Download the completed project file and example compositions for this tutorial.

One of the newer features added to Quartz Composer is a new 'Interaction' object which allows for mouse clicks in the QC Viewer, as well as Preview Window plugins within VDMX, to be detected when billboard and sprites are clicked, making it possible to control patches in a variety of ways not possible with standard input splitters.

For this tutorial we'll first create a basic Quartz Composer composition that makes use of the 'Interaction' object and then import it into VDMX where it can be manipulated directly from a Preview Window plugin.

After this tutorial check out the example project for Visual FX Basics which demonstrates using the preview window mouse click x/y position as a regular data-source to control non-Quartz Composer based FX through sliders and 2-d point pickers.

Notes:

Example 'Interaction Test' Patch - click and drag the square.

Two layer setup with click-and-drag previews in VDMX.

Create a Quartz Composer composition with the 'Interaction' or 'Mouse' object.

Add the 'Interaction' object and connect it to the top of the 'Sprite' to create the association between the two. Then use the x and y values provided by the object to set the position of the sprite.

Load the onto a layer and click on its preview window to interact.

When a Preview Window is displaying a layer or other QC generator, any mouse clicks received by the preview are treated the same as when using the Viewer window in the Quartz Composer editor application. Multiple previews can be used at a time for different layers.