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BEGINNERCOURSE

Generative Art With TouchDesigner

A beginner-friendly course, containing 12 hours of content for budding digital artists

Rik Lomas

Taught by

Rik Lomas

Chapter 01 – Alla Prima

Alla Prima

Hello and welcome to our Generative Art course! Let's discover what we have in store on the first chapter.

Lesson 01

Welcome to the course

Why would we use TouchDesigner over other options that are out there, such as Adobe After Effects or Processing?

Lesson 02

What options are there when making generative art?

How do we actually work with TouchDesigner? Well, we press Tab a lot and drag a lot!

Lesson 03

What is the network graph in TouchDesigner?

Chapter 02 – Circle of Fifths

Circle of Fifths

What exactly can we do with this project? Let's find out! P.S. If you're wondering about the name, it's from the musical pattern of a sequence of chords.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Circle of Fifths

Firstly, let's set up our project with our display layout, so we have a better view when it comes to making our project.

Lesson 02

Setting up Circle of Fifths

We could create our own shapes in an image program but luckily TouchDesigner has a bunch of defaults we can use quickly!

Lesson 03

Creating new shapes using TOPs

Chapter 03 – Kurinuki

Kurinuki

Chop chop chop! In chapter 3, we'll be using a Japanese ceramics technique as inspiration for texturing a source image.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Kurinuki

Before we delve into the project, we need to know exactly what Kurinuki is and how we're using a ceramic technique to cut sharp pieces out of our texture.

Lesson 02

What is Kurinuki anyway?

Let's go! Let's start by setting up the project from scratch! This should look like a similar process to the first project.

Lesson 03

Setting up the project

Homework 01 – Contort Yourself

Contort Yourself

Chapter 04 – Vapor Trail

Vapor Trail

Time to blend! In this chapter, we'll be working with mixing and blending of shapes and colors. Fun fact, this project was named after a song by 90s band Ride.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Vapor Trail

Let's start by making a circle move in a circular pattern by using a Circle TOP to draw the circle, then two Pattern CHOPs to control its position.

Lesson 02

Circle moving in a circle

With CHOPs, we have a lot of control over the circle. It doesn't need to be in a circular pattern and it doesn't need to stay the same size!

Lesson 03

Changing the path and radius of the circle using CHOPs

Chapter 05 – Xan / Xor

Xan / Xor

Put your 3D glasses on, it's time to get deep. This project was named after Alexander (Xan, for short) and the logic term, XOR (exclusive "or", for long), which is often used in switches.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Xan / Xor

Let's get soppy by introducing SOPs... surface operators. SOPs describe things that live in a 3D space, from boxes and balls, to point systems.

Lesson 02

What exactly is a SOP?

Our artwork doesn't live in a 3D space as it's an image or video, so how do we convert our 3D system into a flattened 2D texture?

Lesson 03

How to convert 3D shapes into a 2D texture

Chapter 06 – Peak District

Peak District

Say hello, waves goodbye. Let's add some noise to our 3D shapes. This project was named after a national park near Manchester, around 5 miles away from where Rik is from.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Peak District

There is a simple way to create an effect similar to the final output using TOPs only (2D version!). However, the downside is that it looks less realistic due to its inherent flatness!

Lesson 02

The quick and dirty version: 2D only

To get our 3D version started, we need to set up our standard 3D-to-2D pipeline.

Lesson 03

Setting up a 3D environment

Chapter 07 – Negative Space

Negative Space

Inspired by the work in the #36daysoftype challenge, this project takes thousands of shapes to form letter shapes.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Negative Space

We've done this a few times now, so let's run through this quickly! Let's make a 3D shape and render it to a 2D texture.

Lesson 02

Setting up a 3D to 2D environment

Instancing is the ability to copy and paste our geometry based on some kind of data. Here we are copying our sphere to every point within the grid SOP.

Lesson 03

What is instancing?

Chapter 08 – Lodestone

Lodestone

Organic, dynamic movement? Yes please. Lodestone is named after the mineral pieces which were used as the first magnetic compasses!

Lesson 01

Welcome to Lodestone

You might have guessed it, but the first thing we're going to do is make a 3D shape and render it to a 2D texture.

