61–70 of 73 posts
p5 was a core dependency for Art Blocks, a popular Ethereum art platform that gained popularity due to its asset class of entirely generative artworks.
As a wonderful coincidence, the piece of digital art that got me interested in digital art in the first place - which is a delightful tribute to computing - also used p5.js: https://baku89.com/work/ffff?lang=en https://animethemes.moe/anime/subete_ga_f_ni_naru_the_perfec...
I think one of the hardest things for me as a programmer is getting through all the boilerplate to put the first pixel on the screen and p5.js solves that pretty well, letting me focus on more on the "creative" aspect of "creative coding".
I probably wouldn't use p5.js for Big Boy Software Development, but whenever I want to sketch, it's the first digital tool I reach for.
I think the key reason why this link has been posted to HN now is because p5js has a new website? Back in 2023 the Sovereign Tech Fund gave the p5js folks a €450k grant[1] "to enhance p5.js Documentation organization & accessibility" and this seems to be some of the results of that investment. In my view, it seems to be paying off - the site feels a lot easier to navigate and search, with more useful information. For…
Recently did a digital ad entirely in processing and then ported it to p5js. In my experience with it… * processing is still much easier to work, even though p5js seems to catch-up. I did work with it like 10 years ago and it was already very easy * it was very easy to spot bugs or missing implementation in p5js * While an almost identical port was possible, it’s not 1:1 and takes learning some APIs * p5js is not eve…
P5 is not designed to solve the same problem as D3. It's for creative coding. It's what kids did on Logo, BASIC, or an a graphing calculator. For that, is brilliant.
It's for a weekend playing making digital art.
It's for teaching math and physics.
It's not something anyone could, would, or should use for any production code. You can't do a11y, i18n, responsiveness, or a million other annoyances that come with real-world coding. It's not a work framework.
It's there for FUN.
(And if you have kids and the to help them out, it's absolutely better than Scratch; marginally slower to get going, but no ceiling)
It is indeed slow. It's a library written by non-developers for non-developers and it shows in the APIs.
Is there a JavaScript library that does animation using timelines, key frames, etc? It seems like p5js and several other animation libraries focus on things like partial simulations or other animations driven by mathematical formulas rather than animations done by placing objects on timelines and transforming them.
There's also Anime.js[2] and Scene.js[3] - but I've never played with them so can't vouch for their usefulness. Both have had code updates in the past year.
(Self-promotion time) I had a lot of fun adding an animation/tween system to my canvas library[4] a while back. Building out the code to run such animations is one thing; making it performant is a very different challenge![5]
[2] https://github.com/juliangarnier/anime/
[3] https://github.com/daybrush/scenejs
[4] https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas
[5] SC tween stress test - https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/canvas-006.html
Ive used p5js to build my own Tetris game with vim bindings :) https://www.jerpint.io/blog/tetris/
Is there a JavaScript library that does animation using timelines, key frames, etc? It seems like p5js and several other animation libraries focus on things like partial simulations or other animations driven by mathematical formulas rather than animations done by placing objects on timelines and transforming them.
This gradient descent visualizer is made with it for example [1] to interpolate the points when the prediction line moves.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Recently did a digital ad entirely in processing and then ported it to p5js. In my experience with it… * processing is still much easier to work, even though p5js seems to catch-up. I did work with it like 10 years ago and it was already very easy * it was very easy to spot bugs or missing implementation in p5js * While an almost identical port was possible, it’s not 1:1 and takes learning some APIs * p5js is not eve…
These are some great insights! Thanks for summarizing them. It will save me a lot of time in the future. I would love to see this digital ad! Is it public?
* the images are generated with midjourney * the transition in this particular one is the export of processing * the track is from Babe Roots' incredible Sufferation Time - https://baberoots.bandcamp.com/track/sufferation-time-babe-r...
the p5js part was more challenging, as I had to only draw every 5th pixel every frame, in order to get some decent performance. but since this is a transition, you can't mention it.
the whole loop is not much, but took a good 6 hours to get together. then another 4-5 go rewrite it for web.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Recently did a digital ad entirely in processing and then ported it to p5js. In my experience with it… * processing is still much easier to work, even though p5js seems to catch-up. I did work with it like 10 years ago and it was already very easy * it was very easy to spot bugs or missing implementation in p5js * While an almost identical port was possible, it’s not 1:1 and takes learning some APIs * p5js is not eve…
p5.js ability to spark beginners while being reasonably capable is what stands out to me. There’s lots of options now, but it hits some outcomes in empowering folks who learned actionscript when it was the only game. More options today for sure.
BESIDES - Processing is much more mature and more usable with electronics. Really the whole point of p5js and this grant is beyond comprehension for me.