Continuing with TD 101
What is Noise?
Okamirufu Vizualizer. I do not know who this person is, or where they came from (it seems they just started posing in 2014), but I really enjoy their TD videos. I am especially liking their TouchDesigner 101 Series, not only does it bring it back to the basics, but it goes in depth about the topics they are covering. Such as this one, covering the topic of Noise.
I think if there was a golden triangle of generative art, I think it would be Feedback, Noise and Displacement.
I enjoyed how this video went into a brief “history” of Noise, what each slider in the Noise TOP does before jumping into a tutorial that built upon itself, it’s one that I will definitely be referencing back to as I continue with my TD projects.
For the tutorial part, everything was going great until I added in all the lines. Definitely user error, another go at this may help mine look as clean as the tutorial.
I think I may have to find an alternate tutorial on navigating objects in a 3D space in order to line them up with other objects in that same space. No mater how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get it to line up with the faux-ocean. Also, since I’m using a learner’s license, I down scaled my art to 1280×720 so I could export it out. I think this may also have played a part in why my lines weren’t as crisp.
Nonetheless, it was good to get the refresher of how you can play around with noise and how it works in the 2D and 3D space. I like noise in generative art because it is a bit wild. I’m sure this tutorial can be easily modified to have the waves be generated by audio, and it might look vaguely similar, but it won’t ever have that unpredictability aspect that “random” noise generation has. Even though Okamirufu did explain how there is true randomness to noise in nature (clouds, fire, etc.) that isn’t present in generated noise, it still does create beautiful art.
But what is Generative Art really?
At the intersection of art and technology is generative art.
I probably should have followed up with this video after I watched the “What is TouchDesigner?” video but getting into just creating in TD felt like the better path. Circling back to this video, though, reminded me of why I find TD so fascinating.
Generative art being around for as long as it has and being able to watch it evolve now in modern times makes me womder about how much further artists will take the art as time goes on. If artists back in the 70’s were able to create iconic generative art with computers that weren’t even a fraction as powerful as they are now, I can only imagine what art will look like in the future.
I followed along with the tutorial at the end of this video, and ended up posting on my IG page what I created. Looking back at it, I think there are things I would have done differently. In trying to expand on the tutorial, I ended up adding a bit too much into the feedback, changing too many blend modes and the colors weren’t what I was aiming for. I just wanted to see what else I could add to it.
It does remind me of what glow in the dark light sticks look on a camera with a low shutter.
One thing I did take from the video that wasn’t exactly a part of the tutorial is how the tutorials came to be. They were intended to replicate other generative art works.
A lot of the times when I am watching these tutorials, I wonder how people can just come up with art ideas to create. Sometimes I open up TD and just start playing around connecting operators together, hoping that something comes out of it. I never have really given thought to taking still images of already existing artworks and creating those generatively. Once I get through the tutorials I want to get through, what I’ll probably end up doing is creating a folder of some of my favorite art pieces/photos/videos and seeing how I can recreate those in TD in order to be able to start thinking more creatively in this space.
This video is definitely another one I will be coming back to rewatch.
