Yolo TouchDesigner Plugin: Multi-Pose, Object, VisDrone, & Face Tracking + More

This plugin brings Ultralytics YOLO into TouchDesigner with no install required. Just drag and drop the yolo.tox into your project and the separete helper visualizations for object and pose tracking as well as image segmentation.

Features

Object Tracking – unique IDs that persist across frames

Multi-Person Pose Tracking – body keypoints, joints, & persistent IDs across frames

VisDrone – trained for aerial and security footage (Great for floor tracking installations)

Face-Tracking Nano – unique face IDs tracked across frames

Segmentation – segmentation support for mask-based output workflows

Drop-in Component – packaged as a .tox file you can load directly in TouchDesigner

Custom Models – Bring your own custom Yolo Models in by exporting them with ONNX (export script on GitHub) NOTE: Custom models trained with Ultralytics are subject to the AGPL-3.0 license. You will need to either release the relevant project source code under AGPL-3.0 or obtain an Ultralytics Enterprise License.

Webcam + TOP Support – Use any webcam, or connect any TOP to start processing

Get Started

Download the .tox file linked at the bottom of this post.

Place the .tox file next you project .toe file so TouchDesigner can reference it locally. ⚠️NOTE if you don't do this, saving your project will take an eternity

Drop it into your TouchDesigner project.

Drop any of the associated helper visualizations into your project such as Object Tracking, Pose Tracking or Segmentation.

Using this Plugin in Your Projects

This plugin uses Ultralytics YOLO, which is generally AGPL-3.0 unless you have an Enterprise License.

You can use the detection output as data in your TouchDesigner projects, but closed-source commercial use is not automatically cleared.

If you modify the YOLO runtime or use a custom Ultralytics ONNX model, you may need to open-source those changes and/or model files under AGPL-3.0, or obtain an Enterprise License from Ultralytics.

The core yolo.tox and its corresponding source code are also available in this repository under AGPL-3.0. The open-source version provides the underlying YOLO integration and raw output, but does not include all of the optional visualization helpers and examples available through here Patreon.

Source Code is Available Here:

What this means for you:

✅ You can use the detection output from this plugin as data in your own TouchDesigner projects. That includes IDs, labels, positions, bounding boxes, keypoints, confidence values, and other output data.

✅ The plugin is designed so TouchDesigner communicates with a separate local YOLO runtime over WebSockets. Your TouchDesigner network sends image data to the local server and receives detection results back.

✅ The YOLO-related parts of the plugin are open-sourced for AGPL-3.0 compliance. This includes the web app, WebSocket server, model-running code, and included ONNX model files.

✅ You can use, study, modify, and redistribute the open-source YOLO-related parts of this plugin, as long as you follow the AGPL-3.0 license.

✅ Additional visualization and control helpers are available here Patreon. These are separate TouchDesigner components that consume the plugin's output data, are not required to run the open-source YOLO component, and some can also be used with other tracking systems such as RTMO.

⚠️ Closed-source commercial use is not automatically cleared. If you are using this plugin in a proprietary commercial project, paid deployment, client installation, or closed-source product, you should review the AGPL-3.0 requirements carefully or obtain an Enterprise License from Ultralytics.

⚠️ If you bring in your own custom Ultralytics YOLO ONNX model, you should assume that AGPL-3.0 still applies to that model. Exporting an Ultralytics model to ONNX does not remove the license requirements. If you use that model under AGPL-3.0, you may need to open-source the model, the training/export changes, and any model-related modifications under AGPL-3.0 as well.

⚠️ If you modify the YOLO runtime, web app, WebSocket server, model-running code, included ONNX models, or other AGPL-3.0 licensed parts of the plugin, you may need to open-source those changes under AGPL-3.0.

⚠️ If you redistribute this plugin, bundle it into a larger proprietary product, or use it as a core part of a closed commercial deployment, additional AGPL-3.0 obligations may apply.

This plugin is structured to separate the open-source YOLO runtime from your TouchDesigner network, and the YOLO-related source is provided for AGPL-3.0 compliance. However, license compliance depends on how you use, modify, distribute, bundle, train, export, or deploy the software and model files.

If your project needs to remain closed-source, you should review the AGPL-3.0 requirements carefully, consult a qualified attorney if needed, or obtain an Enterprise License from Ultralytics.

That said, I’d highly encourage you to open-source your work when possible to support the broader open-source community.

This is not legal advice.