Inspired by the natural phenomena of cloths and liquids, Ricardo Sanchez explores spring mesh dynamics using box2D physics. SpringMesh is an interactive cloth you can twist, pull and deform using multitouch or gravity. Created by Ricardo and published by apps.CAN, SpringMesh is available now in the AppStore for both iPhone and iPad as an universal app ($1.99).

Features:
- Tap and drag to control the deformers (multitouch supported)
- Adjust spring damping, frequency and force radius
- Adjust mesh appearance including fills, wireframe or points
- Adjust mesh density
- Gravity – mesh gets twisted according to device orientation
- Change mesh color gradient
- Save image to photo library
- Universal – one app for all your iOS devices.

For more information, see http://springmesh.creativeapplications.net
For more examples, see our group on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/springmesh/

(40% of proceeds go to CAN. Thank you for your support)

–

Details

SpringMesh was built using ofxBox2d physics addon for openFrameworks. It consists of a series of particles interconnected by springs, border particles are static allowing the mesh to maintaing its original form, while inner particles repel, attract to user input (multitouch) or fall under gravity. Its colour is a direct representation of the forces applied, the stronger the force the lighter the colour.

Building the mesh

The grid is build by specifying the number of horizontal cells, from it we calculate the number of vertical cells

float gridRatio = gridWidth / gridHeight;
rows = (int)( cols / gridRatio );


The rest fall in place with a couple of for loops, but first we calculate cell dimensions.

float colCellDist = gridWidth / cols;
float rowCellDist = gridHeight / rows;

int idx = 0;
for ( int j = 0; j for ( int i = 0; i 0 ) {

Here we create horizontal connections by using the newly create particle and the previous in the container with index [idx - 1]. Store in a spring container.
}

if ( j > 0 ) {
Vertical connections follows same principle as before but now we take the previous particle from the container with index [idx - cols - 1]. Store in a spring container.
}
idx++;
}
}

–

Rendering wireframe mesh

For the wireframe view we loop through the springs container, getting both sides of the spring, its colour is calculated by the separation distance of both particles

for ( int i = 0; i < springs.size(); i++ ) {
Get one side position springs[i].joint->GetAnchorA()
Get the other side position springs[i].joint->GetAnchorB()

Calculate distance between spring bodies positions to change colours
float dist = bodyAPos.distance( bodyBPos );
float k = (dist / springs[i].getLength());

Here we draw all springs but no the edge ones, remember that edge particles contain no mass
if ( springs[i].joint->GetBodyA()->GetMass() != 0 || springs[i].joint->GetBodyB()->GetMass() != 0 ) {
Change colour
ofSetColor( 255 * (colR * k), 255 * (colG * k), 255 * (colB * k) );
springs[i].draw();
}
}

–

Building UI

The UI is built upon basic UIKit example bundled with openFrameworks. Additional views are created physicsView, meshView and infoView which are the pop-ups you see when clicked on buttons. The app variables such as adjustSpringDamping, adjustSpringFrequency, adjustForceRadius are connected to sliders. Likewise, their values are updated by init() (example: guiViewController.springDampingSlider.value = drag;). One all the dots were connected, adding a random button was easy by simply void testApp::runRandom() which randomises those values. Saving settings was done using ofxXmlSettings where slider values and switches are written to the xml file. When the app opens, the XML is read and values mapped to setup().

–

Addons used

• MSAShape3D - by Memo Atken
• ofxBox2d - box2d wrapper for OF by Tod Vanderlin
• ofxXmlSettings

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About Ricardo Sanchez:
Ricardo Sanchez a computer graphics enthusiast, originally from Maracaibo, Venezuela now residing in Bournemouth, UK. He has a passion for creative code and in his free time he likes to explore and research interactivity and generative graphics. Aside from a few LOGO courses in school, he is entirely self-taught.

nardove.com

Created and published by CreativeApplications.Net, SKTCH is a generative drawing application for the iPhone / iPod Touch and now iPad. Version 2.0 brings a whole new UI utilising Apple’s UIKit, for the iPhone – retina display support, two new presets, and finally after months of development we have released the iPad version.

iPad is where SKTCH really comes to life. The larger screen, new 3D mode and the new UI allows you to truly immerse yourself in your creations. During the development we have found that features such as file open/save do not really work particularly well with the iPhone, likewise the edit more allowing you to move points with tap and drag. There are some of many features we would like to implement in the iPad version, of course, if there is a demand. Thus, iPad version of SKTCH is published as a separate app rather than as a universal.

