It seems that Sony didn’t really want us to know about the new stuff coming in the next version of their editing suite Vegas. Apparently the information was posted on the Sony site long enough for Videoguys to scribble down some points on a napkin.

Vegas 7

• XDCAM SD/HD support
• Improved HDV playback performance
• Enhanced hardware support for Blackmagic Design DeckLinkâ„¢ and AJA
• Improved workflow tools
• Cinescore software plug-in support
• Enhanced video monitoring

DVD Architect 4

• Scripting support
• Random playlist playback
• Keyframeable transformations, crop, and effects
• Buttons on video
• 4:3 and 16:9 preview settings

Vegas is a great NLE. I spend most of my time in Premiere but I still love Vegas for its incredible speed and small footprint, which make it perfect for mobile editing on my ageing Thinkpad. Being able to make edits, drop in new clips and tweak transitions while the project is still playing rocks me every time.

I can’t really say the new feature list looks revolutionary, but Premiere Pro 1.5 - 2 didn’t look that amazing on paper and it melted my face off It will be interesting to see what “Improved workflow tools” means. Ditto for “scripting support” in DVD Architect. Perhaps they’re getting ready for Blu-Ray?

via FresHDV

Throughout the recent spate of slow motion posts I’ve been looking at sites for the cameras themselves. These sites all have something in common: None of them list a single price anywhere.

So I sent an email to my local high speed camera dealer, and they have generously allowed me to reprint some of their prices to give people an idea of how much working with these things is going to cost. I’m not going to steal their thunder with an exact line or price list, but a ballpark figure will help you get started.

Photron FastCam-X 1024 PCI

Up to 1500fps @ 1024×768. US$80,000+ to buy, around US$2000 per day to rent in stripped down form.

If you want to spend less money you get less resolution and lower framerate. The upcoming Fastec SportsCam will do 250fps @ 640×480 and 500fpx @ 440×330. US$8800 to buy or US$350 per day to rent (US$1400 per week).

If all of this expensive gear is getting you down maybe this may cheer you up: Shot with 12 Sony K750i camera phones at 10fps. Presidents of the United States of America’s Some Postman:

(Higher quality quicktime version, more information and making of video)

I seem to be addicted to slow motion video at the moment. It may be the imminent release of the Red with its promised 120 full frames per second, or maybe I’ve just been watching too much Mythbusters. But all this high speed video showing up on TV has me excited. I’m willing to submit the world to almost endless slow motion criket or drag racing if the end result is my own 1000FPS video camera.

Motionographer just set me off again with these beautiful PSAs (1, 2) by Duckling. Intimate high speed camerawork joined with fantastic post production delivers the required road safety message with the poise of Sony’s Bravia spots but without the gore Australians are submitted to by our government sponsored propaganda.

The reverse-time gambit is getting a little played out, but only because it’s so very effective. Also linked from the Motionographer is Coldplay’s clip for The Scientist, which takes the same concept but wraps it in soppy pop ballad and unrealistic crash physics. It hardly matters though, as Rabbit In Your Headlights did it best, and David Lynch’s Bambi ad for the PS2 copied that best… Really, if it involves a combination of cars, explosions, slow motion or time-reversing it’s been done before, so we might as well just enjoy the pretty pictures.

Pleix’ “Birds” filmclip for Vitalic’s awesome Poney, Pt 1.
Fatboy Slim’s Gangster Trippin’, the logical extension being Helios‘ recent Nokia 6265 Explosion Ad.
Unkle again, with Reign.

Want to do it yourself? This Rarevision article is a little dated, but covers the basics.

But the purpose of this article is not to point out the benefits of true progressive scan 24 frames per second. It’s to talk about something I haven’t seen a lot of on the web, which is how to achieve great slow-motion photography while shooting a 24p project.

Some of you may be thinking, “it hasn’t been talked about because it’s really not that big of a deal.” Well, the truth is that many filmmakers put great emphasis on visual style, and the limitations of cheap cameras (even 24p cameras) have restricted the creative potential of visual filmmakers. The ability to shoot slow motion sequences is part of that potential, and is an issue that needs addressing.

Ok. I think I’m done with Slow Motion videos for now, but if I’ve missed any important ones please hit the comments.

The video speaks for itself really. I don’t know if it was shot specifically for the DVGuru Challenge, but it hardly matters, because the results are beautiful, and double extra bonus points for the Boards of Canada soundtrack.

I want a Phantom so badly it hurts sometimes.

Neuromixer Pro 2 on the horizon? Well I guess technically it is, but first we need to tell them what we want from VJ software.

At Neuromixer we are currently developing the most reliable, intuitive and versatile VJ application to date, AVmixer Pro 2. We are taking the existing design and functionality of AVmixer Pro 1.x to the next level by completely re-building the software from the ground up. In order for us to deliver the best product, we would like to ask you a few questions. Your valuable opinion is greatly appreciated.

VJCentral.com is hosting the refreshingly lofi survey. Copy and paste into your email client, mark answers, send, receive your ultimate VJ program in return. Awesome!

I’ve been doing some more work on my Processing-Plotter setup. The current plan is to amass a collection of Processing sketches which perform various plotter functions - initialization, scaling, shade modes, layers, shapes, communication etc. - and then put them together as a Processing library.

