Processing

Processing is a programming environment for the electronic arts and visual design communities. It's simple and often used to teach non-programmers how to program,
but it's also powerful and being employed for interactive installations, controlling physical devices and complex data visualisaton. It's also free and cross-platform.

Some examples:
http://www.smashingma... (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/06/beautiful-motion-graphics-created-with-programming-showcase-tools-and-tutorials/)
http://www.aiga.org/c... (http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/the-amazing-visual-language-of-processing)
http://toxiclibs.org/... (http://toxiclibs.org/2009/09/toxiclibs-showreel/)