This video shows my blinking eye overlayed with a digital shape that appears to be blinking. The eye and the pulsating sphere are meant to look like they are affecting each other to blink.
In this experiment, I was initially following a tutorial, when I noticed that the shape I was creating reminded me of an eye, so I wanted to play with overlaying the digital texture,with a clip of my eye! My goal was to make the digital form look like my eye as much as possible, and to film my eye in a way that resembled the sphere’s movement and shape. I wanted to create an interaction between real footage and touchdesigner that would give life to the digital shape.
This process started with a Sphere, and then Sort SOP (surface operator) to create shape. I then created a render setup which gives us a view of the 2D object. Then I added texture using TOPs (texture operators) such as feedback, and edge; and color, using TOPs like level, lookup and ramp. I added the movie file of my eye by using a composite operator, and overlaying the images, and changed the color of the sphere to match my eye. I filmed the video of myself blinking several times, trying to blink at the same times that the sphere pulsated. Because of the way that the file fit in to the network, my eye wound up blinking at opposite times which made it look like my eye and the sphere were blinking in response to each other.
This project emphasised the importance of experimentation in the process of creating art. I find that I have the most fun making art when I don’t have an end result in mind, and follow my impulses and trains of thought to lead myself in new directions. This makes the making feel like play, which is a valuable practice.
