches
8.2.2. Multi-touch Interaction
8.3. Working with Device Sensors
8.3.1. Activating Sensors
8.3.2. Working with Device Rotation
8.3.3. Working with Device Acceleration
Chapter 9: Dealing with Problems
9.1. Helping Yourself
9.1.1. Error Messages or Nothing Happens
9.1.2. Working with Copy–Paste
9.1.3. Reference Documentation
9.1.4. Searching for Symptoms
9.2. Getting Help from Others
9.2.1. Finding Help
9.2.2. Asking the Right Questions Right
9.2.3. Minimal Working Example
9.3. Working with Experts
9.3.1. How Can Experts Help You?
9.3.2. How to Manage a Project with Experts?
Chapter 10: Learning Path
10.1. Going Deeper
10.1.1. Challenges to Pick
10.1.2. Building Your Own Toolset
10.1.3. Sharing Your Toolset with Others
10.2. Different Technologies
10.2.1. Enhancing Processing and p5.js
10.2.2. Assessing Feasibility
10.2.3. Moving Away from Processing and p5.js
Chapter 11: Creative Processes
11.1. Two Types of Ideation
11.1.1. Concept-Based Ideation
11.1.2. Material-Based Ideation
11.2. Using Abstraction Layers
11.2.1. First Loop: Behavior to Output
11.2.2. Second Loop: Adding Data
11.2.3. Third Loop: Adding Input and Interaction
11.2.4. Fourth Loop: Adding a Backstage
11.2.5. Creative Processes with Layers
Conclusion
Epilogue
References
Index