Building a digital painting studio from scratch with Processing

Published by Tim on Saturday June 18, 2022

Last modified on June 22nd, 2022 at 14:52

A few weeks ago I met the German artist Arno Beck, whose work I find absolutely great. Arno is a painter and deals with the transfer of digital phenomena into the physical world. Inspired by his painting I developed a digital painting software with Processing in this session.

Thanks to johnny_ctrl for the editing!

paintingstudio.pde

PImage[] images;

PGraphics source;
PGraphics target;
PGraphics result;

PGraphics comp;

PGraphics artboard;

PImage buffer;
PImage currImage;

int POSTER_W = 580;
int POSTER_H = 810;

float TILES_X = POSTER_W / 5;
float TILES_Y = POSTER_H / 5;

int sx, sy, sw, sh, dx, dy, dw, dh;

float scalar = 1;

float offsetX = 0;
float offsetY = 0;

float coutoutW = 30;

float threshold = 150;

void setup() {
  size(1740, 810);

  source = createGraphics(POSTER_W, POSTER_H);
  target = createGraphics(POSTER_W, POSTER_H);
  result = createGraphics(POSTER_W, POSTER_H);
  artboard = createGraphics(900, 900);

  comp = createGraphics(POSTER_W, POSTER_H);

  images = new PImage[9];

  images[0] = loadImage("1.jpg");
  images[1] = loadImage("2.jpg");
  images[2] = loadImage("3.jpg");
  images[3] = loadImage("4.jpg");
  images[4] = loadImage("5.jpg");
  images[5] = loadImage("6.jpg");
  images[6] = loadImage("7.jpg");
  images[7] = loadImage("8.jpg");
  images[8] = loadImage("9.jpg");

  currImage = images[int(random(images.length))];
}

void draw() {
  background(#00ff00);
  drawSource();
  drawTarget();
  drawResult();


  image(source, 0, 0);
  image(target, POSTER_W, 0);
  image(result, POSTER_W + POSTER_W, 0);
  noFill();
  stroke(#00ff00);
  strokeWeight(3);
  drawArtboard();

  rect(mouseX, mouseY, sw, sh);
  rect(mouseX + POSTER_W, mouseY, sw, sh);

  render();
}

artboard.pde

void drawArtboard() {
  artboard.beginDraw();
  artboard.background(0);
  artboard.imageMode(CENTER);
  PImage buffer = target.get();
  artboard.image(buffer,artboard.width/2,artboard.height/2);
  artboard.endDraw();
}

randomComposition.pde

void randomComposition() {
  
  int padding = 50;
  
  comp.beginDraw();
  comp.background(255);

  float diameter = random(300);

  comp.fill(0);
  comp.noStroke();
  comp.ellipse(random(padding,POSTER_W-padding), random(padding,POSTER_H-padding), diameter, diameter);
  comp.stroke(0);
  comp.strokeWeight(8);
  comp.strokeCap(RECT);
  comp.line(random(padding,POSTER_W-padding), random(padding,POSTER_H-padding), random(padding,POSTER_W-padding), random(padding,POSTER_H-padding));
  comp.endDraw();
}

render.pde

void render() {
  if (frameCount % 10 == 0) {
    artboard.save("out/" + nf(frameCount, 6) + ".png");
  }
}

result.pde

void drawResult() {

  float tileW = result.width / TILES_X;
  float tileH = result.height / TILES_Y;

  PImage buffer = target.get();

  result.beginDraw();
  result.background(#f1f1f1);

  result.noStroke();

  for (int x = 0; x < TILES_X; x++) {
    for (int y = 0; y < TILES_Y; y++) {

      int px = int(x*tileW);
      int py = int(y*tileH);
      color c = buffer.get(px, py);
      float b = brightness(c);

      if (b < threshold) {
        result.fill(0);
      } else {
        result.fill(#f1f1f1);
      }

      result.push();
      result.translate(x*tileW, y*tileH);
      result.rect(0, 0, tileW, tileH);
      result.pop();
    }
  }

  result.endDraw();
}

source.pde

void drawSource(){
  source.beginDraw();
  source.background(0);
  source.imageMode(CENTER);
  source.push();
  source.translate(source.width/2 + offsetX, source.height/2 + offsetY);
  source.scale(scalar);
  source.image(currImage,0,0);
  source.pop();
  source.endDraw();
}

target.pde

void drawTarget() {
  target.beginDraw();

  buffer = source.get();

  if (frameCount == 1) {
    target.background(#ffffff);
  }

  sx = mouseX;
  sy = mouseY;
  sw = int(coutoutW);
  sh = int(coutoutW);

  dx = mouseX;
  dy = mouseY;
  dw = int(coutoutW);
  dh = int(coutoutW);

  if (mousePressed) {
    target.copy(buffer, sx, sy, sw, sh, dx, dy, dw, dh);
  }


  target.endDraw();
}

ui.pde

void keyReleased() {
  if (key == '1') {
    currImage=images[0];
  }
  if (key == '2') {
    currImage=images[1];
  }
  if (key == '3') {
    currImage=images[2];
  }
  if (key == '4') {
    currImage=images[3];
  }
  if (key == '5') {
    currImage=images[4];
  }
  if (key == '6') {
    currImage=images[5];
  }
  if (key == '7') {
    currImage=images[6];
  }
  if (key == '8') {
    currImage=images[7];
  }
  if (key == '9') {
    currImage=images[8];
  }

  if (key == 'r') {
    scalar = random(1, 5);
    offsetX = random(-800, 800);
    offsetY = random(-800, 800);
  }

  if (key == 't') {
    randomComposition();
    currImage = comp.get();
  }
  if (key == 'e') {
    scalar = 1;
    offsetX = 0;
    offsetY = 0;
  }
}

void mouseWheel(MouseEvent event) {
  float e = event.getCount();
  coutoutW += e*10;
}