London-based, French-born VJ and artist Pikilipita doesn’t touch laptops. He shows up at live visual gigs toting game systems. Having built mobile projects for the Game Boy Advanced and Linux-based GamePark GP2X, he’s now got a new machine: a Barbie-pink PlayStation 2.

Novelty this may be, but don’t think that PS24VJ can’t hack it as a real VJ app, allowing you to leave the laptop at home:

• Plays footages compressed with the Kouky video codec v16
• Supports two video layers
• Supports alpha channel
• Special effects and filters
• PAL video out signal

And because it supports up to two PlayStation controller inputs, two people can play at once. (One of the big problems with computers, I think, is that they’re entirely restricted to single-user metaphors.) Each VJ controls one video layer at a time.

Pikilipita is happy to share his creation with you, too, for a donation of whatever you think is appropriate. PS2 games don’t even require hacked systems, either, unlike DS or PSP homebrew software (which has proven a major pain for the homebrew music scene).

Pikilipita points CDM to the PSD2DEV network for more on how to develop for the system. I’m surprised at how well-documented this is:
PS2DEV PS2 Page (loaders, development toolchain, tutorials, sample code, demos)

What do you need to run them? He writes:

My systems works on any regular playstation 2, you don’t need a modified one. All you need is a special DVD called “swap magic 3.6″ (http://www.swapmagic3.com) to force booting on the USB port and that’s it!

On the USB port of the console, you insert a memory stick containing the software and the footages you want to use.

PS24VJ Project Page

Movies of the PS24VJ in action are available on his site:
http://pikilipita.com/vj/flv-player.php?mov=18
http://pikilipita.com/vj/flv-player.php?mov=17

Overview sheet:
http://www.pikilipita.com/vj/ps24vj/PS24VJ-sheet-1.01.pdf

User’s manual:
http://www.pikilipita.com/vj/ps24vj/PS24VJ-manual-1.00.pdf

If you’re near London, you can catch PS4VJ live at the AV Social. I’m super jealous:
British Film Institute AV Social

Want to learn how to pull off graphics? Make it work with optical and real for real first. Tron may have been a pioneering moment in computer graphics, but a lot of its unique look came from unique optical effects on a scale not seen before or after. The glowing screen was an actual lighting effect, which is why CG artists have taken such a liking to the film’s aesthetic, even if it was ultimately too labor-intensive to apply to the whole movie. There’s even an analog in the music: Wendy Carlos’ adept blend of big orchestral, choral, and organ textures with synths.

Of course, the makers of Tron didn’t leave out computer graphics entirely. And that makes this fan remake — no CG, and no optical effects trickery, either — adorable and inspiring.

Via Kotaku.

You’re also aware of just how much of this sequence is sound and editing. Erm, not that motion isn’t important — if I were to say that, I should say it on, you know, the other blog. Think synthesis of the two.

The nicely-growing Digital Tools blog has an excellent interview with visualist Paris Treantafeles, who works with lo-fi 8-bit-style visuals using tools he’s built for GBA and the Linux-powered Gamepark.

Interestingly, while a lot of people will dismiss the 8-bit movement as “nostalgic” — implying it’s just 20-somethings pining for their Mario-playing childhoods — Paris’ inspiration was originally vintage analog synthesizers. And synthesizing graphics is his main interest:

I concentrate on creating graphics from scratch. That’s pretty much all I do. Other people like using movie clips and manipulating them, but from my point of view it’s a good exercise to see what you can do when you have to create everything from scratch. It gives you an appreciation to form and color.

Hally // Blip Festival 2007: The Videos from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

The synthesis/sampling argument I think is very much related to the way electronic music is produced. I find that focusing on either one can be a good exercise — see our friend Troels sampling Coke bottles, for instance.

It’s nice stuff, but I do hope, particularly here in the US where the VJ/visualist scene has had trouble gaining broader recognition, that we start to see other styles on genres forming more coherent “scenes” in the way 8-bit has. Of course, what has happened for people like Paris is he’s found strong advocates in the musicians, which seems to be a key element (and has helped strengthen the visual work done outside chiptune music, as well).

Via Create Digital Music, what’s great for chiptune fans and mobile gaming musicians is also good for VJs and visualists. (Thanks, MIDI!)

Marc, Arkaos dev and homebrew game maestro alike, has posted video results of successful MIDI output on the Linux-based GP2X handheld game system, running Little GP Tracker, a MIDI tracker app:

He points out this is equally powerful for visuals:

Of course, another application would be also to use the 2x as sequencer to
drive sequences on any midi-aware VJ program. So you could for example write
an audio track using 6 channels and use the two remaining to have perfectly
sync’ed video :)

And, heck, you could also use the tracker as an interface for visuals. Or use the GP2X as a controller. Or use the tracker to sync other lights / DMX / robotics. Or … well, lots of possibilities, really.

The trade-off is that the GP2X doesn’t have much in the way of physical controls — no stylus control, for instance. But the ability to develop more easily for the platform via Linux, and the fact that this is really an affordable mobile computer, has major appeal.

Little GP Tracker (LGPT)

Still want a stylus? Mario compatibility?

Hacked MIDI Support for Nintendo DS: DSerial [Create Digital Music]

And as Marc points out, the upcoming F200 from GamePark will have stylus input. It’s a beautiful thing.