This is fun for me, but like the initial circle drawing test it’s not very interesting visually, so I decided to remix Mr Nibbles as a plot.

My current procedure for outputting plotter-compatible files goes like this: Illustrator > Export as Autocad DWG file > Open in Autocad and save as .PLT (HPGL Plotter file) > Copy .PLT file to serial port.
Unfortunately somewhere in the journey Mr Nibbles became corrupted, as you’ll quickly see:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://createdigitalmotion.com/images/2006/august/plottervid.swf" width="320" height="240" base="http://createdigitalmotion.com/images/2006/august/" /]

Laptops and Mac minis are wonderful, but they don’t let you upgrade your CPU or fill two PCI slots with hyper-powerful video cards. I’ve been loving lugging my Shuttle XPC to gigs, in a custom Shuttle case that I can carry on the subway or in cabs. But if it hadn’t tempted you yet, this might:

Shuttle XPC Barebone SD37P2

The new barebones kit lets you add your own Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and, with two x16 slots, ATI CrossFire-compatible video. The Core 2 Duo is not to be confused with the Core Duo in Mac laptops; this is the souped-up desktop-class Core 2 Duo (up to Duo Extreme) that’s the fastest consumer CPU on the planet. Gizmodo has the story, and readers there are confused by the cost. Let me explain: unlike, say, a new Mac Pro, the barebones system lets you customize the machine for your individual needs, and unlike almost every other solution out there, you have an upgradeable machine that you can actually lift to gigs. VJs and live visualists, I’m sure, don’t need an explanation here. Much as I love Apple, the ability to fully customize and transport your machine has a lot of appeal.

The US$537 cost isn’t cheap, but it’s not just a case — as with the Shuttle I covered here, “barebones” includes the motherboard, fans, cables, and little extras like a card reader. The case is definitely first-rate, too.

I’m still happy with my AMD-compatible Shuttle, which has now been through four gigs. This case design is similar, though I don’t like the fact that Shuttle moved the drive eject button so you could accidentally hit power. Full post-gig review of my SN26P coming soon.

Related:

Building a Portable SFF PC for Live Visuals, Music Gigs: Part 1, Assembly in Comic Book Form

Building a Gigging PC, Pt. II: RAID Setup, Installing Windows XP Without Bloat

Apologies to anyone who’s on Processing overload, but we keep finding fantastic work. Quasimondo’s Rubber Screen maps an image to a 3d mesh and then lets it jiggle like hyperactive Jell-o. The still image doesn’t do it justice; you have to try it out. Like the 90s app Goo, you can warp images in comical ways. Unlike Goo, though, everything happens in real-time, with physically-realistic animations and various cool tools. This also gives me hope for the possibilities of coding physical dynamics and fluid models in Processing and Java. (Sadly, no source code, but just playing around with it should spark some ideas.)

I know there are other projects similar to this. Got a favorite? Let us know.

DMNForum has an intro tutorial on exporting from After Effects to Flash. If you’re running a SWF aware VJ app such as Motion Dive, ArKaos or Resolume, and are yet to dip your toe into the ocean of sweet, sweet vectors, this could help you deliver smaller filesizes and higher quality than exporting shape based video to lossy formats.

If your VJ app of choice doesn’t support SWF then look to the web: For those presenting their video online who are as sick of Youtube’s horrible compression and clip loading issues as I am, this may be a reasonable alternative. I shot some more plotter video over the weekend, so I’ll post it in FLV format as an example.

And whaddayaknow, Flash 8’s new video codec supports alpha channels, so when our eventual FLV clip is played back in Flash, the channel information will have made the journey. To make sure this happens, though, we need to press the Advanced Settings button when we go to export the FLV, which will reveal the Encode alpha channel option (fig. 6). Once that option has been ticked, we can then export away.

I’m not sure which VJ apps (if any) support alpha in flash, but the idea makes me happy all over. If anyone knows about this, or if there are any flash aware programs I’ve missed, hit the comments.

If you’d like some premade flash clips to test out, check TriggerMotion’s fileshare page.

Tutorial via DVGuru

I don’t think they’ve done it just to spite Peter and CDMu readers, but not 3 days after the “is it vapourware” conversation, Thinkgeek have unboxed the first step towards Optimus.

It’s still not yet shipping, nor OSX or Linux compatible, and not really in the realm of truly useful gear ($169? How about a whole second or third 17″ monitor?), but it’s exciting news nevertheless. This device isn’t anywhere near the interaction leap of the multitouch demos we’ve been seeing, or even that daft “desktop metaphor enriching” thing, but it’s still extremely exciting that one of these thought experiments is actually becoming a reality.

There’s the obvious advantage for VJs: Triggering clips by hitting the key which displays the corresponding thumbnail, ditto for filters and transition modes, all with a stage-friendly backlit interface? Sign me up! Of course, if you want more than 3 buttons it would probably be cheaper and more functional to just get an LCD touchscreen for now, but for me this product is just as important for what it symbolises. This is the first step to those vapourware devices becoming real, and when every surface is covered with tiny displays, everyone is going to need some compelling visual content to cover those surfaces.

My fellow visualists, our time approaches. Don’t let someone else make the big money selling Matrix screensavers for all those Optimuses– Optimou– Optimii– things.