An exciting sight, to be sure! Following on from the Stuff Happens theatre projection, the Vixid team have supplied 5 VJXs and assisted Perrick Sorin in his stage design and video scenography for the opera Pastorale.

We’ll have some more technical details on the setup for Pastorale soon, but in the meantime, the photo set on Flickr is fascinating.

Perrick Sorin’s work on live theatre is mesmerizing. His previous work on La Pietra Del Paragone utilized live chromakeying to incredible effect:

These illusions are truly wonderful. Video operator Eric Perroys has some additional clips (including the fantastic cooking scene) and technical information on his site.
6 6000 lumen projectors.
32 input/output matrix switcher.
16 single CCD cameras.
5 triple CCD cameras.
3 Ultimatte chromakeyers.
27 video monitors.
1.3Km of coax cable.
700m of S-Video cable.

That’s right. No VJX on that project! We’re happy to talk about how some projects use different gear.

(… and next week we can talk about how the VJX does it all much better)

Fresh news from the Vixid team. The VJX is currently being used in an innovative setup for the French production of Stuff Happens, the political play by David Hare.

The VJX is combined with a reflective keying rig, to key the actors in to backgrounds and title overlays to reproduce the look of news broadcasts and events depicted within the play.

There’s some beautiful combinations of virtual floor sets, multi-screen outputs, live camera and live keying, some of which are showcased at the beginning of this production video:

Also production stills in the Vixid Flickr photostream:

For one of the final Game On performances, Melbourne spiky-pop band Flamingo Crash rocked up, and rocked out to a Vixid + Live Cameras setup.

After the gig, they liked the footage so much that they asked me to remix the live performance recording as a video for one of the studio tracks on the album: Sister Sister.

Flamingo Crash - Sister Sister from Jaymis on Vimeo.

The vision mixes live security camera feeds with visuals created live by VJ Simulcast with a Tagtool.

I should be clear that the quality of the camera feeds on these videos I’ve been posting is an aesthetic choice. I’m using these cameras specifically because of the lofi look they give. Of course the VJX has an extremely high quality output. If you’re using great quality sources - good cameras, DVDs or computer outputs - it will still look fantastic.

Recently I got the chance to take my VJX along to a performance which didn’t involve plastic instruments or Stormtroopers. As the show was outside in a very intimate garden setting, were were looking to document the performance, so the VJX was in a strictly production role, rather than projection.

The security camera setup was perfect for this performance. Their low light sensitivity let them see things that my HD camera couldn’t, and their small size let me put them up close to the performers and hide them in trees without disrupting the lovely aesthetic of carpets and lamps in a garden.

Edward Guglielmino - Crushed by a Late Night Dream (Live) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

The above video showcases the VJX’s blend modes in combination with effects from the Kaoss Pad Entrancer, and from 1:30 I also incorporated some feedback loops. The output for the Entrancer was set to “Preview”, which allowed me to select its own output as an input, giving me a quick, attractive feedback loop which could be combined with other layers.

The Vixid team have updated vixid.com to be clearer, prettier, and more complete, including an updated applications page, that you can point your accounts department, grant committee or spouse at to explain why you need a VJX as soon as possible.

Late last year I had a performance with local AV Turntablist Sampology which really brought the VJX’s multi-layer and blend capabilities to light.

Sampology at Game On - AV Turntablist Set (Part 1) from Herovision on Vimeo.

Being able to integrate and seamlessly blend live inputs in this way is the VJX’s magic bullet. Having never performed with Sampology before, I was amazed at how quickly I could react to his different clip selections, and to select different layering and blend techniques to integrate video feeds with his different clip selections.

Tonight we’ll be returning with even more geekly clips, more cameras, and a sexier venue for the Game Over party. This performance will be streaming live at Herovision.tv (which also has a countdown so you can tell when the show begins).

Vixid’s firmware programmer extraordinaire and software guru Vince has previously shared with us some PD patches to help control various aspects of the VJX in ways impossible when you’re just using the knobs, buttons and sliders on the unit.

The physical layout and control scheme of the mixer has allowed a huge amount of functionality to be packed in to a small space, and the preset system is robust for loading and saving layer setups on the fly, but it’s physically impossible to load more than one track preset at a time. Preset management is also one of the only VJX functions not controllable via MIDI, so you can’t quickly load an “entire mixer” preset.

