Neal Coghlan won the Kraak & Smaak VJ competition we organized this summer and here is an update of the clips he eventually created for them. Excellent work!



Neal shares some interesting details about his way of working:

Before animating any of the parts I chose 3 of Kraak & Smaak's tracks and sliced it so that it was a segment of 16 beats. I then altered the tempo of the segment to 125BPM - as this works well with a 50fps frame rate (and is consequently easily scalable for slower or faster sections should I need to re-render to a certain speed). Within these segments there was enough going on musically that I could animate individual objects to sounds, meaning that you can watch them again and again and still find new bits that sync up to something. The beauty of this is that all these elements can be removed as single pieces and reassembled to create new compositions. The limitations of the grid plus no gradients or transparencies also meant that consistency between the pieces was easy and that they could all be played consecutively and gel.

My next step is to separate the elements in these visuals and use them as separate clips over multiple layer in the Resolume - allowing me to form new compositions live to music!

See a Resolume screenshot here: http://www.bit.ly/TVResolume
See stills of the illustrations here: http://www.bit.ly/TastyFlickr

ReadMe
30 amazing Flash text animations. Insert any text you like in Resolume.

These advanced text animations have been in development for over a year and tweaked to perfection. They are all configurable to be single or multi-line and some can even be speed adjusted. Load these flash animations in Resolume, type the text you want to show and play.



PowerFlowers
Roses are red, Violets are blue, but these flowers will always stay true.

Inspired by photographer Karl Blossfeldt, Chromosoom created these beat synced flower animations.

Hurray! Another Resolume update! Version 3.3 includes DMX input, a faster DXV codec, improved camera capture on the mac and a boat load of other goodies. Checkout the release notes below and then hit the download.

DMX Input
This is a big one, you can now control resolume from a lighting desk using DMX. Or any other show control software that can send DMX. Resolume receives DMX via the Enttec USB Pro device or via ArtNet.

DMX Auto Map and/or Composition Mapping
By default the most important functions in Resolume are automatically assigned to a DMX channel. This is called DMX Auto Map and it's done for all layers. This way you can create profiles for your favorite desks and rest assured the DMX Auto Map will always be the same.

If you want to assign your own DMX channels in Resolume you can do this like you are used to with MIDI using the Composition DMX Map.

DMX License
We want to keep the base price of Avenue affordable so an additional DMX License is required to use DMX input. You can first try it as long as you like of course, just enable it in the DMX preferences, only a Resolume watermark will be shown.

You can buy a DMX License for 199 Euro in the Resolume shop.


Faster DXV Codec
Rendering video files to the DXV codec used to take forever. We have spent a lot of time optimizing the rendering algorithm to make it faster. And faster it is! In some cases it's 20 times faster! This means rendering takes about as long as the Photo JPEG codec so you do not have to wait an entire decade to convert your files anymore. A few other bugs have also been fixed, like rendering with Adobe Premiere on Windows.


Application MIDI mapping on effects
You can now assign midi notes or dials to (for instance) the opacity of the first 3 composition effects and use them no matter what effect is loaded. Many old Resolume 2 users will love this. All you have to do is assign your MIDI controller and you can load and unload effects as you like. The midi will always control the effects, no matter which is loaded.


Improved Camera Capture on the Mac
Resolume now uses the latest Mac OS X 10.5 capture APIs so it's faster and more stable. Note that your current compositions might not load your cameras anymore. Just drag it in again and it will work. Sorry for this inconvenience, it was impossible to make it backwards compatible.


Set Rotation to 0 with MIDI
All parameters can now be set back to their default value with a MIDI controller. So when you move your MIDI dial or slider the Scale passes exactly 100% and Rotate exactly 0 degrees instead of 2.04 or something. Small things like this can make life so much better ;-)


Master Audio Preview
As requested by Alessandro from FrankSentUs, you can now hear the master audio output before the delay on the monitor output. You enable this composition preview by clicking on the "Composition" button at the top op the interface. This is essential when you are using the Master Audio Output Delay to line up your audio on the PA with the video on the beamer.


Show in Explorer/Finder
Ever forgot where you saved the video file in a clip? Select Show in Explorer (or Show in Finder on the mac) in the clip menu.


RGB Blend Mode
With the RGB mixer you fade in each colour channel separately, it's hard to explain what it does, give it a go, we quite like it.


