Resources for Techweek workshop on pen-plotting weaving-inspired designs with Python
Event details: https://techweek.co.nz/whats-on/programme/view/pen-plotting-weaving-inspired-designs-with-python-67
Here are the session slides (OpenDocument presentation format) and session recording (MP4).
Here are the files for each task:
- Task 1: Drawing with py5 -- 01-drawing.py
- Task 2: Weaving Template -- 02-template.py
If you're looking for a more advanced follow-on to this session, you can watch the Virtual CC Fest 2022 session on Generating SVG for Pen Plotters using Python.
"py5 is a new version of Processing for Python 3.8+. It makes the Java Processing jars available to the CPython interpreter using JPype. It can do just about everything Processing can do, except with Python instead of Java code."
The Processing forum is also great for help with anything Processing + Python related.
A handy (but hardly complete) list of useful software for working with plotter art files:
- Beardicus' Awesome Plotters list
curated resources for computer-controlled drawing machines and other visual art robots - Msurguy's 3d-engines-for-plotters list
links to awesome 3D SVG exporters - occult
vpype plug-in to remove lines occulted by polygons from SVG files - plotter.vision
upload 3D STL files, interactively position them, then render them as SVG - Processing Geometry Suite
2D geometric algorithms in the form of a Processing library - UJI
a minimalist generative art thing; press the buttons and play with the sliders - vpype
the Swiss-Army-knife command-line tool for plotter vector graphics - vsketch
a Python generative art toolkit for plotters
I recommend exploring drawingbots.net, which is on a mission "to become the central place on the web to discover the world of drawing robots, get inspiration, and talk to other drawing robot enthusiasts."
A few (of the many) artists creating inspiring plotter art --
Antoine Beyeler · Binaura · Gábor Ugray · Iskra Velitchkova · Jakob Glock · Julien Espagnon · Julien Gachadoat · Matthis Grunsky · Michael Fogleman · Sean Puckett · Sohan Murthy · thedotisblack
The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection includes plotter artwork from several groundbreaking artists (Vera Molnar, Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, ...)
Also, check Twitter for #plottertwitter and #py5.
Other useful plotter and Python creative coding resources:
- Villares' comprehensive list of resources for teaching programming for artists, designers, and architects
- PlotterFiles hosts free SVG files for plotters and drawing robots
Learn Python Visually is a book based on Processing.py, but it should be relatively straightforward to adapt the content for py5. Everything camelCase switches to snake_case -- so, colorMode() becomes color_mode(), and so forth. The book's official resources include all of the code examples and solutions.