/zentango

Zentango: a tool to create and download beautiful zentangles.

Primary LanguageJavaScript

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Zentango

Inspiration

For DemonHacks 2020 Hack-The-Arts Challenge. Giving people the ability to be create art during the monotony of life, especially during these trying times.

What it does

You draw portions of a zentangle using the HTML Canvas and associated tools. The images are then combined to create the final (downloadable) product.

How we built it

We used JavaScript to build the drawing tool, and used HTML/CSS to style the page.

Challenges we ran into

Our original idea was to make Zentango a collaborative application. We wanted groups of friends to be able to draw individual parts of a creation, so that the combined product would be a community effort. However, as we built the basic drawing tool, we realized we didn't have enough time to implement this idea.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • We couldn't find a library or API that would give us a flexible enough drawing tool. We tried a few things, and in the end, decided to write the JavaScript ourselves. We're proud that our tool works well with a clean UI.

What we learned

  • A lot about HTML canvases! In order to get a nice template for a circle-based zentangle, we had to learn how to clip sections of canvas, arrange elements, and scale shapes. The finished product requires a lot of manual calculation for the individual shapes, which we'd eventually like to figure out how to generate automatically.

What's next for Zentango

  • Collaboration mode - work with friends on a shared zentangle
  • More drawing tools - shapes, brush styles, or stickers
  • More shapes - other templates to fill in besides grids and circles