Please note that by purchasing SKTCH you directly help CAN, so we appreciate your support. Thank you.

For more information on SKTCH, see http://sktchapp.com or download the press pack.

In addition to SKTCH, RetroScreen has also received an update now supporting reina display on iPhone 4. RetroScreen source is now also available for download from github.

We are very pleased to announce immediate availability of GD3D, a 3D drawing application for the iPhone (iTunes). Created by Martin Fuchs aka d_effekt and published by CreativeApplications.Net, GD3D (GeoDoodle3d) is an Accelerometer and Compass/GPS 3D drawing application for the iPhone allowing you to create three dimensional drawings in space. Using built in compass, GD3D lets you draw around you, tagging your location with color and sharing your creations with other users or visit places to see what they have drawn.

Martin, for those that may not know, is a Basel/ Switzerland based interactive artist, working together with Philip Whitfield they form the undef collective. Both students until recently at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, I first got to know Martin through a series of fantastic projects we published on CAN in the past (here, here, here). It was not short after both Martin and Phillip contributed to the SKTCH project by designing few drawing presets known as CROSS and KIEBITZ. Few months ago, keeping it very quiet until then, Martin offered to share with me an iPhone app he was working on, though ready for submission. Having had a play with GD3D, I was instantly drawn in, wanting to get involved thus offering Martin an opportunity for CAN to publish the app. Having gone through the ins and outs of what that might mean, we decided I would complete the app (Martin was busy finishing his thesis) as well as create the site for the app. Our original intention was to create a simple site, something that would promote the app but with more time spent on it we realised it was an opportunity to use the site as an extension to the app, something everyone could enjoy regardless of whether they have the iPhone app or not.

As mentioned earlier, GD3D allows you to draw in 3D, tagging your location and simultaneously sharing your drawings with others in proximity. GD3D is not an augmented reality app, we like to think of it as a portal to a new place, one of colour and imagination. GD3D also allows you to see drawings within 1km radius of wherever you are regardless of who has drawn it (using rui physics). You can download these drawings to your device and experience them in 3D by rotating the iPhone around you in the physical world. You can leave messages for others, redraw something you see or simply leave a mark, in a place somewhere in the world. We wanted the site to show only that, tags spread across the world. We didn’t care for location, cities or towns, we wanted your locations to define the map, redraw the world. The only reference is the GPS data, two simple number defining coordinates in relation to one another. It’s about the world we are creating not the one that exists already – “This world is but a canvas to our imagination” Henry David Thoreau.

Because GD3D writes data to MySQL database whenever someone uploads a drawing, all the information was already there for us to use including coordinates, point data, time/date, etc..

What we were missing was a preview, a flat 2D way to preview a drawing. Martin agreed to add another camera to the app which would create an aerial perspective view of what you’ve drawn. A 500x500px image gets created and uploaded to the site every time you upload a new drawing.  We now needed someone to help with the GoogleMaps integration. Andrey Yazev aka mrslndr and the389.com offered to create the map portion of the site. What you see today, is Andrey’s wonderful work, allowing you to browse all the drawings everyone’s created. Of course, you can only see them as 2D images and you have to be within 1km radius to actually experience them. With a lot of tweaking, adding things such as ability to tweet from the website any of the drawings and seeing the location on maps.google.com, the site finally came together.

In addition, the site also works great as an iPhone web app. If you visit the site on your iPhone and “Add to Homescreen”, GD3D.net will appear as a web app without the safari toolbars allowing you quick access to the map.

