How To: Create audio-reactive effects for GrandVJ with Quartz Composer
Feb/100
In GrandVJ 1.2 we have introduced the support for Quartz Compositions, either as visual or as effect. Note that MediaMaster 1.2 will also support Quartz Compositions, so you can use this with MediaMaster 1.2 too (the beta can be found on our forums)
Quartz Composer is a free graphics and imaging tool on the Mac platform which is available as an optional install that can be found on your Mac OS X DVD since version 10.4.
It allows very easy creation of complex audio-reactive animations or effects which can now be played in GrandVJ (read the previous article about GrandVJ and Quartz Composer). As I’m writing these lines, the last version of Quartz-Composer is 4.0 on Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
In this article we will demonstrate how to quickly create a bass-reactive Zoom/Blur effect like the one you can see below:
Important: This tutorial requires that you have some basic knowledge of Quartz Composer: if you have never used it, you really should first go through the “Getting Started”. You will also find some helpful readings at the Apple Developer Connection web site about Quartz Composer.
To create our effect we will simply edit Quartz-Composer’s default template named “Image Filter” to make it audio reactive. Basically, we will connect bass levels of the computer’s audio input signal to the “Amount” parameter of our Zoom/Blur filter. (Read more below..)
ArKaos MediaMaster 1.2 beta1 with audio
Jan/101
Here’s the first beta version of MediaMaster 1.2.
It comes with support for audio and a few other new features.. more will come in further betas.
Please test it and report any problems you might encounter.
The download links are at the end of this post.
Update: The beta went fine, thanks for your feedback: we have made available the RC1 on the forums
Using the right decoder for your video content
Dec/090
One thing that appears obvious to us after more than 10 years of working with the various solutions that can be used on Mac and Windows to decompress video is that not all solutions are equal.
We believe that our users should be able to play almost any kind of media with the ArKaos software and at the same time we do everything a team of developer can to get the best performance on the platforms supported.
Practically the ArKaos software can play media files through the following decoders: QuickTime, FFmpeg, the Flash plugin, Quartz Composer and Windows Media Player. Currently (December 2009) we don’t allow the user to decide through which solution a media will be decoded, instead we try to make the best decision based on our many years of experience and tests. In the case where several video codecs (such as Mpeg4) can be played through different decoders like QuickTime, FFmpeg and Windows Media Player, we always prefer, no matter the platform, to first try to handle those codecs with FFmpeg as we have always had the best results with FFmpeg during our tests, and here’s why..
Light Show Miami to Atlanta at Mix Club
Dec/090
Things have changed at Mix Club in Paris after Lighting Designer Sebastien Jurkowski has left to embrace a very successful international career (tour with Joachim Garraud, Zouk Club Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, Hennessy Artistry party to mention a few..), they have now replaced their ChamSys MagicQ console with GrandMA Full Size and hired Nicolas Bailly as new Lighting Designer.
If the consoles have changed the club continues to trust the 3 ArKaos media servers installed by Sebastien to display visuals on the LEDs of the DJ / LJ booth and on the various Plasma screens around the place. And apparently, Nicolas Bailly put these to a good use: here’s a video from a light show he set up at the club on Pryda’s track “Miami to Atlanta”.
Nicolas also has a very interesting blog (in French) about lighting design, check it out if you want to know more about him.
Control MediaMaster with the ChamSys MagicQ
Nov/090
As part of the LDI Institute, PRG Distribution are offering a Console Programming class on Wednesday 18th November.
The afternoon session will be lead by Niel Beelen, training manager at ArKaos and Esteban Caracciolo, Product Specialist from PRG. They will teach how to configure and use media servers and ArKaos MediaMaster with the ChamSys MagicQ 100 console.
For more information and booking, please look here.
Places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment!
| PRG Console Training Session #L03, Room N210 18 Nov. 2009 9:30 AM – 6:00 PM |
LDI 2009 Orange County Convention Center Orlando, FL, USA |
Vickie Claiborne and MediaMaster in PLSN
Sep/090
Vickie Claiborne
The September 2009 issue of PLSN features a long article about MediaMaster and the ArKaos Media Servers written by Vickie Claiborne, lighting designer, programmer and training specialist for consoles and media servers.
For those who never heard about Vickie, here are some highlights about her background and experience; Vickie has been developing training programs recognized worldwide for lighting control consoles and digital media systems. She has created and maintained a consistent training curriculum for many products from leading manufacturers, including Maxxyz, grandMa, ChamSys, Wholehog2 and Wholehog3.
Over the years she has been actively working as consultant for many leading industry names such as High End Systems, Martin or PRG. Claiborne’s programming experience includes the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony as well as numerous live concerts, broadcast events, and corporate industrials.
And last but not least, Vickie is the Lighting Programmer from the Emmy Award winning lighting team for CNN 2008 Presidential Debates.
How To: Create audio-reactive Flash for GrandVJ
Sep/097
Author: ECIN
About: Ben Guerrette is an interactive motion graphics designer and founder of triggermotion.comWeb: http://www.triggermotion.com
A post by Guest Author VJ Ecin (Ben Guerrette), find more about him at the end of this article..
As promised, here’s the first in a series of tutorials showing how to take advantage of the Flash capabilities within ArKaos GrandVJ. Note that it will also work for NuVJ and MediaMaster since the variables are the same.
In this tutorial I’ll explain how to tap into the EQ data to create some simple audio-reactive animations. We’ll be using some basic ActionScript 2.0 for the inexperienced Flash programmer. I won’t go into much detail on the how the code works but it should be enough of an introduction to allow some experimentation in creating new content for your VJ arsenal.
You can download the final .fla and .swf files here or follow along the video tutorial below.
ArKaos MediaMaster 1.1: The Smooth Operator!
Sep/091
We’re pleased to announce the release of MediaMaster 1.1 with major improvements pushing the boundaries of professional video projection another step further
Designed specifically with the show and lighting market in mind, MediaMaster 1.1 now comes with improved frame blending support allowing extremely smooth video playback even at slow speeds and software genlock making it possible to play several HD movies at up to 60 fps without dropping a single frame.
Other new developments include higher possible output resolution (up to 4096 px), Alpha Channel from source, support for grandMA’s MA-eDMX protocol, improved SoftEdge blending and more..
If you want all the details, we’ve got a nice Press Release for you. And if you just want to use it, it’s here and it’s a free upgrade for MediaMaster 1.0 users.
Why software genlock at 60 FPS does matter!
Sep/091
MediaMaster 1.1 brings important modifications to our video engine and particularly how the video synchronization and multi threading decoding is processed. It has been optimized to perform what can be called “software genlock” in order to ensure the best possible fluidity on computers equipped with multi core processors.
The genlocking we refer to is the action of locking the frequency of a media to a reference signal or clock (check out the related wikipedia article for a complete explanation).
Let’s examine quickly the process of displaying frames. Roughly, 3 steps must be acheived:
- get video frames from the disk
- upload them to the graphic card
- do the composition / blending of the layers and present them to the display
Now let’s describe how these steps are achieved without genlock and with genlock:
MediaMaster driven by grandMA through eDMX
Aug/090
We’ve been working hard since 3 months on the next upgrade of MediaMaster: the version 1.1 which will be released in a few days.
All the new features will be announced with the release but here’s already a video tutorial demonstrating the new support in MediaMaster 1.1 for grandMA’s MA-eDMX protocol. This allows a much better networking between grandMA lighting consoles and a media server running MediaMaster.
Find us on
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Check this out!
