I’ll be VJ’ing the 2nd installment of the chip tunes showcase known as DutyCycle, on March 28th @ SpaceGallery SF, 1141 Polk St, SF. [MAP]

You should come. It is only $3 and it is on a Saturday. I’ll be trying some new stuff and hopefully using more Quartz Compositions this time around.

So far this year it is looking like it is going to be a good year for me and the visual stuff.
I have mixed live three times this year already, have another set booked next month, a possible bi-monthly VJ “residency” of sorts at a local club and I am going to Boulder, Co to do a live performance with my great friend mr. projectile at the Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts.
The set with mr. projectile is what I am really excited about. We are going to really try and get something very well meshed together, something complimentary and something that flows.
He is going to be doing a mainly hardware live set which will flow into a set of some of his newer stuff.
I am planing on using a combo of video clips and quartz compositions, all synced to him midi clock – which I have never done before – so there is a learning curve to get over. But I think I should be able to get over it. I am pretty much spending my after-work hours, slaving over a hot processor, trying to eek out new and purty visuals.

The website for the festival reminds me, I need a new photo of myself and I really need to re-write my bio-thingie. It reads like a pamphlet on how to suck.

DUTYCYCLE @ Space Gallery SF 1.15.09 from DutyCycle on Vimeo.

(the video is now available on Vimeo and it looks great!)

Morgan (aka crashfaster) shot and edited this video from the DutyCycle show last month. It looks pretty damn nice and does a great job of giving a feel for the night. I provided him with a few clips of my vids, which are keyed and mixed in throughout the piece. He might be putting an even high quality version up on Vimeo at some point. I’ll post a link if he does.

Not a lot of posts lately.

Not for lack of doing though.

Aside from working the regular job hours people work, I have been spending the vast majority of the other hours trying to learn Cinema 4D, VDMX, and Quartz Composer.

I am getting a pretty good handle on VDMX and have used it live 3 times, starting with New Years Eve, then the Duty Cycle show, and most recently, Chinese New Years.
Although I really do like Modul8 and will still keep it in my arsenal, it just seemed to be too sluggish with my clips, at times freezing or becoming embarrassingly slow during a cross fade.

While VDMX can also get slow at times with a load of FX applied to clips, it still manages to keep going, prefering to drop the frame rate rather than choking and freezing. It is also way more modular in terms of it’s layout and just in how you perform. You really end up building a mixer based on your needs. It also seems solid as hell and has only crashed on me like twice and never while performing.

It is a very different beast though and is forcing me to rethink my sets, my clips, and my methods for mixing. It is also getting me to try and dig into Quartz Composer as well, because it really interacts with Quartz Comps so well, and with audio inputs as well, which add a level of live interactivity that I have never had before.

And lastly, I have finally gotten over a hump with Cinema 4D. I finally feel comfortable enough in the program that I can just screw around and create. I also feel good enough in it that I know the right kinds of questions to ask when I want to know something new. In addition I am using it at work as part of my work flow and am actually outputting stuff that will make it into the final piece, and that is cool as hell. I don’t think I would have gotten to this point had it not been for the opportunity to use it at work and be around people who know it better and can help me.

That is the best part of returning to an employment situation where I am workign with other creatives. the sharing of knowledge.

It’s the time of the year for shameless self promotion! Once again, DJ Mag has opened the polls to vote for top 10 VJ’s of the year. After many years of being ignored by the Academy and the Golden Globes, it would be nice to finally get some recognition.

So go and vote for me!

http://www.djmag.com/index.php?op=top20vj

The polls close on September 24th, so hop to it! If I win I promise to honor all my campaign pledges and to pack the supreme court with VJ’s and video artists.

Since I made the move from VJ’ing with a huge bin of VHS tapes to software, I have mainly used Modul8 (and also dabbled a bit with Arkaos and Livid Union). In many ways it resulted in me re-thinking most of the way I VJ’ed and also the style and types of content I would make and use.

Recently I started playing with the free version of VDMX and just last week I purchased it. I think I can safely say that it is making me re-think everything again. It really opens and a whole new world of ways to mix and manipulate my clips, and is making me think about my content creation in a new light as well.
At first glance it seems really intimidating, but once you get the basics down, it all starts to fall into place. I feel like I have hardly scratched the surface of the what it can do.

I have yet to perform live with it, but I think that will happen soon enough.

In my recent quest for better video cable organization, I came across this nice looking unit.
I’m not sure how many cables it will nicely hold but I think it would be good for the average VJ gig. Or at least MY average gig, as I don’t tent to have huge set-ups.

You can get it here for only $25, and it comes in green, which is an added bonus for me.

On that same note, I recently discovered the wonders of Velcro reusable cable ties, to keep my vid cables wrapped and organized and happy. Seriously. These things are like 6 bucks for 100 ties. They work great, hold very well, and don’t seem to pick up lots of hairy linty bits like other velcro.
I know it maybe be silly to post about such things, but it has helped me not only to keep things organized while while just sitting in my studio, but also helps me keep things a bit tidier at gigs, and that is also huge.

Kangaroom Cord Keeper Via Apartment Therapy Unplugged

This past weekend I provided visuals for a small underground psytrance party called “Revolution”. I was working in a small space literally around the corner from my place, so I had room to experiment with the set-up. I whipped together a quick platform big enough for two projectors, and attached it to I-beams on the ceiling with tie-down. For something thrown together, it work pretty well.
I aimed one projector at a wall mounted screen, and the other at a series of fine mesh curtains, hung in layers. The mesh was a bit too thin and there were not enough layers of it, but it still had a nice effect.

This is pretty awesome. Scaffolding, thin screens and a video projector.

Etienne De Crecy Live 2007 Transmusicales de Rennes from Clement bournat on Vimeo.

found at VJ.TV