Pressure Project 1 – Particles
Posted: October 3, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Pressure Project, touchdesigner Leave a comment »For my auto-generating patch, I decided to make an audiovisualizer using primarily POPs to generate a particle system. The patch is audio-reactive and was tested with multiple songs that fall under the EDM genre.
I approached the 5-hour time limit optimistically, knowing I could at least make something in that time. My first instinct was to search for a tutorial to follow since I didn’t want to just make a repeat of one of our practice patches from class. I knew from the jump that I wanted to make an audiovisualizer for the song Scream Saver by Subtronics. To find inspiration, I first went on TikTok and searched “Touchdesigner audio visualizer”. I found some really cool stuff, but a video that used a particle system really stood out to me, and it just so happened to be made by a guy who had a tutorial for it. The tutorial was “Audio Reactive Particles using Pops! – Touchdesigner Beginner Friendly Tutorial” by nicholaspjm on YouTube.
In my process of working from the tutorial, I ended up messing with a parameter by accident that led to my program crashing before I could even name the project, so I had to start over pretty late into the game. But when I restarted, I ended up fixing a problem my first patch was having, which led to a better outcome. In the end, I got to a point I liked after about 4 hours, then messed around with music for the remaining hour.
Most of the POPs-related elements of the patch, like the maths, went over my head, so I didn’t change them much from the tutorial. But when it got to the end, I started to customize more. I linked and relinked audio components to get the effects I wanted and messed with the color of the particles. The glow effect when the particles get close together is from a filter called bloom, and the color of the particles was edited by using a point sprite. Both the point sprite and filter came from the tutorial, but I edited them to look different from the guy in the video.
My biggest surprise during this process was at the end, when things all came together. Once I connected the audio to the math and things started moving, I got really pumped. From there, everything new I tried just added to the experience. I changed the song from Scream Saver to Falling Flying by Griz, and I felt the song fit the composition so much more. I feel like this is just the start of what I want to make potentially with audio reactivity. Seeing my favorite songs move and breathe was very gratifying to me.
