Introducing ISF for Jitter

December 13, 2019

Today we are extra excited to announce an open source collaboration with the team over at Cycling74, creators of Max. Now all of the amazing ISF shaders that come with VDMX and on interactiveshaderformat.com can be used right alongside your other Jitter code using the jit.gl.isf object, available on Mac and Windows!

You can install jit.gl.isf directly from the Max package manager panel, accessible from the File menu. If you don’t already have any ISF shaders installed, also grab the free ISF Editor app for your appropriate platform. The free editor tool comes with the same standard set of 300+ generators, effects, and transitions we bundle with VDMX to get started with.

With this release Max joins the over a dozen apps and frameworks that support ISF as a standard for GLSL shaders. With ISF, there is no need to convert or translate code when moving between software. Write your generators and effects once, then use in Max, Motion, Final Cut Pro X, VDMX, on the web, and other video platforms. The specification includes conventions for working with multi-pass shaders with persistent frame buffers, allowing for the creation of complex compositions in a single easy to share file. The ISF documentation pages include detailed walkthroughs of the specification along with useful reference notes and a quick start for learning the basics of GLSL.

ISF for Jitter can be used out of the box with over 300 generators, effects, and transitions. Install the free ISF Editor to get the standard collection of shaders.

Documentation

jit.gl.isf includes an extensive help patch, examples, and complete reference.

Easy to Install

Use the Max package manager to download the jit.gl.isf object and access the launcher patch. Available on Mac and Windows.

Online Community

Visit the ISF sharing website to find new generators and effects that can be used directly in with jit.gl.isf without any additional conversion. GLSL shaders written in other formats are often easily translatable to the ISF specification. See the ISF Documentation for useful tips and examples.

Audio Visualizers

The ISF specification helps standardize techniques for creating advanced compositions like audio visualizers. See the include example patches and ISF Documentation for more information.

Want to learn more? Read more about it on the ISF for Jitter website, watch an introduction video tutorial, and visit the Max forums for more details from the Cycling74 crew. Developers curious to take a look under the hood can find the open source codebase in the jit.gl.isf repository. For the latest in ISF news, follow the @ISFVideo account on Twitter.

And don’t forget to check out some of our other tutorials describing techniques for using Max and VDMX together, such as using the OSCQuery Helper tool for simplifying OSC sync and sharing video streams via Syphon.

Black Friday To Cyber Monday Weekend Sale 2019!!!

November 28, 2019

Once again we are getting in the spirit of capitalism with the yearly Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale!

The sale runs from Friday, November 28 through the morning of Tuesday, December 3rd!

During this time we’ll be taking 100 USD off every purchase from our online store!!!

And this sale stacks with our regular educational, just send us an email with a picture of your photo ID (or other similar proof of enrollment) to get your coupon code to double down your discounts and get VDMX for only 99 USD!!!

Or if you are not a student, we also offer a “starving artist discount” – do a small community giveback project, such as sharing videos loops or making a tutorial to get an extra discount.

Stuart Warren-Hill on Coldcut, Hexstatic, Vjamm, and his latest projects Holotronica & Hologauze!

November 13, 2019

Over the years we been lucky to have some amazing pioneers in the field of live visuals join us for artist interviews to share their experiences – now added to that list is Stuart Warren-Hill, who has been working at pushing the boundaries of what is possible and continues to do so with his latest projects. Today we will find out a bit about his infamous history and get a glimpse into where he is taking things next.

Another year, another view! VDMX running in macOS 10.15 Catalina.

VDMX OS X Catalina Update Guide

October 7, 2019

Hi everyone!

As usual we have a yearly update guide for people using VDMX who are looking to install the latest version of macOS on their computers.

You can read more about the specific details of the most recent release, including the list of new features and effects in the release announcement on the forums and discussion thread on upgrading to Catalina for more tips: https://discourse.vidvox.net/t/vdmx-macos-x-10-15-catalina-update-guide/942

The most noteworthy change for developers in 10.15 is the requirement for notarizing applications that are distributed outside the Mac App Store – if you are running version b8.7.1.6 or later, your copy of VDMX should be properly notarized.

If you run into any problems with updating VDMX to macOS 10.15, or just want to let us know about your experiences with Catalina, please send us feedback using the Report Bug option from the Help menu in VDMX, or send an email to support@vidvox.net.

