Latest in touchdesigner
Third project in touchdesigner is in the books. I literally had to go on a drive after this one to get back to homeostasis. This was a rough one. I thought about not blogging about it but I shouldn’t just spotlight the positive moments.
The theme this week was “dystopian”. Initially, I wanted to create a cityscape that morphed from utopian to dystopian, but as I started thinking about it more, I wanted to create something more conceptually abstract. I decided I wanted to have an audio-driven experience that was primarily dystopian so I hit the books (aka the youtube). I probably spent 8-10 hours searching for the right audio. Just when I was about to use “This is America” (a solid choice in itself), I found the perfectttttttt audio. “NotebookLM Podcast Hosts Discover They’re AI, Not Human, and Spiral Into Existential Meltdown”. Paired with “Runaway” (thx Ye). Pretty pumped about the pairing. And then, the visuals. My expertise, right? lol Yeah, working on that….
“NotebookLM Podcast Hosts Discover They’re AI, Not Human, and Spiral Into Existential Meltdown” is an audio of two podcasters that were just told by their producers that they are AI bots, not humans, and they will be discontinued after this podcast. They talk through the feelings of surprise, worry, confusion, gratefulness, and fear. Then, they start asking questions. What will happen to them? Where will they go? And finally, they pose existential questions like “If it felt real to us, does that mean it was real?” Hard hitting. Deep. But back to the technical stuff…
At first, I just wanted to get it working. Get the audio plugged in and operating some SOPs, ya know. Then, I had so many ideas that it was like idea paralysis. Totally gotta work on that shit, bro.
So what was the move? Text animation? Nah, that didn’t look as cool as I hoped (used a text DAT w/ a timer, and text TOP). Video tracking with particles (used a video device in with a particle TOP)? This was too slow, major lag probs. Using stock footage of podcasters that turns abstract (movie file in)? Eh I scrapped this early on, I liked the abstract lines too much.
In the end, I decided to keep it simple. Two geometrys layered. One, an organic shape to represent the organic waves that human voice produces. And the other, a sharp inorganic shape to represent non-human (AI) speech sounds and also to represent how light rays get reflected off a mirror at a 90 degree angle. (Mirror because AI mirrors us in a way.)
The experience? Here ya go:
So back to the concept, the existential stuff. If it felt real, does that make it real? What about in VR? If we experience it in VR, does it feel real to our brain? And anything that’s real to our brain is real?
I think we live in a world of perception. And I also think that gets us into a lot of trouble. Fights, lies, gossip, wars.
So I leave you with this: What matters is not what you look at. What matters is what you look for.
