• Files from “Processing Toolbox” session Jan 13:
  20120113 AHO Processing Toolbox
• Files from morning, Jan 12:
  20120112 processing intro – sketches 02

Just a quickie to provide a link to the files for today’s Processing intro workshop:
AHO Processing intro.zip.

I stupidly forgot to bring my USB stick, so please download from here. Also, download Processing 1.5.1 if you don’t have it on your computer.

Arc mesh tool created with Modelbuilder and ControlP5

I did a short lecture + workshop about digital fabrication and parametric modeling with Processing yesterday at NYU’s ITP program. Thanks to Dan Shiffman for the invite, it ended up being a lot of fun because of the great turnout of enthusiastic ITP’ers. It certainly made me even more regretful that I was unable to teach a fabbing course at ITP this semester, but with luck there will be other oppportunities.

As promised I have uploaded the pre-written examples I demo’ed as well as the code I (frenziedly) wrote live during our 1.5 hour coding session. The focus was to demonstrate the logic of the Modelbuilder library, a set of utilities and aimed at abstracting and simplifying some common tasks in computational creation of 3D meshes.

The library is really not all that sophisticated, but it shifts the focus away from OpenGL drawing logic towards a more object-oriented way of imaging 3D forms based on UVertexList objects. In a typical situation it should simplify a lot of tasks, as well as save dozens of for() loops and repetitive code. It also allows some pragmatic coding (aka “lazy”) coding practices enabling easy reuse of geometries due to the assumption that operations like “new UVertexList(vl)” should always copy input data by content rather than by reference.

I’m pleased to say that Modelbuilder performed well in the demo session, there’s nothing like live coding to reveal weaknesses or inconsistencies in code. But the Modelbuilder logic proved consistent under stress testing and we were able to do some pretty decent mesh generation in a limited amount of time.

A ZIP with all the files shown (including the Modelbuilder and ContolP5 libraries) can be downloaded from http://db.tt/5Ehmn6uz. It includes the following code examples:

• simple_geo_arc_4 A tool for creating a composition of 3D arcs (w/ valid face normal orientation and passing the “waterproof” criteria for 3D printing), generating output to STL format. This was written live in around 30 minutes.
• mb_04_gui_parametric A parametric 3D form generator created for my Makerbot residency – results look valid on screen but for some reason export to STL results in flawed models. I’ll look into debugging this example.
• mb_04_gui_heightfield An example showing how to create a heightfield mesh from an image, allowing interactive control of mesh resolution and Z scaling. Potentially useful for geographical elevation maps and Kinect depth maps.
• A set of examples demonstrating the core Modelbuilder functions

The Interactive Parametrics workshop with Studio Mode and MakerBot is going well, resulting in MakerBot-ready models generated from Processing sketches. Take a look at the slideshow above to get a preview.

Plenty of models have been going up on Thingiverse, tagged with intparam2011. I’ll be posting code and more pictures after we wind up the workshop tomorrow.

Workshop with Studio Mode & MakerBot: Interactive Parametrics

This weekend I’ll be teaching the Interactive Parametrics Workshop with Studio Mode (Gil Akos and Ronnie Parsons) and MakerBot (represented by Bre Pettis). We’ve been planning this for a while, but since it’s happening during my residency at MakerBot we thought it’d be fun to focus on the MakerBot as a possible output method. Our thanks to Bre and the MakerBot crew for supporting the workshop!

With a good mix of architects and code-hacking designers as our participants it should be an interesting weekend. We will be posting the resulting code examples and STL models after the workshop.

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Interactive Parametrics Workshop with Studio Mode and MakerBot, NYC Feb 19-20/21

I’m excited to announce that I will be doing a workshop in interactive parametric modelling with Studio Mode and MakerBot in New York, Feb 19-20 (with an optional extra day on Feb 21).

We will be using Processing along with CAD tools like Rhino3D to produce parametric models to output 3D models for digital fabrication. MakerBot Industries have graciously offered to lend us some MakerBot Thing-o-matics to produce models from the workshop. Participants are also free to use on-site KNK High-Force cutters.

The full announcement follows below, please visit Studio Mode’s announcement for enrollment and more details. Also check out the series of Processing primers I’ve been writing in preparation for the workshop.

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Processing introduction post on Studio Mode’s modeLab blog.

Exciting news: Studio Mode (aka Ronnie Parsons and Gil Akos) and I are working on plans for a parametric design workshop using Processing and Rhino/Grasshopper in New York later this year. Studio Mode have already conducted a series of successful workshops dealing with parametric design and digital fabrication. See Material Intelligence and coLab Casting for reference.

Our proposed collaboration will join knowledge of materials and manufacturing processes with the flexibility and real-time nature of Processing applications. Processing may lack the geometry functions of Rhino, but its capacity for interactive dynamic models makes it a powerful tool for parametric modelling.

Exact dates and format of the workshop are to be determined, but we’re hoping for early December. Watch this space.

In anticipation of the workshop I will be posting a series of Processing tutorials on the modeLab.nu blog. The first has now been posted, featuring four examples that introduce basic syntax, variables, mouse movement, and for loops. Upcoming tutorials will explore more complex topics related to parametric design.

Visualization sketch built with Processing

I will be teaching an intermediate Processing workshop at Devotion Gallery in Brooklyn in a couple of weeks. Devotion is dedicated to showing work at the intersection of art, design and technology. In addition to exhibition activities they are now busy setting up Devotion Learn to offer workshops in related topics.

My Processing workshop will be divided into 4 days x 4 hours, Monday-Tuesday Oct 18-19 and Oct 25-26. See below for details.

• Dates: Mon Oct 18th – Tues Oct 26th
• When: This course meets 4 times on Monday and Tuesday from 6 pm – 10 pm.
• Where: 54 Maujer, Brooklyn, NY 11206
• Level: Intermediate
• Prerequisite: Computer literate with some coding experience.

Tuition: $350 for Professionals / $250 for Students (School ID required for discount)
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I have uploaded the introductory lecture from Monday to Scribd, as seen above. The list of suggestions for possible data sources and comments on possible challenges are at the very end of the document. The visualization examples I used in the lecture are listed below.

In the section on self-ethnography I made rather heavy use of Nicholas Felton’s Feltron Report as a valuable reference. Please see his web site for more information on that project, you can even purchase hardcopies of the report for your own pleasure.

• Bill Cheswick: Internet Mapping Project
• Ben Fry: HapMap
• Martin Wattenberg: Shape of Song
• Moritz Stefaner: Map Your Moves
• SmartMoney.com: Map of the Market
• Marcos Weskamp: Newsmap
• Manuel Lima: Visual Complexity
• David McCandless: Billion-dollar-o-gram (see also his excellent TED Talk)
• OKCupid blog: Statistics from online dating
• Simon Elvins: Silent London

• Nicholas Felton: Feltron Annual Report
• RescueTime
• Drinkingdiary.com
• dailydiarycom
• last.fm
• Daytum
• your.flowingdata.com

Productivity charts generated by RescueTime.com tracker

The next two weeks I am teaching a workshop in Information Visualization and Self-Ethnography for the Interaction Design course at AHO. I’ll be posting links and resources here on the blog in the next few days.

Required Reading

• Gary Wolf: The Data-Driven Life (NYTimes.com)
• Shawn Allen: Introduction to Information Visualization course at SVA
• Wikipedia: Lifelog

Data collecting tools

• Daytum
• your.flowingdata
• RescueTime
• FourSquare
• Last.fm (music)
• MoodTracker (too medicine-specific?)
• EverNote
• Mindjet MindManager (commercial)