Hi,
My name is Graham, I often work under the alias of Skulpture, or VJ Skulpture.
This blog is a place for me to share my thoughts, work in progress and talk to like minded people who work in audio visual media.
I am a course leader and lecturer of a degree course called Live Visual Design and Production at Backstage Academy.
The software I use is mostly:
Visual: Isadora, Green Hippo, disguise, Notch, SMODE, A.I and many more.
Audio: Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Some free apps and other random bits and bobs.
My main focus in on interactive digital media; connecting the real world with software on machines using various methods; HCI and other interesting technology.
You can follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/skulpture
Enjoy!
Graham Thorne 
Hi Graham, My name is Kevin Donaghy, I came across your blog while on the VJ forum website.
I found the link in the looking for work section.
I am a DJ running a small bi-monthly dance night with my friends.
We play house, breaks, hiphop, DNB.
We recently got the opportunity to put on our night in London (5 min walk from FABRIC nightclub)
As it’s our first London promotion, we would be really keen to have another angle in the sense of visual impact .
The event is Saturday 31st July 2010 and we have a limited budget, but if you are interested in our night we can discuss ideas and costs further.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kevin
Sounds interesting, can you send me an email address so I can respond to you formally please. If you post it on here I will not share it with the world.
Or you can email me at: skulpture[at]me.com
Cheers, Skulpture.
Hi!
Found this through vj forum.
I am a play,create trance(not psy).
I have a knack of graphics,logo designing,abstract art……always wanted to somehow get my logo or visuals in dj sets but din knew bt vjing.
tried mixing vdos in virtual dj but it seemed too basic+i don’t know how to output dat to club screens!!my laptop has only 1 hdmi port!!
i don’t know how to control d lasers/scanners/projectors/plasmas n how to interface ’em wid my laptop.Was always facsinayed wid winamp visuals……i wud love to create if not atleatst incorporate visuals in my livesets.
bdw i use traktor pro while playing live…..ableton for production.
I would check out http://www.vjforums.com the beginners section is really useful.
hey Skulpture!!
First of all thanks a lot for you amazing links, infos, etc.
I email you because I have lost an amazing link I found on your blog.
It was a link to an amazing video synthetizer, a kind of plug in for Quartz composer or Isadora, I’m not sure.
OR maybe the link was on an other website, and you posted on this website, a message like “can’t wait to try it”.
The preview image of the video synthtizer plug-in was a coloured image with horizontal lines on the face of a man. The video synthetizer was related to a kind of 10 to 20 years old project.
I hope it is clear enough.
More genrally, I am looking for other actor in Isadora in order to do more stuff then motion “blur” or “dots”
Hugs from Paris
Filouz from http://www.frenchburners.org and Art in Action Collective.
Hi Filouz,
Thanks for the kind words! Always nice to come home to some words from across the pond!
I unfortunately can not think right now what the link was… it sounds like it may have been from createdigitalmotion.com or createdigitalmusic.com but I will have a look around and see if I can find it for you.
Skulpture
Thanks Skulpture, I’m gonna contiue to search.
Your links and advices are awesome.
Cya soon.
Filouz
Hi vjskuplture,
I am a theatrical director/visualizer. Till now, I’ve been implementing static projection mapping videos in my plays.
Is there another program besides isadora to start learning dynamic videos and all the nice thingies?
Thanks a lot!
By the way your blog is already bookmarked 😉
Hi.
Apart from generic VJ software such as Modul8, Arkaos and so on the only other thing I can think of is QLab. But for truly interactive and full control Isadora is the best. Hope this helps.
Graham
Hello vjskulpture,
I’m beginning my expieriance with Isadora and I have read your blog for a few months now. I have some problems with motion tracking. Your tutorial is very good, but it doesn’t to the point how we could actually use motion tracking implemented in Isadora.
What I want to try is to create moveable projection screen that could go left and right only. I’m setting up a cheap USB camera that follows that screen (which is the brightest element at the back of the room). In Isadora I’m using Eyes++ as you described in tutorial and the program follows the screen very nicely. And now I want to project some images that would follow the moving screen. When I’m adding new picture player (actor) attached to projector (actor) and matching parameters with blob decoder (actor), the image get crazy. How to solve it to achieve smooth tracking???
Thank you for your help,
Best,
Tomek
Hi Tomek,
It’s always difficult to help without seeing what is on your screen. I will try my best to help you but please understand its hard for me to do so without sitting next to you and looking at the isadora patch. Maybe send me a screen shot? (email is below).
Firstly; im not sure what you mean by crazy images? I am guessing they do not line up? You may need to look at scaling. If you click on a white text you get MIN and MAX values. The data from eyes is 0 to 100 (lect to right for both X and Y; whilst projectors work form -200 up to +200 (or -100 to +100)
To change the above click the white text and you will see the MIN and MAX values. There is a YouTube video made by Mark C which talks more about scaling if you need it.
To make things move smoother then have a look at using the smoother actor. It does exactly that; smooths out values… You will figure that one out easily.
See how you get on with that, if not contact me directly grahamthorne( at ) gmail dot com.
Thanks.
Hi Graham,
I am looking to start messing around with video editing of some sorts where I would be laying different clips over each other and putting them to music.
I am trying to find VJ software that is able to match sound beats as well as layer clips and the most important thing I am looking for is for the software to be able to have presets, or a sequence, meaning that I would not be doing liver performances, I would be making music videos and exporting them from the program.
Do you have any suggestions for which program to use? I have looked at a few, but am still not finding exactly what I am looking for.
Is there a way to preset clips in Isadora so I could create a video rather than just creating a live performance?
Any information helps. I really appreciate it!
Thanks,
Sim
Sorry for the really late reply. It sounds like your best bet might be Resolume Avenue if you are after really right audio integration. Saying that; Isadora is capable of doing this but it would indeed require a lot of patching to prepare. Advantages are; it’s your unique and custom patch.
Hi Graham,
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In the meantime, check out this tutorial video showing how you can get started with LiveFX in 3 easy steps: Download, Plug In & Perform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSWw-fLuQRw
Hi Graham,
here is Tomas. You helped me couple of times on forum. I just wanna say thank you. Also I have a project and I serioisly consider you (its payed project). Please would you mind to send me some of your projects you did for dance or theatre?
Thanks.
Tomas
Hi. I don’t send patches out I’m afraid. Plus – every patch I make for someone is 100% custom/unique so it would require explaining, etc.