Variable Line Width in TouchDesigner

This beginner level TouchDesigner tutorial looks at how to create variable line width using the Line Material.
If you have questions, comments, suggestions or corrections please leave them below, and thanks for watching!
TouchDesigner build used: 2020:20020
Download an example .toe file here:
github.com/Simonalexanderadam...
Topic Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
02:02 - Grid setup and render network
06:40 - SOP to CHOP and CHOP to SOP
08:25- Noise Displacement
13:43 - Varying Line Width
16:50 - Creating the Shape Mask
19:55 - Adding Color
23:30 - Animating Noise

[@sudogdm2594]

Another impeccable tutorial! I really appreciate this channel

[@LucasVogel]

so glad to have discovered this channel

[@COPYCATT]

So much useful stuff in this. Super straight forward and clear as well. Awesome tutorial!

[@kvelve]

more, we definitely want more! :) Thanks a lot for sharing man!

[@Statience]

Great video! Will absolutely use this soon

[@ricksflicks-]

Really useful and clean tutorial. Using this technique for part of a visually reactive keyboard Im working on. If I get it how I want and post some footage I will credit back to you. Thanks for all your work!

[@essctinishino3106]

This tutorial is great!!! hoping for more!!!

[@cannoli5658]

Thanks, great tutorial!

[@agustinaingaramo7087]

excelente!!! Gracias, me salió a la perfección!!!!

[@generativen]

awesome, thanks for the tutorial.

[@eatpoo55665566]

thank you soooooo much for this tuto. amazing!!!!

[@juliozuniga1317]

95 / 5.000 Resultados de traducción Thank you. One of the best tutorials I have found and I was able to follow without major problems.

[@venjsystems]

Great tutorial. Thx

[@mariiaizmari4102]

Thaanks!! It's amazing!))

[@nbione]

thanks for sharing!

[@andreasmb]

Thank you for the great tutorial! Is there a way to achieve a similar 'variable line width effect' with rectangle or circle SOPs when they're instanced in a GEO? As far as I can tell, there are no parameters for 'width' in any of the instance tabs. But it seems weird that this would only be possible with the grid SOP.

[@jorgeh4591]

Great tutorial as always, Simon! You've helped me learn a lot in Touch. I was wondering if you have thought about creating a Patreon or if you have one already. Cheers!

[@polyhop]

I've considered making one. For the time being I've been busy enough that it hasn't seemed necessary, but I may in the future if that changes!

[@o.g.endless.8254]

Hello Simon, thank you very much for the tutorial. I'm wondering if I can change the shape of the background grid and how can I do it ?

[@ItzCguLd]

I love your tutorials they explain everything so clearly to a beginner like me!! I was just wondering, are you able to use a 'moviefilein' instead of the circle top to add your own image as the displacer instead of a square? thanks!

[@polyhop]

Yep, that should work! You might need to adjust some levels and make it monochrome but a TOP is a TOP. Try it out!

[@polyhop]

Also watch your resolution, that needs to match rows x cols

[@ItzCguLd]

@@polyhop gotcha!! thanks so much ill have a go!!

[@microndiamondjenkins566]

hey Simon, really enjoying the tutorial. just wondering about the point where you rename the shuffled data to width and then go through the math chop: when you specify "from -0.5 to 0.5" "to 2 to 10", does this mean the math will only take the original values that lie in the from range and output only those into the new range? another way for me to say this is, what does the math "from" range actually do with the original data to begin with. also, once it is now in the "to 2 to 10" range, I notice it doesn't actually stay in that range but has a bit of an allowance. why is that the case?

[@polyhop]

Hi Candace, I brush over the remapping of values quickly, I'd be happy to elaborate on this! The Math CHOP's range functions will map one range to another, though it does not limit values (there's a limit CHOP for this!) So, let's say we are using the same parameters ("from -0.5 to 0.5" "to 2 to 10") and our incoming value is 1. We will get 14 as an output. 1.5 will return 18, 2 will return 22, etc. The reason that there's some allowance comes back to our Noise TOP, which we set to 16 bit float. The noise values will stay mostly between the range determined by the amplitude, though sometimes it will step outside this value. Setting it to 8 bit fixed will clamp the noise between 0-1, while reducing the bit-depth of our noise (the range of values we have to represent a pixel's color.) You can see this in action by examining the CHOP values when you switch between the two Pixel Formats (I would grab a new Noise TOP with the default amplitude and offset to see this mostly clearly.) I hope this helps clarify!

[@Sfmccallum]

Hey Simon! Thank you for taking the time to make these great tutorials! Im finding it very comforting to throw myself into creating these super cool projects! I have a question I'm hoping maybe you could help me with. BACKGROUND: Im using a 2014 MBP with the most current version of TD (2020.20625) in the Catalina OS. For some reason when I drop a line MAT into my network editor, my geo COMP go blank as well as all the OPs attached after it. If I remove the line MAT all the OPs come back comes back. Im feeling like this maybe a MBP issue. Any thoughts?

