Mike Una has written up a fantastic mini-tutorial on how to make your own mic flag — that is, the little oldskool decorations broadcasters put on their mics. (Well, anyway, the oldskool ones looked coolest.) This one seemed a bit better-suited to createdigitalmusic.com, so it’s over there, but imagine it may interest some of you doing your own video production — or get someone to interview you as the VJ superstar you are.

How to Build a Mic Flag and Look Like a Real Broadcaster

Image: Bob Gowa at the wonderful vintagemicflags.com.

It’s been almost 6 months since we posted about Shiffman’s Most Pixels Ever processing library, but that doesn’t mean there’s been no progress.

Recently he’s left the lab and ensconced himself in front of the IAC Video Wall, bringing Most Pixels Ever to the screen with the most pixels to give.

Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run from shiffman and Vimeo.

A little technical detail, with an announcement:

Each cell of video is 60×45 pixels. The entire system is run by 3 Mac Pros each pumping out 2720×768 (totaling 8160×768 for the entire wall.) I’m going to be releasing the Processing library/framework this week! Stay tuned!

Releasing the library? You mean this library?

The site is still a little lean, but early adopters can download the Alpha version and read a little about running it with processing.

Bouncy bouncy!

The Video Critter hardware video synth kit seen here last year has been incarnated as a Cellular Automata kit from the good folks of MAKE Magazine. MAKE has been nice enough to do the scary bits for you: the board is assembled and programmed, so all you have to do is make a nifty case.

Cellular automata video synthesizer kit [MAKE:blog]

And if that’s not enough motivation, maybe free prizes will be. Our friend Wiley of Video Thing writes in to let us know he’s got a contest in the works:

MAKE: Cellular automata video synthesizer kit & Videothing CONTEST! [Video Thing]

Finish up a project using the synth by July 1, and you could win some nice hardware: an MP4 recorder or EyeTV.

This is indeed a great idea, but I’m still interested in what else the Video Critter can do — or what other analog hardware projects might be possible. Somewhere out there there’s someone building an open source video mixer; I can feel it. Or not. But I can imagine there might be.

Clearly, we also need to work with MAKE to follow up the music event we had in Brooklyn last month. They have some other themes and the Maker Faire in May, so maybe this summer. New Yorkers, get in touch and let us know your DIY projects and we’ll start to plan.

And just as we’re agnostic about mixing analog with digital on Create Digital Music, I hope to see more analog-digital hybrids here on Motion, too. This particular project isn’t quite tearing me away from my ongoing OpenGL lust yet, but I can see mixing in some hardware.

Soldering is strangely addictive, like knitting for tech geeks. Maybe it’s the solder fumes, but I find myself oddly relaxed. The other big surprise is that it’s really far easier than beginners think. (Read: I’m a klutz. If I can do it, so can you.) And there are plenty of good visualist hacker projects to which you can apply your skill, from the Arduino to video switchers and synthesizers and other sensor-to-computer rigs for DIY VJ controllers or distance-sensing 3D animator thingies.

But the one soldering mountain even hardware DIYers seem not to fear is surface-mount soldering. It requires a lot more precision, and has a far greater potential to destroy an expensive component (partly because it’s trickier, and partly because you’re more likely to be doing it with something pricier).

Sparkfun, purveyors of cool DIY gadgetry and raiders of credit cards (at least mine), have a terrific tutorial on SMD:

Sparkfun Tutorials (scroll down for multi-part SMD knowledge written in a beginner-friendly style)

I hear you. You’re still not sure you won’t screw this up. It’s easier to watch it being done than hear it explained, so watch a soldering ninja at work in this new Sparkfun tutorial video:

Perfect for assembling your own Arduino and creating a new Processing visual project. Stay tuned; I’ve got some new projects for March and April that I’ll finally get to document here on CDMo.

I wrote today about the Critter Board DIY synth/controller board for CDMusic, but I’m even more excited about the Video Critter:

Video Critter DIY, open-source audio/visual electronics platform

US$74.95 buys you a fully customizable, programmable DIY board with video out. (There’s also a $45 “mini” board that looks equally tantalizing.) The video routines are already programmed into the board, so you can write really easy, higher-level video code to put stuff on the screen. Just as with the Critter Board, you can use C programming from any Linux/Mac/Windows computer.

Of course, it’d be great to go even further, and have a totally open-source video mixer / effects unit. It’d be pricey, I’d imagine, but imagine an Edirol V-4 you could program yourself. (Uh, Edirol — ever fancied getting into open source yourselves? After all, no one could compete with your sales and manufacturing volume. Yeah, I know — snowball’s chance of this happening — but I can dream.)

In the meantime, this is a brilliant way of creating some quick, retro-looking custom video effects, and it’ll be ideal for installation work. I have too many other toys to play with to pick one up for at least a couple of months, but if you get one, dear readers, send photos and video.