There is much in store for GD3D. Some things we are thinking are .GML integration, SKTCH presets, Twitter OAuth and much more.. Tell us what you think, what you like, what you’d like to see…

This is just the beginning..a portal to a new place, one of colour and imagination..

GD3D is available on the AppStore for $1.99.

Thanks to Andrey Yazev (GoogleMap integration), Philip Whitfield and Peter Bichsel, Luke Wroblewski (Touch gesture icons), Mårten Nettelbladt (MISO typeface).

For latest, follow GD3D on Twitter or Facebook.

Created and designed by Brendan Dawes and published by CreativeApplications.Net, The Accidental News Explorer is a new type of news app that celebrates serendipity and chance encounters. Start by searching for a subject. Once you’ve browsed the suggested articles taken from hundreds of news sources, tap the “related topics” button to discover connected topics, which in turn lead to more articles. Each article leads to new things; the more curious you are, the longer your journey will be. What will you discover?

You may start with Art, discover Jasper Johns and see news related to similar artists or read about the Museum of modern art. Alternatively you may search for Obama, discover Larry Elder’s article, find related Afghanistan issues and read about Efron (see video).

The Accidental News Explorer is powered by Daylife.

• Optimised for iPhone 4 Retina display
• Instapaper integration – save articles for reading later
• Easily email article links
• Copy links so you can share articles

Ever since his first experiences with the humble ZX81 back in the early eighties, Brendan Dawes has continued to explore the interplay of people, code, design and art both in his role leading the team at mN and on brendandawes.com, a personal space where he publishes random thoughts, toys and projects created from an eclectic mix of digital and analog objects. Find out more….

The Accidental News Explorer is available for $1.99 and has already reached top 20 apps in the news section of the AppStore.

Created by Kim Asendorf and published by CreativeApplications.Net, asdfbmp is a pixel pattern generator app for iPhone and iPod Touch. It creates a pixel structure by using a spatial partition algorithm resulting in fields populated by pixel patterns.

You can choose from 16 bitmap patterns and 32 colours. You can adjust the minimal field size, the probability of a new division and the proportion between horizontal and vertical division.

In the draw mode you decide which field is going to be divided. By tapping on the screen the field you have chosen gets split under condition that your minimal field size is met.  The auto mode divides until there is no more field left and it’s wonderful to watch. Additionally there is a mode menu where you can choose extra blending modes such as pattern, fill, outline, empty, random.

Kim Asendorf is an artist based in Kassel, Germany. Inspired by social behavior, the thinking of large media groups and the resulting gaps in these systems. Driven by curiosity and the basic idea of a do-gooder, he uses all the known techniques and methods to express oneself.

For examples see Flickr and for updates follow asdfbmp on twitter @asdfbmp_app.

The app is available in the AppStore for $1.99.

About Apps.CAN:
Apps.CreativeApplications.Net, a little brother of CAN, is a site dedicated to the collection of Apps for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad created by artists around the globe and published by CreativeApplications.Net. The aim is to inspire, innovate and challenge the norm by creating applications that question our relationship to technology and personal devices. The applications included are the first of many to come. If you are an artist/developer and interested in working with CreativeApplications.Net, please get in touch.

Created by Mike Tucker and published by CreativeApplications.Net, RetroScreen is an interactive incarnation of the older generation screensavers now designed for the iPad / iPhone and iPod Touch. If you can recall the days of endlessly starring at your PC/Mac screen watching the ‘amazing’ graphics and miss the innocence of 90′s computing platforms, you can now indulge your nostalgia with RetroScreen.

RetroScreen is a collaboration between CAN and Mike bringing you not one but five different modes in RetroScreen, each taking full advantage of multitouch. The first mode includes a deforming curve, second a polygon, third just points, fourth a filled shape and last but not least a line revolving around the centre of the screen. All modes include ability to add additional points resulting in visually stunning output.

Controls:
• Tap and drag to control a point.
• Double tap to delete a point.
• Double tap anywhere else to add a new point..
• And don’t forget, you can take screenshots in any app by clicking Home and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.

Made with openFrameworks, an open source C++ toolkit.
..a CreativeApplications.Net application.

