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Hi, my name is Ed. I am a creative coder, new media artist, TouchDesigner developer and educator.

I studied Computer Science at University but I always had a great interest in drawing as well. I didn’t know back then that I could combine those things together in creative coding.

Last century people chose a profession for their whole life. Now we can search for what we truly like. I’ve been a robotics engineer, a content manager for an online bookstore, a gesture recognition developer. I had a lot of places of work. I was good at them but I wanted to improve. I’ve been a Volleyball referee, a texture artist for a railway simulator. Subconsciously I believed that I needed to love what I am doing to become great. So I changed my path. I’ve been a motion designer, a mobile-game developer, an interactive designer. You can say that trying new things is my passion. I’ve been a school teacher and a head of IT department. I believe that every experience shapes who we are in one-way or another.

And then the COVID happened which was followed by the lockdown in the spring of 2020. You know, the pandemic situation was a stressful time. One morning I found myself spending 8 hours in video games during the night. It was at this moment that I knew... I had to change something.

Luckily, a few days later I found a YouTube video about Dopamine Detox. They taught that instead of adding things that are good for you, invert that. First of all you should remove the things that don’t let you use time wisely. So I quit gaming for 14 days which gave me a lot of spare energy.

I decided to upgrade my own character – myself in real life and started reading and journaling every day. After a month I felt a need for creativity.

By coincidence, my friend asked me if I would like to create an interactive performance. It had to be a real-time dance visualization with Kinect. I did some research and decided to try TouchDesigner. I accepted the challenge to implement the project in one month and started with YouTube tutorials by Matthew Ragan and Elburz. After some sleepless nights, I managed to make a good enough visualization in time. I fell in love with the software. It combines coding, real-time rendering, easy prototyping and friendly community.

Then I read a book “Steal like an artist” that changed my life. You can flip through this book in 30 minutes and be inspired by it for weeks. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in making art. It provides a helpful reminder that inspiration is everywhere. One of the secrets that I got from this book is to do good work and share it with people.

So I decided to take on the challenge of daily posts on Instagram. Everyday is a small project in TouchDesigner. Progress is Pain and Reflection. But I didn’t want too much pain so I chose to post twice a week.

I had a full-time job so I did my creative coding at night. Did you know that it takes 23 minutes to focus on the original task after any interruption? That’s why I like to practice deep thinking while everyone is asleep.

Motivation is a great start but it’s not enough. Motivation is fragile. It must be followed by Discipline with deadlines. And then after some time it becomes a Habit. It worked.

I bet you’ve heard about compound interest. Try to become 1% better every day and you are 37 times better in a year. If you’re doing most things wrong, even if you’re really slow but you just keep going for a long period of time then you will get to where you want to get to. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Fail and reflect. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
― Niels Bohr

During preparation stage, I am inspired by a movie or a pattern on Pinterest. Most of the time interesting unpredictable results come when I combine different approaches and tweak parameters in my old projects. Sometimes I am really stuck. Then I put my phone away, turn off the light and calm down for meditation. As it turned out, the “aha” moment happens within 30 minutes. You just need to get bored so hard that your brain has no other option but to be creative.

So after a year of Instagram challenge I understood that it is my thing. I quit my job in 2021 and became a freelance creative coder and new media artist. My works were displayed in America, Europe and Asia. My passion for trying new things is fulfilled every day because all the projects are quite different. Be it a control system of a Ferris wheel, visual effects that react to a music performance or interactive installation with depth cameras, I love the process and the result that entertains the audience.

I wish I had a mentor or tutor in the beginning of my career to save time. So now I help people learn TouchDesigner and creative coding as well.

Thank you for reading my story. It means a lot to me.

Ed

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