How To: Add Quartz-Composer Effects to MediaMaster
Aug/101
Since version 1.2, ArKaos MediaMaster supports Apple’s Quartz-Composer technology. Depending on its configuration, a Quartz composition can be either a Visual or an Effect in MediaMaster Pro.
In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to add your own Quartz-Composer Effects in MediaMaster.
Remark:
Check out the article “How to: Create audio-reactive effects for GrandVJ using Quartz-Composer” for more details about the creation of Quartz-Composer effects. You will also find lots of resources and how-to’s for Quartz Composer on the web or in the Reference Library from the Mac Dev Center.
Simple Mode (MediaMaster Express and Pro) and Fixture Mode (MediaMaster Pro)
It’s easy to add Quartz effects in MediaMaster 2.0 when in Simple Mode, but in Fixture Mode effect presets are defined within the layer fixture and these fixture files shouldn’t be modified in any circumstances. As a consequence, to make use of new effects we have to add a new custom layer fixture that will include new effect presets..
GrandVJ and Alioscopy 3D screen integration
Mar/102
3D is spectacular, eye catching and can amaze your audience.. But unfortunately it was not really accessible to live VJing.. until now!
Recently we’ve been in contact with Alioscopy, a French company that develops auto-stereoscopic 3D displays that can produce a sensation of depth without needing cumbersome eyewear and they asked us if we could bring live VJing to their 3D screens.
The problem is, even if you are only mixing footage that is compatible with 3D projection you are still missing live visualizers which are, most of the time, a very important part of the mix and which obviously can’t be pre-encoded for 3D projection..
How To: Create audio-reactive effects for GrandVJ with Quartz Composer
Feb/104
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..)
Quartz Composer integration in GrandVJ 1.2
Nov/095
GrandVJ 1.2 now allows to use Quartz Composer .qtz files directly, both as sources and effects. In older versions it was necessary to save them as QuickTime movies with the big drawbacks that it was slow and it did not allow to change compositions variables.
We have optimized the Quartz Composer integration in GrandVJ 1.2 so that the compostions are rendered natively through the fastest available interface.
Finally, when using a composition as an effect the application will scan the published inputs and map them as effect parameters, if the format is compatible with the engine. GrandVJ can automatically map parameters that are float values, indexes, colors and booleans and there’s one visual input of the composition that receive the cell visual.
Now let’s have a quick look at how you can use Quartz compositions with GrandVJ..
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