I wanted to share with you another new piece of content that you can pick up for your events or organization. I posted one a few weeks back called Sunbeam 3, and this one is from the same family… It’s called Sunbeam 1. (there are 5 total and available as a collection if you are interested).

It’s got all the texture, color, motion and simplicity that you will need to have great looking motions, and soon we’ll be rolling out the triple-wide versions of all 5 motions. [Read more →]

Tags: New Content, content creation by Luke McElroy
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In the grand scheme of life an individual, no matter how smart or creative, yields a very small amount of influence or power. When a group of people can rally around an idea or a shared interest they become a much stronger influence. The past three months I had the privileged to travel the United States with a team of people helping facilitate worship to thousands of middle and high school students with an organization called Student Life.

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Tags: philosophy by Preston Gray
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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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hope you are enjoying the Quartz Week so far… we’ve got some great resources for you tomorrow that we think will jumpstart your journey in learning quartz… but in the meantime, we wanted to give you a chance to get your hands on a Playback Drive at a great price!

ONLY $275

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Tags: Uncategorized by Luke McElroy
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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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Most of us have experienced the moment during a preparation for a live event when the pre-produced video that we slaved for hours over gets played back on a giant screen for the first time. At first, we’re a little nervous. The following thoughts race in our minds. “Will the color of graphics match the paint on the set, or the gels in the lights?” “Will the spinning logo be slow enough when it’s projected 30 feet wide across the backdrop?” “Will the tempo of the graphic match the song?” “ Will all of the words be spelled correctly as they sweep in and out of the Andrew Kramer-esque 3D world that took hours to render?” Then we stare in disbelief at the projection screen when the answer to all of those questions is “NO.”

This has happened to me more than once over the years as pre-rendered video files are passed down the pike from editor to playback monkey. (I have been at both ends of the stick, so I’m also pointing fingers at myself.) Being locked down to what was created in the edit suite doesn’t have to be what the audience experiences anymore.

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Tags: New Technology & Ideas, Quartz by Jason Norris
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