Cinder - Begin Creative Coding

A quick introduction into the world of creative coding with Cinder through basic tutorials and a couple of advanced examples

Overview

• More power – Cinder is one of the most powerful creative coding engines out there and it will be hard to find a better one for your professional grade project
• Do it fast - each section should not take longer than one hour to complete.
• We give you the tools and it is up to you what you do with them – we won't go into complicated algorithms, but rather give you the brushes and paints so you can paint the way you already know.

In Detail

Cinder is one of the most powerful professional grade C++ creative coding frameworks out there. It is open-source and peer-reviewed, meaning that there are experienced professionals behind its developmentand that every development step is taken seriously. Its philosophy is based on the capabilities of the operating system it is used for – Cinder will take the best from every OS and hardware you choose to work on.

"Cinder - Begin Creative Coding" will let you take your previous creative coding experience to a higher and also more demanding level. It will show you the Cinder way of using the most used creative coding functions for drawing, animation, interaction and allow you to do much more in terms of performance and cross-application-compatibility.

Starting by downloading Cinder and setting up the development environment, we will work through some of the most widely used topics in creative coding by creating and discussing simple sample applications.

Throughout this book we will deal with relatively simple topics like basic drawing, basic animation, basic 3D, interaction, loading files, playing back video files, applying built in and custom effects. Then going through to more advanced topics like how to use Cinder for a generative projection mapping project by using Syphon technology and how to connect Open Sound Control enabled applications for receiving and sending data and commands.

"Cinder - Begin Creative Coding" will bring your craziest ideas closer to the core of your computer by using the pure power of C++.

What you will learn from this book

• Set up the Cinder development environment to let you start a new project in the fastest way possible.
• Generative animation basics that will allow you to create endless loops without a frame that repeats itself.
• Cinder and Open Sound Control – how to control and be controlled by other OSC enabled applications.
• Use widely used functionality included many other creative coding frameworks in Cinder.
• Explore Cinder and projection mapping by using Syphon and MadMapper.

Approach

Presented in an easy to follow, tutorial-style format, this book will lead you step-by-step through the multi-faceted uses of Cinder.

Who this book is written for

"Cinder - Begin Creative Coding" is for people who already have experience in programming. It can serve as a transition from a previous background in Processing, Java in general, JavaScript, openFrameworks, C++ in general or ActionScript to the framework covered in this book, namely Cinder. If you like quick and easy to follow tutorials that will let yousee progress in less than an hour – this book is for you. If you are searching for a book that will explain algorithms for complex 2D and 3D generative animations and use of advanced C++ and / or Open GL features – it is not.