Lesson 02

Adding a 3D to 2D render

Next, let's replicate our 3D shapes to a lot of different places using our geometry's instancing options.

Lesson 03

Copy and pasting our geometry using instancing

Homework 02 – Ball Twist

Ball Twist

Chapter 09 – Trail of Dead

Trail of Dead

And you will know us by the Trail of Dead. How do we make things that don't exist within the tools we're using? By breaking them apart and stitching them back together again.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Trail of Dead

As similar to the last project, we will turn out SOPs to TOPs by using a 3D to 2D pipeline.

Lesson 02

Setting up our 3D to 2D pipeline

We will use instancing to make a point system from scratch.

Lesson 03

Making a point system using instancing

Chapter 10 – Paintwork

Paintwork

It's our final chapter! Sometimes they say... hey Rik, you're spoiling all the paintwork. Let's explore what we can do within this project.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Paintwork

Despite this looking like a 2D project, we're actually using 3D shapes and instancing to represent the pen strokes.

Lesson 02

Setting up the project

Let's convert our instancing system into a CHOP system so that we can start to add more information into it.

Lesson 03

Converting a point system into a CHOP system

Homework 03 – Box of Balls

Box of Balls

Extras

Extras

In this project, we talk how about how to add a long exposure style effect to our source images.

Lesson 01

Long Collapse

The material we've used throughout the course is the Phong shader but what about other materials? In this project, we talk how about to make reflective materials with an environment light.

Lesson 02

Shiny Shiny

We've generally been using a single shape to draw our outcomes but what if we want to use a variety within the same render? In this project, we'll talk about how to use multiple geometries together while still letting it be cohesive.

Lesson 03

Multi Geom

Get access to Generative Art With TouchDesigner

Practical, go-at-your-own pace learning, with help from our industry experts and experienced teachers
Projects and code that you can alter and include in your own sites and portfolio
Resources to get you started and going post-course

Your instructor

Rik Lomas

Rik Lomas

Founder + CEO at SuperHi

With support from...

Arianna Ninh

Arianna Ninh

Creative Technologist

John Schulisch

John Schulisch

Graphic Designer

Kali Block-Steele

Kali Block-Steele

Product Manager

Course structure

Chapter 01

Alla Prima

Lesson 01
Welcome to the course
Lesson 02
What options are there when making generative art?
Lesson 03
What is the network graph in TouchDesigner?
Lesson 04
Setting up a layout in TouchDesigner
Lesson 05
Adding displacement to a texture
Lesson 06
Playing around with noise and displacement
Lesson 07
Animating noise with absTime.seconds
Lesson 08
Matching texture resolutions
Lesson 09
Adding a double displacement effect
Lesson 10
Creating a feedback loop
Lesson 11
Changing displacement's extend mode and source midpoint
Lesson 12
Fitting images and adding a border to textures
Lesson 13
Exporting your work as images and movies

Chapter 02

Circle of Fifths

Lesson 01
Welcome to Circle of Fifths
Lesson 02
Setting up Circle of Fifths
Lesson 03
Creating new shapes using TOPs
Lesson 04
Blending using the Composite TOP
Lesson 05
How to alter color channels with Channel Mix
Lesson 06
Displacement individual color channels with noise
Lesson 07
Rounding noise with a Limit TOP
Lesson 08
Applying a color scheme with a Lookup TOP and Ramp gradient TOP
Lesson 09
Variation 1: Letter A
Lesson 10
Adding a CHOP for controlling border width
Lesson 11
Using CHOPs to control displacement weighting
Lesson 12
Variation 2: Slit scan
Lesson 13
Variation 3: Adding textural noise

Chapter 03

Kurinuki

Lesson 01
Welcome to Kurinuki
Lesson 02
What is Kurinuki anyway?
Lesson 03
Setting up the project
Lesson 04
Resetting the feedback loop with a Keyboard In CHOP
Lesson 05
Making a blocky displacement effect using Limit TOP
Lesson 06
Switching to the Nearest Pixel setting
Lesson 07
Compositing three noises together to get more defined textures
Lesson 08
Adding rotation to noise patterns
Lesson 09
Adding a Pattern CHOP to control displacement
Lesson 10
Using an S Curve CHOP to control displacement
Lesson 11
Variation: Using a Ramp TOP as a starting texture
Lesson 12
Adding a border to our artwork

