Processing. It is fun. The examples make you happy. Learning it is a well-documented process. And there are many sources for learning it.

Choose File/Examples/Libraries/Video Capture/ and pick an interesting starting point.

I liked the Frame Differencing sketch (yes, a “sketch” is what they call a minor program) by Golan Levin.

I took the liberty of fiddling further with Levin’s work, and made the program into a “game”. I wanted the program to complain about the user moving too much:

// just a number I grabbed (fiddle with this!)
int threshold = 4465911;
if (movementSum > threshold) {
    // Use fill() to change the value or color of the text
    // "R, G, B" makes this yellow
    fill(255, 255, 0);
    text("Sitt still!", 100, 360);
}

You can embellish this further, by adding a custom font! See File/Examples/Basics/Typography/ for more inspiration. The font file should be added to the sketch using the Sketch/Add File... menu item.

I only wrote this so that you’d be prodded to fiddle a little with Processing. At Forskningsavdelningen meetings, you’ll probably meet people that experiment with it. Here are some beautiful visual assets to animate.

Processing. It is fun. The examples make you happy. Learning it is a well-documented process. And there are many sources for learning it. Choose File/Examples/Libraries/Video Capture/ and pick an interesting...