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Ohio University Students' First and Most Excellent TouchDesigner Projects

A topic that fascinates and occupies us to no end is how people learn and teach TouchDesigner. The imaginative and incredibly diverse projects featured here from 5 students who encountered TouchDesigner for the first time this year under the tutelage of Owen Lowery at Ohio University is an excellent case-study of just this. Owen is an interactive artist working towards an MFA in Communication Media Arts at Ohio U and Interactive Spaces is a special studies half theory, half production course Owen developed and is teaching as part of his MFA program.  
Touch is malleable. It allows the student to turn everything into an extension of their view, their values, and that’s a solid reason to keep using such a solid tool.
Owen has spoken to us in some detail about his personal love of TouchDesigner and his passion for both teaching and making (article forthcoming) but in a nutshell his focus for this course was on prototyping and testing rather than creating finished interactive works.

He tells us "I really want to get my students exploring ideas, whether they can pull them off or not, and observing their prototypes in public spaces ("The Wild" as I call it), to use those observations to drive further development. TouchDesigner has the ability to become an extension of the person who uses it. This is seen in the work of my students. Nobody has made the exact same thing. Touch is malleable. It allows the student to turn everything into an extension of their view, their values, and that’s a solid reason to keep using such a solid tool." 

We'd like to send out HUGE THANKS to Owen for being such a brilliant and engaging teacher and to the creative coders featured here for exploring freely and and sharing the results with us. Jessalyn Shiner, Daniel Brenner, Helena McCoy, Matthew Skeens and Alexander Bailey, you rock, please keep it up! Without further ado, here are 5 candid short video clips of our students discussing their projects with Professor Owen Lowery with links to our subsequent interviews with each of the artists. Enjoy!

 

SHITMEME - JESSALYN SHINER

 
Video credits Owen Lowery

Jessalyn Shiner’s Shit Meme hilariously tracks a meme of Barry the Bee on nearby faces overlaying a quote from the first 20 pages of the movie to each encounter. Every time a smile/laugh is detected the image/quote changes.  

Read our Jessalyn Shiner Interview >

 

Balls of Fire - Daniel Brenner

 
Video credits Owen Lowery

Daniel Brenner draws on his experience as a cancer patient at the age of 4 to give to back to the community by granting “super powers” via non-invasive technology to hospitalized children. 

Read our Daniel Brenner Interview > 

BE THE WIND - HELENA MCCOY

 
Video credits Owen Lowery

Connected to an Arduino, Helena McCoy’s copper tape wrapped wind chimes trigger circular colour animations overtop of video landscapes every time a chime hits the centre stone.

Read our Helena McCoy Interview >

 

INTERACTIVE SURVEY - MATTHEW SKEENS

 
Video credits Owen Lowery

Business major Matthew Skeens’ Interactive Survey combines data-gathering and interactive play in building out a sophisticated TouchDesigner application with the idea that it could be repurposed and expanded upon for future needs.   

Read our Matt Skeens Interview >

 

SYNTHESia - Alexander Bailey

 
Video credits Owen Lowery

 

Music major Alexander Bailey "finds freedom" in TouchDesigner’s modularity and maps out his Korg synthesizer to take midi and audio into TouchDesigner to modulate the values of a particle system and other visual output. 

Read our Alexander Bailey Interview >

 

 

SHITMEME - JESSALYN SHINER 

Derivative: What are your feelings about TouchDesigner as a tool for self-expression and/or humor?

Jessalyn Shiner: I thought it worked very well as both an outlet for my humor and a way for self expression. The idea for my final project came about when I had asked Owen for some guidance in my short time frame, and he asked “did any of the previous projects we did stick out to you? Or make you happy?” And in fact the bee movie one I had done came to mind. It wasn’t planned, I was trying to catch up to class on the Kinect project and spur of the moment decided to instead use Barry pictures (shit-memes) instead of simple emoticons. It was a simple thing, that brought me joy out of its slight stupidity/absurdity.

The visual UI of the program certainly adds to this, as your creation continuously stares you in the face as you work. This... can be both a good and bad thing, as I stared at various Barry the Bee pictures for hours. 