By purchasing RetroScreen you are also supporting CreativeApplications.Net and we would like to thank you!

We are pleased to announce that the first official CreativeApplications.Net app is now available in the AppStore. SKTCH is a generative drawing application for the iPhone/iPod Touch featuring digital artists we got to know in the past few months, contributing their code to the initiative. SKTCH brings together a very talented group of people, some that have been working with the code for a long time and others just getting to know it. The app was created using the wonderful openFrameworks, organised in a way to allow different artists to contribute by providing “classes” which are then incorporated into the app by mainly drag and drop. Every class or what we like to call “preset” uses 6 variables. First three are simple RGB colours, having control over how the colours change in their preset. The other variables include “n” which we like to refer to as multiplier, “t” for transparency and “scl” for scale. Besides these 6 variables, it was totally up to the artists to explore possibilities. The only rule was that the preset could not be animated apart from when it is being drawn. It would have to come to a still eventually, examples being “TRIANGLE” and “FIREFLY”. The variables can be modified from the settings panel, allowing endless possibilities for each preset. If the values were not sufficient, ie too low, this was multiplied, ie “n*2″ within their class. Once all the presets were all in place, it was then a matter of organising them in the “draw” method so they all overlay the best way possible.

You can combine presets you choose or explore each one individually by modifying the properties in the settings panel. Here is what is included:

SQUARE – Simple square to get you started. Drag around the screen to see them multiply or adjust transparency to create fade effect.

CIRCLE – Another simple object (similar to square).

MESH – Generative mesh that connects line to previously drawn points creating a mesh style effect. Adjust the parameter to connect older points to reduce mesh extent.

DEPTH AND WIDTH – Parameter created by Andres Müller, play or words, use options to set width between the letters.

NETWORK – draw circles connected by centre points, size of the circle is defined by it’s distance to previous point. Great preset for multitouch, creating some very unexpected but beautiful results.

TRIANGLE draws beautiful generative triangles by connecting points emitted using particles.

Thanks to Kim Asendorf for both ASENDORF and SIX POINTS unique presets to Kim’s work. Adjust scale, span between the points and direction of pattern.

JOCABOLA is a simple but beautiful preset playing with the circle resolution. Create triangles/squares/pentagons and much more. Brought to you by Eduard Prats Molner.

FIREFLY also by Eduard, a particle driven preset using jocabola as the primary element.

CROSS is a preset by Martin Fuchs (deffekt) allowing you to create crosses and alter their size and look. Wonderful blend of color as you draw them.

KIEBITZ by Philip Whitfield (underdoeg), inspired by footprint of a bird draws amazing lines almost feeling three dimensional and last but not least;

Two wonderful presets from Mike Tucker; PHASE a simple weave of lines and ORBIT galaxy like swarm effect.

Some Tips & Tricks:

# Each preset works in a unique way. Explore each one seeing how settings change them. Don’t forget to try multitouch, works great on presets like Network, Jocabola or Kibbits.
# Use random button to generate variations on your current sketch.
# Mix and match different presets together, see them change in realtime as you modify the parameters.
# Take photos and make them background for your sketches.
# Try layering compositions by capturing screen of your current sketch and importing it as a background from your photo library.

We would like to think of this just as the beginning. We already have a number of other artists lined up to create presets for future versions. We thought 14 was a great number to start with but we hope this number will grow, doubling and tripling over the next few months. We also have other plans for SKTCH and these include a desktop app and of course an iPad app. Rather than just porting what we already have, we would like to explore opportunities that each platform provides so expect something special from each version. We would not like to discuss details just yet, but be sure that it’s going to be awesome.

Why purchase? SKTCH is one of many apps we hope to publish in the future. We are already talking to a few artists about publishing apps for them. We believe CAN is a great place to gather both those interested in creative app development and those that love making things. By purchasing SKTCH and future apps that come from CAN you are not only supporting this blog but also helping promote creative app development. So please, if you haven’t already, head over to the AppStore and purchase SKTCH. For only $1.99 we hope it will bring you as much enjoyment as it has to us developing it.

