Live Light Painting?
  • Lye
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    Live Light Painting?

    by Lye » Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:30 pm

    Hello, I want to do a live painting with light using modul8 but I can't find any delay program that would allow me to do so. What should I be looking for? Any recommendations? I've seen flowtoys do it at a festival so I know it's possible. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
  • ilan

    by ilan » Mon Oct 18, 2010 12:54 pm

    Hello Lye,

    I am not sure what you mean by delay 'program.' There is the Paint module and there are several modified versions of it in the online module library.

    Another technique is to create a small dot in Photoshop and use it as a 'brush' and then turn on the 'trace' function.
  • Lye
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    by Lye » Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:53 pm

    ilan wrote:Hello Lye,

    I am not sure what you mean by delay 'program.' There is the Paint module and there are several modified versions of it in the online module library.

    Another technique is to create a small dot in Photoshop and use it as a 'brush' and then turn on the 'trace' function.


    I meant module. I don't think the paint does want I want. That allows me to paint on the video right? I'm looking for something where I can use glow sticks to leave longer trails for performance videos. Thanks for the reply.
  • mowgli_uk
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    by mowgli_uk » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:26 am

    The painter module paints on a canvas layer, not on a video. For what you want to do all you need is the camera feed and a fair bit of trace on.
  • ilan

    by ilan » Wed Oct 20, 2010 4:20 am

    You can use the trace function. This will paint your light via live feed. You can make a simple module that turn the trace on and off with the touch of a button to erase the drawing. You may need to tweak the pixel fx settings to get the look you want.

    If you are really into this stuff I highly recommend not using the built in isight camera. Even cheap black and white security cameras from China are better then the isight in terms of low light conditions.
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    The Midi Thief
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    by The Midi Thief » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:37 am

    The trace button won't do anything on the video image unless you change the blend mode from Normal to Add or if you move the whole video image (but that's not what you're doing). You can control the exposure with Saturation and Lightnes. I could be hard to preserve the color of the light this way so you could consider using white light and color it in Modul8. You can control the latency of the video capture in Modul8 Preferences/Video Capture. Since you're smudging the video with the trace you might not need full quality video capture.
  • ilan

    by ilan » Wed Oct 20, 2010 3:26 pm

    - Enable trace
    - Use a blend mode on the layer using video input
    - Tweak brightness and contrast as needed
    - Control the opacity of the layer to determine how long you want the image to remain visible. Setting it on full will make it permanent.
  • Lye
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    by Lye » Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:21 pm

    ilan wrote:- Enable trace
    - Use a blend mode on the layer using video input
    - Tweak brightness and contrast as needed
    - Control the opacity of the layer to determine how long you want the image to remain visible. Setting it on full will make it permanent.


    Thanks guys! I will play around with this when I get home. I'm excited to see the results. A preemptive question though, is there anyway to increase the amount of trace I can add?
  • mowgli_uk
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    by mowgli_uk » Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:50 pm

    Lye wrote: A preemptive question though, is there anyway to increase the amount of trace I can add?


    mmmm let me think... with the trace knob!
  • Lye
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    by Lye » Fri Oct 22, 2010 9:26 pm

    mowgli_uk wrote:
    Lye wrote: A preemptive question though, is there anyway to increase the amount of trace I can add?


    mmmm let me think... with the trace knob!


    I meant past the limit of the knobs max of course.

    I tried this out, it didn't really work. I didn't seem to see much an appreciable change. It also was too choppy, I guess my camera just sucks :-/
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    The Midi Thief
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    by The Midi Thief » Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:50 am

    And you are sure you set the blend mode to "add"? The button is located just over Noise and the Blur modules in the main interface. I find them pretty easy to miss myself.

    And how are you filming? A dark room with some kind of light source I assume?

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