garageCube

If you hook up your camera to the fire wire video capture and tell your camera to play the line-in s-video, RCA works too if your have the conversion, then create a new layer to play the video capture and add a little X, Y, and/or Z spin on the layer and just like that you have a new fun effect. Check it out, it's fun!!

-videofile

i did exactly that at a recent gig. i ran a live signal from a remote source into the s-vhs input, monitored the channel i had assigned the camera to until specific action occurred. then i would fade it in. had it set to the top most layer so it would block out all the lower layers and then, when as it swung around to fill the whole screen i wold switch the layer(s) underneath to play different clips. looked cool

vjfj wrote:i did exactly that at a recent gig. i ran a live signal from a remote source into the s-vhs input, monitored the channel i had assigned the camera to until specific action occurred. then i would fade it in. had it set to the top most layer so it would block out all the lower layers and then, when as it swung around to fill the whole screen i wold switch the layer(s) underneath to play different clips. looked cool

right on man. that is probably what i'm going to have to do when i do it live. have you achieved the depth where it becomes fractals??

not totally sure i know what you mean by fractals - but using the transformer i was able to throw the rotating screen / live camera feed into a cool cube matrix, generate particles and the like quite easily - the most important consideration having had more to do with artisitic taste than possibilities

however with M8 2.5 on the horizon, GPU driven and freeframe fx i can't wait to see what will be possible.

cheers in AZ! i once had the fortune to live in sedona for 5 years!

If you hook up your camera to the fire wire video capture and tell your camera to play the line-in s-video, RCA works too if your have the conversion, then create a new layer to play the video capture and add a little X, Y, and/or Z spin on the layer and just like that you have a new fun effect. Check it out, it's fun!!

Hi Videofile I'm missing something here! Help an old man out.... routing what where?

moonbase wrote:

If you hook up your camera to the fire wire video capture and tell your camera to play the line-in s-video, RCA works too if your have the conversion, then create a new layer to play the video capture and add a little X, Y, and/or Z spin on the layer and just like that you have a new fun effect. Check it out, it's fun!!

Hi Videofile I'm missing something here! Help an old man out.... routing what where?

Things you'll need to complete:
1. Computer with M8 also with an S-video display out (or if you have some other devise that can convert you DIV/VGA out to an S-video or RCA like a projector)
2. Camera that is capable of having an in-put from an outside source via RCA or S-video(S-video is better no conversion necessary) and a Fire wire out put (for capturing video)
3. A fire wire on your computer that comes from your camera.

IF you have all the tools:
Next plug it all in. (NOTE: plug it all in before you open M8 or it might not read the outside source)

So the display from your computer will come out the S-video and into your camera (note: M8 has to be in the FULL SCREEN MODE) and from your camera via Fire wire M8 has an option to set layer as 'video capture'. So essentially you are creating a display loop much like when you have your camera connected to you TV and you point your camera to the TV.

I know this very involved but does that make since??

videofile wrote:have you achieved the depth where it becomes fractals??

ah ok man, now i see what you did. i had you wrong
hence the fractal question. i shall have to try this out!

vjfj wrote:not totally sure i know what you mean by fractals - but using the transformer i was able to throw the rotating screen / live camera feed into a cool cube matrix, generate particles and the like quite easily - the most important consideration having had more to do with artisitic taste than possibilities

however with M8 2.5 on the horizon, GPU driven and freeframe fx i can't wait to see what will be possible.

cheers in AZ! i once had the fortune to live in sedona for 5 years!

i think i know what your talking about. I’m not sure.

But yeah the fractal thing; if you controller your light and bright you can extend what you are seeing (note: the more contrast to what you are displaying the more times it will show up on the live video layer) and if you are rotating the layer you can create some fractal like visuals, but it's really sensitive so i can't wait to get my new MIDI controller.

AZ pretty ok, some people here are pretty werid but it's all good.
Yeah right on you live in austria. i have never been, how is that?

