Rutt-Etra Restoration in NYC
VJ-U has posted a wonderful livecast on Operator 11 featuring the restoration of 3 Rutt-Etra raster analog video synthesizers. I was fortunate enough to be invited to check the machines out in person and have some time to try and help out. Mathew Schlanger and Benton C Bainbridge help explain the history and unique capability of the Rutt-Etra. Certainly worth a watch for those interested in the art form and unique hardware.
For those unaware of what a Rutt-Etra is, be sure and check out Audio Visualizers page on the subject. There is a lot of history with these machines, and they are still quite competent tools with a very unique look and feel.
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Create Digital Motion » Radiohead Makes House of Cards Video with 3D Plotting, Processing; Gives You the Data
[...] is remarkably similar in actual visual effect to the Rutt-Etra video synth (see also stories on Rutt-Etra restoration, Bill Etra restrospective). The process is entirely different: the Rutt-Etra processed the image [...]
July 14, 2008 @ 10:26 am
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john
great video and thanks for sharing. would have loved to have seen the machine and process as well in person.
September 13, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
john dalton
Thanks for posting this! It inspired me to write a Rutt-Etra simulator this weekend which is getting added as a new MSG Processor in MSG Evolver and Studio Artist. Feel free to post more information on classic analog video effects that would be fun to digitally simulate. There are probably a lot of interesting processing ideas that have been explored in analog video synthesizer history that may have been forgotten.
September 16, 2007 @ 5:02 pm
vade
Im glad it was inspirational. Id love to see some examples of your digital Rutt Etra. I’ve been meaning to work on a better version of my Jitter based Rutt Etra effect.
Let me know how yours turns out :)
As for previous Analog effects, thats a good question. Some research might be in order.
September 16, 2007 @ 5:18 pm
john dalton
Since you asked, here’s 2 simple examples from playing around this weekend with my Rutt Etra simulator.
http://studioartist.ning.com/photo/photo/show?id=717108%3APhoto%3A10810
http://studioartist.ning.com/video/video/show?id=717108%3AVideo%3A10802
September 17, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
john dalton
You definitely got me going on a Rutt Etra simulation groove. i wrote another MSG simulator this morning that takes some of the Rutt Etra ideas and reworks them as an black and white engraving style effect.
http://studioartist.ning.com/photo/photo/show?id=717108%3APhoto%3A10943
September 18, 2007 @ 9:02 pm
vade
Oh, that last one is particularly nice. Very very cool. Are you doing that on the CPU or on the GPU? I attempted a shader pipeline with a GLSL fragment program, but ran into some issues with high displacement amounts and discontinuity.
Anyway, really cool, and im glad the Rutt Etras inspire others :)
September 18, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
john dalton
It’s done using code that runs on the cpu. thanks.
September 19, 2007 @ 1:31 am
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Bill Etra « I AM TELEVISION!
[...] Create Digital Motion has some background. [...]
September 26, 2007 @ 10:31 pm
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