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Intro to TouchDesigner · Resources
Resources
General Resources
YouTube Channels
Terms That Come Up Often in Class
- Absolute Time (absTime): Absolute Time starts counting from 0 when the TouchDesigner process starts, and is always increasing. It will pause if the Power 0/1 button at the top of the UI is Off or the root timeline is paused.
- Component (COMP): An Operator Family that contains its own Network. There are sixteen 3D Object Component and ten 2D Panel Component types. See also Network Path.
- Export: Exporting is the connection of CHOP channels to parameters of operators. The output of each exporting CHOP is one or more channels, active only while the CHOP Viewer is on. The current value of a channel can be exported to a parameter of any operator, overriding that parameter’s value. See Parameter.
- Expression: A text string that contains data (string, float, list, boolean, etc.) and operators (+ * < etc) that are evaluated by the node’s language (Python or Tscript) and returns a string, float, list, or boolean, etc. Expressions are used in parameters, DATs, and in scripts.
- Cook: To re-compute the output data of the Operators. An operator cooks when (1) its inputs change, (2) its Parameters change, (3) when the timeline moves forward in some cases, or (4) Scripting commands are run on the node. When the operator is a Panel Component, it also cooks when a user interacts with it. When an operator cooks, it usually causes operators connected to its output to re-cook. When TouchDesigner draws the screen, it re-cooks all the Dependencies — the necessary operators in all Networks, contributing to a frame’s total “cook time.”