Code meets Animation

With ISF for Motion, published variables from GLSL shaders can be animated using value key-frames, adjustable directly from the Motion timeline editor. Iterate over different visual possibilities from your shader creations using bezier curve tools instead of writing complex code.

Apply as FX

GLSL shaders written as FX can be applied to layers, including movies files and other generative assets, and re-exported, adding a new range of possibilities for using code to create and process video. With ISF for Motion you can easily experiment with different ways of combining your code creations to take them to the next level.

Movie Export

Compositions containing GLSL shaders can be exported from Motion and FCP X as movie files, at super high resolutions and frame rates. A great way to showcase code that is too complex to be rendered in real-time, even at 8K Ultra HD and larger.

FCP X

ISF for Motion can automatically create template files for loading shaders in Final Cut Pro X. Generators, filters and transitions show up in their appropriate categories along with their published input parameters.

Customize and Remix

Beyond the standard set of included assets, ISF for Motion makes it possible for you to write your own GLSL code and watch it live update in the Motion preview. Works with any standard text editor, as well as our free ISF Editor tools.

ISF for Motion and Final Cut Pro X now available in the Mac App Store!

September 26, 2019

Today we are excited to announce ISF for Motion, a new way to use the same suite of real-time video generators and effects that we include with VDMX inside of Motion and Final Cut Pro X!

The ISF for Motion FxPlug enables usage of GLSL shaders written in the ISF specification within Apple Motion and FCP X alongside their standard generators, effects and transitions, opening up a world of new possibilities where creative code meets your traditional motion graphics and editing workflows.

Download and install ISF for Motion from the Mac App Store

Some Thursday Night Music & Light with Andrew Juris

July 16, 2019

Along with getting to talk to VJs and visual creators about their own amazing work, we sometimes find out about all kinds of cool events happening all over the world. Today California based artist Andrew Juris is here to tell us about a weekly Thursday Night Music & Light in Berkley that you’ll want to check out next time you are in the area!

Projected fun from Projectile Objects

July 10, 2019

I’m Cornelius Henke III, also known as ProjectileObjects.

Most of the projects I work on are in the realm of film/video, but over the last decade, my interests have spread. (Projection mapping masks, VJing, LED light sculptures, etc.) I think most of the work I do fits somewhere in the category of a creative technologist. The natural progression of my work was from Music Video Creator/Director -> VFX & Motion Graphics -> VJing/ Projection Mapping -> “Creative Technologist” / Video Producer/ Editor.

Image from Meta-7 by John Sully, XIX Collective and MojoVideoTech

Mojo Video Tech gives us a behind the scenes on Meta-7, a new collaboration with XIX Collective and John Sully

May 8, 2019

We’ve been emailing with MojoVideoTech for about 15 years now, and his career goes back well before that… a full in depth interview is long overdue, but today we’ll have to settle for a quick behind the scenes of his latest project Meta-7, which is playing through May 18th, 2019, and you can still get tickets.

International Sound Artist John Sully teams up with XIX Collective and MojoVideoTech to present, META-7 (an alchemic opera). Audience members lay on a sub-bass vibrating floor surrounded by a 7.1 sound system inside a 360° video mapped dome. The story is about all of us. Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go after? Very much inspired by Sully’s album listening parties when he was a kid in the 70s, META-7 is a gesture towards the sacred and mysterious through a deep immersion of sound, light and architectural design. There will be 4 shows per night at 7,8,9 and 10pm. Please join us at 10-16 Studios, 10-16 46 Ave Long Island City NY.

MojoVideoTech has also provided us with a description of how the setup works… if you plan to go, maybe wait until afterwards to read the rest of this to avoid any sensory spoilers.

Vj Zef & Santo. Photo Credit: Bruno Destombes

VJ Zef: Saturday Shaders

March 26, 2019

Starting a few years ago, shortly after adding support for GLSL shaders in VDMX, we were especially excited to start seeing artists using it as a jumping off point for learning how to write their own shaders. Among the projects that we would hear about there was one in particular that we have been trying to get for a guest interview since it first landed on our radar – VJ Zef’s Saturday Shaders. It popped up in our timeline places like this, this and this… wonderful weekend treats of inspiration. Now finally we have Joseph here for a talk about these videos (and shaders!) that we have seen online.