If you are interested in CreativeApplications.Net helping bring YOUR apps to the right audience or if you would like to contributre code to future version of SKTCH, please drop us a message at info[at]creativeapplications.net.

If you would like to suggest features or artists for future version of SKTCH, please head over to our GetSatisfaction page and leave a comment.

Please also if you like SKTCH then why not help us with a TWEET to get it onto as many iPhones and iPod Touches as possible!

Last weekend I took part in the openFrameworks Lab organised as a part of Decode exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. With about 30 people taking part, we were devided in 6 groups where I joined the Drawing Tool Jam group with Zach Lieberman – inspired by Rhonda. Other groups included Homemade 3D Scanner with Kyle McDonald, Scaletrix Hacking with Gavin Morris, Human Pong by Benjamin Knofe, Reactickles / iPhone Reactickles by Dimitrios Zampelis with Joel Gethin Lewis and People on Pop, Kikko (Diagne Cyril) with Andreas Müller. First day included an introduction to oF and followed with another 2 days of coding + experiments and tutorials. You can find out more information on this Wiki page.

Our group started from a simple example where by moving the mouse on screen a number of points were created and connected (download XCode example file). My intention was to add circles to these so as you paned across the screen the circles would be generated. The next step was to play with some values. For example when the mouse position was at the top of the screen, ie y value being low the circle radius would small and when the circles were at the bottom the of the screen they would appear much larger. The similar was applied to the circle colour. RGB values were changing as the circles were moving position. This is something that was kept throughout the app dev and you can see in the “final” version.

[/text]"]//testapp.cpp //draw

// example for different circle properties changing acording to circle position
for (int i = 0; i < pts.size(); i++){
//        ofCircle(pts[i].x, pts[i].y, (pts[i].y)*0.2);
ofCircle(pts[i].x, pts[i].y, q*200);
ofSetColor(((pts[i].y)*1), ((pts[i].y)*0.25), 0);
ofFill();

Next step was to extend the edges of the app, ie when you moved the mouse beyond the edges the drawing would continue. This was done with the simple 2 lines of code. The amount could be increased or decreased to create desired effect.

[/text]"]//testapp.cpp //update // same was done for particles[i].pos
pts[i].y += sin(ofGetElapsedTimef()) * 1.25;
pts[i].x += cos(ofGetElapsedTimef()) * 1.25;

Because the group was generally exploring alternative ways of controlling the drawing (other than mouse), I decided to implement OSC control and try to control the particles from the iPhone. The OSC example located in oF ad-on examples folder contained all the information/code needed to make this happen. It was a matter of copying and pasting the code and seeing the values generated using Memo Akten‘s MSARemote application for the iPhone. With the bare copy and paste and accelerometer turned on, we could observe values that were being parsed. With the help of Zach Lieberman, we managed to isolate only the values we needed and map these onto the mouse movement. The accelerometer data was mapped the same way allowing this value to be assigned to the screen movement. Interestingly, something we didn’t expect was that you could now control the particles using more than one iPhone. Of course, accelerometer needed to be switched on on a single iPhone only as if it was controlled by multiple the conflict would occur, ie two people or move moving the scene in opposite directions.

[/text]"]//testapp.cpp //update // code for the OSC messages - mapping to mouse controls

if (m.getNumArgs() > 3){
// both the arguments are int32's
//int nothing = m.getArgAsInt32( 0 );
int id  = m.getArgAsInt32( 1 );
float x = m.getArgAsFloat( 2 );
float y = m.getArgAsFloat( 3 );
cout << id << " " << x << " " << y << endl;
mouseDragged( x * ofGetWidth(), y * ofGetHeight(), 0);
}

