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Quartz Compositions

edited July 2009 in MixEmergency
So - who is using these? Anyone making their own?

Anyone interested, but unsure where to start?

In the latest MixEmergency disk images (1.2.1 - and in 1.2) there were a bunch of new examples that show off some of the newer QC features in case anyone missed them.

Comments

  • edited 2:07PM
    I have some QC's that i downloaded off the net, but they are pretty crude/Low quality. I watched several tutorials on how to make your own but my head was fried by that ! ...

    What i'd love is to have a nice vector style image with a large speaker bumping in time to the music ... there is something like this for use with itunes only, but us v-j's need something we can use with our serato/mixemergency to output some interesting images to our mix.

    If there are any QC artists out there it's time to get busy, see what you can do, i know i'd pay for some interesting QC images with audio reaction that i can use with my ME.

    If anyone is making their own Please share :-)
  • edited 2:07PM
    If you're not too familiar with Quartz Composer you could always achieve something similar by loading an image of a speaker (assuming that the speaker is in the middle of the image) and use the Bump effect (or Zoom, or one of the blur effects) in it's Bass reactive control mode within MixEmergency.
  • edited 2:07PM
    OK, Sounds like a plan, i have a speaker image ready, can't find any effects in ME though, or bass reactive control mode, can you give me a little guidance please :-)

    ta
  • edited 2:07PM
    Okay - so I recorded a very quick and short demonstration to give you an idea of how to achieve this effect using the bass reactive mode:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCQ0QTbKnQY

    Apologies for the quiet microphone track (you'll need to turn the volume up quite a bit).

    The manual page for the effects can be found here:

    http://www.inklen.com/mixemergency/manual/effects/

    Let me know how you get on.
  • edited 2:07PM
    WOW - This is exactly what i was looking for ! Thanks AGAIN Inklen.
  • Very nice demo Nick!
  • edited 2:07PM
    Let me know if there is anything else that you'd like to see explained/demonstrated.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Nick,
    Do you know how I can create a QC where the text input changes color as per the beat.
    So far I have created a simple one where I have a logo and text on the bottom of the screen but I would love to have the colours change.
    Any help will be appreciated.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Hmmm, not an easy way to do this. You could fairly easily create a quartz composition that reacted to the bass though (e.g. it might shift the colour depending on the amount of bass).
  • edited 2:07PM
    What you could do is to use a published input named "AudioLevel1" (as described in the MixEmergency manual, and available in the template files that come with MixEmergency) and have that mix between colours. It would not be beat detection as such, but would allow you to easily get audio reactive colours. I'll send you a sample file - so check your e-mail.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Nick,
    Thanks for the file,it works great.
  • okuoku
    edited 2:07PM
    Dear Nick-san.
    Nice to meet you.
    My name is oku. (from Japan. )

    Is the parameter of Quartz Compositions only one?
    Can some parameters be displayed?

    best
  • edited 2:07PM
    Hi oku,

    I'm not sure I quite understand your questions.

    Quartz Compositions in MixEmergency have access to many parameters. The list of currently supported published inputs can be found here: http://www.inklen.com/mixemergency/manual/quartzcompositions/

    MixEmergency can also be used to manipulate other published inputs. To do this you need to use the Parameter windows: http://www.inklen.com/mixemergency/manual/parameterwindow/

    The Prameter window will display any boolean, number, index, string or image inputs that you have published from the Quartz Composition.
  • okuoku
    edited 2:07PM
    Dear Nick-san.

    Thank you!!.
    I understood everything.


    oku.
  • edited 2:07PM
    What is a Quartz composition how do you make one?
  • edited 2:07PM
    Quartz Compositions are created using the Quartz Composer application (included when you install the Mac OS X development tools). Quartz Composer allows you to graphically program Quartz Compositions by creating and connecting nodes together.

    In MixEmergency they are generally used to create some sort of visual output - much like how there are some applications that allow you to program "audio visualisers".

    The files as such are just XML property lists. When loaded into applications, such as MixEmergency, the patches/nodes are recreated and executed. Compositions can contain many different types of patches. Some of the simple patches may load an image, display an image or perform a simple mathematical operation, while some of the more complicated patches can execute Javascript code, execute an OpenGL shader, or send OSC messages over a network.

