Skip to main content

Trying TouchDesigner


TouchDesigner is a node-based visual programming language for real-time interactive multimedia content, developed by the Toronto-based company Derivative (via Wikipedia). TouchDesigner is so flexible that it can be used to create audiovisual-based projects, detailed 3d projects, create complex interactive UI solutions, amongst others. I honestly have never heard of this software before being introduced by my lecturer. So far, I have been doing experiments with nodes and looking up tutorials to get familiar with the details. Tutorials I've been following are mostly by Bileam Tschepe where he thought the basics of using the software to create audio and visual-related artwork.


To get a project working, we must always remember that the flow of the network must be arranged in a flow from left to right. Start everything on the left side of the screen, and end the project on the right, preferably into one output (node).

To start a project, it requires operations, and to create(or add) these operations, we need to open the Operations Dialog, and listed in the dialog, are Operators Family. There are six Families of Operators. Of the six families, five are basic operator families and one is the Component family which can further contain networks of operators. Components containing components form the TouchDesigner hierarchy and give rise to the operator Paths.

  • COMPs - Components - Object components (3D objects), Panel components (2D UI gadgets), and miscellaneous components. Components contain other operators.
  • TOPs - Texture Operators - all 2D image operations.
  • CHOPs - Channel Operators - motion, audio, animation, control signals.
  • SOPs - Surface Operators - 3D points, polygons, and other 3D "primitives".
  • DATs - Data Operators - ASCII text as plain text, scripts, XML, or organized in tables of cells.
  • MATs - Material Operators - materials and shaders.

Within each operator family, "generator" operators have 0 inputs and create data, and "filter" operators have 1 or more input and filter data.
Each operator's family is a unique color. Only operators of the same family (color) can be Wired together.

You can convert data between different Operator families using the following conversion operators. For example, you can convert geometry into a DAT list of point positions using the SOP to DAT operator, or convert a TOP image's pixel values into red, green, and blue channels in CHOP using the TOP to CHOP operator.
  • TOP to CHOP
  • CHOP to TOP
  • CHOP to DAT
  • CHOP to SOP
  • DAT to CHOP
  • DAT to SOP
  • SOP to CHOP
  • SOP to DAT
  • Object CHOP

Reference:
https://docs.derivative.ca/Operator
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TouchDesigner Experiment: Audio Reactive Particle Cloud

My second experiment with TouchDesigner is creating this audio-reactive particle visual by following Bileam Tschepe 's tutorial on Youtube. Again, I just followed his tutorial step by step. This tutorial is a little different because it uses both audio and visuals. The visual follows the music in real-time. Other than audio, we are also introduced with the element 'Math' to add the channels of the audio together. This is the end product. Music is FriendsV2 by Muskatt.
Post a Comment
Read more

TouchDesigner Experiment: Inserting OSC data with OSCIn

From one of my last experiment , I tried to change the data input. Instead of using audio, I replaced it with OSC data from my Muse headset. To connect your OSC device to TouchDesigner, make sure that the IP address and port number is the same so the data transfer can be accurate. In this case, I use a third-party app called Mind Monitor (available on iOS devices) to connect my Muse headset to the TouchDesigner software. Below are screenshots and videos from my experiment. You can see that the brainwave data is already recorded in real-time in the software. Then I used the alpha, beta, and theta brainwave to change the movement of the visuals (the chosen brainwave data I used are just placeholders for now to see the movement). Then the data is connected with 'noise', which is like the fluid/abstract visuals you see on the background. I also set the colors to be moving/changing over time.
Post a Comment
Read more

TouchDesigner Experiment: Particle Displacement

My first experiment with TouchDesigner is creating this particle displacement visual by following Bileam Tschepe's tutorial  on Youtube. His tutorial is pretty clear on how to create this project, however, I'm going to show a little on how it goes. This is my result.
Post a Comment
Read more