Merry Christmas from theplaydoeband

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Nice vid, uses Ricci Rucker's Dirty Soap

Nice vid that was foating around the scratchernet a while back, uses a track off Ricci Rucker's (nicks, Ruckazoid) Dirty Soap. Unfortunately I dont have the details on who made the vid.

Extreme Breakdancing

The Mars Volta, Brixton Academy, March 14th 2008

Two videos from The Mars Volta gig I attended in March.
They played for 2hrs 45mins! The sound at Brixton Academy is crap though.
Thanks to flipzoso from the comatorium.

Pre Agadez jam:



Agadez:

THE RUCKAZOID

Project: AtomSwarm

atomswarm

atomswarm is

"a framework for performance and composition, based on swarming behaviours similar to those seen in flocks of social animals. It can be thought of as a self-organising ecosystem, whose structure is internally regulated by limited resource availability and each agent's pursuit of internal homeostasis.

Sonic behaviours are determined by each agent's genetic disposition, the relationships between agents, and the population's continued evolution over time."

Deadelus interview from XLR8R TV

XLR8R TV Episode 71: Daedelus from XLR8RTV on Vimeo.

Radiohead - House of Cards (making of video and finished video)

Radiohead: House of Cards
Made without video cameras through the use of Geometrics Informatics, a system which 'employs structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity,' and laser-based Velodyne Lidar, director James Frost creates a mathematic virtual world for Radiohead's first official promo music video clip from In Rainbows.

The making of the video



The video

3D MAPPING VIDEO PROJECTED

http://www.easyweb.fr/slideshow.html

Squarepusher’s Planet Gear video

Squarepusher - Planet Gear from Warp Records on Vimeo.

This is an abstract music video, by Tom Jenkinson, aka Squarepusher, for the track Planet Gear.

“The overall concept of this video revolves around images of imaginary astronomical phenomena,” notes Jenkinson. ”I selected a method which I anticipated would be appropriate to the construction of “scaleless” objects, such that one could imagine them occupying planetary sized volumes of space.”

Tom Jenkinson on how it was done:
The content of this video was made with a simple video synthesizer program. I initially wrote this program as a way of generating visual accompaniment to my live performances. It is consists of a pattern generator which uses a sonic input for real-time pattern modification. In the context of a live performance, this input would be some or all of the sound coming from my on-stage equipment. In the context of this video, the modifying sonic input came from splitting the overall sound signal of "Planet Gear" into separate instrumental elements and picking out passages according to their suitability. I say this because the sonic character of a passage has a direct bearing on whether or not it is suitable for translation into imagery.

The first section of the video synthesizer is made up of six input processors. These can be thought of as modules which generate a modulation signal which can then be used to modify the visual patterns. An input processor can be "tuned" such that it "listens" to a particular frequency range in the source audio material. As an example, it could be tuned such that it only registers information in the low frequency range. As such, it will "listen" to instruments such as bass drums or bass guitars, register the overall amplitude of the signal in that range and turn it into a form that can be used to modulate the visual parameters. Any instrument which makes sound not in that part of the frequency range will not be registered and thus will not contribute to a modulation signal from that input processor.

The second section is made up of function generators which control the various visual parameters. These are: X and Y position; X and Y size; Red, Green and Blue components; Alpha channel. The function generators thus control the location, dimensions, colour and transparency of the on-screen objects. To a degree, they resemble a bank of oscillators in an analogue synthesizer. As such, each function is made up of various sine, sawtooth, pulse and noise waveform generators. Each waveform has independent controls for amplitude and frequency. In addition to that, low-pass filtering and sample-rate conversion are available for modification of the overall composite waveform. The resulting output is then mapped to whichever visual parameter is being controlled by that function generator.

The function generators are able to accept a modulation input signal from the input processors. In so doing, the functions can be modified by real-time sonic input. Assume, as in the example, that a particular input processor is set up such that it registers only bass signals. It is by selecting this input processor as a modulation source in a particular function generator that it is possible to vary a given visual parameter with bass information. The function may be amplitude- or frequency-modulated by the bass. So, in that way it is possible to alter the dimensions of an on-screen object with the bass -by amplitude-modulating the functions pertaining to X and Y size. Likewise its location with X and Y position, and so on.