I also really enjoyed the text feature, although I didn’t use it entirely for what I was supposed to... instead of writing notes on what I learned or the project workings themselves, instead I wrote my opinions on the project (“what have I done”) or left Easter eggs for myself, or Owen, to find. For example, I copy pasted the entire bee movie script in one part of the project, and later discovered upon showcasing the project that I had left “god is dead and we killed him” for myself to find. I promise I’m not morbid or a passionate satanist, merely a fan of millennial meme culture that seems absurd to those outside the seemingly inside joke.

The visual UI of the program certainly adds to this, as your creation continuously stares you in the face as you work. This... can be both a good and bad thing, as I stared at various Barry the Bee pictures for hours.
The initial big problem I had, that the three original Barrys were stacked on top of each other, turned out to be an even greater shitmeme than the one I had started with.

Derivative: Are there any benefits or “disbenefits” in using it over other tools?

Jessalyn Shiner: If you are someone who doesn't have much prior coding experience, or would like to jump in quickly, this program is definitely one of the easier things to use. Additionally if you’re a visual learner, or like to see your workflows laid out and connected, this program is fantastic for you. The different colors were nice too, and the options being easier to fiddle with and get immediate results. Also being able to bypass or move things around.

On the other hand, if you’re a coder by nature, this program could either be a great fit or not, as you may have to first spend time learning it’s own workflows and features. 

A big downside is keeping track of what exactly you’ve done and how you’ve gotten there, or else you’ll come back to your project a month later and not even know what you did. But, if you leave notes for yourself and keep the workspace relatively clean, it shouldn’t cause much of an issue.

Derivative: Were there any surprises during the making of Shitmeme? Surprises or realizations that perhaps have led to ideas for new projects or new ways to do things?

Jessalyn Shiner: Oh, of course. A lot of the surprise came from the continued novelty of how big this project grew. I created it with the intention of maybe five people ever seeing it, and I was the only one who was going to see the project files (and their names). It was amusing to me that the one thing I created without thought of the public ended up being the one thing I created the world got to see. 

Little hiccups along the way when things didn’t work as they were supposed to were a surprise as well. The initial big problem I had, that the three original Barrys were stacked on top of each other, turned out to be an even greater shitmeme than the one I had started with. It made me laugh, and although I ultimately fixed it, it gave a new route I could have taken for a different project.

I also realized later how much time inputting every single photo and line by line of the Bee Movie took, with the whole process of finding the files and importing them taking about 3 hours. However, like I’ve said, most of this project was just me having fun, so I didn’t mind. 

Derivative: And finally what did you learn after showing your work in public? 

Jessalyn Shiner: The experience of putting my project out into the "wild" with Owen was quite interesting, yet a little nerve wracking because of the fact that my project was so "out there". As someone who is also interested in social psychology, the ways people stopped and interacted (or didn't stop at all) were wildly intriguing to watch. Safety in numbers, especially when it has to do with Barry the Bee stuck to your face.

Lastly- Always rename your files. And don’t create anything with the intention of no one noticing it, because the world will find you.

Although, I do have to say, this is probably the greatest thing I’ve done so far, and makes a fantastic story to tell. I’ve made so many people laugh or at least smile, which is what the goal of the project was. A success!

 

Balls of Fire - Daniel Brenner

Derivative: How are you using TouchDesigner for your goal of creating meaningful experiences for children during cancer treatment?  You mention wanting to use “non-invasive” technologies… 

Daniel Brenner: When I was four years old, I was given a Special Wish through the Make A Wish Foundation and have seen so many give so much to me and my family through our individual battles with cancer. I wanted to give something back to the community and have tried through different channels such as YouTube, and Extra Life to give back.

When I found I could not change the world, I decided to build one instead. My goal was to make a company or foundation, that made wishes for people who were bed bound and could not travel to fulfill their wishes.

My journey took me to virtual, augmented and mixed reality but I found the hardware to be too invasive knowing the complex system of wires that come with the treatments of a cancer patient. My work with TouchDesigner has shown me I can build fulfilling experiences without the need for much equipment.

With cancer patients energy is a very rare source leaving little room for full body interaction. Using the Kinect and TouchDesigner I can simply track the hands and allow them to perform more simple interactions while building custom experiences for patients.

In class the more I learned about the program, the more I began to tinker and go off to build my own projects outside of the classroom. 
Derivative: How does TD compare to other creative tools you've worked with?

