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Ask HN: Any favorite artistic programming resources?

1 points by colund ↗ HN
What resources does the HN community recommend for someone diving into creative coding, such as animated graphics, Shadertoy, audio, and live coding music? I believe I have an intermediate understanding of 3D graphics and want to get more hands on with projects with SDL in C++ or Rust coding in CLion on Mac. I am particularly fascinated by using trigonometry, vectors, and audio to create mesmerizing digital art. I'd love to hear about your favorite books, papers, blogs, courses and videos that not only inspire but also provide a deep understanding of these concepts. What are some of the projects or resources that have been most influential or helpful in your journey? Do you have any tips on achieving demoscene type graphics and music?

5 comments

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geraldog
> What resources does the HN community recommend for someone diving into creative coding, such as animated graphics, Shadertoy, audio, and live coding music?

I recommend you give Panda3D a try, particularly the C++ API. Here's an example of my musical work visualized in Panda3D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHW7B2TKk6Q

> Do you have any tips on achieving demoscene type graphics and music?

I think you should reconsider your line of thought. demoscene type graphics and music are usually coded with assembly for speed optimization and there are hard limits on the size of the binary, usually.

Is that really what you are pursuing?

colund
You're right, I'm not into optimizing things with assembly. I just have old fond memories of cool demos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGGAJIla3Y and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjKkUTlhIek which would be fun to make and find inspirations for. I also like Winamp visualizations and resources to learn more about the math part for generating art that works well with music. I'll take a look at the Panda3D docs if it's something for me, thanks.
_spduchamp
I find that "art programming" has a tight feedback loop. So using things like Puredata, or SuperCollider, or even poking around in with ShaderToy, you get instant feedback on your tweaks. You might want to also checkout OpenFrameworks.
colund
I wasn't aware of SuperCollider and OpenFrameworks which seem really cool, so thanks a lot for your tips.