Homework 01

Contort Yourself

Chapter 04

Vapor Trail

Lesson 01
Welcome to Vapor Trail
Lesson 02
Circle moving in a circle
Lesson 03
Changing the path and radius of the circle using CHOPs
Lesson 04
How to alter color channels with Pattern CHOPs
Lesson 05
Picking a color from a Ramp TOP using CHOPs
Lesson 06
Adding a feedback loop to get a trail
Lesson 07
Adding a keyboard shortcut to reset the feedback loop
Lesson 08
Adding a transform TOP to create movement
Lesson 09
Adding a blur effect
Lesson 10
Adding a smoke effect using Displace and Noise TOPs
Lesson 11
Applying a background
Lesson 12
Variation 1: Flip and composite
Lesson 13
Variation 2: HSV Adjust
Lesson 14
Further directions

Chapter 05

Xan / Xor

Lesson 01
Welcome to Xan / Xor
Lesson 02
What exactly is a SOP?
Lesson 03
How to convert 3D shapes into a 2D texture
Lesson 04
Adding extra shapes into the workspace
Lesson 05
Adding your own 3D objects
Lesson 06
Using a Switch operator to control shapes and rotation
Lesson 07
Adding a material and lighting to our shapes
Lesson 08
Adding colors using Ramp and Lookup TOPs
Lesson 09
Adding noise to our render to give texture
Lesson 10
Controlling switches with a Beat CHOP

Chapter 06

Peak District

Lesson 01
Welcome to Peak District
Lesson 02
The quick and dirty version: 2D only
Lesson 03
Setting up a 3D environment
Lesson 04
Applying a color map to a material
Lesson 05
Looking down the grid
Lesson 06
Adding a CHOP to control gradients
Lesson 07
Perspective and Orthographic cameras
Lesson 08
Playing with noise
Lesson 09
Adding textural noise and a border
Lesson 10
Variation: Adding displacement to the color map

Chapter 07

Negative Space

Lesson 01
Welcome to Negative Space
Lesson 02
Setting up a 3D to 2D environment
Lesson 03
What is instancing?
Lesson 04
Using a Sprinkle SOP to randomly assign points
Lesson 05
Adding a rotation to every box with a normal vector
Lesson 06
Adding noise to the position of each point
Lesson 07
Adding a color noise
Lesson 08
Adding animation to our noise pattern
Lesson 09
Using S Curves to animate
Lesson 10
Adding Lookup, Ramp and Noise TOPs

Chapter 08

Lodestone

Lesson 01
Welcome to Lodestone
Lesson 02
Adding a 3D to 2D render
Lesson 03
Copy and pasting our geometry using instancing
Lesson 04
Making a particle system
Lesson 05
Adding Noise CHOPs to control turbulence
Lesson 06
Adding a Keyboard In CHOP to reset particles
Lesson 07
Using velocity to rotate shapes
Lesson 08
Adding a surface attractor
Lesson 09
Rotating the whole geometry
Lesson 10
Adding a material and ramp
Lesson 11
Adding blur and displacement
Lesson 12
Variation: Depth maps
Lesson 13
Variation: Shape changes

Homework 02

Ball Twist

Chapter 09

Trail of Dead

Lesson 01
Welcome to Trail of Dead
Lesson 02
Setting up our 3D to 2D pipeline
Lesson 03
Making a point system using instancing
Lesson 04
Particles vs Points
Lesson 05
Adding CHOPs to control turbulence
Lesson 06
Adding a random color to each point
Lesson 07
Adding a feedback loop to get a trail
Lesson 08
What is deconstruction?
Lesson 09
Adding a CHOP system
Lesson 10
Adding color using a Ramp TOP
Lesson 11
Variation: Adding a scale based on a Ramp TOP
Lesson 12
Variation: Adding boxes

Chapter 10

Paintwork

Lesson 01
Welcome to Paintwork
Lesson 02
Setting up the project
Lesson 03
Converting a point system into a CHOP system
Lesson 04
Adding a brush size with noise
Lesson 05
Adding a particle system with force and turbulence
Lesson 06
Fixing the color sampling by adding a custom attribute
Lesson 07
Adding a trail to each pen
Lesson 08
Playing with pen lines
Lesson 09
Changing the pen shape to a box
Lesson 10
Controlling the lifespan of each pen
Lesson 11
Thank you for watching!

