Documentation Algorithmic design
Documentation
Algorithmic design
Draw line art, patterns, 3D effects and gradients from rules: start from an example, tune it with sliders, or let an assistant write the script. Everything runs in a sealed sandbox.
Draw from a rule instead of by hand: stacked ridgelines, a contour map, moiré rings, a maze that grows from one random choice per cell, three selected logos spaced evenly around a circle, a wireframe landscape, an isometric city, your headline extruded in 3D, one vivid gradient running across a row of letters, or the classic effects: blends, repeats, warps, contours, scribbles and packing. Pick an example, tune it with sliders and apply it as ordinary, editable shapes. You never have to write code, but every line is there to read and change.
Start with algorithmic design
Open an example from the Algorithmic design menu, tune it with its sliders, and apply it as one group of editable shapes. Edit the script later, or keep the shapes and let the script go.
Line art and patterns
The examples in the Algorithmic design menu: black-and-white line art after the plotter classics, colorful patterns, and scripts that rearrange your selection. What each one does, and tips for print.
3D line art, color and text
Make 3D effects as flat, editable vector shapes: wireframe landscapes and hatched solids, isometric cities in color, and 3D text from any font you select. How the 3D examples work, and how to write your own scenes.
Color and gradients
Gradients beyond the usual: blends that stay vivid (OKLCH) or mix like paint, mesh and freeform gradients, dithered, halftone and banded gradients that print exactly, palette harmonies, gradients across the selection, and smooth 3D shading.
Effects and tools
The effects designers reach for in Illustrator, CorelDRAW and their plugins, as editable scripts: blend, radial and grid repeats, transform again, zig zag, roughen, pucker and bloat, twirl, warp, sliced and echo type, offset contours, engraving, scribble, circle packing, dot matrix, op art and guilloche.
Let an assistant write the script
Describe the pattern you want, copy the prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or another assistant, and paste its reply back. Popcorn keeps only the code, runs it and shows its sliders.
Writing your own scripts
How an algorithmic design script works: plain JavaScript that runs top to bottom, sliders from param(), drawing functions, repeatable randomness, contour lines and point sets, and changing the selection.
Privacy, safety and limits
Scripts are code someone else wrote, often an assistant, so Popcorn runs them in a sealed sandbox with no network. What a script can see, what it can return, how teams can turn it off, and the limits.