I’ve spent a bit of time on things which can be achieved with complex, precise MIDI control over the VJX, but as an artistic tool we can achieve similarly exciting results with random, ad-hoc controls. Here’s a look at some variations using 4 camera sources and the Crop effect.

Vixid Crop Effect Automation from Create Digital Media on Vimeo. Music by pornophonique.

For the initial crop effect I’m controlling the Crop L and Crop R parameters for the top three camera layers, bringing in control of Opacity, RGB and Blend Mode as the video progresses. Manually controlling all of these things at once would of course be impossible, so another time that the VJX’ full midi map comes to the rescue. As I was looking for a rough prototype to see how these type of effects would look, I turned to VDMX (previously on CDMo) to quickly put together some control routings.

What you can’t see from this screenshot is that the various sliders for Crop and Opacity (which was also used for RGB and Blend) all have various Behaviour Chains applied to them. This lets me take the extremely erratic and fast-moving “drunk” mode and turn it into something more fluid through smoothing, inversion, scaling etc.

For other VDMX users, I’ve uploaded the preset file so you can try it out yourself - vixid-cropmove - all you have to do is choose your midi interface in the Midi Destination on the two MidiOut modules, and you’re set! If you don’t have VDMX, you can try this project file out by downloading the demo.

The above video uses effects which have been exaggerated so you can see what is happening clearly and quickly. In performance these could be tweaked more subtly, triggered by audio or BPM, and combined with feedback, keying, or other tweaks to make a unique and artistic combination.