Mastering HTML5 Canvas

Web development is an exciting, ever-changing world that is getting progressively dynamic. What web developers need in this fast-paced world is the power of controlling visualizations on the fly—and in comes HTML5 canvas to the rescue! Powered by JavaScript, this powerful 2D API helps developers create graphics and animations directly in the browser. It offers great portability and works on almost all modern browsers, making it accessible just about anywhere.

Mastering HTML5 Canvas walks you through the fascinating arena of web development, covering all the critical concepts of drawing and manipulating pixels in the canvas through tons of examples and designs.

We start the course off by introducing the foundations of the canvas API. You’ll learn how to create canvas elements dynamically and draw basic shapes, and you’ll get familiar with the work environment. Then we shift our focus on to drawing, where you will draw lines, original shapes, paths, and even multiple pointed shapes.

Next, we’ll then leverage the logic that stands behind the cosine and sine functions and through them, create more complicated shapes. This new insight will enable you to create more complex and advanced shape combinations. We will continue our journey by getting to grips with the various types of curves, images, and gradient colors. Finally, we will deal with manipulation of the canvas itself.

By the end of this course, you will know how to draw in HTML5 canvas, create complex shapes, and use angles, arcs, and curves to create your own art work. You will be a master of the HTML5 2D canvas API.

About The Author

Ben Fhala discovered his passion for data visualization while he was working at Parsons in New York, in their data visualization department, PIIM. He is the owner of the online video training school and an Adobe ACP. He enjoys spending most of his time learning and teaching, and has a love for visual programming and visualization in general. Ben has had the honor of developing applications for members of the US Congress, Prime Ministers, and Presidents around the world.

He has built many interactive experiences for companies such as Target, AT&T, Crayola, Marriott, Neutrogena, and Nokia. He has technically directed many award-winning projects and has been part of teams that have won three Agency of the Year awards.

Among Ben's publications are HTML5 Graphing and Data Visualization Cookbook, and five video courses: jQuery UI Development; Learning Object-Oriented JavaScript; Mastering JavaScript; JavaScript Design Patterns; Web Visualization with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, all for Packt Publishing.