Week 1 – Getting Started with Creative Coding

A warm welcome to this very first trcc Journey, it’s wonderful to have you on board! The foundations you’ll explore here apply across many programming languages.

This Week’s Roadmap

We’ll get started with the basics: setup, shapes, color, and simple interaction. From there, you’ll move on to logic, transformations, repetition, and methods for structuring your sketches.

Setup

• Processing and p5.js
• Installation (Processing)
• Setup and Draw

Basics

• Size
• Background
• Basic Geometry
• Stroke and Fill
• rectMode() & ellipseMode()
• Lines, Triangles, Polygons
• Colors
• Randomness

Logic & Structure

• Variables
• Conditional Statements
• Switch
• Operators
• Mouse Interaction
• Keyboard Interaction

Debugging

• Reference
• Comments
• Using the Console

Transform & Repeat

• Transformations
• push() and pop()
• For-Loops
• Waves
• Mapping

Export

• Saving Images

This Week’s Prompts

The prompt is here to help you put your new skills into practice. This week, you’ll build routine by working with geometric shapes and simple interactions in Processing.

Prompt 1: Develop a series of five letters from the alphabet of your choice, entirelly written with code. These can be static or animated. The output size must be 800×800 pixels. post the results in the Discord channel #journeys.

Prompt 2: Create a composition of three randomly placed geometric shapes: a line, a circle and a rectangle. The output size must be 800×800 pixels. post the results in the Discord channel #journeys.

If you feel like sharing what you’ve made, you can use the hashtag #trccjourneys on Mastodon, Instagram, or wherever you post your work.


Mastering the Learning Process

Learning to program can feel overwhelming at first. The key is to stay on track, practice and give yourself room to experiment. Don’t worry about getting everything right the first time. Repeating, adapting, and exploring will help you find your own way into coding.

Who knows, maybe what you’re starting today will even change how you think about design. It did for me.


Now let’s dive in!

Next Up

Next week, we’ll dive deeper into the Creative Coding workflow. You’ll learn best practices that make sketching with code smoother and more fun.

See you soon and have fun coding! ☀️


Tim

Further Reading

If you’re curious about what Creative Coding can teach you beyond crafting visuals I wrote this short piece: Beyond Visuals

Connect with the other travellers!

In any case, try to connect with the other folks that are on the same journey! You’ll find them in the Discord channel #journeys. If you haven’t joined discord, please sign up there, send me a message an I’ll add you to the travellers group!