I am a beginner user of TouchDesigner and would like to align my future career with creating audio-visual installations involving light, lasers, and smoke. My main source of inspiration is the artist group Setup Design, specifically their projects like Coil, Borders, Sun or Signal 22.
I understand that such projects require the efforts of a large team, but for now, I am overwhelmed by the vast array of equipment I could experiment with at home to acquire the necessary skills. Currently, I have an Enttec DMX USB PRO at my disposal, and I am trying to figure out what equipment I can purchase to start experimenting (lights, lasers, displays).
Could someone suggest budget-friendly options for a beginner like me?
look into the pixlite 4 mkii
kinect, or Orbbec these days as its replacement
learn your python, integrate packages like MediaPipe
and Etherdream or similar is nice for learning to control lasers
Another reasonable direction to chase is to use something like Unreal as a previz tool-kit. Unreal has a pretty nice DMX tool-kit so simulating the set-up of complex lighting is easy to do - and lets you think about the kind of things you want to create without just purchasing gear.
Just about every artist or studio does some kind of previz, and building your skills for that kind of workflow is a good skill to start early.
If you want to get some experience controlling moving lights in a way that you might be controlling them on big gigs (through a lighting console - most likely GrandMA3) you could download the free GrandMA OnPC software and use the built-in moving light visualizer there that will simulate how real-life makes and models work - especially the DMX fixture profile layout - and will show you a passable 3D representation of the light, what it does, and how it responds to DMX.
The software will let you receive DMX INTO it to be able to control the virtual lights from other software like TouchDesigner, but to send DMX data OUT of OnPC, you would have to be using some sort of licensed MA Lighting hardware (not cheap) - really you can just send directly out of TouchDesigner at that point.
Learning how to properly set up the OnPC software to have some moving lights patched and positioned in the 3D visualizer - as well as getting DMX input to work (LOTS of networking caveats to learn) - are no small tasks, probably even more effort than it would take to learn Unreal Engine… though the DMX lights in Unreal Engine are very generic and don’t well represent any particular “real” moving lights.
This new year is right at the precipice of when a lot of lighting programmers will be switching from the 15 year old GrandMA2 software to the new (and finally “useable”) GrandMA3 software, so take your pick; but long term, MA3 is what you will eventually run into and if you want your career to be messing with moving lights, you really should dig into it.
Thanks a lot for responses! I am working in game development as an animator and learning Unreal from DMX and light perspective wouldn’t be a problem.
And thank you Peeet for such a detailed answer. I will definitely start digging into GrandMA software and exploring connection with TouchDesigner, that sounds like a great place to start.
Hi there!
Happy that our small studio was an inspiration to you.
I wonder how’s your progress throug the past year. Did you get somewhere with UE + Touchdesigner? Or did you focuse on MA?