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What Our Customers Have Said About TouchDesigner

Sila Sveta

We adore the python implementation in TouchDesigner, first because it gives you the opportunity to enrich the TouchDesigner functionality even more with external libraries, and secondly because it makes you deal with all components and operators in a uniform and convenient way - it hugely simplifies my patches in terms of structure, but enriches them in terms of functionality.

We've done two projects with TouchDesigner 088 lately. The first one is a mapping show for the new Mercedes S-class world premiere in Moscow, a 5-projector-setup with 8 sound channels and live symphony orchestra. The second is a LED stage for Gipsy Parking festival (seven live bands and Nicolas Jaar as the headliner), where we used both pre-rendered content and real-time sound reactive generated content from TouchDesigner.

The TouchDesigner server was responsible for capturing pre-rendered content from Resolume (through DirectX TOP In), generating audio-reactive content, mixing it together and outputting it - the key role in the event.In both cases, TouchDesigner 088 appeared to be a super-stable highly productive environment with rich functionality. Another thing we are super happy about is the Hap codec support. It's a workhorse among other codecs - fast and powerful. I also should mention the new render engine with new OpenGL and GLSL.

The realtime render now has been brought to another level in quality (shadows and lighting are much more tasty now) - generative design has a new face in TouchDesigner. So, in general, 088 has brought the whole pipeline to a new level!

- Dmitry Napolnov, Technical Director, Sila Sveta, Moscow, Russia

moment factory

TouchDesigner opened up a world of possibilities for Moment Factory's real-time interactive content designers and developers. It allows us to grab the data we want, process it, and turn it into cutting edge visuals, all in a single software environment. The workflow is easy, but power and flexibility isn't at all sacrificed. The modular, in-depth performance profiling tools, 2D/3D/OpenGL tools and advanced scripting possibilities give us everything we need to build a show from prototype to production. It is the obvious choice for a lot of the interactive / generative content production projects we create around the world. TouchDesigner has proven its potential.

- Moment Factory's interactive team designers and developers

 

 

GRADY SAIN, artist

TouchDesigner fits my workflow needs perfectly. In my opinion, its speed, power, and flexibility as a development environment is unmatched. TouchDesigner has all the means for interfacing with other systems and platforms I could ever need. From graphics platforms like Adobe and Autodesk, to all types of digital audio tools and communication protocols. TouchDesigner can stand alone or integrate itself with as many other full or partial systems and formats as I wish.

My name is Grady Sain. I'm an artist by training and a self-taught engineer. I've used TouchDesigner pretty much exclusively for all my realtime development over the past 4 years. As a Technical Director at Obscura Digital, I used TouchDesigner in at least 50 successfully deployed systems, ranging from massive live events to permanent interactive installations.

I'm constantly amazed at the scope and power of TouchDesigner. It's very rare that I dream up an idea that I can't accomplish with TouchDesigner out of the box. And if I do get stuck- I can always rely on help from the TouchDesigner community and the Derivative staff.

I've been using 088 for about 6 months and I am just beginning to migrate from TScript to Python. Working in Python in TouchDesigner has rapidly boosted my coding abilities. I still code like a caveman, but now I do it in a hugely supported community with a vast amount of help and resources.

- Grady Sain, Artist, Engineer, Developer, Atlanta GA

Projection artworks (formerly projection advertising)

TouchDesigner 088 and its Python features have been essential in our efforts to implement real time social media visualizations into our projects.

TouchDesigner 088's control panel system alongside it's connectivity have given us the scope to create simple to use mapping systems so our production team can, with little knowledge of touchdesigner itself, spend more of their time on hardware setup and less time on getting the content to work. 

- Richard Burns, Projection Advertising, London UK

mit media lab

At a place like the MIT Media Lab, where 'anti-disciplinarity' is regarded as the norm our credo is "demo or die"... I can't think of a better tool to quickly prototype ideas than TouchDesigner 088.

As researchers here we can't just talk about our work, we have to physically build and present functional demos to get the kind of critical feedback from mentors we need to really move things forward. I can't think of a better tool to quickly prototype ideas than TouchDesigner 088. I've used it here for everything from running an immersive, real-time interactive visual environment with 10 HD streams, to orchestrating multiple low-DOF robots and animating shape changing interfaces.

