On a fine sunny afternoon, in 2014, Joris de Jong was holed up in front of his computer, of course. Apart from a full- time job serving coffee at Resolume HQ, he moonlights as a video operator. And that day he was mighty frustrated.

Joris had gotten sick of customizing and then rendering the same content, over and over again for every show he played- with minute changes in timing and position. “There has to be an easier way!” he thought to himself, sipping on below average coffee that he had not brewed.
And so, Chaser was born. [fold][/fold]

What is Chaser?

Chaser is a plugin that serves up the perfect solution to VJs who play a lot of different shows and do not have time to render custom content for each show. It makes a job, that would take hours, happen in minutes. It enables you to create chase effects, screen bumps and sequences based on your input map (That’s right, INPUT) in Resolume.

Chaser converts the slices you create in your input map to “buttons” that you can toggle on & off- and so create different chase effects & sequences. Read all about the why’s & how’s here.

Once you are ready with your different sequences, you can apply chaser as an effect (to your composition, layer or clip) in Resolume and voila! You’re ready to chase that kill.

Which leads us to Coachella 2018.


Visual artist Sandy Meidinger, on duty for Illenium, served up slices as delicious as grandma’s black cherry pie. She diced that LED up nice and fine and thoroughly used (and abused) Chaser- to its full potential.

Thank you for talking to us Sandy.


Let’s start from the beginning. How did this visual journey begin for you?

In 2012, I was finishing up my undergraduate degree in Graphic Design and I had to take an After Effects class. During the first weekend of the semester I went to a rave and noticed the videos on the LED screens looked like they were made in After Effects. That night I decided that I was going to learn how to do that, and so I did it.

Living in Southern California made it easy to connect with other VJs. I’ve spent the majority of my career as the house VJ at Create Nightclub in Hollywood thanks to V Squared Labs but it was the word of mouth among the artists that got me my job with Illenium.

So, what is working with Illenium like? Tell us about his show & his set at Coachella.

I love working with Illenium. I work very close with him and his team and over the past 18 months we’ve become like a family. They care a lot about what the visual show looks like, which makes my job even better.

We run two shows now, a DJ set and a live show. The DJ set is Illenium on CDJs and me mixing and triggering the videos by ear. The live show, which we performed at Coachella, is run by Ableton. For the visuals, Ableton sends MIDI to Resolume. I’ve used this system for about 40 shows without fail.



Coachella was one of the later shows using this system, so almost all of the show had already been created. We added some new content for some new songs but the main thing I had to worry about was mapping the 2 x 4k outputs. I was able to upgrade my machine to one with a GTX1070 before the show.

What made you start using Chaser & what has it made easier for you?

I started using Chaser in its very early stages, during the release of Resolume 5. I remember reading the manual and being fascinated by the input mapping. Everyone I knew at the time had been using Layer Routers to route slices, and I was never able to fully understand or practice it to incorporate it into my show.

The input map made a lot of sense to me and I haven’t looked back since. Up until very recently, Chaser was the only mapping tool I used for many shows and I still use it on its own for stages with smaller outputs.

And so, we come to Chaser & Coachella. Give us all the juice, please.

Here are the video map & pixel maps of the Sahara Tent at Coachella 2018:

Coachella 2018 Video Map
Coachella 2018 Pixel Map 1
Coachella 2018 Pixel Map 2

Since the majority of the live show is run by MIDI from Ableton I am able to focus more on mapping and how all the content fits on the stage. For extra- large stages I use a combination of the Mapper plugin from Dvizion as well as Chaser.

Mapper handles the overall placement and look of each video and I use Chaser for some extra flair. One way I organize my looks through Chaser, is to create an extra screen that is not outputting for each look. This gives me room to play around while knowing that I will not be messing with anything on the output side.

There is a point in the show where I flash the Illenium logo in a grid that is formed by the design of the LED panels.



Because of the 2 x 4k outputs, I had A LOT of pixels to work with. I ended up with 473 number of slices across the whole input map. If I could redo it, I would increase the scale of the grid because the number of slices loses your eye too fast for the amount of time I use this part.

Other looks I create with Chaser are for the content to flash randomly with each panel as a whole. And to split the screens in half and flip one side to create a mirror effect.

I also use it to map the LED for our hologram DJ booth.

What is the hologram DJ booth?

