There was a time when art and design were things that were only displayed on the Web; the actual creation of art was an offline activity because the tools to support painting, drawing, and image manipulation were too resource and bandwidth intensive to be done on line.
As with most digital activities, this is no longer the case and scores of intriguing and useful tools have appeared that not only support art and design as online activities but expand the artistic vocabulary in unexpected and engaging ways. This week I have a couple of examples of these new tools that are worth checking out.
My first pick is a deceptively powerful drawing tool from designer and Web developer Ricardo Cabello, AKA “Mr. doob”. Cabello experiments with what can only be described as wild abandon using HTML5, JavaScript, and Flash. Actually, his HTML5 experiments are great examples of what can be done using only a standards-based markup system (curiously, if you go to individual experiments from his blog page the menu isn’t available) – mouse over the colored rectangles at the top of his home page to see each experiment; some have detailed information and source code available.
The drawing tool I mentioned is his latest experiment (the first on the left of the list), called “Harmony“. What’s amazing is that this is implemented in HTML5 and is an extensible, modular design. What makes it cool are the “brushes” that are aware of the points that they drew and generate effects based on location and proximity dynamically creating textures.
Another Cabello HTML5 experiment I love is “Google Sphere which deconstructs the contents of the Google Image Search home page and then has them dynamically orbit the page title and interact with the movement of the mouse.
The other online Graphics generator that caught my attention is from Romanian design firm X3 Studios. X3 have done some excellent Web sites and advertising campaigns and their Flash-based Wallpaper Application is, too beat the qualifier to death, way cool.
Using a library of shapes and tools you can build a cool desktop background graphic and include text if you wish. You can download your creation or save it to the communal gallery.
None of these tools are game-changing but they are useful and the underline just how far online graphics have gone.
If you know of other online graphics tools that have impressed you, let me know.
