This is a little intro into my Contest Submission. This project is built using. Tutorials and tools available through the Daydream community. Some of these projects I've had for a long time 'cause I've been working with Touch Designer off and on for. Probably 3 or 4 years now. I've been collecting things and building things along the way As  Necessity arose. For me, art is. A visual representation of an emotion. When you see art. Or hear. It should make you feel. Something other than boredom. I like to spread happiness and. Joy. And for me, the easiest way to do that is through my art. 

Welcome to a first look at my Contest Submission. While this project is built on the shoulders of the incredible Daydream community, it’s also fueled by nearly four years of my own TouchDesigner obsessions. Over the years, I’ve curated a personal arsenal of custom tools and digital artifacts, building whatever I needed out of necessity to bring my ideas to life.

My philosophy is simple: Art is the antidote to boredom. It is the visual language of emotion. Whether I'm crafting audio-reactive visuals, diving into dark sci-fi horror, or painting serene cosmic landscapes, my goal is always to spread joy through creation. I love blending mediums and styles because, ultimately, if it strikes an emotion, I’m there for it

12/30 update 

1/5/2026 I had some tech issues. Bogging me down finally figured out I was taxing my GPU too much locally. The curse of low V RAM graphics cards. But once I sorted that out I was back on track. Project stopped stuttering. And was able to produce a. Nice social media post.  https://x.com/CrafterCosmicai/status/2008402762661265655?s=20

1/7/2026I've been doing some major overhaul in some detail work on the project the last two days. It has been wild. But think I'm done. I finally submitted it to the program, and we are ready to  GOOO!

Feel the Beat

by CosmicCrafter

I wanted Feel the Beat to embody who I am as an artist, not just visually, but philosophically.

The name CosmicCrafter is intentional. Everything we do in generative AI lives inside latent space, an infinite, chaotic field of possibility. Generative art is not really about perfect prompts, control nets, or endlessly tweaking settings. At its core, it is about learning how to work with chaos. You guide it, shape it, and let it surprise you. You never fully control it.

That is where the word Cosmic comes from. It represents the infinite void of latent space itself. Crafter comes from the act of molding that chaos into something expressive and intentional. I have always enjoyed taking the mundane and giving it a creative twist, finding ways to inject emotion and energy into systems that might otherwise feel purely technical. Feel the Beat is a direct extension of that way of thinking.

At its heart, this project is meant to invoke emotion. There is no correct way to experience it. However you feel when you see it, however the music hits you, however the visuals land, that reaction is valid. I wanted to recreate the feeling of rave culture and tunnel parties. Hard-hitting bass, flashing lights, overwhelming color, and pure kinetic energy. It is loud, chaotic, vibrant, and unapologetically alive. The goal was positivity, movement, and uncontrolled creativity.

Creative Process

The visual foundation of Feel the Beat is built using Stream Diffusion through Daydream’s backend, combined with TouchDesigner. I used custom-built shaders as noise inputs to give the Stream Diffusion outputs more texture and richer color. Every tool in this project was either custom-built by me or learned from and adapted through community resources, primarily YouTube tutorials. Nothing here exists in isolation. It is all shared knowledge layered over time.

The Stream Diffusion artwork itself was altered four times. Each version emphasizes different motion styles and visual moods. These variations are streamed together and rotated through continuously, creating a sense of emotional fluctuation and visual chaos. Instead of locking the piece into a single aesthetic, I wanted it to move through multiple states, much like emotion itself.

To compensate for render lag inherent in the Stream Diffusion pipeline, I designed the system so the diffusion output behaves almost like a slideshow. The motion never stops though. A background shader and audio-reactive elements are fully synced to the music, ensuring that even when images update more slowly, the rhythm remains present. You can still feel the beat and see the beat through motion, color, and timing.

An audio visualizer plays a central role in this. It was originally built from a YouTube tutorial and then customized to fit the project. Rather than being decorative, it actively responds to the music and reinforces the rhythm visually. It becomes the connective tissue between sound and image, grounding everything in the beat.

The color palette leans heavily into bright, vibrant colors inspired by space. These tones align naturally with my persona and reinforce the cosmic theme. I wanted the visuals to feel energetic and expansive, never muted or restrained.

Modular Workflow and Tooling

Organization is a big part of how I work. I prefer to containerize my projects instead of building massive, tangled node graphs. Every major system lives inside its own reusable component. My Stream Diffusion component includes prompt travel built directly into it. My custom noise shaders live in their own components. The audio visualizer and audio sync tools are also self-contained.

Because of this, I can drag and drop components into a new project and start working immediately. Everything needed is already built into the component. This keeps the visible network clean and minimal while still allowing complex behavior under the hood. Every component is labeled clearly and designed so others can understand and reuse it if they want.

Several custom tools play key roles in Feel the Beat. One is a trigger system I built after searching for a smoother way to transition between multiple visual outputs. I found a tutorial that did exactly what I needed, built it, adapted it, and turned it into a clean, ordered component. It is easy to read and can be saved and reused as a tox file.

Another important piece is my custom feedback system. This was actually the very first TouchDesigner project I ever made. I built it during a live session with Cerspense while learning how feedback loops work. In this project, it is labeled as an audio-reactive merge and acts as a core visual driver.

I am also using three different shaders sourced from the open source community, combined and mixed throughout the system. My upscale component appears multiple times as well, which at one point caused a serious hardware slowdown. That became a useful lesson in optimization and restraint, especially when working in real time.

There is also a text display component included for previewing logos or titles. Like everything else, it is intentionally simple and flexible.

Community and Open Creation

This project is very much a project of love for the community. Everything used is either open source, unlicensed, or freely shared. The music is no exception. The soundtrack is a mix I created myself and is free to use and modify however anyone wants. I wanted the entire piece, from visuals to sound, to reflect openness and accessibility.

Clear labeling, modular design, and reusable components are not just workflow choices for me. They are part of my philosophy. Art grows faster when people can learn from each other.

Reflection

This project has been a wonderful learning experience and an important step in my personal growth. Being part of this contest has been emotionally challenging at times. Seeing the caliber of artists I am up against can be intimidating. It is hard not to compare yourself when surrounded by so much talent.

At the same time, it has been incredibly rewarding. This is a great group of people and a genuinely supportive community. I am grateful to be part of it and proud to share space with artists who continue to push boundaries and experiment openly.

Feel the Beat exists because of that shared energy. I hope people experience it in whatever way feels right to them, and I hope it carries even a fraction of the joy I felt while making it.

Updated the project and uploaded my project file. Please enjoy!!!