NodeBox

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NodeBox

The NodeBox application showing an example script that generates colored balls.
Developer:	Frederik De Bleser
Latest release:	1.8.5 / February 27, 2007
OS:	Mac OS X
Use:	Graphic design, Animation
License:	MIT License
Website:	www.nodebox.net

NodeBox is an open-source application for programming 2D animation and graphics in Python. It runs on Mac OS X.

NodeBox is inspired by technologies like OpenGL and PostScript. The syntax is Processing-like. NodeBox is based on another open-source project, DrawBot.

1 Supported Primitives
2 Output
3 Libraries
4 Uses
5 External links

[edit] Supported Primitives

NodeBox can generate forms such as rectangles, ovals, stars, and arrows, but also bezier paths in general. It supports images (even PDF) and text (with line wrapping). You can specify fill and stroke colors using RGB, HSB or CMYK, all with alpha transparency.

You can deconstruct paths into contours, insert points at arbitrary positions on the path, and constructing paths based on a list of points. You can apply all these transformations to text as well.

[edit] Output

NodeBox can generate PDF documents that can easily be certified (CMYK colors, embedded fonts and images). It also generates QuickTime movies.

[edit] Libraries

NodeBox libraries support all kind of different functionality:

SVG library for importing SVG paths
The bezier editor for drawing paths inside of the application
Core Image for doing Photoshop-like image manipulations (layers with blending modes, color changes, filters) using the Mac OS X Core Image library, which is hardware accelerated.

[edit] Uses

NodeBox is currently used in the field of graphic design research and artificial intelligence. Some of the projects are:

Prism, an algorithm for creating a color palette on any subject. It uses the internet as a semantic database.
Flowerewolf, an experimental poetry generator that uses WordNet to generate visual poetry showing similarity with the Belgian writer Paul Van Ostaijen.
Percolator, a news aggregator and visualiser that harvests news sites and creates collages representing the matter.
Dryad, a typeface based on tree growth using L-systems.