    Because they are essentially a set of instructions that is executed (rather than played sequentually like videos are) they can be programmed to react to certain things (e.g. in MixEmergency you can have Quartz Compositions that react to the record velocity), and may produce different output every time you run them. It also means that they don't have a fixed frame rate.
  • edited February 2010
    Nick I can't find that speaker QC in my paid version of ME. Is it included, if not, can you e-mail it to me please?

    DJ Tone
  • edited 2:07PM
    Hey DJ Tone - the speaker example isn't a Quart Composition, it is just an image with some of MixEmergency's effects applied to it.

    The way to re-create the effect is to:
    1. Load and play an audio file into Scratch Live.
    2. Load an image of a speaker into the corresponding channel (i.e. left or right side) of MixEmergency.
    2. Open the Control window, go to the effects tab for the channel and apply an effect (in this case try Zoom).
    3. There should (most likely) be an "M" pop-up menu button beside the one of effect control. Click this and select the "Bass" mode (which will change the pop-up button to show "B").
    4. Play around with the "Mapping Graph" that appears until you get the desired effect.

    Some other effects that work well with this are Bump, Zoom Feedback, Zoom Blur and Motion Blur.

    Let me know if you have any problems reproducing this effect.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Hey Nick,
    Is there a way you can change the RSS quartz file in mac, instead of application sourcing information or text form the web page it can source from a saved text document.
    Cheers.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Do you mean the screen saver? If so, I have no idea.

    It is possible to point the Quartz Composer "RSS Downloader" patch to a local file using the URL field if you're editing/creating your own Quartz Composition.
  • edited 2:07PM
    I meant the screen saver, I will try to direct the RSS downloader to a local file. Thanks.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Nick, I tried with the RSS crawler from apple, and I came up with something like this,
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd065w_using-mix-emergency-qtz-overlay_music
    Pretty cool.
    Thanks.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Nice one! (sorry for the slow reply)
  • edited 2:07PM
    So - who is using these? Anyone making their own?

    Anyone interested, but unsure where to start?

    In the latest MixEmergency disk images (1.2.1 - and in 1.2) there were a bunch of new examples that show off some of the newer QC features in case anyone missed them.

    Yes I'm interested in making my own, but have no clue where to start....
    I dont have a clue on what your talking about when it comes to disk images 1.2.1 and 1.2. where are the examples?

    Also Im more that willing to pay someone to make me custom one or just buy good ones they have off of them.
  • edited 2:07PM
    They're on the file that you downloaded when you installed MixEmergency (the Disk Image "MixEmergency1.7.2.dmg"). If you open the Disk Image, and go into the folder named "Example Quartz Compositions" then you will find a bunch of compositions.
  • edited 2:07PM
    thank you :)

    and i was kinda skeptical on jumping over to ME, but with the 3 i have been playing with it at home today im sold on how much better it is than VSL. Thanks guys...
  • edited 2:07PM
    Hi Nick,

    Been learning qtz last few days. And come up with my own twitter feed using xml. but i am having a issue and wondering if you know how i could fix it. When i pull twitter hash feeds thru xml importer it has feeds with heaps of other information in it. is there anyway to filter out some some of this information so i can use a counter to count how many hash tags have been sent.

    Any help would be appreciated.
  • edited 2:07PM
    I'm not sure I understand exactly what you want to do, but you can probably filter it using the Javascript patch.

    Do you have an example of the data, and how you want your results?
  • edited 2:07PM
    I really hope you wanna share that qtz xplicit :)
  • edited 2:07PM
    Hey,

    Its hard to explain exactly. Have to show you rather than explain.I kinda need either two things

    1. Have some sort of java script to output how many hash tags there are from
    http://search.twitter.com/search.rss?q=%23vjxplicit so i can tell the qtz which posts to scroll thru.

    or

    2. a way to filter the information within the structure to only output the 'item:x' information. So that it will only scroll thru posts and not any of the other information within that specific structure.

    I do have a friend working on the first option as I am not anywhere good at java script. Or even know where to start.

