Veronika Schmidt

Following on from various experiments in Flash and Processing to produce some generative art, I’ve discovered another OpenSource program NodeBox.

NodeBox is a Mac OS X application that lets you create 2D visuals (static, animated or interactive) using Python programming code and export them as a PDF or a QuickTime movie.

So far, I’ve found the programming language very straight forward. Where Processing uses Java, NodeBox is based on Python. It is apparently described as a ’state machine’ which is supposed to be easier to understand by people with no or limited programming knowledge. For example, once rotate(45) is called, all subsequent shapes, paths, text and images are rotated 45 degrees. Importantly, it’s working for me!

Neon Golden

NodeBox is more limited than Processing which has greater 3D and interactive capabilities but is still capable of visualising data and animation. Aimed essentially at designers, it offers a more intuitive and creative programming environment resulting in some stunning visuals. You can even import your Illustrator vector files and manipulate each curve individually using the NodeBox SVG library. Notably NodeBox is a good environment to learn about the structure of progarmming languages, is free and there are many examples and tutorials to get you started by going to the NodeBox website. (NB to PC users – currently NodeBox is only available on the Mac.)

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