TouchDesigner CHOPs Exercise

I made this video to share with my students. It’s a followup to a TouchDesigner exercise designed to give them some experience using Channel Operators (CHOPs). I have *tons* of videos for students that are hidden on YouTube, but I figured this one is probably useful to others, so here you go.

In case you want to try the exercise before watching the video, here was the prompt:

Make a “being” on screen. You can use primitive 2D shapes to represent the different elements of the being, but you could also choose to use other ways of representing parts (eg: 3d shapes, images, video, audio). Keeping the output simple is probably a good idea, though – the goal is to create a system that starts to behave and act differently depending on its conditions.

1. Use LFOs to create both a heartbeat and breathing for the being.
2. Make the heartbeat and breathing visible.
3. Add a very slow noise source that will represent the being’s changing energy level.
4. Make the energy level visible.
5. Make the heartbeat change based on energy level. When energy goes up, the heart rate goes up as well. Make sure the speeds of things look like you want them to: the heartbeat should bring “heartbeat” to mind, breathing like breathing, etc.
6. Make the being’s heart stop for a couple of seconds whenever there is a loud noise. Audio Device In will provide the “ears” for your being. The Analyze CHOP can give you the amount of “loudness”. Once you have that value, there are different ways to proceed: One option is to use a Switch CHOP to switch between two different heartbeats. A Trigger CHOP will allow you to generate a 0 or 1 value for a period of time when it’s triggered. That could be used for the index of the switch. A second option is to use a Math CHOP to modify the heartbeat when the loud noise causes a trigger – instead of “switching” to a different value. And because it’s TouchDesigner, there are a bunch of other ways you could approach this part of the exercise.
7. Add one more combination or condition/behavior. Maybe create a day/night cycle and have the being’s breathing slow drastically at night. Or create an ever-changing random temperature and have the being hide when it gets too cold.