The DJ booth is an acrylic structure with 3x2 6mm panels on the bottom that reflect onto a transparent film. This creates a "Pepper's Ghost" hologram effect.

We bring the DJ Booth with the live show as often as we can but because of its size it doesn't always work with the festival stage setup. Most of the time it is run from the third output of my laptop and in Resolume I have it on its own layer which is routed through Chaser. The clips are triggered through MIDI by Ableton the same way the rest of the show is.

Did any issues creep up on you while programming? How did you deal with them?

Most of the programming for the show was done at home. Since I use input maps, I had a good idea of what the content was going to look like before I got on site. I had zero issues using my map during load-in and the show. I was even able to finish my programming on site in less than an hour thanks to Chaser & Mapper.



The only issues our show had was from using our network on the VLAN over fiber and the Ableton MacBook Pro overheating in the sunlight.

Sigh. I can’t even count the number of “MacBook Pro overheating” situations I’ve heard of.
And so, tell us about your rig. Anything on your wish-list?

For Coachella, I was able to upgrade my 2-year old 15” Sager with GTX 980 to the new 15” NP9155 with GTX 1070. This machine runs perfectly with my set up of running my input map through Chaser & Mapper. I was able to test 3 x 4ks with my composition size of 4850 x 1200 and still got 60 fps.

One thing I’m looking forward to doing this summer is getting a PCIE 2TB SSD.

And what about your wish-list, software- update wise?

A feature I would love to see in Resolume would be to be able to drag & drop columns. In my compositions, each song is its own column so I stack the chaser effects above it. When Illenium changes the order of the set I have to move each clip individually. This would help out a lot especially in my DJ set show file.

For Chaser, being able to select multiple slices with something like a marquee tool would be a huge time saver for me. The new update with exporting the input map as a PNG will definitely help me out for the large stages.

Finally, please drop some slices of wisdom for our budding Chaser users out there.

Just like learning anything new for the first time it just takes practice! It takes a moment to wrap your head around the concept of using the input map, but once you figure it out the possibilities are endless.

The Resolume crew loves the fact that you recognize and appreciate the value of Input maps, Sandy. Keep up the great work.

For everyone who is interested in learning about input maps and other cool things you can do with Arena 6, check this video out:



It’s time to go chase those dreams, eh?

Hello all you video junkies. This one's just for you.

It took a while to digest the awesomeness, but Part 2 of "Taking the world by Storm" is here.

So, quick recap?

Gig: Storm Festival, 2016, Shanghai

Epic stage:

Video: 400 square meters of Led, 7.9 mm pitch, 10 processors.
[fold][/fold]
Brandon Chaung, the local VJ on site, talked us through the whole process. And it is intense.

So, sit back..relax..a Storm is brewing.

What computers did you use for the show?

I used both PC and Mac.

I like PC because it is powerful and easy to upgrade. Especially with the graphics card (MXM 3.0b) and storage -which are both essential for running Resolume.

I replaced my optical drive with a SSD for new custom footage for the show (I have more than 40 decks in my composition).

I like Mac because of the great onboard audio quality. Also, it’s less of a hassle for audio playback and midi mapping, when using Resolume with other applications, at the same time.
I switched between two laptops with a Barco Encore switcher.

It required four HD outputs to cover all the LED panels we had.

Both the circle screen and the one behind the DJ booth are split into two outputs. Which makes it important to have synchronized outputs.


The 4kTwo display controller provided by Flux studio did a great job.
It is a Chinese brand which has similar, but less, features than the Datapath X4 that other VJs brought for the show.

Talk to us about Resolume, maybe you have heard of it? *grins*

Resolume Arena is my first choice for media server.

It runs great on both operating systems. I can have exactly the same experience while VJing, no matter if I’m on a PC or a MAC. I can switch between the two without thinking.

Another great tool that is worth mentioning is Chaser by Joris. Woo hoo!

I find it super useful when I use it for switching between different mapping settings and even masking.
Some VJs use Madmapper or mapio to switch mapping. I prefer doing this with Resolume.

Normally, I apply two Chaser FFGL plugins on each layer. One is for switching between different output mappings.

So, after some set up in Advance output and Chaser, during the show, I can just pick the footage I desire, set the screen I want it to show through Chaser (using steps) and boom it’s on!

And, I can mix different layers with different mapping without losing blend mode.

Also, what I see in the preview window can be very close to what I get on the actual screen.