Homework 03

Box of Balls

Extras

Lesson 01
Long Collapse
Lesson 02
Shiny Shiny
Lesson 03
Multi Geom
Lesson 04
Looping Squares Redux
Lesson 05
Curl Cam
Lesson 06
Painterly

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Create digital artwork like a professional, and find your style in generative digital art!

Learn how to use and combine different (existing) algorithms to turn a blank canvas or an existing picture into dynamic works of art, without having to touch any code or AI. Through the simplicity of a drag-and-drop interface, you can whip up unique variations in no time while having full control over what your art will look like. Slightly adjust your settings, and see new art come to life.

In this course, Rik Lomas will teach you the skills needed to make art, in your own style, using the secret techniques of experts. All you’ll need is a computer and your imagination! From classic brushstrokes, funky particles, and abstract gradients to ancient 3D gods, don’t be afraid to get a little weird before you get your wow, that’s the magic of generative art.

In our first project, our objective is to create generative art by manipulating textures. Through the application of random noise, we will be able to make art with a distinctive, cloud-like watercolor effect. Additionally, we will provide detailed instructions on how to customize the TouchDesigner program to match any of our specific requirements. Lastly, we will learn how to export our artistic creations as both images and videos.

Hello and welcome to our Generative Art course! Let's discover what we have in store on the first chapter.

Why would we use TouchDesigner over other options that are out there, such as Adobe After Effects or Processing?

How do we actually work with TouchDesigner? Well, we press Tab a lot and drag a lot!

Sometimes, we want to make something out of nothing! In this project, we'll create our own shapes, split their color channels, distort them, and put them back together again! We will then remap the colors to align harmoniously with a bespoke color scheme of your own design.

What exactly can we do with this project? Let's find out! P.S. If you're wondering about the name, it's from the musical pattern of a sequence of chords.

Firstly, let's set up our project with our display layout, so we have a better view when it comes to making our project.

We could create our own shapes in an image program but luckily TouchDesigner has a bunch of defaults we can use quickly!

To achieve a more brutalist style of texturing within our artwork, we’ll embark on an enlightening exploration. In this project, we’ll draw inspiration from a renowned Japanese ceramics technique known as Kurinuki and adapt its principles to our own unique textures.

Chop chop chop! In chapter 3, we'll be using a Japanese ceramics technique as inspiration for texturing a source image.

Before we delve into the project, we need to know exactly what Kurinuki is and how we're using a ceramic technique to cut sharp pieces out of our texture.

Let's go! Let's start by setting up the project from scratch! This should look like a similar process to the first project.

Your first chance to test out your new skills! Contort Yourself lets you distort yourself by using techniques learned from previous projects. Can you make yourself distorted?

In this project, our focus lies in crafting a captivating piece of art through the mesmerizing interplay of color mixing and blending. We will be using several techniques from the TouchDesigner library, such as transform, feedback, and blur to make beautiful artworks from simple shapes.

Time to blend! In this chapter, we'll be working with mixing and blending of shapes and colors. Fun fact, this project was named after a song by 90s band Ride.

Let's start by making a circle move in a circular pattern by using a Circle TOP to draw the circle, then two Pattern CHOPs to control its position.

With CHOPs, we have a lot of control over the circle. It doesn't need to be in a circular pattern and it doesn't need to stay the same size!

To give our artworks a sense of depth, we’ll dive into the world of the third dimension. In this project, the first of our 3D projects, we will discover how to work closely with 3D shapes, including existing models, and then alter them to fit our own styles.

Put your 3D glasses on, it's time to get deep. This project was named after Alexander (Xan, for short) and the logic term, XOR (exclusive "or", for long), which is often used in switches.

Let's get soppy by introducing SOPs... surface operators. SOPs describe things that live in a 3D space, from boxes and balls, to point systems.

