I was thinking the other day about how people prepare for events in many various and/or unique ways. I have friends who are musicians that just before they go on stage, they down a Redbull and do 10 jumping jacks. I know others that to prepare for a big presentation rehearse as much as they can… and still others just love that high of walking into any event blind as can be!

I don’t really recommend the last one very much (personal experience). In fact, I recently discovered that I have a unique way of preparing for an event. It’s not the “checklist” method, or the “lets practice all the transitions.” Every time I do an event (production, camera, directing, graphics, powerpoint/lyrics, engineering, etc) I do a pretty consistent (maybe not verbatim) application of the following steps.

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Tags: Teaching, philosophy by Luke McElroy
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Just wanted to let you all know that Nick Rivero will be teaching a FREE workshop on ProPresenter at the Birmingham, AL Apple Store on September 16th, 2010 from 9 AM to 11AM.

This workshop will be an introduction to ProPresenter, rather than an advanced session, but it would be a great way to connect with those of you in the tech world of Birmingham, as well those in other organizations around you. I will also gladly take questions after the workshop

The class is free, but you do need to register. Head over to The Apple Store at the Summit and then scroll down the page to “Schedule of Workshops and Events”. Click on the small calendar icon, and select September 16th.

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Tags: Seminars, Teaching by Nick Rivero
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As the speed and processing power of computers are increasing at a stellar rate, the thirst and hunger from live visualist to harness that speed is also growing. It wasn’t but a hand of years ago that I was enjoying the simplistic wireframe graphics of the now classic Pong video game. I remember around the same time seeing Disney’s Tron for the first time and being amazed as a child at the computer generated visual effects. Now as “grownup” artist I have a computer that fits in my hands that has exponential more computing power than any of the machines it took to render out the few short CG sequences in the original Tron. Now with software like Quartz Composer, Processing, VVVV, OpenFrameWorks, etc. some of the most visually stunning CG videos can now be created and modified on the fly.

In the past few blog post, I’ve mentioned how QC can be used to generate content. QC is not limited to just making jumpy little lines and circles, or sending synchronizing data over wifi, or acting as a translator from PlayStation controller to MIDI notes. QC also has the potential to effect a live video feed in the same way as it can manipulate a pre-rendered video clips in terms of color/ tint, blurring, distortion, speed, etc in real time. (maybe another Quartz Week?)

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Tags: New Technology & Ideas, Quartz, Teaching by Jason Norris
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We have now hopefully opened your eyes to another tool to add to your visual arsenal. No longer do we have to settle for completely pre-rendered video files. If you’re using a Mac computer running OS 10.4+ then you have some of the basic nuts and bolts already in place to create realtime user and audio reactive visual content with Quartz Composer.

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Tags: New Technology & Ideas, Quartz, Teaching by Jason Norris
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So now that triple wide video walls have started becoming more common place, the question of content now begins to present itself as the next challenge. A few online distributors have started releasing small packages of really great content. But the supply is still very limited. Most people who are experimenting with wide format content have been doing so on what seems like several little individually deserted islands.

Questions of workflow and codec and resolution and software and playback and content production and end file size have been questions most of us have had to experiment with on a personal level. This quest has lead some of us to gather on twitter and occasionally in person over a burrito or plate of BBQ somewhere. (Just to let all of my vegetarian friends know, no animals were hurt in the making the BBQ sauce.) This specialized content work flow have been part of the Orange Thread Media team as long as I have know them.

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Tags: New Technology & Ideas, Quartz, Teaching by Jason Norris
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You know how discovery does this huge thing called Shark Week… and everyone seems to watch a whole lot more TV that week because its just outright AWESOME?!? well… this will probably be nothing like that… However, that is where we got the inspiration.

So just imagine that there were lots of pictures of sharks, but instead it’s quartz! (ok, just having a little fun).
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Tags: New Technology & Ideas, Quartz, Teaching by Luke McElroy
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