Or perhaps I should say “couldn’t”, as Vince has come up with an extremely elegant solution which utilizes the free, Open Source, cross-platform patching language PD (Pure Data) to send and receive messages from the VJX, allowing you to save and load the entire state of the mixer.

Vixid Control Snapshot V2 (PD Patch. 16KB Zip File)
Note: This software is Beta, please get in touch if you have any problems or discover any bugs.

Along with PD, you require a MIDI interface with both MIDI-IN and OUT to allow your computer to talk to the VJX. If you don’t already have some MIDI hardware lying around the place, DealExtreme has a cheap one for US$17 (including worldwide shipping)

Once you have PD installed and your MIDI interface connected, open the TestSnapshot.pd file. Ensure that your MIDI device is active (PD Menu: Preferences > MIDI Settings)

The VJX sends MIDI out with every control or parameter you change. So with a MIDI interface active on both IN and OUT, the PD patch can listen to everything that happens on the VJX, enabling you to save or load the entire state of the mixer.

This is a great framework, but as PD is free and open, I think we can expect more. I’m starting to learn PD to help me control my VJX in new ways, and I’d like to share what I come up with. I hope other VJX owners will join me, so we can learn together and make all of our performances better.

French artist Auderoseselavy has put together Cubes D’Ombres, a fascinating performance as part of a residency with the fantastic Pixels Transversaux (previously on Vixid.noisepages and CDMo).

Installation performance vidéo live, cubes d’ombres, par Auderoseselavy from auderoseselavy on Vimeo.

This beguiling mix of dance, live camera, vjing and audio has been explained for our delectation.

Performance / Installation “Cubes d’ombres” (shadow’s cubes) by Auderoseselavy, during an artist-in-residency program at the Pixels transversaux.

The “Cubes d’ombres” installations are based on 3 installation-performances that take place in a cube covered with fabric. The scenography is inside the cube, while the spectator is outside: he observes moving shadows in different scenarios with different sound universes.
This installation follows a first installation realized in Bologna (Italia) during a scenography class.

About the performance and the use of the VIXID VJX16-4:

Using the Vixid mixer allowed me to overlay a live feed from a video camera filming a dancer on video clips mixed with Modul8, using the Vixid blend modes.
I benefit from the precise color balance and contrast and brightness correction, and finally got the kind of images I wanted, which was very difficult to obtain via software.

I had a performance recently with Australian artist Lawrence English, playing as Object. This is a video from the final moments of that performance.

Object 2 from Jaymis on Vimeo.

This set of layered sonic textures and beats allowed me to be much more experimental than most more traditional bands I work with. Creating a quick feedback loop, I tried different blend modes and carefully tweaked the gain, contrast and opacity of the camera and feedback layers. Starting from 2 minutes you can see these effects entering the mix, the rhythmic movements of the performer creating some beautiful morphing feedback shapes.

The growth of the feedback areas is controlled by extremely subtle movements of opacity faders and gain knobs, with the the screen behind the performer adding ambient light, which in turn increased the levels entering in to the cameras and feeding back.

I can’t really document this setup exactly, as feedback is an imprecise art at the best of times. My previous tutorials on the subject are a great place to start with a known setup:

After the Herovision Launch party I was lucky enough to put on a performance with the immensely talented Cowper.

This show was very different from the “usual” VJ gig. Just a guy with a guitar, and an intimate audience meant that the video should be subtle and supportive, the technology hidden. Using tiny security cameras allowed me to set up a shoot which was invisible until the performance started, and the combination of a Kaoss Pad Entrancer and VJX16-4’s routing and blend modes allowed for some subtle, live manipulations of camera feeds.

Cowper - Berlin Four Two (Live) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

A “Preview” output is used to create an “Effects send” to the entrancer, which is then brought back to its own layer on the VJX. The main effect used for this track combines the Entrancer’s “video scratch” effect, with VJX RGB tweaks and blend modes (although I forget which blend modes were used). At 2:00 the Entrancer is switched to “Time Blur”, giving a dreamy look.

After all the multi-screen, rock-out excitement of Herovision, it was great to be able to take things back to basics, and use the VJX as an artistic tool again.