One of the key speakers this year at Flashbelt is Processing superstar Robert Hodgin. Processing is an open source programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) that aims to serve as a ‘digital sketchbook’ - used by artists and programmers to create complex visuals, animations and image manipulations.

Former Flashbelt speaker and colleague Nick Longtin recently suggested I give Processing a try. That it was ‘right up my alley’.

I think he was right. Very similar to ActionScript, but with a simplified syntax. Check it out:

ActionScript
var blur:BlurFilter = new BlurFilter(10, 10, 2);
myLogo.filters = [blur];

Processing
filter(BLUR, 1);
image(myLogo);

…. although, you could simplify the ActionScript to
myLogo.filters = [new BlurFilter()];

Here are some of the results from my first Processing experiment (more examples in the rest of the article):

More examples: Read the rest of this entry »