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CTD Creative Coding

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Course Info

CU Boulder ATLAS program
ATLS 5660 | Fall 2026
Class time: Mondays @ 4:00–6:30pm
Office hours: Thursdays (Justin) @ 4:00-6:00pm via Zoom
Location: Remote via Zoom
Instructor: Justin Gitlin
Class Policies

Course Description

This course explores creative uses of software development while introducing foundational programming concepts, techniques, and best practices. Primarily using p5.js, students will learn a wide variety of tools that enable the creation of art, animation, interactivity, music, data visualization, and even utilitarian applications. While focusing on graphics, multimedia, and interactivity, the class will also cover the importance of building the "digital plumbing" that supports our creative work.

Objectives

  • Gain and reinforce basic programming skills to build creative software applications
  • Learn how to self-educate and find answers to very specific problems while developing code skills
  • Learn to love code via exposure to (and practice with) a wide array of tools, techniques and concepts
  • Learn about the landscape of artists, tools, and roles of people in the "creative coding" field
  • Build, document, and present original pieces of software

Schedule

Class 01 - Aug 24

  • Introductions
  • What is (creative) code?
  • Get your tools ready
  • Code basics overview
  • Live demo: draw some shapes

Class 02 - Aug 31

  • Basic drawing tools
  • Iteration
  • Layout
  • AI Demo

Sep 7 (No class - Labor Day)

Class 03 - Sep 14

  • Programming Languages
  • IDEs
  • Professional AI coding setup
  • Debugging
  • Shaping our sketches
  • Time
  • Animation

Class 04 - Sep 21

  • Strings
  • Typography
  • Images
  • Looping animation

Class 05 - Sep 28

  • Software design
  • Graphics effects & algorithms
  • Math

Class 06 - Oct 5

  • Data structures
  • APIs
  • Databases
  • Data Visualization

Class 07 - Oct 12

  • Command line & Node.js
  • 3D
  • CPU vs GPU

Class 08 - Oct 19

  • Hardware
  • Computer vision

Class 09 - Oct 26

  • Open Source
  • Audio

Class 10 - Nov 2

  • Final projects
  • Web Browsers

Class 11 - Nov 9

  • Machine learning

Class 12 - Nov 16

  • Jobs
  • Shaders

Nov 23 (No class - Fall Break)

Class 13 - Nov 30

  • Present final project WIP in class

Dec 7

  • Final project due in Canvas