Julia Maria Morf talks with us about transparent screens!

March 8, 2019

As software developers, one of the things that gets us really excited is seeing people using new kinds of display technologies in creative ways. A few weeks ago we saw some photos online from Julia Maria Morf that involved using transparent screens for installations and live performances, and of course we had to find out more about her stunning work!

Magmovies in Madrid and around the world

March 7, 2019

Joining us in this post is Madrid based artist Magmovies, another world traveling VJ who truly loves getting to push pixels around the globe. It is always inspiring for us to see people who enjoy this craft so much and for this reason we have been following Laura on social media for a little while now – and we figured it out was about time we had her for an interview so you can enjoy her work as well!

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SSWIII's 2019 Daily A/V Experiments, Creative Commons loops and other hotness.

February 7, 2019

This week we were fortunate to get a chance to interview Switzon S. Wigfall, who along with being both an amazing musician and visual artist to keep an eye on, is one of those people who should be on your radar for being a prolific creator of creative commons VJ loops ;)

SSWIII’s free clip packs have popped up on our radar a few times in recent years, but when we caught wind of his new project for 2019, daily A/V practice sets that are producing great results, we knew it was time to finally get some more info about his work…

A/V setup with The Suicide Of Western Cutlure - Primavera Sound 2018

The Past, Present and Future with Juanjo Fernández Rivero (aka Gnomalab)

February 5, 2019

In recent years one of the biggest contributors to the online and offline VJ communities has been Juanjo Fernández Rivero. Along with his work with VJ Spain and other organizations, teaching workshops and organizing meet ups, he is also known as Gnomalab, a prolific VJ who has been creating live visuals going on 20 years. We finally caught up with him for an interview looking back at his career and to find out about his latest projects!

3D Projection Mapping from Motus.Lumina and Nerdworking at the Solid Light Festival in Rome

December 3, 2018

In the running series of people in the field of live visuals that we keep seeing pop up in the VDMX community, and over due for an interview, is Motus.Lumina, a group of audio, visual and interaction designers based in Buenos Aires. In particular they make spectacular usage of a wide variety of tools and work on some incredibly interesting events, such as the 3D projection mapping project in collaboration with Nerdworking that showed up in our Twitter feed not too long ago.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

Live coding audio-visual DJ/VJ performance.

Motus.Lumina is a Buenos Aires based design collective that works on visual programming, indoor / outdoor stage design, VJing, animation, interactive design, video mapping, audio-visual installations and music.

Our main objective is to create interactive visual projects integrated with sound, music instruments, data and digital control devices. Motus.Lumina was founded by Temel Hüseyin Kuru a.k.a VJ Vidbeat / Istanbul-Turkey and Claudia Hiroki / Buenos Aires-Argentina. Since February 2015 we are programming audio-visual projects for many artists, musicians, festivals and art collectives from all over the world.

2. What tools (software, hardware, etc) do you use in your creative process?

We are using Quartz Composer, Touch Designer, Cinema 4D, After FX and VDMX for creating our visual content. We use 2 15-Inch Mac Book Retina laptop for programming and live performances, Black Magic Intensity Shuttle for capturing video and live mixing and finally for audio-visual works we use Roland Octa-Capture sound card for audio and MIDI input.

For most of our audio-visual performances and installations, we are programming our visual content with Quartz Composer. Then we do all the live sequencing, adding video filters and connecting audio, OSC and MIDI signals via VDMX. Generally, our live setup contains generative visual patches programmed with Quartz Composer or Interactive Shader Format. We use video footage only for very specific works.

VDMX has a great integration with Quartz Composer and lets us program custom plugins, visuals, FX and templates for our installations and live performances.

For the last 2 years, we are using Black Magic Intensity Shuttle to connect our VDMX software and mix between 2 laptops without using a video mixer. Native Black Magic support of VDMX is very handy for live performances.

Our visuals are mostly geometric and abstract compositions inspired by sci-fi and cosmos. Using musical data and external tools ( music instruments, HID devices, sensors etc. ) takes a big part in our artistic workflow. According to those needs we are using VDMX as a hub to send and receive all the external data to process our visual content for live performances. Also, it is great to build up custom control surfaces for custom needs. VDMX and Quartz Composer are always the most popular tools in Motus.Lumina studios !!

