Hybrid Visuals » vdmx

Quartz Composer tutorial #7: Awesome Line Drawer

joris — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:44:30 +0000

This is a tutorial on how to use the Kineme GL Tools to create a simple line drawing composition.

You’ll need the following plugins and macros:
kineme.net/QuartzComposerPatches/StructureTools/0.1
kineme.net/release/AlphaBlendMode/10
kineme.net/release/GLTools/16
hybridvisuals.nl/downloads/vdmx-mouse-macro/

Installation instructions can be found on the respective sites.

As mentioned, I really would love to hear your feedback on the new style of commentary. I feel it’s a lot less boring, but I hope you can still follow everything. Let me know

Quartz Composer tutorial #7: Awesome Line Drawer from goto10 on Vimeo.

The patch is available here.

VDMX mouse macro

joris — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:33:47 +0000

///EDIT: With the arrival of VDMX b8, you can directly forward mouse events from a preview window in VDMX to Quartz Composer. So no need to use this little macro anymore. I’ll leave it here for prosperity’s sake, but like any good technology, it’s become obsolete Tutorial here: vimeo.com/20222913

I’ve been doing a lot of live drawing and other visuals that require X and Y inputs lately. VDMX has the wonderful feature that you can publish a structure input from your Quartz Composer path with ‘xy’ in front of the name. It will then show up as an interface element with x and y sliders and a 2d point picker. To make it even better, you can sync these to the mouse in a preview window, allowing you to draw inside the interface without having your mouse on the second output!

The downside is that the xy-input shows up as a structure in the 0…1 range, and QC needs different coordinates. So to save myself some time, I’ve made a macro that handles all the structure splitting and math interpolation. The whole thing is dynamic, and will give correct coordinates no matter what aspect ratio you’re working on, making it ideal for triplehead setups.

Download here and then place inside in ~yourhomefolder/Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Quartz Composer/Clips on Leopard or ~/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Patches on Snow Leopard.

Hope it’s useful to someone!

QC tutorial 6: Dynamic slideshow

joris — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:56:07 +0000

No 6 is a quickie on how to scan a folder for images, and have those available in VDMX as a slideshow with dynamic content.

Oh, and sorry for the Lady Gaga track. I couldn’t resist.

Quartz Composer tutorial 6: Dynamic Slideshow from goto10 on Vimeo.

Opening and closing music by PSAPP.

Random text effect

joris — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:06:55 +0000

A QCtextsource for VDMX that wipes the text on and off the screen with random letters and symbols.

Inspired by COD:Modern Warfare 2 and Alx Toneburst.

Controls for duration, font size and font selection.

goto10_randomtext_vdmx.qtz.zip

As Hiltmeyer noted correctly in a comment elsewhere on this site, the spacing on the letters can be off a little bit. This has to do with the way QC breaks up the string into individual letters. I’m still looking into this, but in the meanwhile it works fine for ‘fixed-width’ fonts such as Courier, Andale Mono, Monaco and my personal tech favourite OCRA.

‘M8 Trace’ Quartz Composer effect

joris — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:33:46 +0000

Following up on a thread on the Vidvox user forums, this effect recreates the ‘trace’ look from Modul8. It’s Image Filter compliant, so it should work in all programs that support Quartz Composer Image Filters.

It uses a Core Image kernel originally written by Memo Akten to apply a luma key.

M8 Trace effect

Controls for trail length, luma key threshold and luma key softness.

goto10_m8trace.qtz.zip

RGB Channel offset qcFX for VDMX

joris — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:00:30 +0000

A simple Core Image kernel based effect, that allows for offsetting the R, G and B channels of an image on the x and y axis.

Probably quite similar to Memo’s version from way back in the day, but I can’t seem to download that one

Detailed Info:
Controls:
Pretty self explanatory: X and Y offset for each channel.

Download:
goto10_RGBChannelShift.qtz.zip

3D ribbon QC Patch

joris — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:55:49 +0000

A neverending ribbon twists its way through 3D space.

Based on the VertexNoise.qtz patch from the GLSL examples in the Dev Tools

Mad props go to Mr Monkeypresso for the idea. And of course to Philip Rideout of 3d Labs, Inc who wrote the GLSL code.

Detailed Info:
Controls:
Speed: make the ribbon go slower or faster
Hue: change the colour on the fly

Download:
goto10_ribbon.qtz.zip

3D text source for VDMX

joris — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:54:57 +0000

This is a qcTextSource (place in qcTextSources folder) that applies the old After Effects trick of using lotsa copies of a layer on the z-axis to make it appear 3D.

Detailed Info:
Controls for:
Text input
Text color
Font
Font size
Depth (high values might slow down your machine)
X/Y controller for X/Y axis rotation

Download:
goto10_3dtext.qtz.zip

Cheesy eighties tunnel qcFX for VDMX

joris — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:52:51 +0000

Takes the clip or image playing in a layer in VDMX and makes a neverending tunnel out of it. Also has an optional text input.

Tested on VDMX 0.7.1.6, and Leopard only. Now also with functioning text controls in b0.7 and up. Thanks to Clouds11 for paying attention and providing the update!

If you like this effect, please check out Alx Toneburst’s insanely smooth GLSL version, found on Memo’s VDMX site.

Detailed Info:
BackwardsForwards: Changes direction of the flythrough
Speed: Changes the speed of the flythrough
Text input: Type your message
Text color: D’uh
Text on/off: Also pretty self explanatory.

Download:
goto10_tunnel.qtz.zip

Targeting crosshairs qcFX for VDMX

joris — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:50:20 +0000

A crosshairs appears over the video, and searches the screen. Pressing the button ‘locks’ the crosshairs in place. Works great with a live camera input from the crowd. Offers both mouse control and random mode.

Detailed Info:
Control_Switch: Switches movement control between random and VDMX input.
Lock: ‘Locks’ the crosshairs in their current position. Colour will change from green to red. Text will start flashing.
Size: Controls the size of the crosshairs.
Speed: Controls the speed of the random movement (note: does nothing when in VDMX control)
X/Y position: Allows for user input or syncing to VDMX data sources like mouse input (note: does nothing when in Random control)

Download:
goto10_target.qtz.zip