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Summary
When working with TouchDesigner’s Particle Operators (POPs), many developers quickly hit a wall. Effects don’t behave the way they expect, particle systems feel confusing, and even simple experiments can turn into hours of trial-and-error. The reason? Without a solid grasp of POP fundamentals—geometry structures, attributes, and the logic of attribute processing—POPs remain a mystery.
In this 3-hour workshop, Vassilis Malamas will walk you step-by-step through the essentials of POPs. You’ll learn how to think in terms of points, vertices, and primitives; how to create and manipulate attributes; and how to chain POPs together into dynamic, GPU-accelerated systems. By the end, you’ll not only understand what’s happening under the hood, but you’ll also be able to build complex procedural effects with confidence—including a fully procedural, real-time fireworks system.
Instructor
Vassilis Malamas, morphē
Course Contents
- POPs vs SOPs: Learn the crucial differences between POPs (GPU-accelerated, built for massive, real-time particle systems) and SOPs (CPU-bound, limited scalability). You’ll see why SOPs are great, but POPs unlock a whole new level of responsive, system-driven creativity.
- Geometry Fundamentals: Build a crystal-clear understanding of points, vertices, and primitives—the essential building blocks of any POP network. These distinctions determine how attributes attach to geometry, how transformations are applied, and how systems scale. Without this foundation, working with POPs is like building LEGO blindfolded.
- Attributes as the Core Driver: Learn to treat attributes as the “data bloodstream” of your systems. You’ll understand the different attribute types, where they should live (points vs vertices vs prims), and how to manipulate them effectively. This reframes how you think about designing systems, shifting from node chains to attribute logic flows.
- Attribute Manipulation: Complete the basics by learning grouping, swizzling, converting attributes, and setting up dynamic rules for particle behaviour. These techniques allow you to inject variation, randomness, and control into systems that otherwise feel static.
- Math POPs & Relational Behaviour: Dive into the suite of Math POPs to create interactions between elements of your procedural 3D networks. You’ll explore examples of how to create these relationships between attributes that power effects like plexus-style networks, clustering, and attraction/repulsion simulations.
- Capstone Build: Fireworks System: Bring it all together in a fully procedural fireworks systems that include: particle emission, attribute-driven motion, state changes, relational interactions, and timing logic. This final exercise reveals how even simple fundamentals scale into complex systems.
Course Benefits
- Clarity on POP Workflows: Remove the guesswork. Understand what POPs are actually doing, so networks that once looked opaque suddenly feel logical and manageable.
- Confidence in Attribute-Driven Design: Build the mindset of working with attributes as your primary creative tool. Once mastered, this unlocks the ability to create almost any particle effect you can imagine.
- GPU-Accelerated Scale: Harness the full power of GPU acceleration. Learn how to design particle systems that can handle tens or hundreds of thousands of particles in real time without bottlenecks. Perfect for installations, concerts, and large-format content.
- Practical, Reusable Techniques: Walk away with techniques—like swizzling, grouping, and relational math—that you can drop into any future TouchDesigner project, instantly improving efficiency and scalability.
- Creative Expansion: Gain the ability to move past “pre-built effects” and start designing your own complex behaviours from the ground up. Once you understand the system, your creative ceiling expands dramatically.
- Problem-Solving Mindset: Learn to debug and design systematically—so instead of getting stuck on confusing networks, you’ll know how to analyze, test, and solve problems step-by-step.