Creative coding advice I think I needed to hear a few times but nobody told me. I understand why, it’s hard not to make it sound arrogant. I’m going to risk it anyway:

Starting with creative coding, for example by downloading Processing, isn’t going to let us make this:

Not because it’s beyond our potential or we lack some inherent skill. But because it’s the result of wandering around for a long time, picking up little bits and pieces of code and techniques. Practice, lots of it.

Taking a piece like this apart as if it’s some linear path is very discouraging. It looks like the creator knew exactly what to do at every step, for seemingly unfathomable reasons. And that can leave us feeling demotivated.

But what this piece, this one path, doesn’t show is the vast labyrinth of detours and dead ends that brought the creator there. It also ignores all the previous journeys he made, partially travelling the same paths, that diverged to different destinations.

Following that path, step by step, leads to the same place, but ultimately it can feel empty. It can feel like we will never be able to come up with this ourselves. Tutorials and recipe books can evoke that same feeling: we did the example, now what?

I’ve been tempted a few times to stop sharing, to stop making, because why bother with my pebbles, look at the mountains *they* are creating...

But the true wonder of creative coding is to keep playing with those pebbles, because mountains are hidden underneath.

I’m still at the stage of pebbles, but they’re pretty pebbles :-)

Cheers!