    I can email you sample of what i have done so far so you can see what I am meaning if this is easier, just need to provide me with an email account.

    @code:E I probably will share this qtz once I have programmed it so it is easy to change the settings as I have alot of personal VJ XPLICIT information in there.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Oh, okay - I think I get you. I would guess that it's going to be easiest to just filter the XML that is returned.

    Maybe you can send me (to: contact [at] inklen [dot] com) what you have so far, and I can see exactly what you're trying to achieve.
  • edited 2:07PM
    emailed the qtz file for you too look at.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Cool - I've just modified it and sent it back.
  • edited 2:07PM
    So completed what I want up to a reasonable standard that will work for me. Can view a demo here http://youtu.be/YNa18z__o5c

    Tell me what you think. Sorry for stealing you post Nick
  • edited 2:07PM
    Nice one!
  • edited 2:07PM
    Looks good to me..... I might have made it display differently but that looks good. What else are yo waiting on before you release it? I would like to take what you made and start modifying it as a learning tool for myself.
  • edited 2:07PM
    as long awaited by many http://www.mediafire.com/?cxj8y3u97a0bc8m took some of my stuff out of it so its just plain. do with it as you wish. keep me updated on FB or twitter if you change it heaps.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Looks good - thanks for sharing it.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Does anybody know if its possible to get the quartz files that are default in itunes out and use them with ME. I really want these two. Also dose anybody know where to buy ones like these? I think i have found ever single free one on the internet, and none of them seem to have the finnish, and high quality of the few that come with itunes from default. By high quality i dont mean HD or anything, just the finnish and how clean the images look.



    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150494642842554&set=a.10150494642492554.365663.651982553&type=3

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150494642767554&set=a.10150494642492554.365663.651982553&type=3
  • edited 2:07PM
    One of those is a Quartz Composition, the other isn't.

    You can get that Quartz Composition working in MixEmergency, however you will need to edit it first to hook it up the audio inputs that we had through from Scratch Live (or alternatively, you could use the audio input of your computer).
  • edited 2:07PM
    which one is? the one with the ball i hope is the one that is but i got a feeling its not :(.

    I would like to set all my qtzs to get audio from the computer input cause its really easy to run a rca-1/8inch cable from the REC out on any mixer.

    Nick any good places to buy or pay to have custom qtz's made.
    Im in school getting my business degree, and i dont have time to spend learning qtz right now. In the future yes i will, but i need to set up my visuals show NOW, and not next year.
  • edited 2:07PM
    It's not the one with the ball....

    I don't know of any specific places to pay to have custom Quartz Compositions made. I've heard of a few users are out there that make them for people - but I don't know them myself.
  • edited 2:07PM
    thanks :)
  • edited 2:07PM
    Question: Is it possible to use the DVI INPUT quartz file(webcam/hidden QC from 1.5) alongside the webcam feature in ME2.0.4? So I can have two webcams running all in ME without using any other vj software...
  • edited 2:07PM
    Yep - it should be, though you'll have to use separate web-camera's for each one.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Some I've been working on:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOZm44nmpyg
  • edited 2:07PM
    Cool - looks good.
  • edited 2:07PM
    Cheers! Replaced the audio as the original was really badly distorted, new one here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlz83klLRs
  • I'm following the few tutorials I can find, I'd greatly appreciate links to others. Everything I've made has caused M.E. 2.2 to freeze. I'm currently on this one: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2006/make-a-video-feedback-screen-saver-in-quartz-composer/

    When I add the finished product to the Quartz Overlay in M.E., I get nothing but pinwheel. Any help would be greatly appreciated. In the end I'd like to have a qtz file that can display my webcam, this when when I activate the Quartz overly in M.E. I can layer text and images over top of the video
  • I'll have a look at this when I get the chance (I'm currently out of the office). I'm guessing that there are some issues regarding loading the Video Input patch.
  • Hi Nick, do you have an example of how to display the song title using QC in ME? I see that song title is a supported input. But I’m not able to make it work. :-( Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

  • I tried a few different things and I am now able to display the song title via QC. I’ll play around with it some more and add more effects.

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