Our artwork doesn't live in a 3D space as it's an image or video, so how do we convert our 3D system into a flattened 2D texture?

To create realistic natural art, sometimes we have to resort to unnatural techniques, exclusive to what computers can do. In this project, through a harmony of vibrant hues and dynamic waveforms, we can create an artwork with a soothing ambiance.

Say hello, waves goodbye. Let's add some noise to our 3D shapes. This project was named after a national park near Manchester, around 5 miles away from where Rik is from.

There is a simple way to create an effect similar to the final output using TOPs only (2D version!). However, the downside is that it looks less realistic due to its inherent flatness!

To get our 3D version started, we need to set up our standard 3D-to-2D pipeline.

In our artistic efforts, we often find that working with a large number of shapes can be challenging when relying only on manual and repetitive techniques. Through the exploration of instancing, we'll gain precise control over a wide-ranging collection of shapes. This helps us to craft mesmerizing artworks, that exude both coherence and complexity.

Inspired by the work in the #36daysoftype challenge, this project takes thousands of shapes to form letter shapes.

We've done this a few times now, so let's run through this quickly! Let's make a 3D shape and render it to a 2D texture.

Instancing is the ability to copy and paste our geometry based on some kind of data. Here we are copying our sphere to every point within the grid SOP.

Introducing organic movement into our artwork not only makes it more realistic but also brings in an element of warmth, preventing any computerized sterility. Using TouchDesigner's particle systems, we can create shapes that exhibit life cycles, from birth to death, and engage in collective behaviors such as flocking and attraction to other objects. Through this interplay, our artwork goes beyond the boundaries of artificiality, with a natural feel that will resonate with your viewers.

Organic, dynamic movement? Yes please. Lodestone is named after the mineral pieces which were used as the first magnetic compasses!

You might have guessed it, but the first thing we're going to do is make a 3D shape and render it to a 2D texture.

Next, let's replicate our 3D shapes to a lot of different places using our geometry's instancing options.

Have you worked out the twist? If not, then now is the time! In this homework, take a go at making a wavy twisting circle that leaves a trail behind.

As creatives, we often go beyond the boundaries set by off-the-shelf tools. To do this, we must dig into the foundations of our art and acquire an understanding of its underlying medium. This project will uncover and take apart TouchDesigner's tooling to fit our own custom needs to create a redux of our earlier Vapor Trail project.

And you will know us by the Trail of Dead. How do we make things that don't exist within the tools we're using? By breaking them apart and stitching them back together again.

As similar to the last project, we will turn out SOPs to TOPs by using a 3D to 2D pipeline.

We will use instancing to make a point system from scratch.

In our ultimate capstone project, we'll seamlessly integrate the diverse techniques we have learned over the course of this artistic journey. Our artwork will be composed of an impressive amount of miniature pen strokes that together form an abstract piece, based on an existing source texture. Are you ready to crown all of your hard work?

It's our final chapter! Sometimes they say... hey Rik, you're spoiling all the paintwork. Let's explore what we can do within this project.

Despite this looking like a 2D project, we're actually using 3D shapes and instancing to represent the pen strokes.

Let's convert our instancing system into a CHOP system so that we can start to add more information into it.

When the shapes hit your eyes and patterns falsify, that's moiré. By using 8,000 small spheres, laid in a 20x20x20 grid, we will create an interference pattern called a 'moiré effect'. Your job is to lay out the spheres and spin the whole thing around to create a consistently moving interference pattern!

We have created a range of extra projects to take your learnings even further. Each video is self-contained and around 20-40 minutes in length. Keep in mind that it's worth completing the course before watching these videos as they contain assumptions based on skills taught within the course itself!

In this project, we talk how about how to add a long exposure style effect to our source images.

The material we've used throughout the course is the Phong shader but what about other materials? In this project, we talk how about to make reflective materials with an environment light.

We've generally been using a single shape to draw our outcomes but what if we want to use a variety within the same render? In this project, we'll talk about how to use multiple geometries together while still letting it be cohesive.

Rik has taught tens of thousands of people worldwide to learn new creative skills. In this course, he will get you comfortable and competent with making your own digital art using TouchDesigner.