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The VJ is the new DJ: Introducing Z Vector
Glastonbury, The Temple arena, 2014.
Mud, sun, rain, more rain, great music and a kick-ass projection system. That was Glastonbury 2014, in The Common field, at the Temple arena. Wow – what an experience…. I don’t know where to even begin with this one!
Let’s start from the beginning. I got a really nice email via this very blog from a guy called Ryan asking if I was interested in a gig. He wanted something a little different and asked if we could talk more if I was interested. I won’t lie – I thought it may have been a small VJ gig or some kind of install using isadora – I get a lot of questions, emails and comments each week. I reply to them all but admit – I though this one was no different.
After the initial hello emails Ryan casually said it was a venue at Glastonbury. I had to read the message about nine times over to believe it. I had never been to Glastonbury, but like many reading this, knew it was an amazing opportunity. I knew this could not be done solo – this was a job for me and Dan and his place of work; guildhall school of music and drama. I work quite a lot with Dan, we get each others workflow and being a lecturer for many years he knows I am professional and reliable around students – not only this I love getting student involved in real world gigs. In my opinion it’s the best place to learn and experience things first hand. If I had the opportunity to work at Glastonbury it would have been amazing!
So you get the idea, we then had various emails, phone calls and Skype sessions, we bounced ideas around and got the ball rolling. We looked at lots of hardware and software options but decided that Isadora was the tool for us. The video mapping features that we had custom made for Lux, Helsinki had been developed to a very high standard and whilst still under a beta we were confident we could use it.
A year passed and the gig was just around the corner, we all contributed to the video content using After Effects, Cinema 4D and a really talented student called Neville built the main Isadora patch. We all helped map the structure in a variety of roles once on site. My main job was to keep an eye on isadora, make subtle tweaks, maintain performance and spot any crucial errors, make any last minute programming changes and be on stand by incase of any crashes or errors (there were none by the way!).
The pictures show the Temple and surrounding fields aesthetic, we wanted the Mayan/Aztec like structure to come alive with a nice blend of historical symbols, images and custom graphics. There was a hint of hi-tech alien like sci-fi VJ loops also. The lighting, pyro and music all worked really well. The mapping looked great despite a few set-backs; the main one was losing half a day due to extreme rain, wind and an electrical storm; so bad that the electrical company shut down all non-essential power. This was not cool – but al part of the experience.
It’s hard to describe the full set up so I am going to keep it simple.
- Two Mac Pro’s 9not the new black (‘dustbins’).
- Each Mac pro had two Touch Screens for triggering video. (one screen for DJ booth, the other for exterior)
- Two Lindy DVI switches
- Two Spark D-Fuser Video mixers
- Then into a Datapath X4
- DJ Booth had four Panasonic 16500 lumens projectors on it.
- Exterior had four Christie Roadsters 26000 lumens each.
- Everything was run over Cat5 once it left the Datapath.
- We used a custom beta of Isadora (the soon to be version 2.0)
- Modified APC20 from Akai for MIDI effects and control via Isadora.
- A few TFT monitors via splitters for monitors, etc.
- We also had Blackmagic capture cards running into one mac for CCTV feeds, etc.
We had a great experience, a few crashes when programming things and trying stuff out before shows (during the day) but no crashes during live sets. Because we had two Macs mixing between each other , both doing inside and outside, if one machine was to crash we had the other as a back-up, however we treated them both as live machines.
We got to VJ for some great artists, I can’t name them all here but it was a privilege to hear them, meet them and talk to them over the course of the three days. Likewise the whole team at the common were amazing. We were very well looked after and I can’t thank them enough. I can safely say we delivered what we said we would. We made it happen. The pictures and video are great – but it’s never as good as seeing it live. The arena felt alive. It felt like it had an energy oozing out the walls.
A few highlights for me:
- Seeing a huge que of people wanting to come in at 5:45 in the morning even though we closed at 6:00. Not that I liked people not being able to come in but it was great to see the demand.
- Seeing people walk up and touch the wooden lock gates when they were being projected onto. Granted some people were ‘out of it’ but that magical element you can see in peoples faces is amazing – you can see the cogs working in their heads going ‘how is that moving’, ‘where is he light coming from?’.
- Watching the sun come up (and down) multiple times whilst working, with a nice breeze in your face, time flew by and was just an experience I will never forget.
- Seeing the DJ Booth mapped for the first time was a true OMG moment. It wasn’t even fully Dark yet and it was so so bright! Seeing the visuals you had been working on for months and months finally on the structure was amazing.
- Waking up at 3 in the afternoon and dancing to old school jungle before going for breakfast – which was actually tea… strange, but amazing.
- I went to see DJ’s Above & Beyond play at the Sonic tent – incredible! This was my only 2 hours off I had the whole week and it was well worth it.
- Last but not least – just being n Glastonbury was a highlight. It’s so hard to explain. It’s not just another music event. It’s like a mini city. A fantasy world were anything goes. It was so cool.
So. It was quite an experience. There is some video being made which I will add soon. But for now… a few pictures (click to open gallery):
Bazik & Isadora via Syphon.
I recently stumbled across this amazing audio responsive software called Bazik.*
I have been after an audio visualisation tool for a while to incorporate into my Isadora VJ patches. And wow this one really hits the nail on the head.
I also love that “You can add Quartz animations or Shader GLSL” effects!
Here is a short demo on how I set it up.
*NOTE: this was limited to 100 downloads for the beta stage – very sorry!
