Book Image

Multimedia Programming Using Max/MSP and TouchDesigner

By : Patrik Lechner
Book Image

Multimedia Programming Using Max/MSP and TouchDesigner

By: Patrik Lechner

Overview of this book

Max 6 and TouchDesigner are both high-level visual programming languages based on the metaphor of connecting computational objects with patch cords. This guide will teach you how to design and build high-quality audio-visual systems in Max 6 and TouchDesigner, giving you competence in both designing and using these real-time systems. In the first few chapters, you will learn the basics of designing tools to generate audio-visual experiences through easy-to-follow instructions aimed at beginners and intermediate. Then, we combine tools such as Gen, Jitter, and TouchDesigner to work along with Max 6 to create 2D and 3D visualizations, this book provides you with tutorials based on creating generative art synchronized to audio. By the end of the book, you will be able to design and structure highly interactive, real-time systems.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Multimedia Programming Using Max/MSP and TouchDesigner
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

A quick overview of GUI


Let's get a basic overview of the GUI at this point. The Max GUI is not a static thing and we can't cover everything here, but it also is self-describing. The clue window, little pop ups, and the reference help us if there are any questions, but in order to be able to talk about things and to give some directions as to where to look for a certain thing, let's go through the interface using the following screenshot:

The following are the steps to install the Max GUI:

  1. Lock/unlock the patchers / modify read-only. If the window shows a loaded abstraction, this symbol will show up. If we press the following button, then we can edit the patcher in place, loading the original temporarily:

  2. The patcher windows: Here, we can access functions as opening another view of the patcher (for instance, when designing GUIs, it's really handy to have one locked view and one unlocked view open). Also, we can always open the original here if our patcher is loaded as an abstraction.

  3. Open the...