The Essential Guide to Processing for Flash Developers (eBook)

Ira Greenberg directs the Center of Creative Computation and is Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Meadows School of the Arts and Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX. He is the author of Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art and The Essential Guide to Processing for Flash Developers, both from friends of ED/Apress. Ira received his BFA from Cornell University and his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Table of contents 5
Foreword 10
About the Author 11
About the Technical Reviewer 12
Acknowledgments 13
Introduction 14
Chapter 1 Flash vs. Processing: Let the Death Match Begin! 16
What You Should Know (Well, Sort of) 17
The Complexity of Simplicity 18
Out-Yahoo’d 19
K.I.S.S.—The Processing IDE 20
File 22
Edit 25
Sketch 28
Tools 29
Help 33
Processing API from 30,000 Feet 33
Procedural Elegance 33
Peeking Is Encouraged 34
Prototyping and Beyond 34
Summary 40
Chapter 2 Processing Primer I: Just the Basics 41
Graphic Primitives 41
Rendering 43
A Primitive Sampler 49
Coding a Table 49
Filling the Table 53
Transformations 62
Drawing 75
Arrays 82
ActionScript 82
Processing 83
Summary 85
Chapter 3 Processing Primer II: Beyond the Basics 86
Primitive vs. Reference Variables 86
Curves 89
Adding Motion 105
Imaging 111
Loading Images 111
Pixels 122
Events 128
Tiny Taste of Typography 142
Summary 144
Chapter 4 Object-Oriented Programming in Processing 145
Some OOP Theory 146
Legs Class 149
Running Amuck 162
Composing Classes 168
Head Class: More Than Just a Pretty Face 169
Neck Class: Spring-Loaded 176
Schlemiel Class: Putting All the Pieces Together 184
Summary 192
Chapter 5 I Like Particle Engines! 193
Some Principles and Terms 194
Designing a Solution 196
Engine Description 196
Engine Class 197
Particle Class 202
Sprite Class 203
Arrow Class 214
Emitter Class 224
Environment Class 232
Collider Class 239
Engine Class 241
Summary 264
Chapter 6 A “Serious” Game 265
“You Can’t Create a Game Using Processing” 265
The Game Origin 266
The Concept 267
The Pay-off 267
Class Design 268
TTTBoard Class 268
Shape Class 283
Cell Class 286
Line Class 291
Pen Class 295
Style Class 298
IraStyle Class 302
Tri Class 310
ShallowGreen Class 312
Pattern Class 324
Running the Game 333
Summary 342
Chapter 7 Hacking Life 343
Emergence and Complexity 343
Cellular Automata 344
1D CA Framework 352
(Almost) Continuous CA 379
2D CA 400
Summary 421
Chapter 8 Creative Information Visualization 422
Java on the Cheap, and It’s 3D 423
Popularity of Widget Colors 424
Enough Talk, Let’s Build 425
Block.java 432
Interactor.java 438
Icosahedron.java 452
Cylinder.java 461
Helix.java 469
Visualizer.java 479
Summary 488
Index 489