Introduction to Visual programming with TouchDesigner

Welcome to The NODE Institute.
At The NODE Institute, we’re passionate about sharing knowledge and sparking creativity. That’s why we regularly host meetups—both in our Berlin studio and online—for the TouchDesigner and VVVV communities around the globe.

We also run a range of workshops and webinars designed to connect educators with learners, and professionals with each other. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to deepen your skills, this free introduction to visual programming with TouchDesigner is your easy entry point into a fascinating new creative world.

Realtime Creative Coding.

Creative coding means an approach to programming that comes from an art and design angle. There are many tools out there, who try to simplify it for artists and designers to work with interactive technologies that require programming. While many of these tool rely the efficiency of written code, some programs go another way, which becomes more and more common: Visual Programming.

This means that the user doesn’t write code in the first place but builds complex programs through connecting simple building blocks. This approach has been proven very successful with people who are used to thinking visually. In the specific case of TouchDesigner each of these nodes shows what is happening in the node, and the signal flow becomes quite obvious.

However, TouchDesigner is known for a steep learning curve and there are some simple things that easily confuse novice users. We are here to get these obstacles out of your way and enable you to have fun from the beginning. This learning experience has several parts. Finishing it from start to end not only makes you fit to dive into your own exploration of visual programming and interaction design – but also enables you to jump into any other course directed at beginners that we offer.

Previously, our workshops were held exclusively at our Berlin studio—an engaging setup, but not always accessible to those living abroad or juggling busy schedules.

Today, we’ve reimagined our format to include both in-person and online options, making it easier for a global audience to join while maintaining the interactive, community-driven experience that defines our teaching approach.

Course Description:

This free introduction to visual programming with TouchDesigner is meant to enable anyone to get started playing with TouchDesigner and enjoy it from day one.

You are going to learn what TouchDesigner is, where to get it, how to install and license it and what other people are using it for. You will understand in which context TouchDesigner is useful and when you should complement it with other tools or maybe look at something completely different.

You will get to know the basic concept of (visual) programming and learn how to use the interface and understand the basic terminology. With these basics in place you will start building your first patch, an audio-visual synthesizer and how to export the results to a movie or even stream it to a social media platform.

After finishing the course you should be able to navigate and use TouchDesigner, while avoiding the most common mistakes. You will be able to follow most tutorials and you will have learned important basics about computer graphics, codecs and programming. From here you can start your own exploration.