All projects 1X are due Monday September 12:

• Project 10: Reading; Looking Outwards
• Project 11: For loops & randomness
• Project 12: Embedded iteration wallpaper
• Project 13: PDF output
• Project 14: Order/Chaos composition

Project 10: Reading and Viewing

• In ‘Getting Started with Processing’, read pages 37-48 (Topics: variables, repetition).
• Spend a half-hour surfing new-media arts links. In a blog post, write 3 ‘Looking Outwards’ assignments about works you have discovered (embed a video or image, write 100-150 words, tag with the ‘LookingOutwards’ category).

Variables, Iteration, Blocks

• Introduction to variables (Golan’s ten lines example)
• for loops (ten lines example, generalized)
• Side note: Scoping of variables with respect to blocks.

Diagnosis

• Printing the values of variables to the console
• Constructing simple strings
• Displaying strings by drawing text

Mouse Interaction

• Interactions based on continuous cursor data
• Printing out the mouse values
• A ball linked to the mouse directly
• A ball mathematically related to the mouse value
• A ball linked to the mouse by inverse relationships
• Introduction to conditional testing. if (mouseX > val)
• Interactions based on discrete mouse data: if (mousePressed)
• The mousePressed() method
• A latch, which calls draw() only after mousePressed().

boolean doIt; 

void setup(){
  size(200,200);
  doIt = true;
}

void draw(){
  if (doIt){
    background(random(255), random(255), random(255));
    doIt = false;
  }
}

void mousePressed(){
  doIt = true;
}

Generating random numbers.

• applying randomness to different properties: color, position, size.
• constrained randomness:  e.g. bluish ellipses.

Project 11: A composition with for loops & randomness.

• Create a composition with 12 randomly generated shapes, using iteration.
• Bonus: have the shapes relate to each other, by using a persistent variable to store information about the previously generated shape, and then using that variable to somehow generate the next one based on the previous one.
• Upload to our OpenProcessing classroom.

Project 12: Wallpaper using nested for loops (‘Embedded iteration’)

• See http://www.processing.org/learning/basics/embeddediteration.html
• Create a composition which generates a pattern of tiling wallpaper.
• Bonus: include subtle randomness for visual interest.
• Upload to our OpenProcessing classroom.

Project 13: PDF output!

• Instead of drawing to the screen, we can draw your wallpaper to a (vector based) PDF file.
• See: http://www.processing.org/reference/libraries/pdf/index.html.
• Use the techniques described there to produce a PDF version of your wallpaper.
• I recommend either “Single Frame (With Screen Display)” or “Single Frame from an Animation (With Screen Display)”.
• Print out your PDF onto an 11×17″ sheet of paper and bring it to class for a pinup crit. Color or B&W, up to you.
• Embed the PDF in a blog post. We are using the Embed PDF plugin; there’s some documentation there.
• To embed the PDF in your blog post:
• Click on the little “Add Media” button in the WordPress editor (  );
• Upload your PDF;
• Be sure to grab the URL of your PDF image (it will look like ./wp-content/uploads/2011/09/blabla.pdf or something);
• In your blog post, use the PDF embed shortcode, as described here, with your specific PDF’s URL.

 Project 14: Interactively Parameterized Randomness

• See the helpful functions: map(), constrain()
• Make a composition which depicts “order” when the mouseX is on the left side of the canvas, and “chaos” when it is on the right side. The degree of order/chaos (entropy) should vary smoothly with the position of the mouse.
• Upload to our OpenProcessing classroom.