Connect / Kinect - Please help me learn?

First off Hi! New user here… I suppose we are all noobs at some point…

So, anyway, since downloading TD 88 I’ve managed to begin grasping some of the basics… Import some images, then some clips play with effects & what not & trying to learn the differences of sops, tops, chops and so on… and I’ve been having a blast so far!

I’ve had a Kinect (V2) laying around for years now just collecting dust so I thought I would do the PC mod to it and that went just fine. Installed the SDK, it connects no problem & as far as I can tell it does all the things it should be doing as all of the little programs in the SDK do what they’re supposed to.

So I went to try and load the KinectRecorder top (?), it throws up a message stating "No session file selected’… And it has a big rex X on it, if I click on the X, so I just took a screenshot of what it says when I drag it to the stage…

I searched around the help files & the vid tuto’s but couldn’t find anything relating to what the process of connecting is supposed to involve… I would imagine that it’s simply plug in & play but apparently not?

So… what am I doing wrong or what am I supposed to be doing for proper use?

Thanks,
Gene

Hey Gene,

First off - welcome! Glad you’re having a blast so far.

In case you’re unaware, all the elements in the palette are actually just components other devs have made. Pulling apart your error message, it looks like the error is coming from the op named adjustMenu. This is a little script in text DAT. It’s hard to tell for sure, but it seems like you’re missing a colon in that if statement. If you navigate inside of your kinectRecorder Container check to see if the python in that op is:

def enableRecord(): if op('kinectActive')[0].eval() > 0: parent().par.Record.enable = 1 else: parent().par.Record = False parent().par.Record.enable = 0

What I’m not seeing in your error message is colon following the 0. I’d start by looking there to make sure that’s all in order.

Are you able to see / use the kinect TOP outside of using this tool?

Oh boy… I don’t know anything about code (other than old school HTML anyway)

When I look in the KinectRecorder’s container I see 3 that have errors (I can also see the kinect running from within the container)… I tried to adding the colon after the zero but still makes the same error…

There is another error I can see in the container on a Top (I think) labeled ‘BAS’ and when I open that container there is a file named FiI which looks like an .ini file

The actual KinectRecorder is the one that is already in the LD 88 installation, I didn’t DL from an outside source.

I suppose this is where the leaning curve begins going uphill… LOL

(right click to view entire image)

Hey Gene,

HTML still counts in my book.

If you’re using a non-commercial license you can upgrade to 099 for free. I suspect that some of this might be ironed out in later releases - at least that’s the next place I would check.

If you want a few other places to get your bearings and start digging in to the wonderful world of TouchDesigner you might give these resource a gander:

Matthew Ragan’s TouchDesigner Teaching Materials
[url]https://matthewragan.com/teaching-resources/touchdesigner/[/url]

nvoid | Introduction to TouchDesigner
[url]GitBook - Where technical teams document.

Ian Shelanskey’s Examples
ianshelanskey.com/

Dr. Indae Hwang’s Examples
indaehwang.com/category/touchdesigner/

Grady Sain’s OP Tutorials
interestingresults.com/

Thank you for the links…

Originally I installed 099 first, but wouldn’t go past the activation so I installed 088… How do you upgrade to 099?

Thanks,
Gene

EDIT: Just opened it this morning & as soon as I looked at the containers dialogue tab, little button that states Record on/off… Ok, now I feel like an idiot (still has the errors though)… It always amazes me how when your looking for something it’s right in front of you & but your brain is totally blind to it…

I guess the dumbest questions are the one you are afraid to ask…

Now that I realize my issue was operator ignorance in unfamiliar surroundings…

This is still an absolute riot! Connected with ‘KinectRecorder’, played around with some of the different OP’s and managed to make a bunch of strange things. I even managed to save the .mov’s in the right project folder! As I go, I’m only beginning to see how TD works, from a surface perspective… I must have read 100+ pages of C & Python primers last night until I was cross-eyed and I am sure I will be reading 1,000’s more in the weeks & months ahead to only scratch the surface about this madness. (hang on, hold my beer)

So now I’ve probably gone straight to where I shouldn’t be, at the deep end. But my motto has always been sink or swim, Ok, JUMP IN THE POOL! …while reading last evening I came some across so many sample TOE files… Of them, not involving the Kinect, I’ve loaded a few and basic understanding becomes 1/1,000th of a degree in sharper focus. In my life, the best way I have ever learned anything is by simple repetitive motion & reverse engineering things. See how something works from the inside & then apply what you see & convolute it into something different, all the while, the trial & error process dictate the slope of the learning curve between the points. And when it doesn’t work so pretty well? …Eh, tear another one apart.

