TouchEngine 101: The Ultimate TouchDesigner & Unreal Engine Integration

1

3h 30min
$197.00

Premium courses are not included in the HQ PRO subscription

Summary

TouchEngine 101: The Ultimate TouchDesigner & UE5 Integration is a comprehensive workshop designed to empower you with the skills to seamlessly integrate TouchDesigner into Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) using TouchEngine. Traditional integration methods often involve running multiple applications simultaneously and building custom communication systems with protocols like OSC/NDI or Syphon/Spout. TouchEngine simplifies this process by providing built-in infrastructure through Derivative’s TouchEngine plugin for UE5.

In this 3.5-hour course led by Vassilis Malamas and Aristotle Roufanis of worksofar, a leading immersive media studio based in Athens, you’ll learn how to create components in TouchDesigner that run natively inside UE5—similar to using the Engine COMP in TouchDesigner but within Unreal Engine. This integration offers significant workflow benefits:

  1. Augment UE5 Capabilities: Leverage TouchDesigner’s “plug-in-anything” flexibility to enhance UE5, especially with first-party supported sensors like Kinect or Orbbec, without relying on third-party UE5 plugins that may not be regularly updated.
  2. Increase Productivity and Efficiency: Whether you’re a pro or just starting out, you can quickly create generative, audio-reactive textures, ingest and process data from client CMS or social media, and more inside of TouchDesigner, and feed it into UE5 for presentation or visualization.
  3. Expand Your Toolkit: Combine the extensive tools and resources of both TouchDesigner and UE5 communities to build virtually anything with the best tools available. The workshop includes all the technical setup required to get you up and running, as well as a hands-on project where you’ll build a virtual gallery in UE5 featuring TouchDesigner projects as interactive art pieces, all running through TouchEngine.

Instructors

Vassilis Malamas & Aristotle Roufanis

Course Contents

  • Introduction to TouchEngine and Component Building: Learn what TouchEngine is, why it’s useful, and how to build and encapsulate components in TouchDesigner that can be loaded into TouchEngine, understanding its architecture built on the same technology as Engine COMP.
  • Installation and Project Setup: Go through the installation process of the TouchEngine plugin for Unreal Engine, set up your UE5 project to work with TouchEngine, and overcome common setup challenges.
  • Blueprint Integration with TouchEngine Components: Explore Blueprint events accessible with TouchEngine components and how you can structure your TouchEngine component to run at different intervals or be triggered at different times in your UE5 project.
  • Data Exchange Between TouchEngine and UE5: Learn how to receive and send CHOP data (values and control signals), DAT data (strings, tables), and TOP data (textures, visual content) between TouchEngine components and UE5, enabling integration of API data, CMS content, sensors, and visual assets.
  • Custom Parameters and User Interface: Set up custom parameters on your TouchEngine components, access and manipulate them within the UE5 user interface and Blueprints for intuitive control over your TouchDesigner components inside UE5.
  • Synchronization Modes and Performance Optimization: Understand the different synchronization modes between UE5 and TouchEngine, learn architectural considerations, and optimize your project to prevent frame drops and ensure data synchronization.
  • Leveraging Sample Projects: Explore sample projects available on Derivative’s GitHub to use as references for future projects and continued learning.
  • Hands-On Project: Building a Virtual Gallery: Construct a virtual gallery environment in UE5 from scratch, integrate generative TouchDesigner pieces as art installations using TouchEngine, and apply all learned concepts in a practical project.
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