As there are six input processors, I typically tune them such that each one registers a specific part of the frequency range. For example, if I am using a recording of some drums, one processor can be tuned such that it registers the bass drum, the next to register the snare drum, another the hi-hat, another the ride cymbal and so on. In this way a whole drum kit can become available as a separated set of modulation signals with which the various on-screen objects can be modified. Each function generator can be configured to accept any one of the six input processors separately for amplitude and frequency modulation.

The third section controls the type and amount of objects on-screen and how quickly they are updated and re-drawn.

To construct the video, the music was broken into sections, typically of eight or sixteen bars in length. I then selected a pertinent set of instruments for each section. I say pertinent in order to convey what I mentioned earlier; that as much as an instrument may sound good, it might not make interesting patterns! For each eight or sixteen bar section, the input processors were configured such that they supplied usable modulation information for the function generators. The function generators were then configured to make a basic image in keeping with the "imaginary astronomical phenomena" brief, ready for subsequent sonic modification (throughout many of the sections, I morphed from one configuration to another in order to generate an image that continually changes in character.)

The main part of the project was then to investigate ways in which the functions could be sonically modulated such that the visual modifications began to approximate my imaginary astronomical inspiration, and of course also began to tie in to the accompanying musical content. This is for me where it gets really interesting as it is where one can begin to explore the staggering range of possible connections between the visual and aural spheres.

James Turrell Biography

I saw James Turrell's work on BBC1's Imagine last night and was completely amazed.
In the pics below you can see one of his pieces and "Roden Crater," Southwest View.
Turrell has been working inside the crater for the last few years on a piece.
It's gonna be amazing!
Check the links at the bottom of this page to see more of his work, its worth it.


"Roden Crater," Southwest View



James Turrell was born in Los Angeles in 1943. His undergraduate studies at Pomona College focused on psychology and mathematics; only later, in graduate school, did he pursue art. He received an MFA in art from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California. Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.” Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions, Turrell’s work allows us to see ourselves “seeing.” Whether harnessing the light at sunset or transforming the glow of a television set into a fluctuating portal, Turrell’s art places viewers in a realm of pure experience. Situated near the Grand Canyon and Arizona’s Painted Desert is Roden Crater, an extinct volcano the artist has been transforming into a celestial observatory for the past thirty years. Working with cosmological phenomena that have interested man since the dawn of civilization and have prompted responses such as Stonehenge and the Mayan calendar, Turrell’s crater brings the heavens down to earth, linking the actions of people with the movements of planets and distant galaxies. His fascination with the phenomena of light is ultimately connected to a very personal, inward search for mankind’s place in the universe. Influenced by his Quaker faith, which he characterizes as having a “straightforward, strict presentation of the sublime,” Turrell’s art prompts greater self-awareness through a similar discipline of silent contemplation, patience, and meditation. His ethereal installations enlist the common properties of light to communicate feelings of transcendence and the Divine. The recipient of several prestigious awards such as Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships, Turrell lives in Arizona.

For additional biographic & bibliographic information:
PaceWildenstein, New York
James Turrell on the Art21 blog

Check out: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/turrell/
for slideshows and interviews

Relentless, The REV

Relentless, The REV

A few months ago, the Barbarian Group was approached by Erasmus to help with promotions for the Relentless Energy Drink. Relentless, available only in the UK, is a frequent sponsor of music festivals and sports competitions. They asked us to make an audio visualizer that would run in real-time so they could show it at these venues. In addition to the live application, they wanted a content creation version and an iTunes plugin version. The content creation version would allow them to create renders from recorded audio and the iTunes version would allow members of the Relentless Order to experience it on their own computers.

The project went through many different looks. The primary art direction we received was that the end result should be dark and should have some baroque sensibilities. We did our best to hit these goals and we are quite proud of the end result.



