Interactive & immersive championship 2021

What: The Interactive & Immersive Championship pits top members of the TouchDesigner community against one another for the glory of showing the world their technical and artistic prowess. High-end developers and well-known artists will be hosting, commentating, and judging the challenges as they are happening live.

When: This year’s Championship took place on August 21st and 22nd.

challenge no.1 – Integration

Prompt: In the first challenge, competitors will be required to pick their favourite interactive inputs and sensors (audio, mouse, keyboard, Microsoft Kinect, Leep Motion, Oculus VR controllers, LIDAR, etc) and create a compelling interactive scene within 60 minutes.

For this challenge, I created an XR stage previs system. The set was made in real-time rendering software Notch, with camera movement controlled via mobile device. TouchDesigner handles scene playback and interaction logic.

challenge no.2 – Sensor

Prompt: Competitors will have to pull out all the stops in their toolkit to combine TouchDesigner with any other real-time application to create an amazing piece of immersive media in 60 minutes. Competitors can utilize Notch, Unreal Engine, Processing, Ableton Live, and more.

This is a live visuals program/performance tool. Audio and video synthesizers generate content, feeding off one another creating synchronization. Datamosh and other real-time post-processing techniques built inside TouchDesigner tie the visual aesthetic together.

Challenge no.3 – copycat

Prompt: Competitors will be tasked with creating a brand new piece of real-time immersive media based on their favourite artist, whether it's van Gogh or Memo Akten. Competitors will need to use all their pro tricks and technique to achieve the most visually stunning and interesting generative piece that honours their favourite artist in 90 minutes!

Mimicking the work of James Turrell, this piece uses Notch as a 3D previs system and TouchDesigner to run light sequences in the virtual space. This piece specifically refers to Turrell's “Into The Light” exhibit currently on display at MASS Moca.