Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps

About this course: This course is for anyone who would like to apply their technical skills to creative work ranging from video games to art installations to interactive music, and also for artists who would like to use programming in their artistic practice. This course will teach you how to develop and apply programming skills to creative work. This is an important skill within the development of creative mobile applications, digital music and video games. It will teach the technical skills needed to write software that make use of images, audio and graphics, and will concentrate on the application of these skills to creative projects. Additional resources will be provided for students with no programming background. At the end of this course, you will be able to: * Write creative, audiovisual programs in the Processing environment that run on desktop and mobile * Programatically manipulate sound in creative ways * Display images and image sequences * Generate interactive, algorithmic graphics * Work with a 2D physics engine to create a basic game

Created by:  University of London, Goldsmiths, University of London

• Taught by:  Dr Marco Gillies, Senior Lecturer

  Computing Department, Goldsmiths, University of London

• Taught by:  Dr Matthew Yee-King, Lecturer

  Computing Department, Goldsmiths, University of London

• Taught by:  Dr Mick Grierson, Reader

  Computing Department, Goldsmiths, University of London

Language English, Subtitles: Kazakh How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. User Ratings 4.7 stars Average User Rating 4.7See what learners said Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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University of London The University of London is a federal University which includes 17 world leading Colleges. Our International Programmes were founded in 1858 and have enriched the lives of thousands of students, delivering high quality University of London degrees wherever our students are across the globe. Our alumni include 7 Nobel Prize winners. Today, we are a global leader in distance and flexible study, offering degree programmes to over 50,000 students in over 180 countries. To find out more about studying for one of our degrees where you are, search for 'London International'. Goldsmiths, University of London

Syllabus


WEEK 1


Sonic Painter



This week we are getting up and running with the Processing IDE. We will show you the basics of writing Processing sketches then move onto some graphics and audio concepts. Mick will then introduce our first audiovisual example - SonicPainter, which allows users to interactively paint with synchronised graphics and sound.


11 videos, 4 readings, 5 practice quizzes expand

1. Video: 1.1 Introduction
2. Reading: Week 1 Code Pack
3. Reading: Slide pack
4. Video: 1.2 Processing
5. Reading: Install processing URL
6. Video: 1.25 Install Javascript Mode Instructions
7. Reading: Javascript mode is here!
8. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Processing
9. Video: 1.3 Graphics and drawing
10. Video: 1.35 Setup, draw and mouse interaction
11. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Graphics, drawing and interaction
12. Video: 1.4 Running Apps on iOS and Android
13. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Running Apps on iOS and Android
14. Video: 1.5 Introduction to Audio
15. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Introduction to Audio
16. Video: 1.6 Sonic Painter
17. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Sonic Painter
18. Video: 1.7 Outro
19. Video: Additional Lecture: Introduction To Programming
20. Video: Additional Lecture: Variables

Graded: Sonic Painter
Graded: Set up Processing

WEEK 2


DJTube



This week we are looking at using images and video, and also finding out how to control sound more fully in an interactive way. We're going to be showing you a really basic interactive VJ/DJ app called 'DJTube', which is a very simple example of how to create and load video, images and animations on desktops / mobile devices, and also use them as a basic user interface. 


8 videos, 2 readings, 4 practice quizzes expand

1. Reading: Week 2 Code Pack
2. Reading: Slide Pack
3. Video: 2.1 Intro
4. Video: 2.2 Images
5. Practice Quiz: Practice quiz: Images
6. Video: 2.3 Controlling audio speed
7. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Controlling audio speed
8. Video: 2.4 Controlling audio stop/ start
9. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Controlling audio stop/start
10. Video: 2.5 DJTube
11. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: DJTube
12. Video: 2.6 Outro
13. Video: Additional Lecture: Arrays
14. Video: Additional Lecture: Conditionals

Graded: DJTube

WEEK 3


Audio Visualiser



This week is all about creating an Audiovisualiser. This is a really popular and interesting topic that has lots of applications, from music players, to game engines, to more complex things such as DSP. We'll be learning about algorithmic graphics, audio analysis, and also about using the accelerometer features of your phone. Remember that many desktops don't have accelerometers, no matter how much you shake them!


8 videos, 2 readings, 5 practice quizzes expand

1. Video: 3 Introduction
2. Reading: Week 3 Code Pack
3. Reading: Lecture Pack
4. Video: 3.1 Transforms (part 1)
5. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Transforms (part 1)
6. Video: 3.1 Transforms (part 2)
7. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Transforms (part 2)
8. Video: 3.2 Trigonometry
9. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Trigonometry
10. Video: 3.3 Accessing Accelerometer Data
11. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Accessing Accelerometer Data
12. Video: 3.4 Audio Analysis
13. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Audio Analysis
14. Video: 3.5 Building Audio Visualisers
15. Video: 3.6 Outro

Graded: 3: Parameterised visualisation
Graded: Customise one of the examples

WEEK 4


AngryDroids



This week we will be creating a physics based game using a Physics engine based on Box2D. Physics engines are a fantastic way of creating dynamic gameplay that models the real world. Box2D is one of the most popular because it is optimised to be fast for 2D games that don't need the heavy processing of a 3D engine. It is used in many important 2D games, most famously Angry Birds. We will be using boxwrap2D which is a Java port of the original C++ version of Box2D, that is designed to work with Processing. Since boxwrap2D is java only we have created our own port to JavaScript, which interfaces to the javascript version of Box2D, but provides an almost identical interface to the Processing version.


9 videos, 2 readings, 5 practice quizzes expand

1. Video: 4 Introduction
2. Reading: Week 4 Code Pack
3. Reading: Slide Pack
4. Video: 4.1 Physics
5. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Physics
6. Video: 4.2 Forces
7. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Forces
8. Video: 4.3 Preparing and playing sound FX
9. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Preparing and playing sound FX
10. Video: 4.4 Integrating audio and physics
11. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Integrating audio and physics
12. Video: 4.5 Group discussion
13. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Group discussion
14. Video: 4.6 Outro
15. Video: Additional Lecture: Functions
16. Video: Additional Lecture: Loops

Graded: AngryDroids

WEEK 5


Music Machine



Welcome to the final week of Creative Programming for Digital Media and Mobile apps. This week, we are going to move back to one of our favorite areas of app development - music apps. We have a very special guest this week - Martin Roth from RJDJ. Martin has lots of experience working on consumer mobile music applications, including the amazing Inception app, and The Dark Knight Rises. He shares his views on the expanding space in mobile music applications, and offers us his opinion on the WebAudio API. Meanwhile, Matt will be showing you how to create a very basic drum sequencer, and Marco will take you through the basics of sliders and multisliders, which are particularly useful for controlling parameters in music apps. Mick will then be taking you through some synthesiser examples in WebAudio, and talk you through the Music Machine example, which is a great place to kick off making a professional interactive music app for mobile.


6 videos, 1 reading, 3 practice quizzes expand

1. Video: 5 Intro
2. Reading: Week 5 Code Pack
3. Video: 5.1 Basic drum sequencer
4. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Basic drum sequencer
5. Video: 5.2 Slider widget
6. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Slider widget
7. Video: 5.3 (Part 1) Music Machine discussion with Martin Roth from RJDJ
8. Video: 5.3 (Part 2) Music Machine
9. Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Music Machine
10. Video: 5.4 Outro

Graded: Music Machine Quiz
Graded: Customise AngryDroids or MusicMachine