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:

Thanks for your patience here at Create Digital Motion. I had been away for a week at a workshop on designing interactive installations with Flash at the Anderson Ranch, and my co-editor Jaymis had an emergency to deal with. We’re now back in action, and Flash fans, I’ll have plenty to share if you’re up for it. (Just holler hi, and I’ll bring some Flash and ActionScript tips!)

I admit to being an incurable retro junkie. With that in mind, it’s worth making Super 8 part of your digital image arsenal. Even though few Super 8 cameras have been manufactured since the early 1980s, Kodak still offers a solid lineup of color and black & white film for as little as $14 per 50 foot cartridge (which lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds). Once you start shooting motion picture film, there’s no turning back — there’s something addictive about the sight of genuine film grain and the way film responds to light.

Cameras are inexpensive and plentiful on eBay. You should expect to pay under $100 for a well-equipped device that can shoot at a “professional” speed of 24 frames per second and offers useful options such as slow-motion and timelapse. In fact, the ability to shoot film at a variety of speeds is one of its strongest benefits.

Once you’ve captured images on film, there’s no need to haul out a clunky old projector. Many companies offer pro-quality film to video transfers, starting at around $20 per reel. You can even purchase excellent video transfer equipment for under $1400. Once your film has been copied to miniDV tape you can manipulate it using all of your favorite video editing software.

Filmshooting.com: the most active online Super 8 film forum
Kodak’s Super 8 film lineup
OnSuper8.org: one of the most up-to-date Super 8 resources on the web

Just under 2 months since the 2.4 Public Beta, Resolume have released v2.4 Final.

New Features since 2.4 Beta:

• Added new overlay mode called Alpha Luma
• Midi start/stop configuration
• Hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key when using bpm up/down controls and you will be able to jump by 4 beats at the time instead of only 1
• Removed continue/start_over in effects

With the AlphaLuma overlay mode the luminance of a pixel determines it’s alpha value. In other words, if you would make the video grayscale then the dark parts would become more transparent then the light part in the image. Compared to a normal alpha blend that has a tendency to make the result a bit gray and dull this keeps the overall image nice and bright.

Plenty of bugfixes, of course, and a free upgrade, unlike some apps we could name.

If you take digital photos and care at all about your signal, then you should own, or be planning to own, a digital SLR camera.

Of the stuff people don’t understand about DSLRs, the easiest to explain and see is dust. You change lenses, some dust gets in and lands on the sensor, each subsequent photo displays that piece of dust. Whether you can see it or not it’s effecting your images.

Despite my love of artistic challenges, eventually I got sick of framing my photos so I could crop out the dust, so I decided to have my sensor cleaned. I visited my friendly local camera suppliers and was informed that they would send my camera away for several days and charge me AU$80 for the privilege. Their alternative was a range of ludicrously priced cleaning solutions, costing on average around 20% of the camera’s purchase price. Thanks, but no thanks.

A little googling led me to Copper Hill Images’ CCD/CMOS Cleaning Tutorial pages. The procedure seemed relatively straightforward and only a little scary, so I hunted around and found an Australian supplier for the Copper Hill products. For AU$20 more than the price of a single commercial sensor clean I purchased the Ultimate DSLR Care Kit (US$51.95 on the Copper Hill Site), containing a Basic Sensor Cleaning Kit, Lens Care Kit and SensorSweep.

As I have a plotter which only speaks vectors, and Peter has motion tracking on the brain we’ve been thinking about visualisations involving vector graphics a lot recently. Someone else who has visualisation on the brain is Martin Wattenberg. I’ve encountered his work before, but hadn’t connected the projects together.

Most recently The Shape of Song (from 2001) turned up Music Thing.