How do Artists and Designers use TouchDesigner?
Many artists and developers use TouchDesigner to combine audio, video, data, and technologies. Let’s look at a few examples:
This performance/installation by Berlin based company White Void, spearheaded by light artist Christopher Bauder is a perfect example for a show that would be almost impossible without a tool like TouchDesigner. White Void uses very precise DMX controlled winches.They can drive the LED Balls to positions in space. The Lasers on the other hand have no idea, where the balls are. All they understand is an angle in which the shoot the beam. With TouchDesigner the creators could build a software, that allows them to create and perform content in realtime on this synchronised system. Further more, the show itself was controlled from Ableton Live, a music sequencing software. All of this together forms a huge, spacial-audiovisual instrument that can be performed live. Experiences like this have created a new audience and explore new formats as hybrids of art, entertainment and architecture.
http://tundracollective.com
In this project, the tundra collective uses TouchDesigner to calibrate and synchronise laser projections with generative video animations mapped onto the same screen. Again, this is not a pre-recorded show but a live instrument that can be performed in realtime together with live music.
Here we see two works playing with the same space. One is a laser performance by Daniel Dalfovo, the other one is a kinetic LED Installation performed by myself. Both installations use Touchdesigner to control everything. Due to a very short time frame we both were working on open networks to build the Show why it was already running – which is possible if your show runs for 5 hours on three days in a row : )
Learn more about my setup here: https://mxav.net/linie-100-years-of-bauhaus
Vincent Houze is a GLSL shader guru in the TouchDesigner world. Here he performs a fulldome show together with Dave and Gabe who specialise in spacial audio and immersive experiences. Again the system is built with lot of custom software in TouchDesigner and Ableton live. A lot of what Vincent does relies on GLSL shaders – which can be used and authored in TouchDesigner. GLSL is code that is being executed directly on the GPU and that allows for otherwise unachievable performance. It is a way to extremely extend the capabilities of TD.
Obviously the best place however to find out what people do with TouchDesigner is the Derivative shwocase selection.