PixelSpirit Deck

by Patricio Gonzalez Vivo

Each Pixel Spirit card presents a visual element together with the GLSL shader code that generates it. Ultimately, these elements can be reused and combined to compose an infinite visual language. This deck is a tool for learning, a library, and an oracle.

The cards are ordered as an unfolding continuum that goes from simplicity to complexity, from darkness to light, so they can be learned and memorized easily. Through this progression, the cards present new functions, creating a library of functions that can be reused and combined like a portable book of spells. Within the 50 cards of this deck you will find the 22 major arcana, the ancestral archetypes of the traditional Tarot deck: the wisdom of these powerful cards will guide you.

Get and use the deck every day

Visit PixelSpiritDeck.com there you can buy the deck and learn how to use them

If you are thinking on going through the cards to teach yourself shaders consider using the following online editor: editor.pixelspiritdeck.com/

Compile the cards

1. Install glslViewer following the instructions from here

2. Compile any of the cards by:

    glslViewer 00-elements/000-void.frag
    glslViewer 00-elements/001-justice.frag
    glslViewer 00-elements/002-strength.frag
    glslViewer 00-elements/004-the_wall.frag
    ...
    glslViewer 00-elements/045-inner_truth.frag 
    glslViewer 00-elements/046-the_world.frag
    glslViewer 00-elements/047-the_fool.frag
    glslViewer 00-elements/048-enlightenment.frag

If you want to make PNG images of them you can do something like:

    glslViewer 00-elements/045-inner_truth.frag -s 1 -w 448 -h 748 -o innerthruth.png

You can also compile them and watch the one by one for 5 seconds like this:

    find . -name '*.frag' -exec glslViewer -s 5 -w 448 -h 748 {} \;  

Remix them

The cards license allows you to use them how ever you want, please don't forget to give proper credits. Also and more importantly I would love to see what you do with it! Share what you make to @pixelspiritdeck! I'm happy to broadcast it and share with others!

Author

Patricio Gonzalez Vivo: (1982, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an artist and developer. He explores interstitial spaces between organic and synthetic, analog and digital, individual and collective. In his work he uses code as an expressive language with the intention of developing a better together.

github | twitter | website

Acknowledges

These cards, as well as The Book of Shaders, wouldn't be possible without the help of Jennifer Lowe my life partner, love of my life and constant collaborator.

Thanks to: Lynn Cherny, Manolo Gamboa Naon, Salome Asega, Jaume Sanches Elias, Geraldine Sarmiento, Kevin Kripper, Rachel Binx for their friendship and key feedback on this project.

Thanks to the people involved with theThree.js library for making the construction of this WebGL page a pleasure. (Special thanks for that incredible lens flair.)

Also thanks to DailyMinimal.com and Maria Linares Freire for their constant stream of inspiration.