[@johnjordan9300]

I am having the same issue. also on a MBP

[@polyhop]

Hey Sean, thanks for the info on this! Unfortunately this sounds like it should be an error report to Derivative since it seems like an issue with the Line MAT working on Mac. There are a few comments here where people have had similar issues. I will go ahead and share the issue with them after I collect a little more information from other people with the same issue. If you're able - could you check and see if the operator snippets for the Line MAT are working on your computer? That would be useful information to pass along to Derivative. Thanks!

[@polyhop]

Hey John - noted - see my reply to Sean. Also, if you're able to share any specifics about your setup (year, OS, TD version), along with notes on how the Line MAT operator snippets function for you, I will include that information in a report to Derivative. Thanks!

[@Sfmccallum]

@@polyhop Absolutely! Thank you for the quick reply! Ill get back to you asap

[@Sfmccallum]

Im not seeing anything in the render op when I open up the snippets.

[@rowie3366]

Hey Simon, I wonder how can you put it with kinect to make it interactive?

[@polyhop]

Hey Joshua, there are some different ways to do this. When I think about adding interaction I consider what type of data I have from the sensor (Kinect we have video textures in TOPS and xyz positions in CHOPs) and what ways I can plug data into a given system. In this case, the mask is driven by a video texture, so that sticks out as the easiest way to plug in Kinect data to me. I would explore swapping out the shape with the Kinect player index. You'll need to process the Kinect video to do this effectively, but hopefully that gets you going in the right direction.

[@rowie3366]

@@polyhop thank u Simon! I'l give it a go!

[@cache-22]

Hey Simon, great work! I'm a little rusty coming back into TD and was following along until you reached the Line MAT node. My node outputs a blue and red checkerboard pattern on the Line MAT, which then projects onto the entire display, whereas yours stays black and white. I was curious why this might be and if there is a way to change the colors of the Line MAT. thanks!

[@polyhop]

Hi Nate, Sounds like an issue with TD since the blue and red checkerboard indicates an error in the material itself. First thing I would do is make sure you're using the most updated version of TD. You should also look at the operator snippets for the Line MAT and see if those are giving you the same problem - then you could confirm that it's the system and not something you did when setting up the network. I've also found that if you're running Mac sometimes you may encounter odd behaviors. I don't see anything explicit that suggests the Line MAT wouldn't work, but it's possible it's something that Derivative missed. In any case - if you're still having trouble after trying these things it might be worth sending a bug report to Derivative!

[@cache-22]

​@@polyhop Ah, thank you. I see it may be an issue that TD is not compatible with older os like Sierra, etc. Thank you for the timely response and I appreciate you're help with troubleshooting this with me!

[@leparfum3794]

Thank you for your tutorials, these are really helpful. do you know how i could "replace" the noise texture that the SOP noise is using ? I want to use the specturm of an audio as a displacement texture to for example displace the left part of the mesh ( bass ) and high frequencies the right part of the mesh ? I could i do that ?

[@polyhop]

I would start with a Spectrum CHOP to get some information about your audio, and then do a CHOP to TOP to create a video texture from the audio frequencies. From there you can resize it with a Fit TOP and process / crop is as you'd like before you convert it back to CHOP data for the SOP. Just make sure the resolution lines up with the number of points like it does in the tutorial. You can certainly composite it with the noise if you want a blend of the two. Hope that sends you in the right direction!

[@leparfum3794]

@@polyhop Hello thank you for the tips, but really i don't know how to replace the noise texture in the noise SOP, It has its own built in noise that i can't seem to replace

[@polyhop]

​@@leparfum3794 Ah, unfortunately you can't replace the noise in a noise SOP. I would advise trying an approach like this tutorial where you generate noise in either TOPs or CHOPs and feed it back into a SOP using CHOP to SOP.

[@AvivZan]

Great tutorial! I'm a noob at this but td crashed twice when plugging in the width parameter. I'll try it with my desktop too but i'm not sure what's the problem

[@polyhop]

Oh no! Things you could try include making sure you're using an up to date version of TouchDesigner, or reducing the number of points before you add the width attribute (try with say 10 rows 10 cols.) Also, definitely try it on your desktop too. Is your laptop Mac or Windows?

[@sohyunjun6486]

hey Simon great tutorial thanks a lot, but I have a question. I'm having trouble with resolution. on TOP viewer it looks so low that I can see all the pixels, I changed Pixel format of render TOP and noise1 TOP, but it didn't work. can you let me know the solution? if you know the reason. my display is Retina 16in(3072 × 1920). I don't think display size is the problem tho, cus it is still cracking with any resolution setting.

[@sohyunjun6486]

ahh I figured out myself. resolution setting was 256x256 on constant for background, thanks!

[@truefiasco2637]

Can you add this attribute in a geo comp of a line segment?

[@bugtut]

OP('pars')['rows']

[@toomuchcandor3293]

pls make more videos sensei and i shall sacrifice my first born at the shrine i build for u

[@marcelbellve8785]

It's pronounced "wiDth". with a D.