As part of our series on different techniques for VJs and visual artists to create their own content for performances and installations, today we are featuring the “Dot” camera attachment from Kogeto which lets you easily shoot panoramic video from an iPhone that can be loaded into a VDMX for real-time cropping and panning for adjusting the point of view as the movie plays back or is remixed during a live performance.
In this video tutorial we'll look at some tips for working with movie clips shot using the Dot in VDMX, including setting up seamless 360 rotational loops, syncing the POV angle to the movie time, and how to fade between two different panorama clips.
Read MoreAmong the many uses of Quartz Composer, and perhaps one that is often overlooked, is the ability to make visualizations of data and other information. Since the compositions are rendered in realtime, when creating them for this purpose it can be helpful to make the patches reusable with published input values for use in other environments, or replicating within QC itself.
In this two part video tutorial we'll first create a composition in Quartz Composer that renders a simple bar graph data visualization with inputs for changing its labels and values that can be used in other applications. Once the patch is completed it can be loaded into VDMX and set up to respond to a variety of different inputs as a visualizer of tempo or audio levels as part of a VJ set, an on screen display of MIDI / DMX channels, or any other arbitrary data that you can get into your computer by OSC.
Read MoreIn this quick tutorial we'll be looking at how to use the Audio Analysis plugin instead of the typical keyboard MIDI, OSC, or DMX shortcuts for triggering video clips in a media bin. This can be a particularly useful technique for using VDMX to run interactive installations that respond to sound and other inputs, or for automating and beat syncing parts of a VJ setup.
Read MoreOver the last few years artist / programmer Mattijs Kneppers has been developing “Livegrabber,” a set of plugins that can be used to easily sync Ableton Live with other applications by echoing out actions in Live over the OSC protocol. For the release of the newest version of the plugins, we're joined by Mattijs and Studio Rewind for a demonstration of how to use the Livegrabber plugins with VDMX.
Read MoreFor this A/V performance technique lesson we'll be taking a look at some of the introductory tools that are used by musicians and DJs to make music, followed by creating video loops from scratch. To top it off the two separate tracks will be combined into a single A/V movie file for use in VDMX or other VJ software for live remixing.
Read MoreSince it was started about a year ago the iLoveQC website has become one of the top resources and community sites for Quartz Composer developers and Mac VJs using the node based language. If you haven't already taken the time to check out the site, they've got some great interviews with artists, tutorials to get started, FX for download and even Final Cut Pro plugins for non-realtime video production. For this guest tutorial we're joined by iLoveQC founder Graham Robinson, also known as Shakinda who has been part of the in the VJ community for quite some time and is an all around QC guru.
Read MoreAlong with being able to work with more layers at higher resolutions, faster computers and more powerful graphics cards make it possible to output to multiple projectors or monitors from a single machine. In particular, the new 15" Retina Macbook Pro features a combination of a fast SSD hard drive along with two Thunderbolt and one HDMI port making it possible for a VJ to power 2 or 3 different HD displays from a single Mac laptop.
In this video tutorial we'll walk through the basic steps of preparing VDMX projects with a double-wide and triple-wide design to output with separate source layers for each display.
Read MoreOne of the most powerful techniques used to create real-time visuals and computer graphics going back to the early days of video is the use of feedback loops - the method of taking the current output and using it as a source frame in part of the next rendered frame. This incredibly useful process is particularly useful for Mac VJs and other graphic artists looking to find a unique look or style for their visuals, and is easily simulated within VDMX by using layer groups.
Read MoreOne of the most powerful tools available for Mac VJs is Waveclock, a beat tracking application designed to listen to music from a microphone or line input and convert it to standard MIDI Clock that can be used as a master to drive VDMX and other VJ software.
Read MoreFor this guest tutorial we're joined by
Jim Warrier, aka
Minuek, who has been sharing his awesome Quartz Composer compositions and
VDMX tutorials on the Vidvox forums for the past few months, to the point where we had to invite him to do a guest tutorial with us featuring some of his work and to help other people get started with Quartz Composer.
Read More
Thanks to guest poster Momo The Monster currently on tour with Deadmau5 for a special round of holiday shows in North America to take the time to make a blog post and tutorial with us from the road.
Read MoreIn part three of our series looking at how to make an Eclectic Method remix with Jonny Wilson we'll be looking at using Ableton to control video triggering using MIDI notes.
Read MoreThis is part two of a series with guest instructor Jonny Wilson of the Eclectic Method. You may want to start with the introduction post covering the overview of the workflow and the first topic on creating A/V samples.
In this tutorial we'll be looking at loading movie clips into VDMX and jamming on them using a MIDI controller.
Read MoreIn the introduction of this series we went over the big workflow steps involved with making an Eclectic Method Remix. For part one we'll start with a more in depth look at how Jonny goes about cutting up and preparing his A/V samples using Sony Vegas.
Read MoreThis guest technique post is brought to you by Jonny from the Eclectic Method who was nice enough to share these videos about his process for making A/V remixes in this three part series.
Read More