TouchDesigner Glossary

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TouchDesigner Terms - Learn How to Speak Touchese

Attribute - information associated with SOP geometry. Points and primitives (polygons, NURBS, etc.) can have any number of attributes, such as normals (N), texture coordinates (uv), color (Cd), etc.

Bypass - An operator that is bypassed behaves as if it is not there. All data from its first input just flows through to its output.

Bookmark - a pull-down list at the top of a network pane containing jump-to paths.

Channel - A CHOP outputs one or more channels, where a channel is simply a sequence of numbers, representing motion, audio, etc.. Channels are passed between CHOPs in TouchDesigner networks. See also Export.

CHOP - Also known as CHannel OPerator. CHOPs operate on data channels (a series of numbers) which are used for audio, animation, mathematics, simulation, logic, UI construction, and many other applications.

Clone - TouchDesigner's way of making many components match the design of a master component. A component whose "Clone" parameter is set will be forced to contain the same nodes, wiring and parameters as its master clone.

Command - For scripting in TouchDesigner, commands are typed in the textport, or entered in command scripts in DATs.

Component or COMP - an operator family that contains its own network inside. There are 10 Object components and 5 Panel Components. See also Path.

Container - The Container component type holds any number of gadgets and, like all gadgets, is a panel.

Cook - To cook means to compute or calculate the operators of networks. An operator cooks when (1) its inputs change, (2) its parameters change, or (3) scripting commands are run on it. When the operator is a gadget, it also cooks when a user interacts with it. When an operator cooks, it usually causes operators connected to its output to recook. When TouchDesigner draws the screen, it re-cooks all the necessary operators, contributing to a frame's total "cook time".

DAT - Data Operator, an operator family that manipulates text strings: multi-line text or tables. Mult-line text is often command scripts, but can be any multi-line text. Tables are rows and columns of cells, each containing a text string.

Data Link - Unlike a Wire, a Data Link is the dashed lines between nodes in the network that represent links between CHOP exports, parameters, node paths, and CHOP channel references.

Dialog - Any floating window that is not a Pane or Viewer.

Display flag - the blue flag on Geometry components and SOP operators that determines if the geometry contained in that operator is visible in tile viewers and geometry viewer panes.

Expert Mode - turn this on to view Expert operators in the OP Create Dialog. It can be turned on in the OP Create Dialog (upper-right corner) or under Edit > Preferences > General.

Export - Exporting is the connection of CHOP channels to parameters of operators. The output of each exporting CHOP is one or more channels, active only while the CHOP's export flag is on. The current value of a channel can be 'exported' to a parameter of any operator, overriding that parameter's value. See Parameter.

Expression - a function in the form, name(val1, val2, ...) that, when evaluated, returns a single number or text string. Expressions are used in parameters and in command scripts.

Flag - (1) indicator of certain states of an operator (bypass, display, lock), or (2) option of a tscript command.

Frame - The term 'Frame' is used (1) in the Timeline, (2) as a time-unit in CHOPs, (3) as a time-unit in TOPs, and (4) in movies which are read and created with TOPs.

Frame Rate - the frame rate that TouchDesigner's Timeline uses. Equal to $FPS.

Folder - the operating system's holder of files and other folders (directories). It does not refer to operators within TouchDesigner. See Network Path.

FTE - Short for Free Thinking Environment. TouchDesigner FTE is an edition of TouchDesigner available at no charge (free) for personal and educational uses. Go to TouchDesigner Products for more details on FTE and Pro editions.

Gadget - the component types that are used to make Panels: Button, Slider, Field, Container, Select. also known as Panel Components. see also Object.

Geometry Spreadsheet - a pane type used to look at and modify data in SOPs - points' XYZ, texture coordinates, polygons and vertices.

Geometry Viewer - a 3D viewport for viewing and manipulating 3D scenes or objects interactively. A geometry viewer can be found in Panes (alt+3 in any pane) or the Node Viewers of all Geometry Object components.

Geometry Object - the component type that is used to hold all 3D geometry for rendering.

GPU - The Graphics Processing Unit. This is the brains of the graphics card.

Group - a collection of operators that can be treated together under one name using the @groupname syntax.

Immune - every node has an Immune flag. When the Immune flag is on, and the node is inside a Clone, it is not affected by any change to the clone, so you can store extra data in a clone.

Instance - an OP that doesn't actually have its own data, but rather just points to (or has an input) whose data it uses. Examples include Null OPs, Select OPs, Switch OPs.

Keyframe - a frame within the Animation component which holds a channel value, slope, acceleration and interpolation type, used to determine the values of the channel which are not keyframes.