Perfect Sense! Nicely explained. Not involved at all,
it was just the 'what goes where' but thats sorted thanks to your good words.
Will give it a go tomorrow, always good to find new live feedbacky effects, they suit M8 well.
regards

Hi -
Yeah, got it working. Intresting, bit resource hogging & hard to output live but nice feedback loop.

The effect is very similar to Dervish, 'a somewhat idiosyncratic free-as-in-beer video mixing application for the Macintosh'
http://www.goldbergs.com/dervish/
which I love and have even used live.

I posted http://www.garagecube.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680 here but -
go to Vimeo and enter 'cosmic1' into the search,
download cosmic1, a clip created in 10 secs in CosmicPainter, put it in an M8 layer then ADD - some trace, adjust speed,
add rotation, adjust contrast & saturation, set a little smooth 4 way move going and set one of the colour changers going -

This is pretty much the process used in Dervish but without the accompanying nerves!
I have made a few CosmicPaints using pictoral images which work nicely too, you get the occassional flash
of the background image showing through. Beautiful.

We do alot of feedback by setting up a camera and pointing it at the projection surface,
and running the camera into modul8 and/or the mixer, or both. Cameras are good
because they allow for control of how the feedback moves in or out of the screen. This
can be especially effective when the projection is placed behind a band or DJ as well as
the artist then becomes part of the image and feedbacks along with the modul8 content.

Yeah, classic feedback works wonders. I use it lots as you describe in audio/visual workshops with kids -
one dancing or waving an arm or ducking and diving and another with hand held camera gives 2 variables
plus one kid on midi control and one triggering clips looks totally great, hours of educational fun....

off topic a bit - chromafresh - re:live bands
I just had a lead singer who really didn't like (read hated!) the brightness or flicker of the projector
(front proj, obviously, very small low venue) but it was too late to alter anything so I fell back on a small video wall I'd set-up, looked ok -
apart from back-projection (there was no space , I haven't the gear yet)
do you have any thoughts or experiences to get over this?

Yeah we run into this now and then. I don't know if theres a good way around this sort of
issue. I had one artist who actually got physically ill if exposed to too much flickering
light, and we had to negotiate with him to allow us to participate at all and ended up
doing something minimalistic. It worked out OK in the end, although we ended up
working in a style that wasn't normal for us, and a bit less stimulating than what we're
used to. (Thanks to Modul8 we pulled it off OK)
"Flickering" really only occurs when there is flickering imagery, right? or is this problem
part of the way LCD projectors handle light?
Rear projection is indeed a good idea if the space allows it and you've got the gear.
(we don't either)

Yeah, the flickering was not a projector problem, that was just too bright as is the nature of the beast,
but once I added moving images all the singer could see was a bright flickering which completely distracted her.
Physical illness is quite some reaction. Must do some research about the effect of fast changing light...

I was thinking of the problem as the evening progressed and wondered if a mask layer of some sort might help.
Produce an otherwise transparent photoshop layer with an opaque circle which could follow the singer.
Scale or dragging in M8 might work, have it as the top layer, in my case she wasn't moving around excesively so it would have at least helped.

This might be a nice idea for making a 'spotlight' type effect too.
Reverse my thought and have an opaque layer with a round transparent 'spotlight' window
which you could use to highlight the singer between songs?
No projected image apart from a bright central but moveable circle?
Instant 'follow' light!

Physical illness is something that "Pokemon" had to deal with a few years ago when some scene with flickering images actually caused kids and moms to feel queesy and pass out. I don't know if it made the international news but it was a big deal here and they actually changed some guidelines about the minimal length of frames and how quick cuts could be used in succession for edits here.
I suspect its a similar problem.

Masking is indeed an idea if the performers dont move around alot. It wouldn't even have to be black necessarily if the flickering is the only issue.
If you knew where performers were going to be standing you could set up different highlights to match their various positions, etc. too. As an alternative to lighting this is an interesting idea to pursue.