The Last of Us-Inspired Text Effects in TouchDesigner

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If you’ve seen the popular TV show “The Last of Us”, you’re probably familiar with the title sequence, which features some very cool physarum-like organic structures that grow into the title graphic.

Aside from being a great piece of animation, the organic structures somewhat resemble reaction diffusion patterns, which happen to be relatively straightforward to generate with video feedback.

In this video, Jack DiLaura walks you through building a beginner-friendly reaction diffusion text effect loosely inspired by The Last of Us title sequence. You’ll learn the basics of generating reaction diffusion in TouchDesigner, combine two feedback networks to add some visual complexity, and add in some tweaks to help emphasize the text in the feedback texture.