What’s the best rig? A common question I see asked if “what laptop should I get for starting out with interactive work?” This can be a tough question to answer when it comes to TouchDesigner systems since you’re able to program content in so many different ways. I always recommend desktop computers. Desktops come in…
Project quotes are easy to improve I can’t count the amount of project quotes I put together. I would be at total loss if I tried to count them all. I never hear back from most receivers of the quotes. That’s normal though. I chat with younger people in the industry about their quotes and…
Rationale for open office hours We held a small giveaway at the end of 2016 in which I gave away some consulting hours in a raffle. I was really surprised by how well received and appreciative everyone was so I’d like to make some form of open office hours a regular thing. I expected in…
What is pixel packing? There are many strange terms in interactive media and pixel packing probably takes the cake for me. Pixel packing is a technique for taking data values and transferring them into pixel values in an image or frame of a video. Imagine a switchboard of LEDs flickering as 0s and 1s…but turned…
Is my interactive perspective small? I’ve had the pleasure of working with a large number of talented individuals lately on some new ventures. The projects range from new forms of public transportation, new space economy verticals, new bank models, and more. These things would never have traditionally been on my radar, and even if they…
A higher level of interactive development It’s easy to just do things. I know from experience as someone who learned by doing. People are always telling you to just experiment with interactive development and try things. Nike says “Just do it.” We’re cultivating a culture around thinking after doing. We call it “iteration.” There’s merit…
Why even bother debugging? Debugging systems of any kind sucks. It’s a time consuming process with very little reward. There are no heroes in the eyes of the clients or designers. Fixing a bug usually just puts you back at par. So why do it? You generally don’t have a choice! All the applications we…
Strategies for large interactive installations Large interactive installations are a volatile medium. You may work on two projects back to back and have completely different technology scales to deal with. One installation may direct the whole budget towards 100 HD screens and one computer while the other may direct the budget to a single screen and a farm…
Prepping for an immersive installation You’ve got your team assembled. Everyone is ready to head to the installation site and get the complex system up and running in full glory. The plan has been set with deadlines and time estimates. Client expectations are set and reviews are scheduled. What happens next can be a million…
Why should you think like a GPU? Processing power is everything in the world of graphics programming, interactive media, and real time media. The more processing power you have, the more content you can generate in real time. The increase in hardware processing capability combined with the decrease in hardware costs has aided in making immersive…