ASCII Effect in TouchDesigner

This is a tutorial for creating an ASCII effect in TouchDesigner. It is a beginner to intermediate level tutorial, though I do expect you have some familiarity with how to navigate the TouchDesigner interface.
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Please note: it uses TouchDesigner Version 2023.11340. If you're using an older or newer version there may be features that don't work in exactly the same way.
This tutorial touches on the following topics:
- Texturing Instancing
- Lookup Tables
- Replicator Networks
- Orthographic Rendering
- UV Remapping
Video Navigation:
00:00 - Intro
00:58 - What is ASCII
02:43 - Finished Product Preview
04:21 - File Setup
05:55 - Instancing Network
14:32 - Rendering Network
16:39 - Orthographic Camera
17:56 - Generate ASCII Textures
26:53 - Texture Instancing
34:29 - Sorting ASCII Characters
43:58 - Adding Black Background
46:44 - Conclusion

[@YukikoOdair]

Finally got around to working through this tutorial! I'm pretty new to TD and haven't touched it for a few months - but the tut was super easy to understand and well explained - i feel confident knowing what to tinker with to get my desired effect! Thank you so much :)

[@bjrnravlo-leira]

Great tutorial! Easy to follow, great results, great fun to play with afterwards!!!

[@Dan-bx3mg]

If you've updated TD to follow along with this video, it seems that the lavender checkbox used for binding isn't interactable in the current version (TD 2023.11510). Use the drag method shown at 22:30 or an expression such as parent().par.Numchars instead. Other than that small hiccup, awesome watch! Great pacing and workflow

[@polyhop]

Interesting, thanks for the note! Once I have a chance to test this on my end I'll add some text to the video

[@Dan-bx3mg]

'Export and bind parameter mode "squares" inaccessible in 2023.11510?' on the TD forums led me to believe it was an issue with the update rather than my instance. Figured I'd throw a comment up because it was the only time in the vid I had to go off and look for help

[@polyhop]

@@Dan-bx3mg ah! It did sound funny. I expect it will be patched in the next update, sounds like a TD bug

[@laurengold831]

Thank you! I learned a lot from this!

[@kiwisan32]

great tut! very detailed approach and that's what i like🙌

[@theXshoter1]

thank you! and good to have you back :)

[@LongTran-xw5yp]

welcome back! Pls keep making these. Willing to become a patreon also

[@polyhop]

That's the plan! (to keep making them)

[@blankensmithing]

Yessssss 🎉🎉🎉

[@ethanproia]

Yessssss 🔥

[@AlphaMoonbase]

Welcome Back :)

[@PaulikasKarolis]

Hi! How could I adapt this to 1920x1080 resolution? Thanks!

[@polyhop]

You'll need to adjust the resolution of "render1" for 1920x1080, and make sure the grid is both set to a 16:9 ratio in size, and the corresponding rows and columns. Additionally your input video will want to be 16:9 aspect. That should at least get you going in the right direction!

[@PaulikasKarolis]

@@polyhop thanks! went through the operators, but encountered an issue with the ortho camera, it seems like it needs to be adjusted manually now, but breaks the dynamics when changing font size and so on. Solved with a fit after the in top and changing the render resolution to 16:9!

[@polyhop]

@@PaulikasKarolis Ah yes you'll need to adjust the camera ortho width too. Was thinking in my head of what would need to change and missed that detail :) Glad you found your way to a solution!