TrajectoryPressure Project 1 – Automatically Generated Trajectories
Posted: October 1, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »“Trajectory” is a sound and video work created using TouchDesigner. A group of black birds fly around a red bird; their numbers increase and decrease, until they finally disappear. The music influences their movement patterns, while the fading traces on the screen show both past and present positions simultaneously.
Reflection on Creation
When creating “Trajectory”, I didn’t follow a pre-designed visual plan. Instead, I tried different approaches to improve the work step by step. I used a bird model from my own resources, adjusted its structure and flying behavior, and then tried to create repeating animation effects in TouchDesigner. As I worked on this, the first question that arose was: What would happen when these birds gather together?
It wasn’t enough just to have the birds appear on the screen. When they moved together, their movements seemed mechanical. So I tried different speeds of movement, paths, and wing animations to make their behavior more varied. I wanted them to belong to the same system, but also maintain some independence. For me, this approach was more interesting than simply adding more birds.
Over time, an atmosphere began to form. A smaller number of birds creates a sense of openness, but when there are more birds, the same movements become crowded and tense. The fading traces make this effect even more noticeable. Each bird leaves behind traces, and these traces accumulate, making it difficult to distinguish individual birds. That’s why I named this work “Trajectory” – I’m interested not only in the direction of the birds’ movement, but also in the traces they leave behind.
I chose white as the background color because I wanted the sense of tension to come from the birds themselves. White highlights the outlines of the birds and the fading traces. This reminds me of a blank page gradually filled with various ideas. When the birds disappear, the background becomes empty again, but the feeling of emptiness after being crowded is completely different. The red bird in the center becomes the visual focus of these changes. I want it to stand out, but I don’t want the audience to have to interpret what it represents. But at the same time, a bold and fitting image came to mind: the scene from “Odyssey” where the bowing test takes place. It covers all the main themes: Odysseus returns to his hometown to prove himself and kills all the intruders. So I incorporated the sound effects from that scene into the control system as one of the chaotic elements.
During the five hours of creation, I focused on how the birds move, their relationship with music, and the contrast between accumulation and disappearance. I chose to keep the environment simple, rather than creating complex scenes. I also used pre-made flying actions instead of developing more complex animation systems. This allowed me to focus on the overall experience.
Many useful discoveries came from mistakes. The birds flew in the wrong direction, their bodies turned over, and sometimes the screen became dark for a moment. To solve these problems, I had to observe more carefully. I kept thinking “let’s try again”, so I almost forgot to check the time.
Feedback from class helped me explain the process from random attempts to deliberate choices. Before having clear results, I wouldn’t claim to have achieved any specific outcome. I can describe how this project changed my attention: initially, I just checked if it worked properly, but later I started paying attention to the experience during use.
Materials and Thanks
– Software: TouchDesigner.
– Bird models: From my personal resources; skeletal binding and flying actions were created by me.
– Music: “The Trail”, taken from the music in “Odyssey”, obtained from Bilibili.