More PDF output examples: Graphics for NIAF

More gratuitous (real-world) examples of how great PDF output is. These are teaser postcards for Norwich International Animation Festival, which will take place in October this year. I am doing a generative piece which will function as identity graphics for the festival. Essentially, a single Processing software will generate a large variety of stills for print use (using PDF), as well as realtime animated trailers to be run ahead of every screening.

See Flickr for my sketches for the NIAF piece, the image over shows the 4 postcards that will go out in the next few weeks. Posters and a catalogue will follow, which I am very excited about. Again, the images show that the new PDF output library gives very high quality for print when using 3D objects.

However, there are a few quirks to PDF:

• No depth-sorting or intersecting objects. In the NIAF project that proved to be a benefit rather than a setback, as the shapes would sometimes intersect in a visually unattractive way.
• No pro-vertex shading, i.e. no gradient-filled polygons. In the NIAF piece you can see that I have used multiple polygons with interpolated color. This is not ideal, as it produces banding, but it can be worked into the aesthetic of the piece.
• No possibilities for using groups or layers, a typical feature of PDF and Illustrator documents. If this could be added it would make it much easier to post-edit the results. Processing uses the free iText PDF library, and I experimented briefly with inserting layers by directly accessing the PDFWriter object, but no luck so far.

Still, PDF output is a god-send for a range of new Processing applications.