A Complete Introduction to Programming with L5

This is a list for beginners to learn coding with Lua for the first time. It is recommended to go through each tutorial in order to establish a foundational understanding of programming.

If you are coming from Processing / p5, you can skip to L5 for Processing/p5 programmers

1. First Steps - Welcome to L5! This introduction covers the basics of setting up L5 on your computer.
2. Welcome to Coding
3. Calling Functions
4. Using Variables
5. Creating Variables
6. Creating Functions
7. If Statements
8. Animation
9. Input
10. For Loops
11. Arrays (Ordered Tables)
12. Using Objects

Other Resources

• Computational Poetry with L5 - A workshop tutorial created for CCFest 2026
• Data Structure Garden - Another tutorial on how to use objects and arrays
• Video - An intro to video formats, and loading and playing videos with L5

Have an idea for a tutorial you'd like to see? Or have one to contribute? L5 is new and could use some help building out its tutorials. Check out Contributing for more information on writing and submitting your own.