Inspiring Videos.
Every now and again I like to post some video that I’ve seen. Here they are;
A music video/live performance all done using Z-Vector; VJ Julius Tuomisto and his Z Vector software from Delicode. I love this type of live, real time visuals.
Lots of people have been talking about this video. Chances are you have already seen it. But hey, if you haven’t its amazing an well worth a watch! Read more about it here also: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/video-exclusive-bot–dollys-the-box-unpacks-a-radically-new-design-concept
Isadora user ‘Lanz’ posted this on the forum. A very fun, vibrant and interesting piece. Lovely digital scenery! [More info here]
“Taking inspiration from fairy tales, In A Deep Dark Wood is a fun and interactive show about a little girl who bravely ventures into a dark and mysterious wood. Encountering tempting trees to climb and beguiling creatures, the tale unfolds as the young audience help to create a magical world using shadow and light to guide the little girl through her bewitching adventure.”
Last but not least check out ‘The zero hour’ by Imitating the Dog.
http://www.imitatingthedog.co.uk/projects/the-zero-hour/
“Taking as its starting point the final moments of the Second World War in Berlin, The Zero Hour follows the stories of three couples living through three very different versions of the same historical events”
If you have any cool videos to share then add them to the comments below.
Basic: Mapping a cube in Isadora tutorial [FREE DOWNLOAD]
I decided to put together a little demo of how I would map a basic cube in Isadora using standard Isadora actors. No IsadoraCore upgrade or third party installers required. This should work on Mac and PC also.
I have to stress this is very basic but for some it could be very interesting and extremely useful. I decided to zip the files and media so you can open it and follow it as you go along.
You need the latest version of Isadora. (I actually used the latest beta but this will be fine)
[DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL & ZIP FILE HERE]
Don’t forget I always welcome a beer if you found this useful 😉
Any questions or comments then please add them below.
Cheers. Enjoy!
Skulpture
It’s (all) about time! [Isadora and Duration – a new paradox?]
Approximately 4 months ago a new discussion came up on the isadora forum regarding Duration a ‘timeline for creative coding. Create live performances, interactive installations, and music visualizations by synchronously composing servos, lighting, and projection’ At first I will admit I though; thats nice, a cool tool and one to remember. Bookmarked the website and that was that.
A few weeks later whilst going through the Isadora forum I spotted that this discussion was starting to develop more and more and as I helped (a tiny amount!) to unwrap the OSC capabilities was it then that I though just how powerful this could be with Isadora.
As you can see in the post it was March when I commented on just how powerful this ‘time’ business could be. Now I know first hand that Isadora was not originally made not to conform to ‘normal’ time, let me explain… Reading Marks paper/work and talking to him first hand on a fair few occasions; Isadora works in percentages (%) because the time aspect is almost irrelevant as its a live, real time performance software. It troubles some users at times, but of the 9+ years i’ve worked with Isadora it has never stopped me doing anything. In fact eliminating the time factor has made things a little less complicated for me. Instead of triggering the next ‘thing/action’ at 1 minute and 29 seconds you just trigger it at 99% (if the video was 1 minute 30 seconds long for example) The only time (pun intended!) that it causes me trouble has been dialogue between dancers or actor who are using the end of a track or video as a cue to walk of stage…. at 1 minute and 29 seconds!
So anyway. Duration. Duration can, is, going to, might, change Isadora and turn this perception on it’s head; because it can control Isadora using a *drum roll* timeline. It does this by using OSC and the timeline can be anything from 1 second to days upon days, weeks, a month – ideal for instillation and commercial work.
This means you can create your Isadora scene(s) and then using a few OSC listeners and if you are clever like the guys on our forum, you can create your own users actors. Thus; playing back your Isadora stages in order over a fixed period of time. Because Duration is obviously a software it can, doesn’t have to be, be looped. So there actually is no end point.
There is also Iannix; but its more more complicated, but same principle. http://iannix.org/en/index.php
So maybe Isadora will no longer need a space to jump to the next scene? Maybe setting up lots of complicated MIDI triggers, DMX triggers and HID triggers will be solved once a show has been sequenced? But does it make it boring, too easy? It’s not really what Isadora is about but the fact that you can do it now is nice. And who am I to say it’s boring, if it’s what the job requires then do it I guess.
Duration and Isadora, working together, control time – a new paradox?
Thoughts?
Isadora & Ableton Live Virtual MIDI [part 2]
This is very similar to my previous video about Isadora and Ableton Live (part 1). But rather than using MIDI notes (triggers) I have used MIDI automation data.
Needless to say you can have multiple clips sending out multiple data feeds. Possibilities are endless really.
The above method is really good for syncing effects with Abelton and Isadora in a VJ or AV performance.
Any questions or comments… post below.
Thanks,
Graham
Isadora & Ableton with Virtual MIDI [part 1]
As the title says. How to send note values from Ableton to Isadora (works both ways actually)
Video quality isn’t amazing but hopefully its clear enough to see the work flow.
You can also send controller values not just notes.
Any questions ask away….
A new Codec ‘HAP’
An interesting new codec from Tom Butterworth and the VDMX crew.
“Presenting Hap, a family of open-source GPU accelerated video codecs for Mac OS X.“
Shifting the burden from your CPU to your GPU… this codec sounds great. Ideal for VJ’s for sure. Nice to see more ‘live performance’ codecs coming out these days.
Check out the link for all the splendid details:
Graham Thorne 