Learning Experience
For me, the most rewarding part of this job was that I learned a whole lot. Fellow Barbarian, Andrew Bell, showed me many interesting tricks, not to mention working his ass off to optimize this project so it would run at 30+ fps and also handling the port to C++ for the iTunes visualizer version.

The early versions had the primary tendrils rendered as flat strips that always orient themselves towards the camera so you never (well, almost never) see the strips from the side. This was my way of faking the viewer into believing they were seeing a solid mass. However, this method had its problems. It was impossible to texture map it in an interesting way, and occasionally, the strip would twist a full 360° which added unsightly kinks. Andrew suggested we move to actual tubes instead of strips and I thought he was nuts. The piece was already starting to drag down the framerate and he wanted to add more geometry?? Nuts, I tell ya!!

A couple days later, he showed me the new build. I was floored. Not only did he do what he promised, but he improved the frame-rate in the process AND he added support for shaders. Awesome!

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Suddenly, things got a lot more interesting… more lush. He ended up switching the tendril geometry over to VBOs (vertex buffer objects) which sped things up a great deal. He also pre-cached the texture coordinates because they didn’t actually change once the piece was up and running.

The Birds


The idea of flocking crows or ravens is very much in keeping with the Relentless aesthetic but there was some concern that we were simply repurposing a project we did with Nervo for Fox Movies. We decided to do away with everything we did for Nervo and start from scratch. The original Nervo piece relied on using 160 flat images of a 3D bird in flight. For the Relentless version, we switched over to actual 3D birds (admittedly quite rudimentary). Each bird was made up of 12 polygons. The wings actually flapped and they could be viewed from any angle (whereas the Nervo version worked best when the birds were viewed side-on.

The Background


From the beginning we were instructed to do away with the notion of an infinite black or white space. The entire scene should be filled with content and this proved to be quite the challenge. Originally, we just dropped the whole scene inside a large textured sphere but the end result was lacking. Andrew came up with the idea of using a flat plane as the background but by using some FBO trickery, he was able to make these beautiful flourished textures bleed into view. I still have no idea how he pulled it off but the effect is quite stunning. Later he added a dynamic light source to make the scene feel even more dark and slightly disturbing.


After we settled on the look, we wanted to make it seem like the invisible center of the mass of tendrils was a hidden light source. Earlier versions actually had the tendrils glowing near their base but the look of shadow and silhouette was more intriguing so we killed the glow and added faked volumetric lighting. The light beams themselves behave as if they were magnetic particles. Each one is born, lives for a predetermined amount of time, then fades out and dies. While they are alive, they repulse each other if they get too close. This created a really nice organic movement which made it seem like the movement of the tendrils actually caused the light beams to form or disappear. Combined with the background lighting, the effect became quite engaging.

The Content Creation Tool
Erasmus wanted to be able to create renders from pre-recorded pieces of music so we tweaked the live version to accommodate the loading in of external audio as well as an XML file of adjustable variables. By modifying the XML file, they could run the application and customize their experience. Every graphic element could be toggled individually. So if you want a video with no background for compositing, or perhaps you want to leave the birds out, just tweak the XML and run the application. Additionally, since we were no longer confined to creating an experience that ran live in real-time, you could up the amount of objects as high as your memory will allow. This is how we made the following test render. The bird and particle count was turned up really high, as was the detail on the tendril geometry.

The following video is a test render from The REV content creation tool. Please note this is not an official Relentless video. This is simply a test render we did to make sure the audio responsiveness was as we liked it. The audio is by The Flashbulb (”Six Months Without Light” off the album Kirlian Selections) but be aware that The Flashbulb has no affiliation with Relentless. The chosen audio was simply a test track. I chose The Flashbulb because he is my favorite artist to audio visualize and I love this track.

Relentless, The REV from flight404 on Vimeo.

Relentless, The REV from flight404 on Vimeo.

The REV iTunes Version
As I mentioned above, there is a free downloadable version for iTunes. You can find out more at the Relentless Energy site. Have at it!

dynamic surface projection... from Daniele Ciabattoni .

dynamic surface projection... from Daniele Ciabattoni on Vimeo.

Waltz with Bashir Trailer

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