My goal was to create a digital entity that feels like a living, pulsating core of energy reacting to sound. I wanted to combine organic audio-reactivity with real-time performance controls.
The visual foundation starts with a simple 3D sphere in TouchDesigner. I applied a noise operator to displace its geometry, transforming the rigid shape into a dynamic, scattered cloud of points. To bring it to life, I analyzed the audio using envelope and spectrum data, routing those values directly into the noise parameters. As the music hits its peaks, the sphere erupts outward, creating those sharp, explosive stardust bursts. I also added an LFO to ensure the core is always subtly breathing, even during quieter moments in the track.
A key feature of this workflow is the interactive element. I built a custom keyboard-controlled network using logic and filter operators. This setup allows me to manually trigger smooth, real-time visual changes and manipulate the structure on the fly, making it function almost like a visual instrument.
The ethereal, glowing aesthetic comes to life in the post-processing stage. By routing the render through a custom 'Enhancer' component and a feedback loop, I generated luminous light trails and blooming effects. This gives the particles a sense of continuous, weightless motion, resulting in a high-energy, performative visualizer.