3. Tell us all about your latest 3D projection mappings in Rome!

After we were commissioned by Nerdworking for the Solid Light Festival / Rome we started to program our visuals and start working on a custom Quartz Composer VDMX setup for this project.

We modified Kineme GL Stereoscopic plugin for VDMX as a real-time anaglyph 3D plugin – So we achieved to convert all our Quartz Composer and video content to anaglyph 3D without making any render. Also, the plugin lets us switch between different masks and models. Once we have the plugin working we prepared different presets for each episode of our story and recorded our visuals responding to the different audio frequencies of the music track.

Another interesting detail was the distance of the object z-axis. After many tests, we have created a holographic anaglyph effect that shows frontal objects floating in the air about 1 meter from the audience's eyes.

Thanks a lot to Nerdworking and Solid Light Festival for letting us experiment on the walls of beautiful Sant`Agostino church. And thanx to all Vidvox crew for programming and developing VDMX!!

You can find more work from Motus.Lumina on their website https://motuslumina.com/ as well as vimeo and instagram.

Black Friday To Cyber Monday Weekend Sale 2018

November 22, 2018

Hey everyone!

SURPRISE!

For the first time ever we are doing a Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale, getting in the spirit and jumping on the bandwagon of this runaway train we call capitalism!!!

The sale runs from Friday, November 23rd through the morning of Tuesday, November 27th!

During this time we’ll be taking 100 USD off every purchase from our online store!!!

Or if you are not a student, we also offer a “starving artist discount” – do a small community giveback project, such as sharing videos loops or making a tutorial to get an extra discount.

Concert: Gordon Photo: Rémy Grandroques @ La Gaité Lyrique

Talking with La Gaîté Lyrique, the 19th century Paris theater with 21st century productions

November 14, 2018

Over the last few years La Gaîté Lyrique has become one of the most well known venues for live visuals, serving as a place for musicians and other artists to work on special events that make use of the 360 projection space and skills of the resident on site team.

In this interview we are joined by Martial Gallorini, one of the video specialists currently working at La Gaîté Lyrique about the space, their production process and some of the artists they’ve hosted.

What is La Gaîté Lyrique and what do they do?

La Gaîté Lyrique is a former 19th century theater. After a long period of inactivity it was left abandoned and classified as historical monument. In the early 2000, it was re-built from the ground-up and it the re-opened to the public in 2011 as now a cultural center dedicated to digital art and cultures.

La Gaîté Lyrique is located in the center of Paris, France and is a polyvalent center where we attend about 1000 events a year, from smallest ones like workshops to big festivals.

We are running every types of events related to digital arts and emerging cultures like. The building is divided into main sites like an exhibition space, a small auditorium for film projections and conferences, a bar, a digital art dedicated library, video games booths, a small immersive room called La Petite Salle, and a concert hall called La Grande Salle which can accommodate about 750 people. Besides we also have exchanges with local schools to introduce creative coding and digital arts to young students.

Paris Music Club, Production: Collectif Scale, Photo: Teddy Morellec

We also host artists in residence and start-ups for them to work on their projects.

The special feature of the venue is La Grande Salle and its ability to run 360° projection shows using 8 video projectors. La Petite Salle can also do 360° video projection using 6 projectors.

In this concert hall we welcome private events, concerts, film festivals or music festivals.

For the record, here is some artists that we welcomed:

concerts : Atoms for Peace (Thom Yorke), Death in Vegas, Phoenix, Gran Daddy, Beat Assaillant, Christine and the queen, Zombie Zombie, Parquet courts, The Breeders, Terry Riley, Mondkopf...
exhibitions : Vincent Houzé, Matt Pyke, Stefan Sagmeister, Kyle McDonald...

What tools (hardware, software, other...) do you use in the creative process? How has this changed over the years?

I can only speak for my job which is leading the video department alongside my close collaborator David, but due to the aspect of very wide number and type of events, we need a lot of different hardware and software tools meet the needs of each type of event.

We have a fleet of video projectors from 3000 to 10 000 lumens and different aspect ratios and full HD screens. We also have plenty of media players like Mac minis, brightsign players, SD Card readers, cameras, streamers etc... And obviously due to the wide type of video signal types and sources with each their pros and cons, we do have a bunch of converters, matrices, extenders and different type of scalers.