Daniel Brenner: TouchDesigner has made it possible for me a novice programmer, to build extraordinary things some I thought I would never be able to program. With most programming I have done it was spending hours coding to see if it would work, and when it did not work it would be more hours checking my code line by line making sure everything was in place before trying again. While working with TouchDesigner the programming was more visual, and I could see a reaction immediately and was told what error I had so it could be rectified and fixed. Being a self-published musician, I have found both uses for the audio capabilities, and visual aspects of the software to go on to begin a possible step in career as an interactive artist. In class the more I learned about the program, the more I began to tinker and go off to build my own projects outside of the classroom. 

 
Derivative: Were there any surprises during the making of your BOF? Surprises or realizations that perhaps have led to ideas for new projects or new ways to do things?

Daniel Brenner: Balls of Fire has been one of my many experiments and assignments over the semester that I have tried to improve again and again. It first started out simply with two different colors tracked to each hand, using the different XYZ axis to move and track. The next version was after my Professor demonstrated the different hand gestures that were formed using the Kinect, this gave me the idea of using three different hand signs to switch the colors of the fireballs between RGB. After adding a alpha channel to make the switching more smoother, I decided to use the various axis to track the position of both the color and tracking giving me a more variety of colors rather then limiting me to the three. Having done this, I still was not satisfied, so after looking at the original project and reverse engineering it I built separate rigs for my individual body sections.

The final product became an entire fireball suit that encased my arms, legs and body. Currently the latest version of the project I am working on, is set to feature audio reactive fire balls that will grow depending on the level of sound.

Derivative: Also it would be helpful to know what your experience was learning the software. What difficulties you faced and if for example there some major speed bumps or hard-to-catch concepts? 

Daniel Brenner: Despite my success working with the program, it was quite the learning curve to learn the program. Often hitting a wall and having to come to my Professor to help set me on the right track. Coding has always been quite the giant obstacle and has proven something I have stayed away from. Though after many sessions after class, and sometime on my own I began to feel more comfortable with the program. Learning the different combination of nodes, and how each one operated with the program.

Derivative: And finally what did you learn after showing your work in public? 

Daniel Brenner: Showing my many projects has had mixed reactions. Some have been intrigued and asked about the program and process, while others seemed underwhelmed giving only a passing glance. Though the feedback I have received, has given me a chance to improve and continue with new ideas. Building better versions of current works, and improving on old ones the more I learn. I hope in the future to continue to use TouchDesigner to reach new heights, and fully express myself and my creative process.

 

 

 

BE THE WIND - HELENA MCCOY

Derivative: What was it like creating a tactile and physical object to interact with TouchDesigner?

Helena McCoy: It was challenging to make a physical object for this project. Mostly because I had never made something that was meant for people to interact with, I was scared that it would break, or people would be afraid to break it and so not touch it. 

 

Derivative: What was the workflow like interfacing Arduino with TouchDesigner?

Helena McCoy: When data from the Arduino went into a Serial DAT into a Convert DAT where it was put into a table, then those columns in the Convert Dat went into a DAT to Math CHOP.

Derivative: What drew you towards creating a physical interactive object? 

Helena McCoy: I thought it was going to be like the the physical interactive examples we discussed in class and I have some experience soldering and working with circuits. So I thought it would be easy to create a simple on/off kind of open and closed-circuit type of object. That’s when I started thinking about things that could be used as a switch and eventually came to the wind chime.

I have used Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. This has been the easiest program to learn. Everything is pretty straightforward and it’s easy to bring in lots of different kinds of media and program things like controllers to do whatever you want them to do.

Derivative: How does TouchDesigner compare to other creative tools you've worked with?

I have used Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. This has been the easiest program to learn. Everything is pretty straightforward and it’s easy to bring in lots of different kinds of media and program things like controllers to do whatever you want them to do.

Derivative: Were there any surprises during the making of Be The Wind? Surprises or realizations that perhaps have led to ideas for new projects or new ways to do things?

Helena McCoy: It was difficult to get the wires to stay on the chimes. If I could recreate this project from the beginning I would use a more flexible type of wire. I thought the wires were obvious and distracted from the wind chime itself but people didn’t seem to notice them. I thought it was very interesting and I think I would be interested in recreating this project with better animations and a bigger wind chime.

Derivative: And finally what did you learn after showing your work in public? 

Helena McCoy: I learned that I enjoyed making interactive stuff and that you need to look at your work from every angle to make sure things are set up in a way that everything can be experienced at once. I realized afterward that it was difficult to see the video while you were using the chimes to make the circles appear, so I would have liked to have the chimes higher up or the video further away.

