A while back, I had plans to complete the fabrication of LOIE, my midterm lighting fixture for my final project, but knew that the sculpture still called for additional CNC work to make a sturdy back plate that everything would mount to. Last week, I started sketching out ideas for another light sculpture, but as some of my ordered items are not showing any clear signs of when they will be delivered, it really makes rapid prototyping and the final design processes much more difficult.
I am thinking that now is the right time to start diving deeper into TouchDesigner, a program that I began to start using when working for Leo Villareal. I am interested in it as a powerful tool for interactive show control and generative visuals. I am planning to create a DMX controller interface within TouchDesigner using gestures to control specific channels of the DMX lights set up on the ITP floor. I borrowed a Kinect Azure from the ER before quarantine began, and I would like to capture the infrared depth data within TD and program it to trigger events, such as sliding the hue values or brightness levels up and down with the wave of a hand.
Here are two inspiration videos that use the Kinect and TouchDesigner to control a moving DMX light.
Out of curiosity, I looked to see if there were any DMX moving lights that were somewhat affordable.
2 Chauvet MiN spots for $225?
