Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben McCormick

@phobon.io

520 followers 2.1K following 500 posts

Learn creative coding with shaders and Three.js: http://fragments.supply ✨ Design engineer, creative coder & shader artist

fragments.supply

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · Aug 31

Pretty crazy that this thing I've been working on in my spare time for the last 9 months is launching in a few days 😊

Check out Fragments, a kickstarter for your creative coding journey → https://www.fragments.supply/

#tsl #creativecoding #threejs

Fragments° — Creative coding with shaders

Kickstart your creative coding and shader art journey.

www.fragments.supply

1 1 7

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 1d

Not sure if I've mentioned this before* but I've been deep diving into generative art and creative coding with shaders and threejs.

I built fragments.supply - copy-paste snippets and creative coding flow, ready to go.

If you want to get hands-on fast, it's all here 🙌

* a great joke 😅

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 2d

Yeah, I used to check out awwwards quite often but fallen off it a lot lately

I have a really active www.cosmos.so going which is pretty good but always keen to find more inspo sources

Got a huge board that's just like future ui, neon stuff - it's very nice haha

Welcome to Cosmos

A discovery engine for creatives.

www.cosmos.so

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 2d

👋 Creative coders, what's your go-to for visual inspiration?

I want to explore different areas and expand my skills. I've got a couple of go to places I check out, but wondering what else is out there.

Would love to see what inspires you. Your recs would be appreciated 🫶

1 1

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 4d

This week's newsletter is out! I talk about Roli Lightpad Blocks!

... and also about my struggles 🪄

www.fragments.supply/writing/16-a...

I almost quit making this LED effect — Fragments

Hours of tweaking shapes and offsets almost broke me. Here's what happens when you push through the frustration.

www.fragments.supply

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 6d

Took that threejs noise sketch and pushed it further - the new outputs are showing me stuff I didn't even think about before.

Amazing how a few tiny tweaks can stack up and turn some mundane shapes into something special.

Honestly love when the code just does its own thing ✨

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 10d

haha, what doesn't everyone know about fluid sims???

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 10d

Maybe your obsession isn't mesh gradients.

Maybe it's fluid sims, delightful micro-interactions, or crazy particle systems.

Find the thing that keeps you up at night, then make it - again and again.

That's where the real growth happens 💪

1 3

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 11d

Gotta say, kind of clean in light mode 🤔

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 11d

I love iterating on ideas and techniques, but you need to know when to stop.

Here's what I've learned:

Keep going when: still discovering, results surprise you, you enjoy it.

Move on when: you're bored, it feels like busywork.

Your gut knows, just listen to it 🙇

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 11d

Totally! I think repeating things rather than trying to abstract early is an excellent thing to do

Also, I've certainly been guilty of those dreaded early abstractions (takes me back to when I was super into design systems haha)

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 11d

Thanks! Yeah, that's really interesting, I think it goes both ways with more junior devs (either repeating a lot or abstracting a lot)

I think that's one thing I've learned over the years, that everything is done for a reason, and I often don't have the context

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 12d

haha, I don't think I'm miles ahead - I think I've just spent a lot of time doing the same thing 😅

I haven't seen a single bad experiment of yours, I think they're all rad

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 12d

I wrote some words about obsession, repetition and shuhari. Been thinking about this for a while. What do you all think?

www.fragments.supply/writing/15-b...

I built the same thing 12 times and I'll do it again — Fragments

Most people hate repetition, but I've spent years making the same mesh gradient over and over. Here's why remaking the same thing teaches you more than making new things.

www.fragments.supply

2 3

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 13d

I'm a design engineer in threejs
I'm a shader artist in threejs
I'm a creative coder in threejs

Any questions? 😇

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 14d

This is a great community - been really enjoying this so far 🙇

OKAY DEV® @okaydev.co · 14d

🚀 Big news! Okay Social is now open to everyone.
It's the social network for creatives.

Claim your handle, create a profile, and start connecting with others.

Join our community today!
👉 okaydev.co/social

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 16d

I think some of my favourite shader outputs happen by accident

Using a loop iterator as an input, altering a colour with noise, reversing the coordinates...

Stumbling into these happy accidents is one of the most satisfying feelings in creative coding

Embrace the chaos and just try stuff 💪

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 17d

Some more morning inspiration here

I've been following @brettbolton_av for quite a while, and he just dropped a new single https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvXkZxrHZ4Q

This is the kind of stuff I've always dreamed of doing

The way the visuals react and play to his live playing is just magical 😍

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 17d

People often ask me why I write shaders when AI exists

I just love to know how things work. I think that building rad stuff is the best way to learn and grow as a creative developer

Also, gives me massive appreciation to all of the amazing shader artists out there 🙇

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 18d

Ever notice that so much in tech is starting to look the same? Like a copy-paste of itself?

Learning to write shaders opens up a whole new world of creativity that actually sets you apart as a dev or artist ✨

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 19d

After 9 months of hard work, time to take this out of early access and officially put it out into the world! This is fragments.supply, a platform to help you learn creative coding with shaders and three.js

So happy with how it came together, but now it's time to rest from the grind for a bit 😪

Learn creative coding with shaders and Three.js — Fragments

Master creative coding with shaders, Three.js, and TSL. Learn techniques, copy-paste utilities, and build generative art.

fragments.supply

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 19d

Heads up: my creative coding platform with shaders fragments.supply is launching out of early access tomorrow!

If you've ever been interested in creating amazing, artful things with #threejs, you should check it out

(Also there's a sneaky 40% discount until we launch 🤫)

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 21d

This is basically my internal monologue every single day

Don't stop, keep going! ✌️

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 21d

Yeah, essentially applying several layers of noise (I think there are 3 there) at differing complexities and then combining them using masks (also noise-based) to try and blur where the transitions are

1 1

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 22d

Curled noise is one of those techniques that can completely transform how your generative art feels

Simply layering noise on top of a warped image can create absolutely incredible results - it's kind of shocking

I'm honestly still shocked how this turned out 🪄

#tsl #threejs

1 2 11

Ben McCormick @phobon.io · 24d

everyone: good sleep is the most important thing!
me: has a 3 year old 🫠