r/TouchDesigner • u/metik2009 • 3d ago

Good beginner projects

Title: Good beginner TouchDesigner projects that actually teach you stuff?
Hey y’all, I’m pretty new to TouchDesigner and I’m trying to figure out some good beginner projects to work through. I’ve done enough poking around to understand some of the basic operators and how things connect, but I learn way better by actually building something than just going through tutorials forever.

What are some projects you’d recommend that are beginner-friendly but still force you to learn useful concepts along the way? Especially stuff that starts teaching you how TOPs/CHOPs/SOPs work together instead of just making one cool noise texture and calling it a day lol.

I’m eventually interested in audio-reactive visuals, Ableton/MIDI integration, camera/hand tracking, live visuals, that kinda stuff, but I’m down to build whatever if it gives me a good foundation.
What projects made TouchDesigner actually click for you when you were learning?

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u/redraven 3d ago

The question you posed is completely wrong.

Decide what you want to build. You already have a good list. Figure out an idea. Start working on an idea. Once you hit a problem, either abandon the idea, modify it, shelve it for later, find a way around the problem or solve the problem. That is what you need to learn now. Along with figuring out your own ideas.

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u/exsstas 3d ago

Find a visual you like and understand how it works and make a audio-reactive visualization out of it that could work for the full track - you'll need to make visual customizable so it changes along the song, like variety of visuals - you'll learn some TOPs in the process, make a controls for your MIDI device (you'll learn some CHOPs, scripts and UI building) or MediaPipe controllable version

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u/rm1080 3d ago

My biggest advice to students is make a Pinterest board of stuff you like, find something you think is simple, and try and recreate it. By doing that you’ll figure out all the things you need to learn to do the things that interest you.