Cosmic Soup – Beautiful Programming

One of the best tools in the motion design bag o’ tricks is the spring. Here we have a bunch of springs linked together – 500 to be exact. The lead particle moves by itself, or it will follow the mouse if it’s moving. To get the fading and blurring effects, we’re using a pair of PGraphics objects to render the scene, distort it a bit, and then render it back into the main scene. This is sometimes referred to as “rendering to a texture”, but it’s much simpler to accomplish in processing than when working with OpenGL directly.

PGraphics canvas;
PGraphics auxCanvas;
float fadeSpeed = 2.0;
Chain chain;
float startX;
float startY;
float osc = 0.0;
float oscSpeed = 0.005;
boolean isPaused = false;
boolean chainIsActive = true;

void setup()
{
  size(940, 540);
  canvas = createGraphics(width, height);
  auxCanvas = createGraphics(width, height);
  startX = random(width);
  startY = random(height);
  chain = new Chain();

  canvas.beginDraw();
  canvas.background(0);
  canvas.endDraw();
  auxCanvas.beginDraw();
  auxCanvas.background(0);
  auxCanvas.endDraw();
  canvas.colorMode(HSB, 255);
  auxCanvas.colorMode(HSB, 255);
  colorMode(HSB, 255);

  smooth();
  canvas.smooth();
  auxCanvas.smooth();
}

void draw() 
{
  if (!isPaused)
  {
    osc += oscSpeed;
    float ratio = sin(osc);
    float invRatio = cos(osc);
    float offsetX = cos(osc) * 0.1;
    float offsetY = sin(osc) * 0.1;

    canvas.beginDraw();
    canvas.image(auxCanvas, 0, 0, width, height);
    if (chainIsActive) chain.update();
    canvas.endDraw();
    image(canvas, 0, 0);
    auxCanvas.beginDraw();
    auxCanvas.image(canvas, -fadeSpeed*0.5, -fadeSpeed*0.5, width+fadeSpeed, height+fadeSpeed);
    auxCanvas.endDraw();
  }
}

boolean sketchFullScreen()
{
  return false;
}

void keyPressed()
{
  if (key == 'p') isPaused = !isPaused;
  if (key == 'c') chainIsActive = !chainIsActive;
}

class Chain
{
  int numParts = 500;
  Part[] parts;
  float hue = random(TWO_PI);
  float saturation = 125;
  float brightness = 125;
  float osc = random(TWO_PI);
  float x, y, vx, vy;

  Chain()
  {
    x = startX;
    y = startY;
    vx = 0;
    vy = 0;
    createParts();
  }

  void update()
  {
    canvas.noFill();
    updateHue();

    if (mouseX == pmouseX && mouseY == pmouseY)
    {
      vx += random(-1.0, 1.0) * 1.0;
      vy += random(-1.0, 1.0) * 1.0;

      vx *= 0.99;
      vy *= 0.99;
    }
    else
    {
      vx += (mouseX - x) * 0.01;
      vy += (mouseY - y) * 0.01;

      vx *= 0.9;
      vy *= 0.9;
    }

    x += vx;
    y += vy;

    if (x > width)
    { 
      x = width;
      vx *= -1;
    }
    if (x < 0)
    { 
      x = 0;
      vx *= -1;
    }
    if (y > height) 
    { 
      y = height;
      vy *= -1;
    }
    if (y < 0) 
    { 
      y = 0;
      vy *= -1;
    }

    updateParts();
  }

  void updateParts()
  {
    for (int i=0; i<numParts; i++)
    {
      parts[i].update();
    }
  }

  void createParts()
  {
    parts = new Part[numParts];

    for (int i=0; i<numParts; i++)
    {
      Part part = new Part();
      if (i > 0) part.leader = parts[i-1];
      part.hueOffset = i * (255/6/numParts);
      parts[i] = part;
    }
  }

  void updateHue()
  {
    osc += 0.003;
    hue += 0.1;
    hue = hue % 255;
    saturation = (sin(osc)/2 + 0.5) * 255;
    brightness = (sin(osc*0.3)/2 + 0.5) * 255;
  }
}

class Part
{
  float x, y, vx, vy;
  Part leader = null;
  float spring = 0.2;
  float friction = 0.56;
  float hueOffset = 0.0;
  float hue = 0.0;