 

 

INTERACTIVE SURVEY - MATTHEW SKEENS

Derivative: What was the process of adapting a tool typically used for art and design to data collection and business purposes alike? 

Matthew Skeens: The process of adapting TouchDesigner for my data collection process was surprisingly simple! Having gained the experience in making interactive pieces and projects from class, the interactive and creative aspects of the project flowed well while making the survey with each part inspiring the next part (i.e with the change in background color, the background movement, and the music choice all building on one another until the final experience was created).

I was initially intimated by the data collection aspect but through a bit of code that my instructor helped me create and the data export tool already integrated in TouchDesigner, I found that it was relatively easy to get the raw inputs out of TouchDesigner. I then used excel to convert the numbers into readable data that could be analyzed for trends, make charts, and more! With the data collection on TouchDesigner's end, it was the last part that was implemented and using the tools of the software it was done much faster than expected. I am a firm believer that creativity, practicality, and art can go hand in hand without detracting from each other; but rather can combine to make even better creations. That was the overall goal of the project to showcase.

Derivative: Did you notice any similarities or differences in the creative problem-solving process between your business projects and your TouchDesigner project? 

Matthew Skeens: I approached TouchDesigner the same way I approach most of my challenges and tasks by using brute force, makeshift solutions, and learning as I go. I always immerse myself in my work and TouchDesigner was one of the easier tasks to lose myself in for hours at a time, always trying to solve or add just one more feature.
I knew that TouchDesigner allowed for infinite possibilities and ways to create, so anytime I was limited (for example not knowing how to put a solid background on text) I would use the tools I did know how to use to provide a solution (using text underscores, blowing them up to 1000 size font, and compositing them behind the actual text). I knew there was a better way to do things, as I often come across similar circumstances in business having to estimate demand for a product, the best marketing options, etc.
While these initial solutions are hodgepodge and educated guesses at best, they certainly get the job done and then allow me in the future to find even better solutions and learn even more than if I had simply rerouted to a different approach. 

Derivative: Were there any surprises during the making of your project that presented ideas for new projects or new ways to do things or even think about things?

Matthew Skeens: Like many things I work on, the project did evolve as I went with the initial idea being a 1-10 agreeable scale on each question followed by a short interactive experience. However, while I was working, I quickly fell in love with the idea of each step of the process building on itself and revealing the true power of the software at the very end. The simple idea of data collection sparked a whole array of new projects that I can't wait to continue working on outside of the class.

The complexity of this project also forced me to think of new ways to organize my projects. This project in particular, I tried to keep each section/question vertical with the question displayed on top and the corresponding interactive choice being worked out below. Moving horizontally across the project would transition question to question and interactive process to interactive process which allowed changes to be made easily and I could save time not searching all over for different modules to edit after making small changes in other areas. I had not previously fully utilized the switch module to its full potential and loved the simplicity in changing channels to make changes rather than creating entirely new paths. 

I quickly fell in love with the idea of each step of the process building on itself and revealing the true power of the software at the very end. 

Derivative: Also it would be helpful to know what your experience was learning the software - speedbumps, impasses, revelations etc.

Matthew Skeens: My professor, Owen, did an excellent job in teaching us the software and giving us coursework that allowed us to experiment and really get a feel for the software without being burdened by the fear of harsh grading, making every assignment a simple checklist and only 1 point each. This structure allowed me to go above and beyond on projects and supplied me with knowledge I would not have gained if I was forced to follow a more rigid assignment. With any new undertaking, the process in learning TouchDesigner required continuous research and repetition before sticking. Luckily, our professor supplied us with many hours of tutorial videos that made learning the software as easy as possible. We even had extra workshops to help with arduinos, python code, and more. It wasn't uncommon to have 1 on 1 meetings where my questions would be answered and if we both didn't know, we would find the solution together. Owen was by far one of the best professors I've had in making sure his students learned the software. 

Derivative: And finally what did you learn after showing your work in public and user-testing?