Umm where was I… Oh yeah, TOE samples… Last night while reading I cam across a TOE from Indae Hwang… And I saw one that caught my eye. And while I understand that this is probably way above my pay grade, it is what interests me. And heck, if you can’t start with a sample of what peaks & keeps your interest… well, it gets stale fast & then frustration sets in… and that’s a kill-joy to leaning.

But anyway, I opened the TOE, and I can see that it has options to set whether you are using the V1 or V2 Kinect… so I simply changed the players to the V2 option to remove the errors from within the conatiner(s). And I can see what the Kinect is sending from within the container. But when I move out of the container & back to the stage all I see is black screen… I see I can screen shot it, it’s black… or record the .mov but is also black… And I’ve hunted every container within the TOE to see if something needs to be simply turned on but I seem to see none (or it is eluding me)… A little help?

Thanks,
Gene

Hey Gene,

I don’t have a kinect up and running at the moment, but I see when I open this toe file that project 1-4 are disabled. There’s an x on the left hand side of those containers that indicate this. In TouchDesigner speak, a disabled comp has prevented all of the objects inside from cooking or processing. It’s sometimes practical to do this when you have an resource-expensive process that you want to keep around, but you don’t want it running all the time. If you un-check one of those boxes you should start to see movement - at least I did when I check project1.

Here’s an image of what I’m talking about:
rain.gif

Thank you Ragan…

The gray contrasts of the tick box & X were so close in grayscale that they were barely visible on my monitor. Adjusted my contrast a bit so I can see them now…

I’ll assume that I can’t really use that file to see real-time changes. As once I turned them on, it will only somewhat work in image mode, as the reconstruction rate takes so long it makes it nearly impossible to see changes I was making in real-time… And when I tried viewing as movie to try & understand what I’m changing, TD throws up an error saying please purchase a commercial license… Which is understandable I suppose…

Could anyone suggest where to find simple examples or exercises that would deal with simple controls with the Kinect?

[size=150]EDIT:[/size] Just found these tutos… other than them moving pretty fast, I think these will let my feet a get little deeper into the water without drowning in confusion…

There’s also a good set of exploration tuts here for working with a kinect:

youtube.com/watch?v=sjun7PccAvk

here too:
youtube.com/watch?v=UqISWe_ … lmi0vGGgDZ

Wow Ragan, those are amazing! And exactly what I needed!

I must say yours are very well done and extremely easy to understand & follow… I know where my gray matter is going to be plugged into for the foreseeable future.

But oddly, for as many times I searched thru YT, VIM & all over the pace, in every possible manner of searching terms, I never noticed any of yours show up. Thank you very much for pointing me to them…

Thanks,
Gene

When I started learning Touch almost six years ago the tut scene was slim - I started making vids to help myself remember, and for other folks. There’s a lot to learn there - so if I can help someone pick it up faster that’s a win in my book. :slight_smile:

Shiny!.. Floral bonnets aside, It’s always best practice to document references of how we aim to misbehave, sharing experiences make us mighty : )

(Cat may agree)

Again, thanks…

Actually got somewhere today thanks to Ragan…

…In a few weeks & I’ll have much better understanding. Next one will be 2 or 3 cameras & some’ post production… I know this is tiddly-winks around here probably, but heck… I’m just happy to be not banging my head on the desk after 5 days of making static images wiggle…

[video]TD exercise 1 - YouTube

That’s so fun!

Very nice work. You’re off to the races now, once you get a foot-hold touch only becomes more and more fun to work with.