When working in TouchDesigner, you often need to display several images, videos, or generated visuals at the same time. Instead of placing each texture manually, the Layout TOP makes the process much simpler by arranging multiple inputs into a single output. It can organize textures into rows, columns, or grids while giving you control over spacing, alignment, scaling, and the overall appearance. This makes it especially useful when creating visual dashboards, preview windows, interactive installations, or projects that require several visual sources to be displayed together in a clean and organized way.
The Layout TOP is different from the Composite TOP because each operator serves a separate purpose. Layout TOP focuses on positioning textures without blending them together, ensuring every input has its own space within the final output. Composite TOP, on the other hand, combines textures by layering them and applying blend modes such as Over, Add, Multiply, or Screen to create a single visual effect. If your goal is to arrange multiple images side by side, Layout TOP is the better choice. If you want one image to interact visually with another through blending or transparency, Composite TOP is the operator you should use.
Understanding the difference between these two operators helps you build more efficient TouchDesigner networks. Layout TOP keeps projects organized by presenting multiple textures in a structured layout, while Composite TOP is used to create creative visual effects by merging images together. Many TouchDesigner projects use both operators because they solve different problems. A typical workflow might involve arranging several visual outputs with Layout TOP before compositing them with other effects later in the network, resulting in a cleaner setup and a more flexible creative process.
