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..

In order to do so, we will first copy some new files to the user’s local MediaMaster resources, where the MediaMaster Library is located:

1. Download the following file “MediaMasterQuartzComposerEffectsResources.zip“, then copy it to “/Users/MyAccount/Library/Application Support/ArKaos/MediaMaster/”.
2. Decompress the zip file by double clicking on it. Two new directories should have been added:
   • “MMFixtures/Layer/” contains a custom layer fixture file.
   • “Quartz-Composer/Effects/” contains two new Quartz-Composer effect files: “MyBassZoomBlur.qtz” and “MyKaleidoscope.qtz”

At this point, those new Quartz effects will be available from the menus in MediaMaster 2.0 when in Simple Mode, continue reading further to learn how to use them with MediaMaster in Fixture Mode.

Adding a new custom layer fixture

Open the file “MMFixtures/Layer/MyCustomLayerFixture.xml” using any text editing software, we will look at how it is made in order to understand how to add new effect presets in a custom fixture. This file is a slightly modified version of the original MediaMaster Pro “Layer Fixture 1.1″, it contains some extra effect presets.

This files defines the DMX channel assignments and the effect presets libraries that we’ll focus on.

The first line of the file defines the name of the fixture, as it will appear in MediaMaster Pro preferences dialog. This name must be different from the other fixtures.

At the very bottom of the XML document, fixture effect library 11 contains four new effect presets.

You may have noticed that the Quartz-Composer effect “MyKaleidoscope.qtz” appears in three presets with different parameters.

An effect preset is basically defined by an index, a name, an effect and a set of effect parameters. An effect can be used in several different presets and even different libraries with different parameters setup.

In a preset, each effect parameter can be either a fixed value or a variable that corresponds to one of the four effect controllers available in MediaMaster Pro.

Based on this small example, add your own Quartz-Composer effects and create your custom fixtures to extend the possibilities of MediaMaster.

Now let’s try this new fixture

Start MediaMaster Pro, and in “Preferences –> DMX –> Patch” choose “My Custom Layer Fixture” as the “Layers fixture”.

Back in the main window, on any layer, select a visual, push the dimmer to the max to start it, and finally select an Effect between 1 and 4 in Effect Library 11.

Now it’s your turn to create your very own Quartz-Composer effects and use them to leverage the visual quality of your show, be creative!

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..

Alioscopy’s 3D display range currently includes 24″, 42″ and 47″ screens integrating a technology that is based on standard Full HD LCD displays but equipped with an array of lenticular lenses. Each lens overlaps 8 different points of view and casts different images onto each eye, allowing for one only to be seen through the lens from any given angle.

Thus to recreate this feeling of depth, a 3D scene needs to be rendered from 8 different points of view and combined to one auto-stereoscopic image. To achieve this, we developed an easy to use auto-stereoscopic Quartz Composition template wherein you can transform your original Quartz Composer composition to a obtain real 3D sensation on an Alioscopy screen.

Integrating support for Alioscopy in GrandVJ through a Quartz Composition template was a logical step since GrandVJ now fully supports Quartz since version 1.2. – and of course, the same integration will also be supported in MediaMaster – But the big advantage of a Quartz template is that it’s fully customizable by the user; you can fine-tune the depth effect exactly the way you want!

When edited in Quartz Composer, the template appears as a layer above the original composition. Descend the patch hierarchy, paste your scene, adapt the auto-stereoscopic parameters depending on your scene and you’re done. The 3D-enabled composition can be used and mixed as any other Quartz Composition in GrandVJ but of course, it must be output to an Alioscopy screen to see the magic happen.

Now we just have to decide how we are going to go to the market with this new development but you should read more about this very soon..

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..)

• Start the Quartz-Composer.app which is located in /Developer/Applications/

• From the menus, choose (File –> New from Template –>) Image Filter :
  

• Here’s the patch that will open:

• In the menus choose Editor –> Edit Protocol Conformance

• We will now tell the ArKaos software what inputs must be transmitted to the Composition. The ArKaos engine can send visuals or sound for processing by the Composition but only if he knows that these feeds will be accepted.
  To enable this you must check “Music Visualizer” and click “Done”

• You’re back to the Composition and several input modules have been added on the left:

• Remove every unnecessary input modules, so they won’t be listed as input parameters in GrandVJ‘s effect parameter panel:

• Quartz composer can hide blocks inside blocks, it’s called macros. It’s very powerful and in this case it holds the most important part of our composition: the processing part, which will affect the visual before copying it to the output.
  Double click on the “Process Image” macro to open it, Quartz Composer details each block contained in the macro:

• We want to connect the audio volume to the “Amount” input of the “Zoom Blur” filter contained in this macro. To do that we need to make the “Amount” parameter available in the macro block so that it can be accessed from the top level, it’s called publishing an input.
  Publish the “Amount” input as in this screenshot:

• When it’s done, we can go back at the top level to add some processing.
  In the top bar, click the “Edit Parent” button to go back the parent patch:

• Now we will add a processing block to create a value from the sound input.
  From the Library, add an “Audio Processor” module:

• You’re back to the patch with the “Audio Processor” module added. The magical thing about Quartz Composer is that you can connect the modules in many different ways, when you add a module you just have to tell Quartz Composer how to feed the inputs and connect the outputs.