With all those type of events and different artistic styles, we can't master every type of technology but we need to understand each project technically speaking and have a wide variety of skills. For instance, we are not motion designers, but we need to know a bit of After Effects to adapt contents to our infrastructures. We are not master coders, but we need to understand code and use it to adapt interactive installations and create tools to help control our devices...

For example, our day to day software tools are VDMX, Touchdesigner, Millumin, Resolume, Modulo Pi media servers Max/MSP, openFrameworks, Processing, Arduino... and protocols such as OSC, MIDI or NDI.

Honestly, we unfortunately don't have time to do much creative contents but we rather welcome artists and assist them with their needs and sometimes help them adapt their video installation for an exhibition or video content for a show.

From the start, we've been using Mac Pros and VDMX for projection purposes on concerts and video installations in exhibitions. Originally we were using 4 computers to play clips in sync clips in the concerts 360° setup but with the evolution of computers power it has become much easier and setting up a show has become a breeze and we can now save time for the artists to work on their show during sound checks.

Tell us about the most recent projects in development at La Gaîté Lyrique!

Well, La Gaîté Lyrique activity remains the same and we are still working hard on programming great shows and festivals. One of our next big project is setting up the incoming exhibition opening next March.

Technically speaking, the opening season's big challenge is the full upgrade of the La Grande Salle video infrastructure and workflow. We are upgrading our projectors to laser source technology and rework the whole signal infrastructure to HDBaseT and fiber optic. Unfortunately it is still a bit early right now, but still, we are working towards a base infrastructure that would be compatible with the foreseeable IP video distribution. For now we are using NDI where possible as a transition to IP world at low costs, and it is really great because NDI protocol is really spreading in the software and hardware industry, making a lot of soft / devices compatible. But i think the future is uncompressed or mezzanine compression video signal distribution will be the future as soon as we see an agreement for a standard.

If you live in Paris, or happen to be visiting, make sure to visit La Gaîté Lyrique for some amazing shows. You can also find more photos and videos on the La Gaîté Lyrique Instagram page.

VJ MEKANIX 1ups his game with Vuo x VDMX

October 18, 2018

Caught this artist feature on MEKANIX over on the Vuo blog this week discussing his usage of Vuo and VDMX for live performances:

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“In our recent spotlight, Azy (@krezrock), a Los Angeles VJ, talks about his work, his creative process, and making unique Vuo image filters and image generators to use with VDMX. A frequent Vuo contributor, he's added several of his daily experiments, which he calls 1ups, to the Vuo Composition Gallery.”

“Running a VDMX patch processing ISF’s, Vuo FX and Vuo image generators. All pre-rendered content encoded with Hap. This combination gives you the ability to process 4 layers and output to multiple HD devices. Which are needed for the larger stages at festivals. All controlled via MIDI device and live audio analysis.”

He’s also one of the biggest contributors to the Vuo community itself, https://vuo.org/user/3462

Read the whole story on the Vuo blog: https://vuo.org/mekanix-1up-vdmx

and I guess we’ll need to do our own follow up interview at some point to cover this awesome work…

Announcing VV Edu: A free and open source curriculum for teaching live visuals and VJing

September 19, 2018

Along with making great software and open source projects, one of the areas we have tried to focus on is creating educational materials to help visual artists at all levels help improve their craft. Over the last few years our website tutorials section has served as the main outlet for our various lessons, demonstrations and conversations of the various techniques used for all aspects of live visual performance.

Today we are extremely excited to announce that we are taking the next big step in our educational offerings, and as you might imagine, we’re doing it open source style: https://vidvox.github.io/vvedu

New VDMX Update With OSCQuery, NDI® send/receive, eGPUs and more!

September 4, 2018

Today we are excited to announce the release of a new update to VDMX that adds several major new features and some noteworthy smaller additions and improvements!

Introducing OSCQuery Protocol

September 4, 2018

One of the most useful techniques for artists working with audio and visual software is the OSC protocol for sending control information from one application to another. While MIDI is great for a lot of situation, OSC was designed to be more extensible and allow for a variety of different datatypes, greatly expanding the possibilities within the community of real-time digital art. Over the years the ecosystem of tools that support the protocol has grown and now we are excited to release a new extension to help the community take OSC to the next level.

The OSCQuery Protocol is an agreed upon specification that extends the base functionality of OSC to make it easier to construct impromptu or improvisational interfaces between different systems…