Touch designer for science art installation

Beginners
1

Hello, all

I just heard a presentation on immersive experiences by Gabe Kean at Penn State University. I spoke to him afterwards and asked him what kind of projection mapping software and tools he would suggest using for mid to large scale installations. I explained to him that I’m in the process of creating a science art installation and I’ve been experimenting with Heavy M, Resolume and Lightform. I work with Cinema 4D and Unity 3D and would like to map my animations to the structure we are designing with interactive motion detection. Gabe mentioned Touch designer and I immediately went back to my office, downloaded the free version of the software and started learning. I’m blown away by the capabilities of the software, but I’m wondering if it’s the best option for my workflow.

Here’s what I need to know

  1. Is it possible to map animations to specific regions on my structure like Heavy M and Lightform? Heavy M is more accessible since I don’t need a wireless connection to use it. Lightform seems clunky. I’ve been fighting with wireless connections due to on campus firewalls.

  2. Touch designer has the capacity to control multiple projectors. Is that capability available with the educational license? Seems like Resolume and Heavy M could output to multiple projectors with an additional device. Still researching this option

  3. Can Touch designer communicate with motion sensors? If so, is that a built in feature or would I need to purchase additional hardware?

  4. I’m all for leaning the Python coding language. I have a general understanding of Supercollider sonification coding and C# thanks to Unity. Since Touch designer is a node based language, will an understanding of visual programming be enough to develop an interactive experience or do I need to spend a sufficient amount of time on learning Python?

To sum up this newbie novel, my general sense of Touch designer is that it could be the perfect software that satisfies all of my major needs listed above but I need a bit of guidance before taking the plunge

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

2

Hi @dnelson - welcome to the forum! Here’s a few quick responses

Is it possible to map animations to specific regions on my structure like Heavy M and Lightform? Heavy M is more accessible since I don’t need a wireless connection to use it. Lightform seems clunky. I’ve been fighting with wireless connections due to on campus firewalls.

Absolutely - there are lots of different ways to approach this problem and some of it depends on your preferred workflow. You can work with only 2D textures that are mapped to specific areas with a built in tool like kantan mapper -

You can work more in 3D with and think of illusions as based on a your UV map with something like camschnappr:

You can take an approach that really aims to blend virtual and 3D worlds by rolling your own solution - similar to what Harvey has done here:

Any of those directions are possible - it’s really up to how you want to work.

Touch designer has the capacity to control multiple projectors. Is that capability available with the educational license? Seems like Resolume and Heavy M could output to multiple projectors with an additional device. Still researching this option

There’s complete feature parity between the commercial and educational license - the only requirement being that you need to be affiliated with an educational institution to get the discounted license.

Can Touch designer communicate with motion sensors? If so, is that a built in feature or would I need to purchase additional hardware?

Boy golly it sure can - there are lots of ways to connect to sensors directly, and if all else fails you can work with serial messages, or write your won DLL for a C++ CHOP. Control channels largely live in CHOPs and I’d take a look there to get your bearings.

I’m all for leaning the Python coding language. I have a general understanding of Supercollider sonification coding and C# thanks to Unity. Since Touch designer is a node based language, will an understanding of visual programming be enough to develop an interactive experience or do I need to spend a sufficient amount of time on learning Python?

There’s a TON you can do with only nodes, but at the end of the day you’ll probably want to learn at least a little Python. It helps with some essential logic pieces that make your projects easier to wrangle at the end of the day.

I’d highly recommend looking a few places to get started -

https://nvoid.github.io/

These are all great places to start learning and many of them will help you get up and running before you know it. The forum is also a great place to connect with other developers, artists, and engineers who are excited to be creating, sharing, and helping others. Hope this helps you get started.

3

Matthew- Thanks for your reply. My brain is exploding! I will integrate Touch designer into my workflow and utilize the information you kindly listed in your post. I have a feeling I’ve stumbled upon a tool that I will use in the coming years

Be well