Fixed Bugz
[fixed] Rescan for display devices when output menu is opened.
[fixed] Remember Focus: Layer | Deck when mapping
[fixed] Deck order changes randomly when re-opening a composition
[fixed] Triggering a paused clip in BPM sync mode does not work
[fixed] Crash: Adjustments submenu of isight on mac
[fixed] Clips out of sync when switching to bpm-sync
[fixed] Sometimes the capture devices disappear from the sources list
[fixed] Quit doesn't actually happen until you move the mouse over the interface
[fixed] Freeze effect skillfully obviates the alpha channel
[fixed] enabling thumbnails in browser loads first clip in deck to clip properties panel
[fixed] Clip with FFGL source store a path to the filename instead of id of plugin
[fixed] Adding effects when mapping is enabled doesn't show mappable regions for newly added controls
[fixed] Clip properties in Deck mapping are not based on which clip is focused
[fixed] Deleting comp from browser does not work
[fixed] When recording the master fade is not taken into account.
[fixed] bpm synced parameter does not play after save and reopen
[fixed] Layer audio preview should ignore layer volume & bypass
[fixed] Non beat snapped bpm synced v-only clips have strange (re)triggering behavior when set to play once
[fixed] FFGL text parameter bugz
[fixed] Wave Warp kills Quartz Composer
[fixed] Wave Warp leaking
[fixed] Edge detection effect mode doesn't change
[fixed] Columns names disappear
[fixed] Audio settings not saved correctly when a sound card has a lot of inputs

Checkout this video where Toby presents the DIY DVI Mixer he is working on. He tells the tale of it's creation and then spills all the details: Two channel DVI mixing up to 1080p including "odd" TrippleHead resolutions like 1920x480. We can't wait to get our hands on this, it looks like a perfect mixer for VJ's. As more and more laptops are not equipped with analog TV-out anymore, DVI mixing becomes more and more a necessity.

Checkout all the details on tobyz.net.

Checkout the new 2010 showreel from Eyesupply. It's huge! Enjoy!

Getting tired of endless MIDI mapping to trigger clips in Resolume with Ableton Live? Checkout these Max for Live patches. These patches translate MIDI notes played in Live to OSC messages for Resolume. This means you do not have to do any complicated & cumbersome MIDI mappings to trigger clips in Resolume.




Download ResolumeM4L_1.zip

We hope you like it too! Let us know. A million thanks go out to Pandelis Diamantides for creating these patches for us. Checkout his music on Facebook.

And the winner is ... *drumroll* ... Neal Coghlan from the UK!

The guys from and Kraak & Smaak were blown away by the sample clips that Neal sent in. His super creative and crisp style perfectly fits the direction they are taking with their music. Neil and Kraak & Smaak are looking forward to creating more content of this caliber.





Second place goes to Condé Benoit from France! Condé created some amazing collage style animations. Too bad there can be only one first place!



Third place goes to Tiago Sebastião Ferreira from Portugal! Tiago was literally the last person to send in his work and it shows his amazing 3D skillz.



The Resolume team and the guys from Kraak & Smaak would like to thank everybody for sending in their work. We really enjoyed seeing all the entries comming in from all over the world. We hope to organise a new competition again soon!

Quartz Composer playback is one of the main new features of Resolume 3.2. If you are totally new to Quartz Composer then checkout this video tutorial by Momo the monster where he explains how to patch an interesting audio responsive quartz composition from scratch. If the video is going a bit too quick then you can read the step by step tutorial on the VJ Kung Fu website.



If you're already familiar with QC patching then checkout this video made by Joris, our support guru ;-) He explains what you can do with Quartz Composer in Resolume. From basic mixing to exposing parameters. For even more details checkout the Quartz Composer chapter in the Resolume manual.



Download the demo patches made by Joris and start patching!

The Kraak & Smaak VJ clip design competition deadline is approaching fast! You have until monday April 26 to create 3 clips and enter the competition. The reward to make 20 more clips is DOUBLED to 1000 Euro so what are you waiting for? There is 1000 Euro waiting for you.

Below are 2 entries that we liked so far. Think you can do better? Read the rules and enter the competition!

We're thrilled to release another Resolume update! Version 3.2 has many improvements, most noticeably Quartz Composer playback and a new version of the DXV Codec which now supports alpha channels.

Checkout the video below for a quick overview of what's new and hit the download.



Quartz Composer Playback
We want the PC and Mac version of Resolume to have the same features. But for Quartz Composer we made an exception. The possibilities of this (Mac only) technology are just too sexy to ignore. With Resolume 3.2 you can play and mix Quartz Compositions just like any other media. You can expose parameters in QC patches just like Flash parameters so you can tweak your composition while VJ-ing. This kind of control is so exciting for live visuals. Generative content is the future! Resolume installer includes demo patches made by Joris.

Improved Image Quality & Premultiplied Alpha
The image quality of the render engine has improved quite a bit. Most people will not really notice this, especially not when you output through TV-out to a mixer and then t the projector, but if you are working with pixel precise video or images you'll notice it. The engine also supports proper pre-multiplied alpha channel now so videos or PNG images with an alpha channel now render pixel perfect.