A second Chaser plugin applied in the EFX chain (sometime I don’t need it, or if in future it supports polygons other than triangles) is to mask out unwanted parts of the layer that shows on the screens I don’t want it to.

For me it’s better than applying crops and adjusting XY position in different layers, because I can just make use of the slices in advance output.

This technique is very useful for the circle screen in this show.

Can you give us details about how the LED was mapped?

I did the mapping by starting with numbers.

Counting the pixels, modules, actual width and length.

Then, it became like a math exam in high school or a puzzle to solve. The goal was to make the best use of every pixel of every HD output.

Try to find the most efficient combinations of each slice. At the same time, think about how to run the CAT.5 cable through every module- with less cables.




This is the the front view of all the LEDs. Below the name of each slice is the number of modules followed with the pixels in width and height. The circle screen is cut into 8 slices using two HD outputs. The main screen is spread across two HD outputs.

Next, we come to the pixel maps for the four outputs.





I actually quite enjoy this process.

The advance output of Resolume Arena is pretty handy when solving the puzzle. The fixed snapping across screens in Arena 5.1 saved me a lot of time.
Then it’s time to match the advance output with the pixel map (Thanks to the new feature about importing .png into advanced output). After adding a few masks and adjusting it to fit 4k output, It’s pretty much done with the basic setting.

The Output side looks like this:


The Input side looks like this:


Now comes the most interesting part, Chaser.
I added another virtual screen at the bottom just for Chaser slices.
These slices are just for Chaser programing. Dosen’t really output anything.

From these slices you can see it’s all in the ratio of 1920 x 1080, except the center triangle used for custom footage. This also shows how I scale and postion the footage (Most of my footage is in HD)

This is one of the mapping when I want the HD footage focus at only the circle screen, but then notice it also covers the IMAG screen. This will be masked by the second Chaser plugin

Then, I create another sequnce to pick the screen I wanna preserve. So it functions like a mask. Here, I picked the circle. Note that both these two sequences have the same amount of steps.

In this picture you can see the result of what we did in the preview window. I put another layer of lines in different mapping, opacity at half and used diffrence as blend mode. So you can see the blend mode still works like a charm.

Then, I assign both steps of the Chaser plugin to one fader or knob on my MIDI controller. So I can switch it really fast.

This is how I arranged the mapping for this show.
Of course, I still use Chaser to create bumps like it was designed for.

In my mind, I feel that there must be many other creative ways in Resolume to fullfill my imagination- about how my visuals should look, or how I can respond to the music, the moment I hear it. Or when the screens and cues get complicated, how do to it in a simple way.

I’m glad so far Resolume had never let me down.

*Blushes* Thanks for your great words, Brandon!
Quick question- a lot of VJs have been complaining of overheating of MACs, was this a problem during the show?

Not on the 1st day because it was cloudy.
But on the 2nd day, right before the show, I found my MacBook lagging and it was exposed to direct sunlight.
After a reboot and change of position, it came back to normal. Other than this, it was all good during this show.

I think it is not a problem only for MacBook, but with my PC too- it just reacts differently.
The overheating can cause Resolume to crash on my Windows laptop.
So, extra fans for both PC and MacBook become a must have for most of my outdoor events.

Finally, here is a list of equipment that was used during the show:
MSI GT72-2QE Laptop with-
CPU: Intel Core i7 4980HQ @ 2.8GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3L
Graphic: nVidia GTX980m GDDR5 8GB
Storage: MSI superRAID 4x128g SSD, 512GB Samsung EVO SSD AKAI APC40 MKII
Magewell HDMI USB3.0 capture device
4kTwo display controller x 2
Windows 10
Resolume Arena 5.1.1

Apple Macbook Pro Retina (Mid-2012)
CPU: 2.7Ghz Intel Core i7
RAM: 16GB 1600MHz DDR3
Graphic: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1G VRAM Storage: APPLE SSD SM512E
OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
Resolume Arena 5.0.2

With this, we come to an end to this two-part extensive coverage of Storm Festival, Shanghai.
It feels great to see the new features we develop put to use, in multiple different ways. Sometimes, even in ways we didn't fathom while developing them :)

Thank you to 250K and the entire crew for doing such a great job at the festival and then educating us about it, in these interviews.

Until we see you again- go try Chaser like Brandon explained. Go on now, get moving.