Layout - The TouchDesigner window is made of a menu bar at the top, a Timeline at the bottom, plus one of a choice of Layouts in the middle. A Layout is made on one or more Panes, each Pane can contain a Network Editor, Viewer, Panel, etc.. See Pane and Bookmark.

Lock - When an operator is locked, it does not cook and its output data remains frozen, even when the TouchDesigner session is saved to a .toe file and restarted.

Macro - a script that executes one or more scripting language commands. See also Script and DAT.

Material or MAT - The operator family that associates a shader with a SOP or Geometry Object for rendering textured and lit objects.

Network - Every component contains a network of operators that create and modify data. The operators are connected by wires that define where data is routed after the operator cooks its inputs and generates an output.

Network Editor - a pane type where networks of operators can be created and edited.

Network Path - is the path to a Component or Operator. This path is displayed at the top of every Pane, showing which Component's network you are currently in.

Node - the generic thing that holds an Operator, and includes Flags (display, bypass, lock, render, immune) and its position/size in the network. Whether you "lay down an Operator" or "lay down an Node", you're doing the same thing.

Node Viewer - the viewer found on each operator in a Network Editor pane. This viewer is turned on by clicking the Viewer Flag.

Object - the component types that are used to render 3D scenes: Geometry components contain the 3D shapes to render, plus Camera, Light, Ambient Light, Null, Bone, Handle and other component types.

OP Create Menu - the menu used to select and create a new operator or component. Can be opened by the + sign in the Pane Bar, by pressing <tab> while in a Network Editor, or by clicking MMB or RMB on an operator's output connector.

Operator Family - The operator families are: TOP, CHOP, SOP, MAT (Materials), DAT (scripts, data and tables) and Component (Panel Gadgets and Objects). Each operator family creates a unique type of data, bee it images, geometry, channels, text.

Operator or OP - any of the procedural data operators. OPs do all the work in TouchDesigner. They "cook" and output data to other OPs, which ultimately result in new images, data and audio being generated. See Node.

Palette - A built-in panel in TouchDesigner that contains a library of components and media that can be dragged-dropped into a TouchDesigner network.

Pane - a work area in TouchDesigner's layout. There are 8 pane types used for different tasks. The TouchDesigner interface can consist of a single pane, or be split into multiple panes.

Pane Type - There are 8 pane types; Network, Panel, Textport, Geometry Viewer, TOP Viewer, CHOP Viewer, Parameters, Graph Editor for CHOP Channels, or a Geometry Spreadsheet.

Panel - a custom interactive control panel built within TouchDesigner. Panels are created using Panel Components whose look is created entirely with TOPs.

Panel Component - the component types (e.g. Slider, Button, Field, Container) that are used to create custom control panels, also known simply as Panel or Gadget.

Panel Value - an internal state of a panel component accessed with a Panel CHOP, a panel() expression or a Panel Execute DAT. Panel Values are not the same thing as "Variables", "Channels" or "Parameters".

Parameter - Parameters in TouchDesigner are an operator's settings (numbers, menus, flags, strings, paths) which the user can alter. Parameters for any operator can be opened by right-clicking on the operator and selecting Parameters... A currently selected operator's parameters can be viewed in a Network Editor by pressing the keyboard shortcut 'p'.

Parameters Dialog - a floating dialog, pane type, or dialog in a Network Editor that displays one operator's parameters.

Parameter Expression - A parameter expression is an expression that lives inside a parameter field.

Parent - The parent node is the name given to the COMP in which any individual node resides. The metaphor is extended to include grand parents, grand-grand parents, etc. The root / is the ultimate parent to all nodes. See also 3D Parenting.

Parameter Reference - A parameter reference can be setup between any two parameters. This creates a link between the two parameters such that when one changes, the other will change automatically (known as "constraints" in other software).

Path - the location of an operator within the TouchDesigner environment, for example, /geo1/torus1, a node called torus1 in a component called geo1. It does not refer to a filesystem folder, directory or disk file. see Folder.

Path Variable - The component parameter called Path Variable can contain the name of a variable you can use anywhere inside the component as the path to that component. If all clones have the same path variable, that one variable will refer to the unique location of each clone, making paths in clones simpler and clones more portable.

Pattern Matching - matching strings using wildcard characters and bracketing. Useful in Select parameters to select multiple operators, paths, etc.

Performance Monitor - the tool built-in to TouchDesigner that analyzes and displays what TouchDesigner is doing as it generates an image.

Pipe - a way of moving data from one TouchDesigner process to another. Images are moved via Touch Out / In TOPs, channels are moved via Touch Out / In CHOPs and Pipe Out / In CHOPs. Data moves via TCP/IP or UDP.

