Eco

This is an unfinished work in progress.

When I started to learn Processing, a while ago now, I was greatly helped by Daniel Shiffman’s excellent book and web site, The Nature of Code. Daniel has completely rewritten the book to teach Javascript and p5.js. Since I’d like to learn Javascript, and since I never completely finished the book, I recently bought a copy of the new book and started at the beginning.

I’m familiar with the first few chapters, on vectors, forces, particle systems, but it’s been useful to go through them again, rewriting some of my earlier sketches in p5.js. There is nothing like repetition for thoroughly learning a skill. But I’m looking forward to getting to the more advanced topics and new content in the latter half of the book.

There is an exercise called the Ecosystem Project that runs through the entire book. The idea is to design an ecosystem of simulated creatures in a simulated environment. At the end of each chapter, the student is asked to apply what they have learned to extend their Ecosystem Project.

I never got very far with the project the first time through; instead, I took the lessons on vectors and particle systems and applied them to the specific animations I was trying to create. But I’d like to complete the book and project this time. So I’m going to post my progress here with my other more finished sketches.

My Ecosystem Project will look primitive at first, perhaps for quite a while. At the moment, I’ve only implemented the exercises in the first two chapters; the sketch simulates two creatures that show different types of random movement. One seems to be some kind of flyer, the other spends its time closer to the ground and is a little less jumpy.

Let’s see where this goes!