Matthew Skeens: Having had to conduct survey research in the past, I found that having a digital presence immediately makes people more willing to inspect and engage with the survey. It was interesting to see people want to take part in something like this, with the interest greatly increasing after the final "interactive experience" was generated. Keeping the data "clean" by not having people run through over and over again was another concern that improved with each user test by adding some more buttons and additional code that acted as a fail-safe for people who wanted to take part again. In a perfect world, the setup would have been much more open and inviting to people as it takes much more than a computer or touch screen monitor to draw busy people in. However, the goal was to get organic data from people who wanted to give it, without knowledge of the interactive "reward" at the end and I believe that was achieved and I was happy to surprise people with the experience at the end. The end interactive orb was also one of the first projects we did in the class and really pulled me in to the potential of the software. So I only thought it was fitting to make it a focal point of my last project and spread the very thing that got me invested too.

 

 

SYNTHESia - Alexander Bailey

Derivative: How does working in TouchDesigner compare to working with the audio tools you work with more regularly? Are there similarities? Differences? 

Alexander Bailey: Working with TouchDesigner has provided me with an experience unlike any of the digital audio workstations I have worked with. The modular layout of TouchDesigner provided a strong sense of freedom that allowed me to achieve a seemingly endless level of customization to fit into my project. My DAW’s of choice are Pro Tools, Logic, Fl Studio and Reaper, all of which are very defined in the functionality provided and serve the sole purpose of editing/mixing/mastering audio and midi.

In TouchDesigner, I found that to be only scratching the surface, as it allowed me to do things with audio and midi that I previously didn’t know was possible. I find it difficult to draw any similarities to the audio tools I work with, as I would never be able to create something like Synthesia in other softwares. 

Derivative: Were there any surprises during the making of Synthesia? Surprises or realizations that perhaps have led to ideas for new projects or new ways to do things?

Alexander Bailey: The biggest surprise for me was when I discovered ways to use previous lessons from Owen’s class that were unrelated to my project and repurpose them to help build Synthesia. This entire project was built upon combining these lessons, repurposing them, and building on them throughout the course of the class. On some parts, such as learning how to build a particle system I had to learn on my own time from the vast amount of resources online. Once I was able to create the particle system and the wireframe over my webcam input, that’s when the idea for this project solidified and I took off with it. My biggest moment of realization was about halfway through the class when Owen went over using controller/keyboard/midi input into TouchDesigner. It was at that moment I had the realization to use my Korg Minilogue as the basis for my final project, utilizing both the midi inputs from the knobs and switches and the audio input. 

Derivative: Also it would be helpful to know about  your experience learning the software, for example, what difficulties you faced and if you experienced some major speed bumps sort-of-thing…

Alexander Bailey: I don’t recall running into any major speed bumps. Having a class to help learn the core functionality of the program was the biggest factor in that. Whenever I ran into a wall and didn’t know how to do something, I could reliably go to Owen and we could work through it together. I had an incredible experience overall learning TouchDesigner. I enjoyed it greatly because I never felt like I wasted time experimenting. Even if a functionality experiment didn’t pan out the way I wanted it to, it helped me to look at the problem from a different perspective and encouraged me to continue problem solving and learning the new operators.

I had an incredible experience overall learning TouchDesigner. I enjoyed it greatly because I never felt like I wasted time experimenting.

Working in Pro Tools I can feel every minute of it as I know exactly how it works and what to do at any given time. Working in TouchDesigner, hours would melt away with experimenting and problem solving. Instead of feeling frustration when I would hit a small speed bump, I would feel motivation because I know there’s many different ways to solve a single problem and I felt driven to discover those solutions. Out of any software I’ve learned, TouchDesigner was the most satisfying and rewarding. 

I did forget to mention one important thing! Deadmau5 was a huge inspiration to me wanting to learn TouchDesigner.

I've been a huge fan of him since I was in early grade school. He was the biggest inspiration for me getting into the audiophile world, which led me to getting my degree in audio engineering. I love watching his Twitch streams, and watching the streams on him designing visual effects in TouchDesigner is what made me take this class!  

Derivative: And finally what did you learn after showing your work in public?

Alexander Bailey: The biggest thing I learned in publicly testing my project is that people never stay within the bounds of the rules or guidelines set before them. I had certain knobs and switches marked as the Korg has 29 knobs and 14 switches and I haven’t been able to assign functionality to all of them. People would constantly mess with unmarked knobs and switches, which is completely fine; it just doesn’t provide a response in the software, only the timbre of the sound.

The biggest thing I learned in publicly testing my project is that people never stay within the bounds of the rules or guidelines set before them.

Another thing I learned is people are naturally curious. I was asked on multiple occasions to show the inner workings of the project, which was an incredibly satisfying feeling as I got to show off more of the work I put into it.