Porting the code to iPhone worked in about 10 minutes. It was as easy as drag and drop particle class .h and .cpp files, copy an paste code from the main .cpp and .h files and compile and run in emulator. Deploying it to the iPhone would have also worked great first time but because I haven’t done it for a while I realised that my iPhone OS was newer than the Xcode version. I had to download the latest version of Xcode (all 2.7gigs), install it and then deploy to device worked perfect.
Once I was able to test it on the iPhone I found that screen space and orientation made the circular motion slightly too slow. Multiplying these values fixed this. Another issue was performance which to this day is probably still a bit of a problem. Because on the desktop the particles never die, I knew that on the iPhone this would be an issue. With the help of Zach Gage over iChat, we added a code which made old particles disappear when amount of the would go over a certain number. What you see now in the iPhone app is about 200 particles generated from points which over time disappear. Using multitouch, ie more than one finger at the time makes this happen faster as a double or triple amount of particles are created on a single swipe. Things do go a little hectic if you use four fingers but there is something quite nice about complexity that occurs.

[/text]"]//App.cpp // update / making particle lifespan

for(int i=particles.size()-1;i>=0;i--)
{
if(particles[i].life > 60*2)
{
particles.erase(particles.begin()+i);
}

While it was my intention to replace automated circular motion with accelerometer data, ie as you tilt your iPhone the screen would pan, allowing you to draw endlessly in screen space (like the desktop app), the accelerometer effect creates confusion, ie when you tilt your iPhone it’s hard to keep an eye on what is happening. In addition, because your fingers cover the large area of the screen you would miss particle events.

The last touches to the iPhone app included a separate clear button at the bottom right of the screen and little instruction about double tap. The clear button is a simple instruction if the mouse is pressed and is in this location of the screen them clear:

[/text]"]//App.cpp // touchDown / clearing the screen
if(x>290 && x<290+30 && y>450 && y<450+30)
{
pts.clear();
particles.clear();
}

<pre>//App.cpp // touchDoubleTap / unhiding the info panel
hello.bVisible = !hello.bVisible;

Posting to the AppStore took some time, probably more time than adding some of the UI. Luckily, Zach Gage was on iChat to help out although managing to apply right distribution certificates needed some effort. While until now I have been using development certificate, I needed to add the app to distribution profile and download new distribution certificate. Double tapping on the executable on Xcode would bring up info panel where the now new distribution certificate needed to be assigned. Once that was done, the upload of the binary to iTunes Connect worked just fine. Another small weirdness was the large icon. Apple asks for 512×512 image, where my icon was generated from the desktop app the detail and quality was much lower. The question was whether to recreate the icon from scratch or just blow up (increase the res) suffering the poor quality of image if viewed at full res. I went with blow up even though the image looked pretty bad at full res. Considering that apple would never use that image at it’s full resolution I thought that would be fine.

You can download the full source for the desktop app here (note you will need MSARemote to control the screen panning – without you will only see the partices)

Download the Mac OSX Only Desktop app here

You can download the iPhone source or the version currently in the AppStore.The app is free and you can download it here:

If you have any comments or questions, please leave a comment below.
If there are additional features you would like to see, please add a task here on NoKahuna for consideration.

Thanks to Joel Gethin Lewis, Zach Lieberman, Kyle McDonald, Arturo Castro, Andreas Müller, Eduard Prats Molner, Zach Gage, onedotzero and Victoria and Albert Museum.

Created with openFrameworks.
For information on openFrameworks see http://openframeworks.cc
For information on past and future workshops see http://wiki.openframeworks.cc

Published by CreativeApplications.Net, ONull is an image based Vector Generator for Mac OSX. It allows the user to convert images into rasterized vector graphics. This tool was developed by Kim Asendorf to give graphic designers the ability to transform small images from the Internet into printable and editable graphics.

ONull is written in Java and uses the Processing core library as graphical engine. It is available for both Mac and via Java for Windows/Linux users.

onull.net + add your creations to the ONull Flickr pool.

Features
-16 Vector Shapes
-Vector Controls (Size, Rotation, Color Amplifier)
-Fill & Stroke Settings
-Color & Opacity Settings
-Grid Controls
-JPG, PNG & GIF Import
-PDF Export
-SVG Vector Import

I have been following Kim’s work for some time now and have been very impressed by things published on both his Flickr and site…an incredible amount of energy. ONull is just one amongst many inspiring pieces you can see here, here and here. A must follow.