TouchDesigner
exploration
TouchDesigner stands out as a highly compelling and robust software capable of producing live performances and real-time composition for artists, programmers, and other professionals.
I've extensively chronicled my journey exploring TouchDesigner, experimenting with a range of interactive content, including generative visual art, sound visualisation, and 3D modeling.
Ink
I found noise is an interesting feature that can be applied for different purposes. That is why I decided to experiment with creating generative work with something that can create various results and simple movements. After that, I also tried to add elements to the noise to make it more different, such as displacement and edge. Edge is the result that I really like, it senses the edge of the color block movement that came from blurry and displacement effects. With that, it creates a black-and-white flowing movement.
Using the slider control can add interesting interaction with the artwork. So, I involve a slider that controls the amount of harmonic gain. The reason that I chose harmonic gain is that the visual looks hugely different as the gain goes up. It goes from a very calm and settled flow into a dramatic and exciting movement.
I got this idea from one of the weekly tasks of
using the mouse as an interaction tool. I started by creating a dark rendering with a sphere in a low-light environment. I also need to attach a PBR with image texture on it, and then link the PBR material to the sphere in the scene.
The most challenging for this project is to figure out the mouse movement data. I went back to the tutorials and weekly class exercises and found that Math can be the solution for changing the range setting.
Torch Light
Human
Brush
I started by using the video file in, feedback, and composite to achieve the concept. However, the problem is how to clean up the scene after it became fully covered. I watched a few tutorials,
but most of them use edges or transparent backgrounds and the problem can be solved by changing the overlay setting. Luckily, I found a tutorial that gives me the inspiration to reset the feedback by using the keyboard In function. With that, it will clean up the canvas every time the user hits the number “1” on his or her keyboard.
The original footage that comes directly from the webcam does not have excellent quality and contrast. So, I started by adding level to adjust the image’s basic settings, such as brightness and contrast. While I was looking into the camera, I felt awkward and lack of movement by just seeing my own images the whole time, so I also decided to add the HSV Adjustment filter to the footage to make it more colorful and playful.
Moving Nature
As the concept of this project is landscape, I chose a natural ambient soundtrack that includes singing from the bird, wind, and water sound. I changed the track into mono and added a lag effect so it can smooth out the data for the visual later.
I connected the sound data to the noise amplitude that only creates movement in the center of the mountain.
I followed the tutorial on creating the landscape with noises, and the steps were not complicated. The idea is to create a base with noise, and then use another noise to generate the texture maps: normal, color and height. I did not follow the number with the tutorial as I wanted to make it more cartoon look like instead of realistic. So, I adjusted the normal map and height to make it more rounded and less textured.
Button Control
It was originally a textured sphere that changed shape based on the sound data, and the user can change the shapes by pressing the button. I changed one of the shapes from box
to tube because the box does not really work well with sound movement. Also, the other two shapes are both rounded shapes, so I think using a tube will fit the visual more.
I used a tube shape as the instancing reference because it can create a sense of space and yet still show the original 3d elements clearly. The instancing element is a very interesting element that can create a big amount of the same element easily, and I can imagine using it for more product and commercial project.
Slider Control
I extended my learning with instancing from previous work and applied it to this one with more adjustment to the shape and size of the tube. The adjustment with the shape allows more interesting movements later when I applied the twist to the work. Also, using only smaller spheres creates a sand texture on the camera which I think fits with the aesthetic of the work.
I applied two layers of twisting to make the shape more interesting on both x and y-axis. On the second layer of twisting, I connected a slider to the x-axis twisting data, so the user can interact with the elements and adjust the twisting amount based on their interest.