Software over the rainbow

Last week I went to a two-day openframeworks workshop run by Zach Lieberman at hangar.

As said here before (and elsewhere), openframeworks is an open-source library to help other artists and students produce works through coding, written in C++. Yes, this might sound familiar. Its philosophy and intentions are very similar to processing’s.

However, openframeworks is not an IDE, but a set of coherent wrappers around useful libraries. As zach puts it, it is more of a glue that puts together different pieces:

• OpenGL for graphics displaying,
• FreeImage for image manipulation,
• Freetype for font displaying and manipulation,
• rtAudio for audio.
• Quicktime (mac or pc), directShow (pc) and (soon) Video4Linux (linux) for video grabbing and playing

Some of the key concepts behind openframeworks:

• Its focus is to simplify things. The main intention is that “you don’t have to look at much code when you’re beginning” (which is far from easy in c++).
• It’s conformed of reusable pieces, not stitched together. You can use any of its parts independently.
• It pretends to give you direct access to data e.g: pixels of the image, low level audio

I’ve been using it for the last couple of months. I had never done anything with c++ nor I had any idea of where to start and openframeworks has definitely made the learning curve way smoother. Having been around for ages, c++ has lots of picky details to worry about (pointers vs variables, preprocessor, different compilers, uncompatible IDEs….) so having some sort of blueprint which shares some of the programming concepts with processing makes you feel a little more like at home.

Although it’s been used extensively to give workshops and classes, it’s in super-alpha state (even the installation process was being tested on our workshop). Zach is working with Theo Watson on a really-soon-to-publish release. Most of the stuff will work on win, mac and linux.

So stay tuned.

After the recent workshop by joan soler-adillon in hangar, we’ve known of two more forthcoming workshops:

• on October the 16th, 19th, 23th, 26th, 30th and November the 2nd, gerald kogler will teach one at the centro cívico Golferichs of barcelona. + info
• on October the 24th, 25th and 26th, federico joselevich will give another one in Granollers, at La Fàbrica de les Arts. + info

So yesterday I gave a talk about my experience with processing at the begining processing workshop which is being held at Hangar by Joan Soler.

First part was about my reasons for learning-using-loving processing and how I’ve managed to use it in a commercial context. Then I went into a tutorial explaining the ascii video sketch. Finally i improvised an explanation of a del.icio.us information visualization project I had done at a previous workshop, which i think turned to be the most interesting thing for the audience.

It was my first experience as a speaker and although i don’t think it went too bad, the ascii tutorial didn’t work as I expected. Going too deep into code details doesn’t seem to be approppriate for a one hour session. Lesson learned.

Anyway, here are the slides (in spanish only) and the source files for the ascii tutorial.

Thanks very much to Joan for inviting me and to all the assistants for not leaving the room.

Otro taller interesante que llevarnos a la boca aquí en Barcelona. Me ha ayudado a que se me pase el disgusto por no vivir en la capital (tenía una pinta…).

Creo que sobran las presentaciones, así que…

Ctrl+V:

EXTEND: Taller de Trabajo Avanzado sobre Processing
Impartido por Casey Reas, Ben Fry, Marius Watz y Zachary Lieberman

Barcelona, HANGAR 8 - 12 de Mayo.
Un proyecto de OFFF y HANGAR con ocasión de OFFF 2006

HANGAR y el festival OFFF anuncian en colaboración un taller de trabajo de una semana de duración alrededor de Processing en el que los inscritos colaborarán con algunos de los nombres más importantes de su comunidad de artistas en el desarrollo de proyectos propios. El taller será impartido por Ben Fry y Casey Reas , creadores de Processing, junto a Marius Watz y Zachary Lieberman .

A lo largo del taller se tocarán técnicas y áreas como: visión por ordenador, técnicas avanzadas de movimiento, visualización de datos, sensores y gráficos en 3D. Se pondrá además un especial énfasis en cómo aumentar las posibilidades de Processing a partir del desarrollo de librerías y herramientas adicionales.
Los participantes trabajarán en grupo o individualmente, en colaboración con los profesores, que les ayudarán a explorar sus ideas y desarrollar su proyecto.

El nivel del taller se determinará en función de las solicitudes recibidas, pero en ningún caso se tratará de un taller de iniciación. Los inscritos deberán tener un conocimiento previo de Processing y, si es posible, haber desarrollado algún proyecto en este entorno anteriormente.

El taller tendrá lugar todos los días entre el l unes 8 y el viernes 12 de mayo . El 13 de mayo se presentarán los resultados del taller en el Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona , como parte de las actividades del festival OFFF .

La fecha límite de recepción de solicitudes para participar en el workshop es el 21 de Abril . El precio del taller será de 50 Euros y el número máximo de participantes será de 20 personas.

Los interesados pueden enviar sus solicitudes de inscripción a: i nfo@hangar.org

Incluyendo:

* Una breve biografía personal y profesional.
* Información sobre su experiencia previa con Processing, y , en caso de haber desarrollado proyectos con la herramienta, enlaces a éstos.

OFFF
www.offf.ws

HANGAR
www.hangar.org

Processing
www.processing.org