Ed: My VJ Day spilleth over a bit, so just a little more VJ coverage before we return to the usual music stuff. -PK

Holly Daggers is another superstar VJ, having toured with folks like Fischerspooner and the Black Eyed Peas. (Holly’s probably reading this, so maybe I shouldn’t mention the Hillary Duff thing — bad mojo.) Don’t miss the free Creative Commons VJ clips and futuristic fetish visual inspirations on her site. Since Holly makes better eye candy than, for example, I do, she’s found ways of inserting herself into her VJ imagery, in several videos famously in a nurse’s outfit.

Of course, to insert people into videos requires chroma-keying, the “weather man” effect that has a well-earned bad rap for looking cheesy. The problem is inaccurate chroma-keying, in which the camera has trouble distinguishing foreground from background. That’s where the Reflecmedia Chromaflex comes in; it’s a special reflective surface that helps the keying process. I got to see Holly using this with body-painted and costumed dancers at a recent Crobar gig, and the effect looks terrific. The magic comes from the 3M Scotchlite material used in reflective jackets.

Software versus hardware: Holly and I have a little disagreement going. Holly is a hardware person: if the VJ tool runs on a computer, she doesn’t want to touch it. She argues that hardware is more reliable and outputs better-quality video, and of course I staunchly disagree and say that . . . uh . . . well . . . actually, usually I try to change the subject because I know she’s got a point. One thing we can agree on is the general coolness of the Korg Entrancer, an $800 piece of gear that melds a KAOSS pad with video capabilities. Rock-solid. Add an Edirol V-4 and you’ve got some great VJ hardware; even a lot of software VJs carry some of this around. See Korg’s Leslie Buttonow write-up what happens when the Entrancer first hit Holly and Eric Dunlap’s Eyewash VJ party. (In a word: think drool.)

Thanks to everyone who’s writing in about VJ Day. It’s funny, conventional wisdom is that musicians don’t care about VJing, but here among the hip technorati of CDM, of course, things are different. And with VJing moving out of the “psychedelia” area into a range of aesthetics and styles, I expect you’ll hear more soon. Our friend James Polanco of the superb Fake Science Lab Report podcast writes in to tell us about some rising VJ superstars:

Mat Hale is a very close friend of mine that I have worked with on multiple events here in San Francisco when I was djing out all the time. Mat has also worked with his friend Vello on a ton of projects down in LA (and internationally). Sting’s tour, Jay-Z, etc. Vello is one of the founders of OVT out of Chicago that handled Rabbit in the Moons shows, all kinds of rave’s in the 90s and MOMA’s yearly event. Vello and Mat also did vid and installation work for Cirque Du Soleil & Zumanity Orchestra and Club Ice in Las Vegas. Vello is doing a ton of touring right now (just got off being Sasha’s VJ) and Mat is doing some local gigs around LA. Both are amazing, amazing producers that are creating next level content.

Indeed, for a great overview of what VJing is all about, check out Apple.com’s writeup of Vello. Thanks, James — other lurking VJs or Friends of VJs, give us a holler!

Not one but two major upgrades hit the Mac VJ market this month. Aside from Livid Union 1.5, there’s Modul8 V2. Some serious power features: there’s audio input triggering as well as standard MIDI learn, a preview panel, special techniques for saving your set without taking a performance hit, and tons of special filters and effects. Add to this power user features like Python scripting and interface construction, and this is a serious tool. There’s even 3D and particles. Wild. Like many VJ apps, there are demos available, so go take a look. (via vjcentral and several readers — thanks!)

As musicians, these kinds of features sound familiar: “Four effects layers per channel , larger clip bank, integrated MIDI templates, effects triggers, clip sequencer, easy-to-use LFOs, new effects and parameters.” Some kind of new sampler/synth, maybe? Actually, it’s the new features in the upgrade to the VJ app, Livid Union 1.5, for Mac OS X. Fortunately, unlike hardware “video synthesizers” like Edirol’s CG-8 ($5295 list), this will set you back less than the price of a car — more like US$299. Sounds good to me. Union features lots of MIDI control, so if you’re looking for a “performance VJ synth,” this could be a good option. Expect an all-out VJ app review soon; competition is getting fierce.

PC users, fret not: Plenty of Windows-based apps, too, even though the VJ community does tend to tilt Mac. More soon.

I’d be remiss on VJ Day if I didn’t point to some great sources of VJ information. Above all, the greatest out there is the terrific Website VJ Central. Think of it a bit like the EM411 of VJing; you’ll find discussion boards, articles, news (both of the product and event variety), calls for VJs, and (if you’re having trouble picking a tool), software reviews, plus a lot more.

While not strictly a VJ site, Video Thing certainly belongs among your RSS feeds for video-related oddities. (No, Music Thing is not becoming a franchise, though the blogger’s a friend of Tom’s.)

“But what about paper?” you say. For reading compatible with use on subways and toilets, you’ll have to wait for VJ-Book. It’s a promising project currently in seek of a publisher; in the mean time you can “beta test” as a reader.

Oh, yeah, and of course there’s this site, too. I should have more VJ-related coverage soon because of some projects I’m working on, but in the meantime check out a few of my previous stories:

Report from the LAVA VJ party in LA
“VST for video”: the FreeFame video plug-in format
Expensive video hardware: Korg Kaptivator, Edirol CG-8, and Pioneer DVJ-X1
Free software: Neuromixer for scratching with video
Profile of a VJ: Melissa Ulto, aka Mixxy

Got more favorite resources, or want to pimp your own blog / portfolio? Hit comments or drop me a line.