Sketchpad 2.1

admin November 3, 2012

Where Sketchpad 2.0 introduced non-destructive vector + bitmap editing on the web. Sketchpad 2.1 (SP2.1) takes that bland package of vector tools and borrows features from Sketch Mobile, an app that exhibited my furthest exploration in creating colorful enviroments. SP2.1 is great at creating background wallpapers quickly now that most of the tools work with gradients, and are all editable in place—this can be especially fun on tools like Mr. Doob’s generative brushes, and the improved stamp tool.

New features include:

Multiuser drawing (NodeJS + Socket.io)
Editable generative brushes: Chrome, Fur, Shader, Sketchy, Web (via Mr Doob‘s Harmony)
Spacebar+drag while your in a brush (recommended by Chris Smith)
Change the tool type in the options drop-down menu after you’ve created a layer (Chris Smith)
Preview (ghost) the stamp tool before you apply it (Chris Smith)
Crayon tool reintroduced from Sketch Mobile.
Shapes: Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Gear, Star, Burst, Radial Burst, Spiral (Sketch Mobile)
Gradients in the style window, useable with most tools.
Stamp tool now has “Translate” feature, combined with a low “Flow”, and a nice looking gradient, can create beautiful tapestries in a few clicks.

You can access SP2.1beta in two ways:

Create your own multi-user drawing room (replace “myRoom” with your room):
- http://sketchpad.io/sketch2.1/?server=myRoom
Create your own personal drawing room:
- http://sketchpad.io/sketch2.1/

Have feature requests, or thoughts of how the interface is horrible? I would love to hear!

Apps HTML5, Sketchpad

Sketchpad 4.0

admin June 17, 2016

I’m excited to announce Sketchpad 4.0! The focuses on this release has making the app more colorful, faster, and easier to use.

Here’s an overview of what’s new:

Stroke/Fill is available on all brushes.
VectorFill replaces Floodfill for crisper edges and much faster rendering! This can lead to some fun by importing an SVG into Sketchpad, re-coloring it, and download it back as an SVG (right click to download!).
Linear gradient editor
Radial gradient editor
Text updates with special thanks to OpenType.js & some inspiration from FitText! Editing text now feels very smooth. Additionally these new features are available:
1. Font Size is automatically set based on textarea dimensions
2. Bold, Italic, Underline & Stroke styles
3. Align Left, Center, Right & Justify
4. Line Height & Letter Spacing
Crop has been merged with the Resize tool making life simpler. What’s better the crop tool now automatically zooms your viewport to fit so you can see your entire document while cropping.
Your library view has been updated with a more robust & spacious interface, along with more obvious buttons for renaming, duplicating, and removing documents.
High-res export now works on all tool and style combinations!
New auto-save UI allows you to disable the ‘auto-saving’ feature. This is helpful especially on large documents with thousands of layers that may take awhile to autosave. Although, to that end, auto-saving is much faster in the new version.
And finally you’ll find an export button right on the toolbar for all those who requested it!
Special thanks to jsondiffpatch which is now used in Sketchpad’s history.

There are a couple things that could not be 100% converted to the new version Sketchpad. You may want to consider whether these matter to you before upgrading your files (you will be prompted). My apologies for any inconvenience these may cause you:

FloodFill was depreciated. It just did not make sense to keep in. It cost too much to maintain, it was notorious for crashing users browsers. Sketchpad is a vector app, so a bitmap FloodFill never made sense. The new VectorFill replaces the FloodFill, and the results are much nicer!
LinearGradient format needed to be upgraded in order support the new Gradient Editor, in doing so LinearGradients may shift slightly.

If for any reason you’d like to use the older version of Sketchpad you can find it at its new permanent URL: https://sketch.io/sketchpad-3.7.6/

Or better yet, check out the latest!

https://sketch.io/sketchpad/

Apps Sketchpad

C.A.R.D.S. Project

admin October 19, 2015

I was recently asked to create artwork for the C.A.R.D.S. Project. Chris & John gave me no restrictions, and only one task: Create something interesting that fits on a 3.5 x 2.0 business card. For me, this was a dream project and an exciting excuse to play around with some generative algorithms!

My goal was to create an ‘ocean scene’. To do this I used Perlin noise vector fields, bezier curves, and color cycling. The ‘creatures’ or ‘waves’ are grown based on randomized parameters such as ‘width’, ‘length’ and ‘color’. The parameters change over time; some linearly, while others are mapped to cosine/sine waves and easing functions (this resulted in a more organic feeling).

I ended up submitting 250 unique cards to the project. Each card is composed of 10-frames and took 1-2 minutes to generate. Many were thrown out in the process! From there the cards were sent to GifPop for lenticular printing.

Here’s a few of my favorites (the squid in the first image is by Justin Windle):