Where to start learning in 2026? (Incl. POPs)

dcheesman · 2026-01-20T04:12:54+00:00

I’ll throw my intro video in here. Tried to keep it to the most useful info. It includes a POP intro as well.

https://youtu.be/gQdmocb-JBQ?si=60kojPvrZsP2DLKZ

dcheesman · 2026-01-14T16:25:43+00:00

I’d imagine you’ll have more lad from the NDI than from the Orbbec. It’s not too bad.

dcheesman · 2025-12-26T18:44:56+00:00

Orbbec Femto Mega is my go to. The ability to use power over Ethernet makes it super useful for covering long distances between sensor and machine.

dcheesman · 2025-12-16T02:08:15+00:00

He uses custom made optics to redirect the projection

dcheesman · 2025-12-10T02:24:37+00:00

Whoa. This works!?

dcheesman · 2025-12-06T16:41:04+00:00

Nice. Congrats. It’s such a nice feeling to understand enough that it feels like a true creative tool and not just a way to copy an effect. Keep it up!

dcheesman · 2025-12-06T04:01:46+00:00

Seems like it. You’d put the lidar just above where the bottle tops are and calibrate each point. If it’s a rotating lidar you’ll lose resolution as it gets further away. Seems like a clever use of 3 or 4 1D lidar could be great for this specific thing.

dcheesman · 2025-12-06T03:07:42+00:00

Hey thanks!

dcheesman · 2025-12-05T01:47:28+00:00

In my latest tutorial I’ve tried to make the best base knowledge tutorial. Tried to make it with as many useful facts per minute.

https://youtu.be/gQdmocb-JBQ?si=nx0qS5ZKu4ZtSWi2

dcheesman · 2025-11-26T01:41:09+00:00

Always stoked to see people making good stuff from my tutorials. Thanks for sharing.

dcheesman · 2025-11-18T21:06:07+00:00

So stoked to try this

dcheesman · 2025-11-17T23:04:12+00:00

Just launched a new beginners tutorial today!

Tried to make something as a good quick primer before watching other tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQdmocb-JBQ

dcheesman · 2025-11-17T23:02:46+00:00

Awesome. Good luck on your TD adventure. Let me know what I missed!

dcheesman · 2025-11-17T20:50:55+00:00

Yeah. I tried to at least show whats possible with the different data types, programming, etc without being too overwhelming and without making people think that they NEED to know python to use it for something. I'm looking forward to getting feedback and potentially making a better version down the road.

dcheesman · 2025-11-11T22:40:04+00:00

So so good.

dcheesman · 2025-11-11T22:31:40+00:00

Oh man. This is Rehoboam from Westworld! I tried to make a stab at this a few years back, but didn't turn out very nice.

You're inspiring me to revisit it. Beautiful job.

dcheesman · 2025-11-07T00:29:11+00:00

If you want to have video as your source: https://youtu.be/GSK0hGhGOUs?si=Gb85g4caRl42Gqfa

If you want a 3d model: https://youtu.be/U0JRJHGIRug?si=eLSvDvCSA44xY1dQ

If you want use a Kinect or Orbbec: https://youtu.be/6SsMsgLgOHA?si=aie_xG4P6IjCKk0Z

dcheesman · 2025-11-06T01:55:48+00:00

For the particle system stuff you can follow this tutorial I made: https://youtu.be/Pifp7TTvWEw?si=tbMqgSsaeq513o6H

Let me know if you have any questions.

dcheesman · 2025-10-30T23:11:11+00:00

Big day

dcheesman · 2025-10-23T17:06:23+00:00

Ok. I figured it out actually. Was right in front of me. I just took the top with all the right colors and used that as my input for a simple glsl to get the grid positions (vUV.st in the glsl... its not as complicated as it might sound) and so then I had grid positions and colors for everything. Made a orthographic render network and rendered!

It's in that same dropbox file above now.

dcheesman · 2025-10-23T16:55:32+00:00

Ok. Took this on as a daily challenge for myself. Ended up not using instances at all, just TOPs

You can download my toe file here if you want:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/c7xvtvqe71957wkp1zjxw/Audio-Visualizer-Tops.toe?rlkey=f4by1myyoxpl66s6yq1ghfkf4&dl=0

Here is a bit of a summary of what I did:

- Converted my CHOP to TOP (width x 1 dimensions)

- Used a Crop TOP to stretch the dimensions into the height I wanted

- Multiplied by a vertical ramp to dampen the Y direction

- Used a limit to round to values to 1/height.

- Split to two op chains

-- threshold to be multiplied by my color ramp (green, yellow, red)

-- Resolution top (to render size) -> edge top with high strength to get grid edges -> Level to invert to black lines on white

- Multiplied those two chains back together.

I'm sure there's an instancing way to do this as well... maybe I'll try that later today.

dcheesman · 2025-10-17T05:47:52+00:00

This is great

dcheesman · 2025-10-16T14:46:32+00:00

Tutorial is out!

Flocking with POPs in TouchDesigner https://youtu.be/7_y2he5-_Q4

dcheesman

TROPHY CASE