Processing Tutorial: Learn Interactive Computer Graphics

In this Processing tutorial, you will learn how to create simple interactive graphics with Processing language. Despite its simplicity, Processing is a powerful tool and learning Processing is quite easy. With it you can produce interactive animations for the web, Android apps and you can translate it into other programming languages.

What You Will Learn in This Online Computer Graphics Course

This Processing tutorial is an introductory course to the vast possibilities of the language. You won't need any previous knowledge of computer science to follow it.

What you will learn in this computer graphics tutorial:

• you will draw simple geometric shapes on the screen (ellipses, arcs, rectangles, lines);
• you will choose the size of the canvas, create animations and adjust their speed;
• you will learn about variables and functions;
• you will draw using different overlapping levels;
• you will learn about smoothing;
• you will translate and rotate the images;
• you will control the stroke and the fill of our images;
• you will explore the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) codification of colors;
• you will learn about the loop and how to make selections between different choices;
• you will load external images and create vectorial images and use different fonts preloading them;
• you will use the keyboard and mouse to control the animations;
• you will export images to pdf and other formats;
• you will export the programs to other languages and produce Android apps or JavaScript or R files.

Processing Is a Gateway Programming Language

The Processing programming language is a sort of Java dialect - a simpler way to approach computer science. So if you are ever involved in complex projects in the future, much of the knowledge you’ll acquire in this online computer graphics course will be useful and reusable.

I have experience as an (offline) computer science teacher and I can attest that this is one of the best ways to begin learning to code. I have also been a Web Master and Processing is far simpler and straightforward for producing interactive graphics for the web than the alternatives. So with me learning Processing will be quite easy.

If you have a general understanding of programming, this language will speed up your processes. It’s the easiest solution when it’s necessary to produce interactive graphics for the web.

Knowing Graphics Programming Opens Many Doors

If you know Java you can add elements to the new concepts introduced here. You can create functions, classes and so on. Take this Processing tutorial and you will be able to export the code to different languages with minor changes.

While you are learning Processing, you will be writing a program that you can export to Javascript, R language, Android, Java, Python and others. Writing the simplest and straightforward code for your animations will open up many doors to you.

If you are a teacher, Processing is the simplest textual computer science language out there. Introduce it as the first textual computer science language to teach in your course and then you will be able to teach Java as an upgrade. So even if you teach, this online computer graphics course is a great tool for learning Processing.

Processing Tutorial for Beginners

This online computer graphics course is designed to be easy - as easy as possible. While studying, try to experiment. Change the parameters of the examples. Don’t worry, I'll guide you all the way through. You will always be able to restart and use the code from the examples.

Let's begin the computer graphics tutorial!