Just for fun, I try to hook it up to as many things around the lab as I can- and there's some really weird/cool stuff around here...

With TouchDesigner 088's new support for Python (thank you!) I'm able to integrate novel input devices like an IMU with hardware-based Kalman filtering to improve my robot's understanding of the world and quickly iterate on human-robot interaction scenarios. Suddenly, a job that might have required custom C++ programming can be executed quickly in Python. When in doubt, a little help from the talented TouchDesigner user community can help resolve a specific challenge. I use TouchDesigner 088 because it combines a forward-thinking product architecture and vision I've always believed in, extensibility for those custom jobs and a friendly and knowledgeable user community.

- David Robert, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA

mary franck

For me, TouchDesigner has always been at the sweet spot of making high-level programming easy while exposing low-level coding for nuanced control." Including Python makes it even more so. TouchDesigner 088 has allowed me to use much more flexible and sophisticated data types in my workflow and puts hundreds of powerful libraries at my disposal.

- Mary Franck, Media Developer & TouchDesigner Instructor, San Francisco CA

eye vapor

TouchDesigner's generative graphics capabilities remain the driving force for Eye Vapor's projects. With 088, we've recently used the ASIO capabilities to drive 30+ simultaneous channels of Dolby audio in real time, during frame accurate control of 50 HDMI video screens and DMX lighting for the upcoming release of the movie reboot of Godzilla.

In the same week my Eye Vapor partner Jeff Smith flew to Cali, Columbia, for the opening ceremony of the 2013 World Games, where he directed a team of eight TouchDesigner users to create 20,000 square feet of projection in the stadium. For a recent Alienware launch party, Eye Vapor used TouchDesigner 088 to drive 9 projectors and an LED tunnel powered by four frame synchronized servers controlled by an Alienware laptop.

Eye Vapor is also excited to be called on for our experience with TouchDesigner. Teaching TouchDesigner 088 allows great leaps in new user success. In a classroom filled with graphic designers and hard core programmers, TouchDesigner becomes a different toolbox for everyone. Graphic designers thinking visually approach TD as a drag-and-drop tool where nodes are connected with wires. Programmers immediately jump into the deep Python functionality. With no prior experience my students in a three day class independently created a zoetrope, an accurate visualization for a MIDI guitar, and much more using 088.

I used to think of TouchDesigner primarily for creating procedural real time graphics. As TouchDesigner has matured into TouchDesigner 088 it's my go-to tool for controlling Raspberry Pis, servos, and all sorts of fun outboard hardware.

And if you happen to notice Eye Vapor's work on the upcoming Justin Timberlake video, that's TouchDesigner 088, too.

- Russ Haines, Eye Vapor, San Francisco CA

vsquared labs

As a whole we have seen major performance increases across the board in the reprogramming of our VJ tool EPIC from TouchDesigner 077 to 088. CamSchnappr has been a fantastic addition to the tool suite TouchDesigner 088 offers users. I have also seen major speed improvements in the TouchDesigner 088 version of our performance software. The 64bit memory usage dramatically expanded our ability to go so much further in real time 3D scene performance. 

- Vello Virkhaus, VSquared Labs, Los Angeles CA

Alex Czetwertynski, director

"The combination of TouchDesigner's natural translation between contexts and Python's extreme versatility is nothing short of game-changing for any serious TouchDesigner user. The addition of Python to TouchDesigner has made a huge difference in my workflow. Beyond being able to use the power of Python to parse data, build applications within TouchDesigner, and create more powerful custom components, it has also allowed me to do things with 3D data I never thought would be possible."

- Alex Czetwertynski, Creative and Technical director, Brooklyn NY

peter sistrom, artist

088 is a huge upgrade in power, features and scriptability - I can never go back! Python scripting has immensely expanded my ability to add features and functions to projects. CamScnhappr makes 3D mapping incredibly easy. 64 Bit lets me go hog wild with tons of procedural geometry. Built-in shadows and instancing features in geometry as well as GLSL 3.30 allow for smoother, faster and more complex 3D scenes as well! I've been incredibly happy with TouchDesigner 088! 

- Peter Sistrom, Visual Music Artist and Lead Programmer/VJ for Amon Tobin's ISAM live, Los Angeles CA

 

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