By Ira Greenberg Generates an ellipse using bezier() and trig functions. Approximately every 1/2 second a new ellipse is plotted using random values for control/anchor points.
Original Processing.org Example: BezierEllipse
// All Examples Written by Casey Reas and Ben Fry // unless otherwise stated. // arrays to hold ellipse coordinate data float[] px, py, cx, cy, cx2, cy2; // global variable-points in ellipse int pts = 4; color controlPtCol = #222222; color anchorPtCol = #BBBBBB; void setup(){ size(200, 200); smooth(); setEllipse(pts, 65, 65); frameRate(0.5); } void draw(){ background(145); drawEllipse(); setEllipse(int(random(3, 12)), random(-100, 150), random(-100, 150)); } // draw ellipse with anchor/control points void drawEllipse(){ strokeWeight(1.125); stroke(255); noFill(); // create ellipse for (int i=0; i<pts; i++){ if (i==pts-1) { bezier(px[i], py[i], cx[i], cy[i], cx2[i], cy2[i], px[0], py[0]); } else{ bezier(px[i], py[i], cx[i], cy[i], cx2[i], cy2[i], px[i+1], py[i+1]); } } strokeWeight(.75); stroke(0); rectMode(CENTER); // control handles and tangent lines for ( int i=0; i< pts; i++){ if (i==pts-1){ // last loop iteration-close path line(px[0], py[0], cx2[i], cy2[i]); } if (i>0){ line(px[i], py[i], cx2[i-1], cy2[i-1]); } line(px[i], py[i], cx[i], cy[i]); } for ( int i=0; i< pts; i++){ fill(controlPtCol); noStroke(); //control handles ellipse(cx[i], cy[i], 4, 4); ellipse(cx2[i], cy2[i], 4, 4); fill(anchorPtCol); stroke(0); //anchor points rect(px[i], py[i], 5, 5); } } // fill up arrays with ellipse coordinate data void setEllipse(int points, float radius, float controlRadius){ pts = points; px = new float[points]; py = new float[points]; cx = new float[points]; cy = new float[points]; cx2 = new float[points]; cy2 = new float[points]; float angle = 360.0/points; float controlAngle1 = angle/3.0; float controlAngle2 = controlAngle1*2.0; for ( int i=0; i<points; i++){ px[i] = width/2+cos(radians(angle))*radius; py[i] = height/2+sin(radians(angle))*radius; cx[i] = width/2+cos(radians(angle+controlAngle1))* controlRadius/cos(radians(controlAngle1)); cy[i] = height/2+sin(radians(angle+controlAngle1))* controlRadius/cos(radians(controlAngle1)); cx2[i] = width/2+cos(radians(angle+controlAngle2))* controlRadius/cos(radians(controlAngle1)); cy2[i] = height/2+sin(radians(angle+controlAngle2))* controlRadius/cos(radians(controlAngle1)); //increment angle so trig functions keep chugging along angle+=360.0/points; } }