Category:Tutorials

A collection of tutorials to help you get the most out of TouchDesigner.

There are three tiers of tutorial based on your experience using TouchDesigner.
Tutorials will be marked with one of the following icons:

= Beginner = Intermediate = Advanced

Contents 1 An Introduction to TouchDesigner 1.1 First Things To Know about TouchDesigner 1.2 Interface Navigation 1.3 Operators Overview 2 Task Oriented Tutorials 2.1 Introduction to the Operators 2.2 Using The Web DAT and XML DAT 2.3 The Animation Editor 2.4 Audio CHOPs 3 Sweet 16 Operators 4 ...In About 5 Minutes 5 Using External Devices With TouchDesigner 5.1 Using an iPhone with Touchdesigner 5.2 Using a Lemur with TouchDesigner 6 Understanding CHOPs 6.1 Ways to Generate Triggers and Cause Actions 6.2 Time Slicing 7 Rendering Techniques and Effects 7.1 Tilt Shift 7.2 Polyscope 7.3 Pixel Overdraw 8 Working with Images 8.1 Sorting Images by Hue 8.2 Image Search 9 Working with Audio 9.1 Visualizing and Animating a Spectral Waveform 10 The Scanline Effect 10.1 The Scanline Effect 10.2 Adding a User Interface to the Scanline Effect 11 Apps, Tools, and Toys 11.1 Text Dictate 11.2 Push-Pins 11.3 Anonymizer 11.4 Meditation Timer 11.5 DeepForest Color Pairs 12 TouchDesigner Tips 13 Legacy TouchDesigner Tutorials

An Introduction to TouchDesigner

These tutorials are aimed at users new to TouchDesigner.

First Things To Know about TouchDesigner

We recommend you get started with this tutorial first. You can read the full tutorial here and there are 3 accompanying videos below that will show you how to get around the interface and give you an overview of TouchDesigner concepts.

Interface Navigation

Shows you how to get around the interface and find all the tools at your disposal.

Operators Overview

A brief introduction to the different operator families in TouchDesigner.

Task Oriented Tutorials

These tutorials teach TouchDesigner concepts by accomplishing certain project-based tasks. They are intended for beginners.

Introduction to the Operators

An introduction to TouchDesigner's Operator families

                 TOPs                                 CHOPs                                  SOPs                                  DATs

Using The Web DAT and XML DAT

Shows how to access data on the internet using the Web DAT and parse it using the XML DAT. Then images from the web are loaded into TouchDesigner using that information.

The Animation Editor

A brief introduction to the Animation Editor and keyframe animation in TouchDesigner.

Audio CHOPs

Shows how to use CHOPs for input, output, and filtering of audio. The audio information is then mapped onto geometry to visualize the audio waveform.

Sweet 16 Operators

This series of videos gives an overview of the Sweet 16 OPs.

...In About 5 Minutes

This series of tutorials show you how to make something in TouchDesigner in about 5 minutes!

The first 3 videos are a sequence of "smiley face" tutorials. In Part 1 you will create a warping smiley face, in Part 2 you will add animation using OSC and an iPhone/iPod, and in Part 3 learn how to use geometry instancing on the GPU to make an army of smiley faces!

The next 2 videos focus on working with imported geometry. In Part 4 the mask geometry is imported and a material and texture are applied, in Part 5 3D lighting is used to add augmented reality effects to the mask projection.

Using External Devices With TouchDesigner

Using an iPhone with Touchdesigner

This video show you how to connect an iPhone, iPod, or iPad to TouchDesigner through OSC. The iOS app TouchOSC is used in this tutorial but any OSC capable application can communicate with TouchDesigner using these techniques.

Using a Lemur with TouchDesigner

Shows how to connect a Lemur to TouchDesigner. Create a custom Lemur UI and send controller data to TouchDesigner via OSC.

Understanding CHOPs

Ways to Generate Triggers and Cause Actions

Shows a variety of ways to create event triggers in TouchDesigner. Discusses how to create triggers using CHOPs, control panels, and scripts. Also includes sections on controlling movie playback with timing curves and triggers.

Time Slicing

An in-depth look at CHOP sample ranges and CHOPs most powerful feature, Time Slicing!

Rendering Techniques and Effects

Tilt Shift

Create a tilt shift effect in TOPs.

Polyscope

Create a polyscope effect.

Pixel Overdraw

Explains the concept of pixel overdraw and how to optimize your rendering to optimize it in TouchDesigner.

Working with Images

Sorting Images by Hue

Build a network that allows you add images using Drag-and-Drop and have those images sorted by their hue.

Image Search

Create an app that searches the web and returns image results into a smooth-scrolling gallery.

Working with Audio

Visualizing and Animating a Spectral Waveform

Create a spectral waveform that is driven by live audio input.

The Scanline Effect

The Scanline Effect

Create a scanline effect.

Adding a User Interface to the Scanline Effect

Add a user interface to the scanline effect build in the previous video. The interface give the user realtime control over the effect.

Apps, Tools, and Toys

Text Dictate

Create a text effect that slowly reveals text onto the screen.

Push-Pins

A walkthrough of the Push-Pins component from TouchDesigner's Palette.

Anonymizer

Create an app that lets you block out parts of an image using a few different methods.

Meditation Timer

Makes Buddha disintegrate, sounds a reminder tone, then re-integrates buddha back to the material plane for another reminder tone, just in time to get back to work.

DeepForest Color Pairs

Will help you learn fetching, organizing, and slicing images in TouchDesigner. Build a panel of color combinations and learn valuable tricks to using Select TOPs, variables, and building buttons.

TouchDesigner Tips

Touch Tips are short articles that describe how to accomplish common tasks in TouchDesigner.

Legacy TouchDesigner Tutorials

These tutorials were done in earlier editions of TouchDesigner069. While many changes have been made to the user interface, the concepts and techniques in these tutorials are still applicable.

Particle System Tutorials

Building Control Panels

Migrating from TouchDesigner 017