Now that a cheap SFF PC or Mac mini can output high-definition DVI, your next problem is how to manage all those high-resolution digital signals for display. Gefen, who made the switcher I’ve been enjoying so much (see previous review, 2×1 DVI KVM), have a slew of new DVI solutions they’re rolling out at the AES audio convention. Why AES? Because studios will love these setups, particularly in the case of the extenders. But they could be equally at home in a multi-computer setup or installation work. Yep, it’s another CDMo post that will have to have a big “grant application”/”budget” warning on it, as these could be spectacular for setting up multiple-computer, interactive installations:

1. 4×4 DVI matrix: Four computers, four displays, all switched via onboard controls or IR remote. 1900×1200 resolution, plus audio and high-speed USB. HDCP support for HDTV, optional RS232.
2. 4×1 DVI DL switcher: Up until now, there haven’t been many switchers capable of supporting 3840×2400 resolution, the ultra-high-resolution display used by hardware like Apple’s 30″ Cinema Display. Thanks to its 4×1 configuration and high-res support with dual-link compatibility, this switcher does the job. Like the matrix, it doubles as a full KVM (USB2 and audio support).
3. 8×1 DVI switcher: Yeah, you heard that right: a full 8 inputs at the control of a single IR remote. Full-access switching takes about 10 seconds.

Gefen has been keeping these products in the price range of mortals — well, assuming you can afford eight inputs to drive that last one, anyway — so while I don’t have pricing, I expect it’ll be down to earth as with previous products. I’m most excited about the 4×4 DVI switcher, just in terms of versatility. I can see some beautiful installation applications for that. (Visual eye candy, that is, not something so mundane as an audio studio — who said I had to be practical?)

Site doesn’t appear to be updated, but when it is, product info will be at Gefen:
Gefen, Inc.

DVGuru have reminded me about something on my projects list which really should be assigned a higher priority: Networked storage. Australian Tech Blogger of Uberness Dan has touched on this in the past and a more recent article which includes a magic list of NAS devices which allow drive spin-down. This is critical; a consumer hard drive left turned on 24/7 (which is likely for a NAS) will have its live expectancy drastically reduced if the device doesn’t power down the drive when not in use. The Mapower device from the Automated Home article does include customizable spin-down. Dan’s original pick is the Netgear SC101 Storage Central, which has spin-down via a firmware update, accepts up to 2 drives and costs under US$100. It’s PC only though, and the reviews aren’t particularly positive (Requires proprietary software to access the data? Yuck!) so hunting down one of the other options may be worthwhile. Amazon shows a resonable selection.

Personally, I already have a webserver/media server/bittorrent machine which runs 24/7. So I’m going to drop my NAS budget on a gigabit ethernet card, gigabit switch, and a couple of hefty drives.

Previously leaked mentioned Sony Vegas 7 is now available.

Official information is on the Sony site, they say $149.95 for upgrade, $499.95 new. It’s showing up on Amazon for $450ish. Tasty.

Something I hadn’t previously heard about is the Envelope Brush tool.

Envelope brush “paint” tool New!
The new envelope brush tool in Vegas 7 software makes it possible to “paint” an envelope curve over time by holding down the shift key. This is a quick way to outline the general shape of an envelope without placing and modifying many distinct points. Once you rough in your envelope, the auto thinning feature approximates the drawn curve with as few points as possible. These points can then be further adjusted.

Vegas greatest strength is its lightweight, realtime editing abilities, so this tool will put it even further ahead if you want to edit and publish fast. Podcasters, Citizen Journalists, VJs, this one’s for you.

Mixing traditional low-framerate stop motion photography with some beautifully composited morphs, Impactist’s Peace Corps spot is utterly stunning.

via Motionographer

The Impactist guys weighed in to the comments with these notes on technique:

We shot using a digital SLR for a number of reasons. First off, the resolution. The project was finished in HD, so of course we’d need greater than HD frame size. This huge frame also was neccessary for realignment since it was all hand held to achieve the end result where we’d be able to recompose within the frame.

There was no tracking software used, no plugin trickery. The majority of the work involved frame by frame painting and reconstruction of images. A custom solution was developed and tested prior to the actual production. No motion footage was used, everything was captured using the digital SLR.

In total, over 14,000 stills were shot over two days at eight different locations around New York City.

Hope that helped to make a little more sense of it.

Plenty of great stop motion and animated work on their site

When Apple released the free visual synthesizer tool Quartz Composer as part of Mac OS X 10.4, they hoped developers would take it up and create gorgeous eye candy. Keith Lang, part of the plasq team that created hit Mac software like Comic Life, has done just that with a new set of screensavers and visualizers for plasq’s audio software Rax. The lessons he learned in QC could be useful to anyone using the software, whether you’re a developer or building a live art installation or VJ set. -PK

We here at plasq recently released ’sqreensavers’ - a set of 10 screensavers based on the visualizers in our Rax 2.0 Audio Unit Host. I’m proud to say that in the short period since release the set has been downloaded over 20,000 times.

sqreensavers @ plasq.com
Rax audio app @ Create Digital Music

The good people at CDM asked me, as the Quartz Composer guy behind these, to share my experiences in working with QC.

Quartz Composer is an amazing bit of (now) Apple technology - it allows some really complex and artistic results from only a reasonable amount of effort. It’s free, and it’s also supported really well on the Mac platform - any machine running 10.4 can open a Quartz Composition within QuickTime. Finder also previews Quartz Compositions, and it’s also a breeze to incorporate into applications. There’s no support for it on the Windows platform.

QC, (as I’ll abbreviate it) is an application where you can connect many modules together to create a real time visual output, which can be exported as a QuickTime Movie, turned into a screensaver,
integrated into applications, or shared with mac users. Lots more info is on the net.

My personal experiences: