Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art

a piece of paper and do a little more involved math to properly solve the problem. Being
impetuous, manic, and very sleep-deprived, I just kept furiously hacking at the code—hoping
for some quick (magical) fix; It wasn’t going too well, and I actually went so far as to
find a pencil. Eventually something emerged, but it didn’t look very much like a serpent.
Instead, I found a strange, smoky, self-organizing blob (see Figure 4-13). In the end, I think
I got something more interesting than I originally planned for, and I learned something in
the process—so embrace the chaos! The code to this sketch, entitled Puff, follows. This is
not simple code, but it is an excellent demonstration of the expressive power of trig.
/* puff
Ira Greenberg, October 22, 2005 */
// for puff head
float headX;
float headY;
float speedX = .7;
float speedY = .9;
// for puff body
int cells = 2000;
float[]px= new float[cells];
float[]py= new float[cells];
float[]radiiX = new float[cells];
float[]radiiY = new float[cells];
float[]angle = new float[cells];
float[]frequency = new float[cells];
float[]cellRadius = new float[cells];
void setup(){
size(400, 400);
// begin in the center
headX = width/2;
headY = height/2;
//fill body arrays
for (int i=0; i< cells; i++){
radiiX[i] = random(-7, 7);
radiiY[i] = random(-4, 4);
frequency[i]= random(-9, 9);
cellRadius[i] = random(16, 40);
}
frameRate(30);
}
void draw(){
background(0);
noStroke();
fill(255, 255, 255, 5);
COMPUTER GRAPHICS, THE FUN, EASY WAY
137
4