DXV Codec 2.0 with Alpha
Because the video engine can now render proper premultiplied alpha we have also added alpha channel support in the DXV Codec. Go punch a hole in your videos and give it a go. The codec is installed automatically when you install Resolume 3.2.

Feedback Fixed
Finally! Feedback is fixed for the PC. It was always working fine on Mac but on the PC it didn't even though the code was exactly the same. We have been pulling our hair out over this bug for so long, but it's all good now. Playing with feedback is extremely mesmerizing. Try it if you have never done it before, it could open a whole new world of possibilities.

Improved MIDI & Keyboard mapping on the layer transport controls
Many Resolume 2 users will enjoy this. You can now assign MIDI controllers to the speed of each layer. No matter what clip is playing in the layers, you can always adjst the speed. And direction and scratching if you like. To configure this enter the Application mapping, select Deck focus on the mapping panel and start mapping the layers.

Scaling Options
For all you 8bit style VJ's, you can now set the video engine to use "Nearest Neighbor" scaling instead of the default Trilinear. This will show the full pixel glory of your videos when you zoom in.

Send feedback & log file
On the Feedback tab in the Preferences you can now easily send us a message and include the Resolume log file. With this log file and your feedback we hope provide you with even better support and to fix bugs faster.

Unregister
On the Register tab you can now remove your serial from the computer with "Unregister". Do this before you reinstall the operating system or when you get a new computer.

Video Output Shortcuts
Press CTRL + SHIFT + 2 (CMD +SHIFT + 2 on the Mac) to instantly set the output fullscreen to the second display. Press CTRL + SHIFT + D (CMD +SHIFT + D on the Mac) to DDDDisable the output. Get it? D for Disable? ;-)

Cube Mixer
Cube mixer puts your videos on the sides of a cube and then turns the cube in a different direction every time you slide it up or down. It's a tad corny we had fun making it.

Fisheye
Bends the video like it's shot with a fisheye lens. Very popular in skate videos from the 90's. Don't know why it's called fisheye though, has anyone ever looked though the eyes of a fish to see what it looks like?

Wave Warp
This bespoke effect one is extremely versatile, totally unique, one of a kind, awesome, spectacular, fantastic ... and ... very hard to describe. It distorts the video with various oscillators. Just try it. It f*cks up your video in many beautiful ways. Excellent job Matias!

Edge Detection
Does even more than it advertises, it not only detects edges but also highlights them. Made by Matias.

Other Fixes
- [done] Load complete directory from filebrowser
- [done] Start interface maximized
- [fixed] Don't clear clip when camera is not connected (show a dummy)
- [fixed] Column trigger buttons disappear with many layers
- [fixed] Drag and Drop fails sometimes on clips or mask component
- [fixed] Masks can't be drag and dropped from the Finder or Explorer
- [fixed] Effect blending with Source plugins doesn't work properly
- [fixed] Blur effect glitches with some parameter values
- [fixed] 50 Add Blendmode too bright
- [fixed] Trails effect bugs because two parameters have the same name
- [fixed] Dodge mixer gives blue artifacts
- [fixed] Bendoscope effect renders black on older videocards
- [fixed] Beatsynced parameters can get non integral beats (ie: 2.5)
- [fixed] Layer transport controls do not work on an audio clip in a different deck
- [fixed] MIDI mapping component not always updated with midi learn
- [fixed] Endless dial on ReACT controller can only push parameter down
- [fixed] Random is much faster than forward and backwards on Flash text input field
- [fixed] Layer Preview stops when switching decks
- [fixed] Enable the menu also when the output window is active
- [fixed] Bpm synced parameters don't always see bounce
- [fixed] FFGL plugins return 1.0 as API version instead of 1.5
- [fixed] Dry wet pops on audio effects
- [fixed] Paused clip doesn't show in and outpoints correctly
- [fixed] Can't reset end looppoint back to the real end
- [fixed] Crossfader shortcuts are not saved in composition
- [fixed] Restore fullscreen when changing composition size
- [fixed] Mac Avenue menu the same as on Windows
- [fixed] Disable clip menu when empty clip selected
- [fixed] BPM drifts out of sync
- [fixed] Audio effects use less CPU
- [fixed] Can't resize interface bigger sometimes
- [fixed] When a mask is added to a clip with a different size it's distorted
- [fixed] Spontaneous audio delay in some rare cases
- [fixed] Crossfader - auto fade retriggers when presses again when finished
- [fixed] Incorrect length of some audio files
- [fixed] Avenue freezes on exit sometimes when disconnecting preview

And many more small fixes and improvements.