  Part()
  {
    x = startX;
    y = startY;
    vx = 0.0;
    vy = 0.0;
  }

  void update()
  {
    if (leader == null)
    {
      vx += (chain.x - x) * spring;
      vy += (chain.y - y) * spring;
    }
    else
    {
      vx += (leader.x - x) * spring;
      vy += (leader.y - y) * spring;
    }

    vx *= friction;
    vy *= friction;

    x += vx;
    y += vy;

    if (leader != null)
    {
      hue = (chain.hue + hueOffset) % 255;
      canvas.stroke(hue, chain.saturation, chain.brightness, 255);
      canvas.line(x, y, leader.x, leader.y);
    }
  }
}

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PGraphics canvas;

PGraphics auxCanvas;

float fadeSpeed = 2.0;

Chain chain;

float startX;

float startY;

float osc = 0.0;

float oscSpeed = 0.005;

boolean isPaused = false;

boolean chainIsActive = true;

void setup()

{

size(940, 540);

canvas = createGraphics(width, height);

auxCanvas = createGraphics(width, height);

startX = random(width);

startY = random(height);

chain = new Chain();

canvas.beginDraw();

canvas.background(0);

canvas.endDraw();

auxCanvas.beginDraw();

auxCanvas.background(0);

auxCanvas.endDraw();

canvas.colorMode(HSB, 255);

auxCanvas.colorMode(HSB, 255);

colorMode(HSB, 255);

smooth();

canvas.smooth();

auxCanvas.smooth();

}

void draw()

{

if (!isPaused)

{

osc += oscSpeed;

float ratio = sin(osc);

float invRatio = cos(osc);

float offsetX = cos(osc) * 0.1;

float offsetY = sin(osc) * 0.1;

canvas.beginDraw();

canvas.image(auxCanvas, 0, 0, width, height);

if (chainIsActive) chain.update();

canvas.endDraw();

image(canvas, 0, 0);

auxCanvas.beginDraw();

auxCanvas.image(canvas, -fadeSpeed*0.5, -fadeSpeed*0.5, width+fadeSpeed, height+fadeSpeed);

auxCanvas.endDraw();

}

boolean sketchFullScreen()

{

return false;

}

void keyPressed()

{

if (key == 'p') isPaused = !isPaused;

if (key == 'c') chainIsActive = !chainIsActive;

}

class Chain

{

int numParts = 500;

Part[] parts;

float hue = random(TWO_PI);

float saturation = 125;

float brightness = 125;

float osc = random(TWO_PI);

float x, y, vx, vy;

Chain()

{

x = startX;

y = startY;

vx = 0;

vy = 0;

createParts();

}

void update()

{

canvas.noFill();

updateHue();

if (mouseX == pmouseX && mouseY == pmouseY)

{

vx += random(-1.0, 1.0) * 1.0;

vy += random(-1.0, 1.0) * 1.0;

vx *= 0.99;

vy *= 0.99;

}

else

{

vx += (mouseX - x) * 0.01;

vy += (mouseY - y) * 0.01;

vx *= 0.9;

vy *= 0.9;

}

x += vx;

y += vy;

if (x > width)

{

x = width;

vx *= -1;

}

if (x < 0)

{

x = 0;

vx *= -1;

}

if (y > height)

{

y = height;

vy *= -1;

}

if (y < 0)

{

y = 0;

vy *= -1;

}

updateParts();

}

void updateParts()

{

for (int i=0; i<numParts; i++)

{

parts[i].update();

}

void createParts()

{

parts = new Part[numParts];

for (int i=0; i<numParts; i++)

{

Part part = new Part();

if (i > 0) part.leader = parts[i-1];

part.hueOffset = i * (255/6/numParts);

parts[i] = part;

}

void updateHue()

{

osc += 0.003;

hue += 0.1;

hue = hue % 255;

saturation = (sin(osc)/2 + 0.5) * 255;

brightness = (sin(osc*0.3)/2 + 0.5) * 255;

}

class Part

{

float x, y, vx, vy;

Part leader = null;

float spring = 0.2;

float friction = 0.56;

float hueOffset = 0.0;

float hue = 0.0;

Part()

{

x = startX;

y = startY;

vx = 0.0;

vy = 0.0;

}

void update()

{

if (leader == null)

{

vx += (chain.x - x) * spring;

vy += (chain.y - y) * spring;

}

else

{

vx += (leader.x - x) * spring;

vy += (leader.y - y) * spring;

}

vx *= friction;

vy *= friction;

x += vx;

y += vy;

if (leader != null)

{

hue = (chain.hue + hueOffset) % 255;

canvas.stroke(hue, chain.saturation, chain.brightness, 255);

canvas.line(x, y, leader.x, leader.y);

}

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