Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art

}
pts[counter2].y-yg);
xg*=-1;
counter++;
}
counter2++;
branch(pts);
}
I don’t want to spend too much time on the code here, as lots of coding is coming up in
subsequent chapters. I’ll just give a quick overview of how the function works. If you feel
overwhelmed at any point, just skip the code parts. In Chapter 3, I’ll begin with a very
gentle introduction to the fundamentals of coding, so don’t panic. What I’m really interested
in illustrating is a creative process using code.
The branch function expects an array, of type Point2D.Float, as an argument (the stuff
between the parentheses at the top of the function). An array just holds a bunch of values,
as opposed to a variable, which only holds a single value. I chose to use Java’s Point2D.Float
class because it has built-in x and y properties and can handle real numbers (as opposed
to only integers). The stemCount variable controls how many branches each subsequent
branch gets. I hard-coded it to 2 just for now. The for loop draws the diagonal lines and
updates the pts array with the new branch locations. The variable xg controls whether the
branches lean left or right. By continuously multiplying xg by –1, it keeps toggling
the branches from right to left—not terribly organic, but efficient. The counters keep
track of stuff, and then I recursively call the same function, passing in the updated pts
array. At this point, you are probably either like “Cool, that makes sense,” or “Is it too late
to return this book? This guy is nuts!” Well, I may be nuts, but I don’t expect most of
you to be able to follow this code. However, hearing some of these terms over and over
will help with the “stick in your brain” part. What is really much more important and interesting
is how to turn this cold schematic diagram into a tree (see Figure 2-3).
Figure 2-3. Initial code implementation of the branching algorithm
CREATIVE CODING
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