I had nothing in mind going into this project, and wanted to use the 5 hours I had to experiment with as many things as I could. I have worked with feedback loops in the past, but never in TouchDesigner, so it took some time to get used to. Still, I brought with me my knowledge of video synthesis to help guide me through.
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My patch has three different components, which are all manipulated by respective sets of LFOs. Everything is then composited together using blend modes. I began my 5 hour time period by experimenting with a variety of feedback methods until I found something that was cool. I ended up with a circle pattern, which is composited over a rotating square feedback loop. To add some unpredictability, the LFO that controls the feedback rotation is turned off every second, creating subtle movement changes. Once I had this base, I experimented further by masking the circle with another shape: a circle TOP that changes its amount of sides through an LFO. I tiled this pattern in a 2×2 grid, and added a secondary feedback loop, which I incorporated using a \u201cdifference\u201d blending mode.
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This formed my base, however, I wanted to add some additional layering on top to make the pattern more unpredictable. I made two basic feedback loops using shapes, making sure their movement was offset using LFOs. These loops were a lot simpler than the base loop, providing for an interesting contrast. Both are incorporated using comp nodes. For final processing, I keyed out all the black areas, replacing them with the radial ramp node from earlier. I liked the pixelated nature of the shapes, so I grabbed a pixelate effect from the palette to make it more defined.
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I approached this project like I do with a lot of my video work, working simple to complex. It was helpful to make standalone systems before adding them together as it gave me a modular patch that allowed for interesting possibilities. I\u2019m aware of the power of LFOs from eurorack video synthesis, and this was a fun project to test those possibilities without needing an expensive rig. This project opened my eyes to the complex possibilities of TouchDesigner, and I am excited to learn more and explore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final video can be seen below, with a documentation video outlining each component of my final loop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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