Learn to Paint with Mathematics
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as the most beginner-friendly way into shader programming and procedural graphics.
What it is
Inigo Quilez live-codes a painting using only mathematics in a shader, building it up step by step. The linked Shadertoy source shows the result.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends djmips · 2022-06 · on “Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)”
Thankfully for the graphics the very person who did the graphics in this Elevated demo is very generous with their time. Inigo Quilez has many instructional videos on his channel in how to code procedural graphics from the very beginner to the advanced. I link a couple of examples. You can watch the more advanced video even as a beginner but trying yourself is easier at the beginner level. Beginner. [this video] Advanced. [LINK] Website. [LINK]
Recommends joenot443 · 2023-04 · on “Show HN: Unknown Pleasures, a tiny web experiment with WebGL”
[LINK] is what I'm talking about. It's not necessarily a from-zero introduction, but it's a nice resource. [this video] is probably the the most beginner friendly. [LINK] is another great place to start. Good luck and enjoy!
Recommends modernerd · 2025-01 · on “Dissecting "Tiny Clouds" shadertoy (2017)”
Yes, but you can learn it! 1. Get inspired, get motivated. Shaders like these are breathtaking (and well-commented): [LINK] 2. Watch "Learn to paint with mathematics" to see a simple shader being built gradually: [this video] 3. Work through [LINK] .