FeaturesTracking
The goodFeaturesToTrack function from OpenCV serves as an artistic technique in digital and generative art by automatically detecting key corner points and high-contrast features in an image using the Shi-Tomasi method.
In video art, these points are tracked across frames via optical flow, generating motion lines that reveal hidden scene dynamics or create abstract patterns akin to glitch art and data-driven aesthetics.
Download TouchDesigner version on my Patreon
How it works
The pipeline runs inside TouchDesigner 2025 using POPs:
- goodFeaturesToTrack (Shi-Tomasi) detects corner points and high-contrast features in each frame — raw, chaotic point clouds.
- calcOpticalFlowPyrLK (Lucas-Kanade optical flow) tracks those points across frames.
- Points that survive 50+ frames are kept; short-lived noise is filtered out.
- The surviving trajectories are rendered as motion lines — and the image suddenly becomes alive: pure organic movement extracted from ordinary footage.
The result sits between machine vision and glitch aesthetics: the algorithm reveals hidden scene dynamics that the eye doesn't register.
FeaturesTracking Summer
Features v0.0.2 Fragments of summer 2021, reprocessed years later. @TouchDesigner 2025, POPs, and a memory of heat, light, and time. Pure summer vibe.
