OPENRNDR
In short, OPENRNDR is a tool to create tools. It is an open source framework for creative coding, written in Kotlin for the Java VM that simplifies writing real-time interactive software. It fully embraces its existing infrastructure of (open source) libraries, editors, debuggers and build tools. It is designed and developed for prototyping as well as the development of robust performant visual and interactive applications. It is not an application, it is a collection of software components that aid the creation of applications.
Key features
- a light weight application framework to quickly get you started
- a fast OpenGL 3.3 backed drawer written using the LWJGL OpenGL bindings
- a set of minimal and clean APIs that welcome programming in a modern style
- an extensive shape drawing and manipulation API
- asynchronous image loading
- runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux
Ecosystem
Applications written in OPENRNDR can communicate with third-party tools and services, either using OPENRNDR’s functionality or via third-party Java libraries.
Existing use cases involve connectivity with devices such as Arduino, Philips Kinet, Microsoft Kinect 2.0, RealSense, DMX, ARTNet and Midi devices; applications that communicate through OpenSoundControl; services such as weather reports and Twitter. If you want to experiment with Machine Learning, try RunwayML that comes with an OPENRNDR integration.
Getting Started
showcase
gallery
Type/Dynamics
The interactive installation Type/Dynamics at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam visualized information that continuously surrounds us and is always accessible. By searching for real-time locations currently in the news, like Ground Zero, Reichstag, or Tiananmen square, the installation can locate the panorama images from Google Streetview, abstract them into grids and fill the grids with new information. As a visitor to the space, you are literally 'transported’ to that location and surrounded by all the news associated with that specific location. Instead of a photographic representation, the place is represented purely typographically with a host of new items currently being talked about at that location. Nothing in the gallery space stands still; all information continuously moves.
...Horizon Panorama
A sixty meter long Horizon panorama for the Flanders and the Netherlands Frankfurt Book Fair pavilion. In 30 minutes one whole day can be seen, from sunrise to sunset, creating a new landscape in time. The horizon, normally a line that divides water or earth and the sky, is now an area. This extended line is emphasised in the transparent zone of the screens as well as in the architecture.
...Hyperlocator
You control the control room. In Hyperlocator you get a sense of the city in one single space. Who is observing who? Every day a new hyperlocation is created, exploring a new space and unlocking its local palette.
...Icon viewer
A dynamic and interactive implementation of the famous ASCII icons for Karel Martens, running on OPENRNDR.
...
Dynamic identities
A dynamic identity for the Museum of the Future in OPENRNDR, a system of paths that can change shape by reconfiguring itself; a series of small simple modular forms that form a visual language for the exhibition. By the way those elements behave they can be used for interfaces (interactive and dynamic), video, print work but also for artefacts and packages. Although the basis is modular, the forms that can come out of it can be and geometric and almost calligraphic.
...
Interactive textiles
Vlisco uses colour blocking in such a way that it gives the impression that you are looking at multiple designs. To highlight this, visitors of the Vlisco 1:1 exhibition influenced the virtual textile as if they produced wind, showing the tactile quality of the fabrics.
...case studies
Improving the OPENRNDR guide
What makes OPENRNDR different from other frameworks for creative coding?
experiments
workshops
community
about
Background
Development of OPENRNDR was started in 2010 at LUSTlab under the name RNDR, with the idea to create an in-house framework that was versatile enough to sketch in, but at the same time be robust enough to deliver production-quality interactive media installations, that you know will also run without worries in a few years from now. It takes the creative mind set of a designer or artist, and combines that with the power of IT-grade software. As we could not find this in existing software, we had to develop this ourselves. We are convinced that there are many more people out there that crave for the same.
When LUST and LUSTlab closed doors in 2017, the newly formed studio RNDR continued development and changed the name to OPENRNDR, a precursor to its goal to distribute the software under an open source license. They translated the framework from Java 8 to Kotlin, created the guide, and developed the API documentation and launched the framework officially in June 2018.
Edwin Jakobs initiated and maintained the framework and is till date the lead developer. He is a partner at RNDR. The OPENRNDR platform won the Dutch Design Award 2019 in the category Communication.
Made possible by
We thank the Creative Industry Fund for supporting our open sourcing efforts.
calendar
events
We will be presenting OPENRNDR (among other things) at the Dutch Creativity Festival that aims to unite the leading creative thinkers, makers, curators, entrepreneurs, studios, agencies, brands, platforms, ngo's in all disciplines and fields. Organised by ADCN.
The Student Hotel, Wibautstraat 129, 1091 GL Amsterdam
Join us for a presentation on OPENRNDR at AV&C in New York, at 17hrs.
AV&C, 25 Park Place, New York NY 10007
OPENRNDR will give a presentation and lecture at the MIXIT 2019 conference in Lyon.
Lyon, France
We presented OPENRNDR at the JFUTURE Java conference in the oldest & most beautiful theater in Minsk.
Minsk, Belarus
workshops
On June 13th we will give a one-day workshop at Central Saint Martins, and at 19:00 hours a presentation at the British Library lecture event Form/Reform/Perform: Futures of Writing.
How do we engage with the written word in the age of social media, self-publishing, AI, machine learning and algorithms? Join experts in graphic communication design from Central Saint Martins and guests including Tea Uglow, Creative Director of Google’s Creative Lab, Sydney.
We are excited to give a 2-week workshop at TUMO in Yerevan, Armenia. Tumo is a new kind of educational experience at the intersection of technology and design.
At TUMO, teens learn because they want to. They’re given the tools and knowhow they need to reach their maximum potential, and they chart their own learning path through hands-on activities, workshops and projects.
Halabyan 16, Yerevan, Armenia
OPENRNDR workshop on generative design for Design Art Technology, Arnhem (DATA)
ArtEZ Academie voor Art & Design Onderlangs 9, 6812 CE Arnhem
A day filled with workshops, talks, show & tell, brainstorms and discussions.
Sensor Lab Plompetorengracht 4, Utrecht
OPENRNDR workshop on generative design for the Royal Academy of Art, Den Haag
Royal Academy of Art Prinsessegracht 4, 2514 AN Den Haag