• First we want to process the audio received from the ArKaos engine. To do that we connect together the “Audio Spectrum” and the “Audio Processor” module:

• Now the audio processor will create three values from the audio we are feeding, Lows, Mids and Highs. For this effect we just want to use the lower value which is the one reflecting the bass volume. So we connect the Lows output from the “Audio Processor” module to the “Amount” input we just published in the “Process the Image” macro:

At this point we need to get an audio signal so we can test our effect within Quartz Composer. For this purpose we will add an “Audio Input” that we will disconnect in the end so GrandVJ can input its own audio signal into the “Audio Processor” module.

• From the Library, add an “Audio Input“ module..

• ..and connect its “Audio Spectrum” output to the input from “Audio Processor”

Now we can see the image reacting to the audio input signal, but the effect is definitely too low, so we need to boost the audio signal values. A simple way to do that is to add a new processing module, specifically a math module:

• From the Library, add a “Math Module”..

• ..and configure it to operator Multiply, set Operand #1 to value 100:

• Connect the Lows output from “Audio Processor” to “Multiply” then connect “Multiply” to the “Amount” input from “Process the Image”

• You can now disconnect the “Audio Input” from the “Audio Spectrum” so that, once this composition is loaded in GrandVJ, the software will automatically send the audio input signal directly to “Audio Spectrum”.

• Finally save the composition as “MyBassZoomBlur.qtz” in /Users/MyAccount/Library/Application Support/ArKaos/GrandVJ/Quartz Composer/Effects/

Now is time to start GrandVJ and find your hard work rewarded by playing with your very own brand new effect. You will find it located in the Effects panel under the “Quartz-Composer (User)” effect category.

Notice how GrandVJ has made available the X and Y effect parameters from the Composition in the Effect parameter panel so you can use them to control the behavior of your effect in real time.

Now, that wasn’t hard, was it? If you want to go further, a good start will be to create new effects based on this Composition by replacing the “Zoom Blur” effect by another filter.

Don’t hesitate to share your creations on the forums :)

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..

Using compositions as sources

The quick way to use a composition as source is to import it just like you do with any movie, by drag and drop on a cell or by reaching your .qtz through the file browser. When doing so, GrandVJ will save the path to the .qtz file in your project as it does for any other visual.

For your convenience, GrandVJ installs a set of source compositions in “/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/GrandVJ/Quartz Composer/Visuals”, these are listed in GrandVJ under the “Quartz-Composer (User)” section of the sources browser so that they are always available when you create a new project.

The idea is that you can also add your favorite source compositions there so that you always have them ready when you work on your projects.

Playing compositions as source does not allow modifying the variables from within GrandVJ.

Path for user compostions as Sources	User compositions as Sources

Using compositions as effects

System compositions as Effects

For effects, GrandVJ will add all the compositions from your system that are supported. It does it by automatically scanning the system folder “/System/Library/Compositions”. These compositions will appear in the application under the “Quartz-Composer (System)” section of the effects browser. You can use them as starting point to develop new effects. You can also add your own compositions as effects, just drop them in the local directory “/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/GrandVJ/Quartz Composer/Effects”. They will appear in the “Quartz-Composer (User)” section of the effect browser.

Path for user compostions as Effects	User compositions as Effects

About the parameters

As a quick example, let’s have a look at the effect parameters from the system composition Image Hose. With the Quartz Composer application (found in Developer > Applications – you need to have installed Apple’s developer tools of course), open the file “/System/Library/Compositions/Image Hose.qtz” (ore better, open a copy) here’s what you should see:

Image Hose composition

Open the inspector (Editor > Show Inspector) and from the menu, look at the Published Inputs & Outputs, here’s what you have:

Image Hose composition parameters

In GrandVJ, the first 4 parameters that can be mapped automatically will be displayed. In this case it will be PrimaryColor, SecondaryColor, Pace and Size:

Quartz composition parameters in GrandVJ

As you can see, GrandVJ will only display the meaningful part of the parameter name and remove all _ProtocolInput strings from parameter names – this allows to easily display the full parameter name in the panel – it will also make things a little nicer by capitalizing the first letter of the parameter if necessary.

There are many resources on the web where you can find information and help about creating your own Quartz compositions, you can start by looking at Apple’s Developer Connection.

Note: you can download GrandVJ 1.2 beta 2 from our forums