Learn to Paint with Mathematics

Inigo Quilez · tutorial · Watch on YouTube

What it is

Inigo Quilez live-codes a painting using only mathematics in a shader, building it up step by step. The linked Shadertoy source shows the result.

Recommended as the most beginner-friendly way into shader programming and procedural graphics.

“Inigo Quilez has many instructional videos on his channel in how to code procedural graphics from the very beginner to the advanced.”
Beginner instructional video on coding procedural graphics by Inigo Quilez.
djmips, 2022-06 · Recommendation · in “Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)”
“is probably the the most beginner friendly.”
Most beginner-friendly starting point for learning shader programming.
joenot443, 2023-04 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: Unknown Pleasures, a tiny web experiment with WebGL”
“Watch "Learn to paint with mathematics" to see a simple shader being built gradually”
Shows a simple shader being built up gradually from scratch.
modernerd, 2025-01 · Recommendation · in “Dissecting "Tiny Clouds" shadertoy (2017)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: glsl, shadertoy, procedural graphics, signed distance functions, creative coding