Create trippy loop in UrpflanzeJS - Tutorial #1

Urpflanze is a library to create images or animations using code. You can find the documentation here

You can start writing code from the template on CodePen

Here's what we're going to talk about today:

Learn Urpflanze your way, try experimenting by changing values and don't forget to have fun 😜

Create a Scene

Urpflanze is based on point manipulation, so all transformations are done through the CPU.
It will be up to the Drawer to render the scene.

For more informations: Core, Drawer

In this part we create a Scene with a triangle inside
and we instantiate the drawer by connecting it to the body of the page.

const scene = new Urpflanze.Scene()

const triangle = new Urpflanze.Triangle()

scene.add(triangle)

const drawer = new Urpflanze.DrawerCanvas(scene, document.body)

drawer.startAnimation()

Output:

Repetitions and transformations

First we repeat the triangle (one row and eight columns), scaling it at each repetition.

the value of scale will be 1 for the last repetition when repetition.offset will be 1 and 0.1 for firt repetition when repetition.offset will be 0

const triangle = new Urpflanze.Triangle({
  repetitions: [1, 8],
  scale: ({ repetition }) => repetition.offset * 0.9 + 0.1, // trick for one row instead of repetition.col.offset
  sideLength: [50, 58],
})

Output:

Encapsulation of a shape

In Urpflanze it is possible to encapsulate any shape or group of shapes (more details here) with the Shape class.

The properties will be set on each repetition of the shape passed to the shape property

const triangle = new Urpflanze.Triangle({ /* */ })

const shape = new Urpflanze.Shape({
  shape: triangle, // <-- Set shape

  repetitions: 6,
  distance: 80,
  rotateZ: Urpflanze.toRadians(180),
})

// scene.add(triangle)
scene.add(shape)

Output:

Animations

We can animate all properties by passing a function instead of a static value (📃)

For animations we will use the built-in @urpflanze/animation library

Let's go back to the triangle and give movement to the position from where the scale starts.
If you are familiar with CSS you will know the transform-origin property.

Urpflanze.Animation[cosp|sinp](<time>, <period duration>, <phase>, <normalize>) return value between 0 and 1 in milliseconds

const triangle = new Urpflanze.Triangle({
  repetitions: [1, 8],
  scale: ({ repetition }) => repetition.offset * 0.9 + 0.1,
  sideLength: [50, 58],

  transformOrigin: () => [
    Urpflanze.Animation.cosp(scene.currentTime, 3000, Urpflanze.toRadians(-60), 1) * -0.8,
    Urpflanze.Animation.sinp(scene.currentTime, 3000, Urpflanze.toRadians(-60), 1) * -0.6 
  ]
})

Now we can add a spacing movement of the triangles and the rotation of the whole shape

const shape = new Urpflanze.Shape({
  /* ... */
  distance: Urpflanze.Animation.Loop({ from: 80, to: 50, duration: 3000 }),
  displace: Urpflanze.Animation.UncontrolledLoop({
    from: 0,
    to: Urpflanze.toRadians(-180),
    duration: 8000
  })
  /* ... */
})

Finally we can give a small deviation to the rotation of the triangles

const shape = new Urpflanze.Shape({
  /* ... */
  rotateZ: () => Urpflanze.Animation.sinp(scene.currentTime, 3000) * Urpflanze.toRadians(10) + Urpflanze.toRadians(180)
  /* ... */
})

Output of each separate stage: transformOrigin | distance + displace | rotateZ

Result

Combining everything together the result will be this

Conclusion

This is my first tutorial and I would like to premise that I am not an artist, I would like to see how you would use this library.

You can send me your experiments by tagging on various social networks:

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For the next video I was thinking of showing how to export the Scene (video, gif, zip, SVG, GCODE)

If you like the project and want to support me, you can:

• Leave feedback in the comments

• Contribute with a PR (Github)

• Donate to these links