Getting Your Brain Around Geometry with TouchDesigner POPs
In a world where we’re constantly trying to dumb ourselves down and feel depressed, let’s instead focus on growing our brains. Our friends at Derivative have released a free course that makes it incredibly simple to start working with POPs — the Point OPerators that enable all sorts of wild 3D geometry seen in live shows and installations.
POP is really what sets visuals apart and makes them both unique and awe-inspiring. It’s a lot about math, years-worth of coding, feedback from artists, support systems, and the community efforts that have made TouchDesigner such a powerful tool. If you want to pitch your work in live visuals, having something distinct becomes crucial.
While learning the math behind this is always beneficial, it can be overwhelming at times. Part of the philosophy of TouchDesigner includes meetups and discussions where people share their experiences and learn from each other. However, starting with a course like this one can help you feel more prepared to engage in these conversations.
The course is free, as are all versions of TouchDesigner, which makes it even easier to get started.
There’s also the larger curriculum on TouchDesigner that I’ve previously written about. Starting here at the top of this 11-course series on POPs is a great way to begin your journey with math and visual skills:
Fundamentals of POPs course page and examples
From there, you’ll dive into attributes.
And more — where will this take you? If you’re just looking for a quick reference or a way to remember how POPs work, here’s one mnemonic that might help:
“Mind your own business, Mr. Spock, I’m sick of your half-breed interference, do you hear?”
I think this will be helpful for many people.
Key Takeaways
- The TouchDesigner POPs course is free and fully functional.
- This course serves as a great starting point in the larger curriculum on TouchDesigner.
- A mnemonic can be a helpful tool to remember how POPs work.
Originally published at cdm.link. Curated by AI Maestro.
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