I am looking for tutorials on clean node design practices.
Specifically being able to drop into a null and have it cleanly connect without massive unclean spider webs of design.
tutorials on good design behavior would be helpful also.
I really appreciate any help you can provide.
I found useful to separate the network in chunks. Each “chunk” takes care of a specific part of the project.
For example, if you look at example I’ve attached, the base Component INPUT → OSC_IN deals with anything related to receiving OSC.
the Base Component ANIMATIONS has everything related to video animations, and so on.
It’s all divided in Base (or containers) COMPS, and you can recall data from one section of the network to another using selects. This alone will fix 99% of the spider web / spaghetti bowl situation, and will make your network way more readable, among other things.
each Base (or containers) COMPS has a specific Global OP Shortcut.
The advantage of using Global OP Shortcut is that things won’t break if you move them around. For example, grab GENERATIVE_DATA and put it inside INPUT, everything will keep working, no references are broken.
Note that in the example attached, the name of the final null in each container it’s usually all capital letters and has the same name has the parent base COMP; this is not a rule, it’s just my way, I find it easier that way to rememebr and to select things around (i.e. the null DAT in the base TABLE is also called TABLE, but it can be anything, like null1, null2, null_table etc…, just remember to change the name in the selects around your network referencing that null).
This process and this way of organising the network might seem tedious at first, but I guarantee your network navigation (and trouble shooting, components re-usability, scalability of the project, readability…) will improve heaps.
There’s a lot more to say but for now, last thing:
If you have a number of operators, and you want to put them in a base comp, just select them, right click on a empty part of the network, and click on “Collapse Selected”. This will create a Base COMP with your operators inside.
for me in TD, good networks are boring (to look at) networks!
see example attached, have a look around, it’s a sort of template network very similar to what I use in a lot of my projects, then I’ll modify it as needed.
in this case it’s just populated with some stuff just to show you the overall project architecture approach I use.
I hope this helps!
Project Template.toe (7.4 KB)
Thanks for the response. I might be overthinking.
It looks like you can drag and drop over top and then get options
Parm OP
Operator viewer
Clone Master
What option did you use?
If you hover your cursor over the arrow on those lines, it will have a pop-up telling you what is connected to what.
If you find those reference connection lines annoying or in the way, you can press the hotkey ‘x’ for “Show/Hide Data Links”. You can turn them on and off based on when you need them.
It looks like you are dragging and dropping the entire base comp into another base comp. That’s not how it works.
The base comps are referencing each other, but the reference happens between the last null in a base, and the select in the “receiving” base, not directly between base to base.
Have another look at the example I provided, and take time to understand the logic. Split the network editor in two to be in two different parts of the network at the same time, and look at the base sending values via the null, and the base receiving the values via the selects.
Look closely at what’s typed in the select.
Look closely what’s typed in the base global op shortcuts.
Read my first response where I explain the approach.
And lastly, look up the TD documentation and the select examples in the operator snippets.
TD had also a new section in their website with learning resources to grasp all the basics (it’s called 100s series or something like that).
I hope this helps!
thank you.
I knew I was missing something.
