a different approach to particle systems (touchdesigner tutorial)

This video is a touchdesigner tutorial explaining a simple way of making particle systems (or particle clouds/point clouds) in touchdesigner (instead of using particlesGPU or the Particles SOP). I use instancing in the geometry COMP with noise TOPs defining the position and movement of the particles. It can achieve a structured/controlled yet somewhat noisy particle effect. It makes it easy to get geometric and sharp looking shapes with particles, while also having interesting and cool looking movement and motion design. This can be made audio reactive (audiovisual) using the AudioFileIn CHOP rather than using noise/patterns.
get the toe file on gumroad: phasespace.gumroad.com/l/touc...
buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/ph4sespace
instagram: / ph4se.space

[@ph4sespace]

Just a few things to note: - As I said feel free to ask questions, I just wanted to get this video out quickly so I didn’t go into lots of detail. - I realised there’s a way to get improved performance: instead of using a circle SOP, get an ‘add’ SOP, switch on ‘Add points’, then plug this into a ‘convert’ SOP and change ‘Convert to’ to ‘Particles per point’. Plug this into the geo instead of the circle SOP. This makes an actual particle rather than a circle. - If you don’t understand instancing, check out elekktronaut’s video “Instancing - TouchDesigner Beginner Course”. - You can experiment with audio reactivity by using an AudioFileIn CHOP + some processing CHOPs (see other audio-reactive TD tutorials) and using the resulting CHOP to control parameters like I did with the pattern and noise CHOPs in this video. - You can just play with CHOPs in general controlling various parameters to get different kinds of movement. In the Xform tab of the geo COMP you can move/rotate the particle system as a whole. - I put the .toe file on gumroad if anyone wants it: phasespace.gumroad.com/l/touchdesigner_particles - Follow me on instagram: instagram.com/ph4se.space/ :)

[@chrismills8404]

Was just going to mention the add particle change but otherwise I'm learning a lot from this!!

[@not_just_burnt]

omg you love to see peeps randomly doing touch designer and finding out new ways to do stuff in it and making tutorials. such an innovative community

[@Magnogen]

SHE'S ALIVE! Super excited for the new video!

[@ph4sespace]

Haha thanks! it's just a quick one but I've got more vids hopefully coming soon

[@matterforminc]

Great tutorial! I have been loving the Composite TOP to be able to blend Kinect / PointCloud data in with various instance noise generators/CURL noise.

[@phule5966]

this is awesome.

[@PabloLucio]

Thanks a lot for the video! I'd love it to be a tutorial from zero instead of going over already created and set operators. I can't get it to look like yours, mine is so messy! I'll keep exploring.

[@ph4sespace]

I did try to show all the parameters needed but I appreciate I went over it quite quickly. What specifically doesn't look right? Have you got particles showing up at least?

[@Markdood88]

"how do you know what this noisy top data is going to look like to determine positions of particles" If you put your TOP into active mode and I think press V on the keyboard (if not V try some other keyboard letters, maybe C of something) it will show the vertex positions of all of your pixels in the format of a geometry viewer. Might be useful!

[@rahel8497]

Nice TUT!! I am new to TD but can you explain whats going on with all the noises, which settings did you use

[@justharry]

great tutorial and really interesting stuff! I've managed to get particles and lots of movement but it seems to be stuck in the positive axis'? as in all particles are in the top right and don't cross into negative xyz. feels like there's an easy fix somewhere but been messing around and struggling to find it. thanks regardless im new to td and learnt a lot from this :)

[@ph4sespace]

This happened to me when I added in an 'HSV Adjust' TOP to play with - not sure why it happened but I just got rid of it in the end. The only other idea I have is that if you're using the limit TOP, the 'minimum value' being 0 would give you only positive values

[@AustinWydra]

Make sure your noise pixel formats are set to 32 bit float rgba

[@joshtotte2209]

@@AustinWydra This worked thank you!!

[@samjames6935]

How do I make it audio reactive please?

[@PatrickCusack]

Thanks so much for the great tutorial! Can you explain what part of the setup is responsible for dividing the particles into four quadrants with a point in the middle where they meet. Is this mainly governed by the noise driving the particles? Thanks!

[@ph4sespace]

The noise is producing this effect, I haven't attempted to fully understand why this happens but if you think about the fact that R,G,B = X,Y,Z coordinates then the bounds of the quadrants are going to be where a combination of 2 of the following hold true: R = 0, G = 0, B = 0. The point in the middle is where all three hold true (i.e. X, Y and Z are all 0)

[@PatrickCusack]

@@ph4sespace Makes sense. Appreciate the explanation. Thanks!

[@3ienck]

hey, thanks a lot for your tutorial!! i've got one problem, with the touchdesigner update, i cannot connect the circle SOP - or the convert SOP as you adviced in the comment section - to the geometry COMP and i'm to novice to improvise some sort of "problem" lol do you have any suggestions/alternatives that could help me solve this problem? thx a lot for your response!

[@ph4sespace]

Right click on the output port of the SOP and this will bring up the dialog box where you can choose the geo COMP. That should automatically connect the SOP to the geo

[@edoardobulgarelli]

How could I make this audio reactive? I'm new to touch designer

[@slumberspeak]

on a mission to figure this out too

[@edoardobulgarelli]

@@slumberspeak let me know when you find out plz

[@fulvioabrahao]

I'm very new too, started learning 2 days ago. But I imagine you can control the noises params based in some audio spectrum.

[@LuisMartinez-mq2ku]

yes. with ann audio analysis and some select nodes u can get parameters such us kick snare,low high...@@fulvioabrahao

[@gboi802]

helloo, I don't know if you still see this but I have a small problem. Somehow all my particles are just quarter thats in the up right corner. I tried a few different things but I can't get it to work. Do you know what might be the problem?