Playbar - a former name for Timeline. See Timeline.

Popup Help - help message that comes up when rolling the cursor over the interface, or clicking the ? help button on the corner of each operator's Parameters page.

Primitive - a surface type like polygon, curve (NURBS and Bezier), patch (NURBS and Bezier) and other shapes like sphere, tube, and metaball.

Render - an image created with the Render TOP or the Render Pass TOP. Also used more generally to include the compositing (with TOPs) to generate an output image.

Render flag - the purple flag on COMP and SOP nodes that determines if the node will be rendered in a Render or Render Pass TOP. The operator must also be listed in the Render / Render Pass TOP's 'Geometry' parameter.

Root - TouchDesigner is a hierarchy of components. "root" is the top-most network in the hierarchy. The path is simply /. A typical path is /project1/moviein1.

RMB Menu - The menu that appears when clicking the right mouse button on different parts of TouchDesigner. (Sometimes you need to be holding down Ctrl.)

Scope - a parameter in a CHOP that restricts which channels of that CHOP will be affected. Normally all channels of a CHOP are affected by the operator.

Script - a set of commands located in a Text DAT that are triggered to run under certain conditions. The current scripting language is Tscript. Scripts and single-line commands can also be run in the textport.

Shader - the OpenGL code that creates a rendered image from polygons and textures. Shaders can be made of up to three parts: Vertex Shader, Geometry Shader and/or Pixel Shader, which are either embedded inside Materials, or placed in Text DATs and referenced to a GLSL Material.

Shortcut - There are two types of shortcuts: Panel Shortcuts that you create for any custom built panels and Application Shortcuts that are built-in to TouchDesigner's authoring interface.

SOP - Also known as Surface OPerator, a SOP reads, creates, or modifies 3D surface data - polygons, curves, NURBS surfaces, spheres, meatballs and more.

Status Bar - the line of text at the top of the TouchDesigner window which displays messages from TouchDesigner when certain events succeed or fail.

Synth - the art you are creating with your .toe file and all the media files it uses.

Table - a form of DATs (Data Operators) that is structured as rows and columns of text strings. Table values are retrieved by tab() expressions. They are set with the tabcell command.

Texel - a pixel from a texture (a pixel from a TOP).

Textport - a dialog box in which commands and scripts can entered manually. Script errors and echo messages are also output to this dialog box.

Tile - in a network pane, the box for a node, containing the input and output connectors, flags and the Node Viewer.

Timeline - the panel at the bottom of TouchDesigner, it controls the current Time of the full system or just one component.

TOP - Also known as Texture OPerator, a TOP is used to read, create, edit, and output 2D images and movies in TouchDesigner. TOPs are real-time 2D compositing operations that run on the graphics card's GPU.

Tscript - TouchDesigner's built-in scripting language.

TUIK - TouchDesigner User Interface Kit - a collection of User Interface components.

UI - short for User Interface.

Variable - a text string with a name. e.g. The variable named PI has a string value of 3.14159 wherever $PI appears. Variables can be used in scripts and parameters. There are seven types of variables. The most common are: Script Variables exist only in scripts. Root Variables are user-created, live at the root (/) and are available anywhere in TouchDesigner. Built-In Variables like F (frame number), T (time) and PI are created by TouchDesigner and are read-only. Operator Variables are read-only and only exist local to a node.

VFS or Virtual File System - lets you embed files inside a .tox or .toe file. Operators like the Movie In TOP that read regular files can also read the embedded VFS files using a vfs: syntax.

Viewer - a floating window, the interior of a node tile, or a pane that graphically shows the results of an operator. A viewer in the interior of a node tile is called a Node Viewer.

Viewer flag - Each node has a viewer flag that turns on/off the node's viewer in the tile Node Viewer.

Viewer Active - A state of a node where you can operate the contents of its viewer, like operate the gadgets of a panel in a network tile, or 3D data in the viewer of a Geometry component. With Viewer Active off you can select, move and delete nodes by clicking/dragging on them, even if the viewer is visible.

Window - strictly refers to a window in Microsoft Windows, used for the TouchDesigner editor, Panels and other TouchDesigner dialogs in floating windows.

Wire - the connection of an output of one node to the input of another node in a network. In contrast, see Data Link.

ZUI - TouchDesigner uses a zoomable user interface (ZUI) to navigate through a project's networks.

.toe file - TOuch Environment file, the file type used by TouchDesigner to save your project.

.tox file - TouchDesigner Component file, the file type used to save a Component from TouchDesigner.

To come: top menu bar, HSV, key, license, index, channel group, display, frame range, fps, history, midi, toolbar (toolbar command)

resolve: preview flag = viewer flag.