Help with Horizontal Line & Ripple Effect (ideally with POPs)

General TouchDesigner Discussion
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Hello TD community, I need a hand with something that I can’t wrap my head around it.

I want to render an horizontal line, that occasionally (say after pressing a button) creates a ripple effect.

PXL_20251220_022500853
PXL_20251220_0225008531920×3413 553 KB

I drew the ripples to be above the horizontal line level, but the ripples can expand above and below the horizontal line.

eventually I would love to have as much control as possible over the ripple, for example:
. the ripple should generating from any point along the line (i.e. from the center going outwards, or from anywhere else along the line)
. the ripple perhaps could be slightly thicker at the highest and lowest points, sort of like in the sketch above, I was thinking of using a scale on the Y axis

PXL_20251220_022509373~2
PXL_20251220_022509373~21920×1080 106 KB

I thought this could be a great exercise to use POPs, but I got stuck really early in the process.

I’ll attach here where I got so far
Line_Morph.tox (7.2 KB)

For the moment I got a pattern POP doing some of the work with a sine wave, but it’s way too even and predictable, I am after something a lot more organic and interesting.

I was thinking of using some Math POP to multiply something along the Y position on the points, but I am really stuck.

Any tips to point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance for looking into this!

2

Hello,

A very quick and dirty answer to your question, but perhaps you can use some idea.

  • a line point generator
  • math to regularly distribute points
  • math to move the points verticaly with a sin function of the time
  • change the time for each point
  • add a decrease function for amplitude

feel free to comment and change my sketch.

All the best,

Jacques

popWaves.toe (5.1 KB)

popWaves.PNG
popWaves.PNG1920×935 104 KB

1 Like
3

Hi @FaustoB

a simple solution could be a Button COMP, a Spring CHOP connected to it and trailing it before outputting it via a CHOP To POP / Render setup.

cheers
Markus

2 Likes
4

@jacqueshoepffner @snaut, thank you!
Both are interesting, different solutions with different outcomes.

I’m away from my computer for a few days, can’t wait to try these techniques