garageCube

Hi, I would like to know if there is any posibility of tracking motion in module 8. I am working on this project; I would like to do a sort of live action opainting session, tracking the movement of a light behind a semitransparent screen and reprojecting on the screen a digital trail as if the light is some sort of pen pen.
Let m eknow if you havce some idea on how to do wo.

Thanks!

http://www.vimeo.com/13171133

I would not suggest Modul8 solely for this application. Although it is awesome proj software.

This is Isadora tracking on PC.
Then Quartz Composer composition played back in VDMX on Macbook Pro.

You could substitute Modul8 for VDMX in this scenario if you could control the position of a layer via OSC in Modul8. I'm not yet sure if that is possible.

This technique uses Modul8, but its not truly interactive.

http://www.vimeo.com/12902033

forgot about the password protection.

password = quixotic

I don't know why you would use vdmx to play a single quartz composer file?!? I'm not a QC expert so I won't give any advice about it, but you could also achieve what you want with maxMSP or Processing. You could even use JunXion to track your light and send values back to modul8 or any visual software that can get the values sent by Junxion.

http://www.steim.org/steim/junxion_v4.html
http://processing.org
http://cycling74.com/products/maxmspjitter/

and there are certainly others

Agreed. There are many options for how to achieve this effect.

In that application I used VDMX for the ease of having a layers XY position controls attached to incoming OSC data.

Any projection software that can accomplish this can be used.

I am actually in the middle of transitioning from using VDMX into using Modul8 at this time. This is due to reliability, native DMX control and output capabilities. ( This is a discussion for another forum though )

Is it possible to use OSC data to control layer positions in Modul8? If so it would be very useful to know how to do this.

Thanks

junxion has very good tracking tools. from there you could output MIDI that is easy to map in Modul8. So you limit is what you can control with MIDI in Modul8.
But I have bought Isadora for this kind of interactive projects. M8 is not made for this (although I have done some public interactive stuff) and needs some creative thinking to go beyond its intended use.

for the OSC, you must use the OSC module. if you open the module editor, select the OSC module and click the "info" tab at the bottom. You'll get all the information you need on how to use this module.

There is a special way to write your messages using keywords. You can find the layer position X and Y keywords in the keyword browser (command alt B). To move around the stage, you must use values from -640 to 640 in X and -480 to 480. But you can also use higher values depending on the ratio of your output window.

To go back to the original thread, you could use a tracking software such as junxion or a home made thing, send a x,y position to modul8, apply it to your layer position. In your layer you can place a white dot on a transparent background (png) and use the trace effect to get your trail effect. Then you can even add sound reactive auto-scale or auto-alpha or any other effects.
If you manage to create your own tracking software, you should be able to code the visual output too so no need to use modul8

thanks so much to everyone,. I'm doing some experiments! I will let you know soon!

I've done painting with a Wii Mote + Quartz Composer + VDMX. But for tracking stuff it's supposed to be better to have the Wii Mote still and have 4 IR LEDs that moves. The LEDs can be tracked by OSCulator (I think) that could send OSC or MIDI to any VJ software. But having IR LEDs behind a screen won't work. The painting with a moving Wii Mote was not very exact.

the best setup would be a camera with IR filter to remove the projection from the capture, then a bulb light (must contain IR in the rays, LED won't work) behind the screen will be completely alone in the camera's image.