View source for Getting Started with TouchDesigner

{{Article
|Is published=Yes
|Date Published=2024-04-20
|Article authors=Imoni McCorvey
|Program=CATS+
|Categories=CATS+
}}
Hi! My name’s Imoni. I’m an artist based in ATL [https://www.instagram.com/imonitroni/ @imonitroni], and I’ve been creating a lot of TouchDesigner based work recently.

==Fundamentals==
First things first you’ll want to download TouchDesigner - [https://derivative.ca/download derivative.ca/download]. A Nvidia GPU is not required to use TouchDesigner.

A great aspect about TouchDesigner is that there is a lot of free information online. If you’re looking for somewhere to begin, TouchDesigner offers a fundamentals course here: [https://learn.derivative.ca/courses/100-fundamentals/ learn.derivative.ca/courses/100-fundamentals/].

You don’t have to finish it all in order to get into things like projection mapping. However the first section of the TouchDesigner fundamentals course, Navigating the Environment  [https://learn.derivative.ca/courses/100-fundamentals/lessons/101-navigating-the-environment/], may be useful if this is new to you. I definitely encourage playing around with it!

Another good resource is The Interactive and Immersive HQ [https://www.youtube.com/@TheInteractiveImmersiveHQ]. They have a video on projection mapping here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTH7ZB4x47Q youtube.com/watch?v=mTH7ZB4x47Q]. Feel free to try it out if you have access to a projector or if you just want to see how easy set-up can be.

TouchDesigner is really great for live visuals and connecting various components like lights, music, Arduinos (microcontrollers) etc. This person worked on a live interactive music experience for Toro y Moi. They detail their process here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zHPGbraW4Q youtube.com/watch?v=8zHPGbraW4Q].

These links are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s really powerful and offers deep programming capabilities if you’re interested in that.

== Additional Resources ==

=== General Tutorials ===
PPPANIK [https://www.youtube.com/@pppanik007/videos youtube.com/@pppanik007/videos] Great tutorials showcasing TouchDesigner’s visual capabilities

=== Projector and Display specific ===

[https://github.com/laserpilot/Guide_To_Projectors_For_Interactive_Installations/blob/master/Guide%20to%20Projectors%20for%20Interactive%20Installations.md github.com/laserpilot/Guide_To_Projectors_For_Interactive_Installations]

[https://poniesandlight.co.uk/reflect/how_far_push_screen/ poniesandlight.co.uk/reflect/how_far_push_screen/]

=== Online communities ===

TouchDesigner Discord - [http://td-discord.com/ td-discord.com]

TouchDesigner Facebook - [https://www.facebook.com/groups/touchdesignerhelp/ facebook.com/groups/touchdesignerhelp/]

TouchDesigner forums - [https://forum.derivative.ca/ forum.derivative.ca/]