animals
a tribute to ed emberley

I grew up with Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals. it's a terrific book that shows kids and grownups how to construct animals step by step out of letters and simple shapes they already know how to draw.

Years later, I realized that the visual style I developed for my "virtual toys" employs the same core ideas, drawing things with rectangles, triangles, circles, and simple curves instead of pre-canned graphics. This book must have been a huge influence!

I took directions from his book and taught the computer how to make 24 of Ed Emberley's creations. Computers draw things differently than people, but also I was able to make each animal into a little puppet.

Click on a square below to open up that drawing - then hit "Go". The shapes that make up the animal will fly into place, and you can use the mouse and buttons to move the animal like a puppet. (You can click the top left button to return the animal to its basic shapes if you want to see how it's drawn.)

If you'd like to learn how to draw these animals, and many more, get Ed Emberley's book! It's terrific for kids and grownups to learn on their own or together. (If you would like to learn about how I made these puppets and how you can make your own toys and games and art pieces, check out Processing and also my GitHub project page. You can also see the Director's Commentary I made on my development blog.)

Hope you like it!
Kirk <kirk@kirk.is>