VJ RESOURCES

Software

First and foremost, I am a licensed user of Visual Jockey (vJo) 3.5 by Visualight AG. This is the software I would recommend to anybody, no matter what level you are at. You can go download the fully-functional software and all plugins and use it without any for free. You will just see a little "Unregistered Copy" banner once in a while. Once you are up and going in vJo, the two most important places to visit are the vJo Forums and the vJoUSERS sites. The forums are an international cache of kind people, users and developers alike, who are always willing to help with any questions, from the most basic beginner's question to the most advanced guru's. Because of the wonderful vibe of the vJo users, the vJoUSERS site was born. Its main purpose is the Free File Database (FFDB) where everyone shares their exported compositions, resource files, etc. Various tutorials can also be found there. My dual-machine configuration, along with the ability of vJo to bring in live video feeds, allows me to run other software as well. Anything which will full-screen is usable. I am a licensed user of MooNSTER by MoDEL. This software is not audio-reactive and requires some swift fingering, but is well worth checking into. I have written a short tutorial on 2D-to-3D Logo Extrusion using mostly common tools. I also make extensive use of several 3D object modeling and rendering tools, such as Poser, Maya, 3DSmax, and Bryce. The majority of 3D people you see in my compositions were created and animated by myself in Poser. I am willing to share any 3D object upon request. I will eventually add them all out here.

 

Remote Dancer EKG

The "RDE" (Remote Dancer EKG) was created right during my peak, before everything was stolen, last time. I have built my own EKG monitor which is about the size of a pencil box. It has audio-out jack for listening to your heart rate on a speaker. It also has 3 leads which connect to sticky probe patches which go onto your wrists, neck, chest, etc. I then bought a couple of FRS (Family Radio Service) frequency transceiver radios on clearance from Radio Shack which had mic input jacks and external speaker output jacks. I attached one FRS radio to the EKG and forced the key on so that it transmitted the audio from the EKG contonuously. The other radio was set up next to my rig and I ran the audio being received into the soundcard. Then, I convinced some volunteers to wear the remote EKG and probes while they danced and let their heartbeats control the reaction of the video projection performance. This has produced some VERY interesting results, the least of which being a lot of interest from the crowd. (: I highly recommend this to any other VJ. It makes memories. You can get the EKG kits from Ramsey Electronics for less than $100.

 

AVAIL (Audio/Video Audience-Interactive Loop)

I have come up with a chain of machines which will generate sound based on motion from a live video camera. The sound ranges from simple frequency modulation to MIDI control. MIDI control can lead back to video control (as well as control of other real-world devices!) which is why it is being called a loop. I am currently cleaning the experiment up and will release details very soon. The possibilities are endless. I could project a background with pictures of different drums and cymbols, for instance, then track movement of bodies on top of that and trigger the correlating drum sound as their hand passes through that space. So far, I am using Visual Jockey, Eyesweb, and FL Studio. I will share my vJo composition, eyesweb project and FL project as soon as I clean this up. I will also fully explain how to get it working. DETAILS NOW BECOMING AVAILABLE HERE. I will unveil AVAIL (heh) and give it a trial run during the September 2600 meeting afterparty. More to come...

 

Projector Cage

I have designed and created a contraption which solves a large problem many VJs have. The "projector cage" is a homemade cage made mostly of 12-gauge steel grating which requires only TWO points of connection. Here is the original diagram and a picture from a test-run in my apartment (click on each for larger versions): I have been using this cage since last Fall, and it has worked wonderfully every time. No longer should the mobile VJ worry about finding four places to hook his chains, as well as just hanging a flat, wooden board which barely holds his/her expensive projector! The two center ("load-bearing") chains are hooked up anywhere, at any angle you are forced to use (limited only by the length of load-bearing chain.) The four shorter ("stearing") chains are then used to stear the entire cage into position simply by re-linking them to the load-bearing chains via temporary links in more or less taught positions.

 

Universal IR Camera Booms
More to come...

 

Universal Super-Screen
More to come...

 

Like my video work? Check out my audio experimentation.