New music video for Nattefrost

By Udart | Published: 9 July, 2010

The Danish act Nattefrost have asked me to create a music video for one of his latest tracks. Instead of just copying the visuals I use when performing with him live I decided to try and do something else. I came up with this idea of filming miniature projections. Have a look.

The track is taken from the album “Transformation”.
To buy the Nattefrost releases please visit
www.groove.nl

For more info about Nattefrost please check the websites
www.nattefrost.dk
www.myspace.com/nattefrostmusic

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Developing visuals synced to a music composition

By Udart | Published: 20 April, 2010

Recently I have had the pleasure of working with Linda Edsjö a classically trained percussionist and composer Simon Christensen in developing visuals for a piece of modern compositional music. The project was unusual for me as we decided to try to connect the visuals computer with the computer that was running the musical backing track. That way it was possible to obtain a perfect sync  between music and image.

The music was composed as a piece in the Max/MSP software and this was linked to Modul8 (the visuals) through midi. The music software was sending midi on every beat and another midi signal whenever the music entered a new section of the piece.

To achieve the result I wanted I had to program two small modules for Modul8. These modules were in charge of turning layers on and off, applying effects and switching between images.

Excerpt from percussion concert 7 April 2010 from Udart (Vibeke Bertelsen) on Vimeo.

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Video on walls

By Udart | Published: 12 March, 2010

At live concerts video projectors will typically point to the stage and video will light up behind the band. The challenge is to enhance the message or mood of the music without obstructing the listening experience. But at this installation I made for the local Stairway Festival the projectors pointed to the side walls of the room instead. Here the video images became part of the light design and the aim was to transform the rather dull and sterile looking room into something interesting and appealing.

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Modul8 quick tip: Keep track of your files with links

By Udart | Published: 22 February, 2010

All users of Modul8 encounter the problem of keeping track of files in their projects I suppose. Sometimes you want to reuse media in new projects without creating extra copies of them and thereby cluttering your hard drive. Still you want the media collected in the same folder as the project in order to not break anything if you rename or move the original. You might think that creating an alias of the media would work, but Modul8 doesn’t import aliases.

I found another solution in the Terminal command for creating ‘hard links’. A hard link works a bit like an alias except it appears to be an actual file and it works in Modul8. In reality there is only one copy of the movie taking up space. And even if you rename, move or delete the original file the new file will continue to work.

What you do is this:

    1. Start up the Terminal app
    2. Write the command ln followed by the full path to the source file followed by the full path to the destination file (the link). Like this: ln /Users/Udart/Movies/originalmovie.mov /Users/Udart/Movies/NewProject/newmovie.mov
    3. Hit enter and the file is created and looks and acts as a normal movie file.

Tip: Write ln and then drag the source file in to the terminal window instead of typing. Similarly drag the destination folder to the Terminal and manually type a slash (/) plus the new filename. Remember a space between the command and the file path.

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Projection mapping on the rise

By Udart | Published: 17 February, 2010

As visualists have noticed already and known for some time now, projection mapping is cool. And now it seems that this technique is going mainstrem in a big way as it is beginning to be used more and more in commercial contexts. In my city I am noticing more and more outdoor video projections – some of them using mapping techniques.

For those who stumble upon this article and are not familiar with the term, projection mapping is the technique of beaming video (with a standard video projector) onto three dimensional objects and adjusting and masking the image so that it seems to follow the shape of the target object instead of spilling out onto walls etc. The result can be surprisingly effective and eye catching as the video is no longer a flat square on the wall but becomes an object in space – an animated sculpture if you will.

However besides this definition it might be difficult to explain to clients and others outside visualist circles exactly what is the big deal and what is the value of projection mapping and so we need to be able to point to good examples. I’ve tried to collect a few of my favourites.

The first one I have included because it clearly demonstrates the technique applied to a commercial context perfect for a store interior or a window display. This mapping display was developed for the MINI Cooper store in Paris:

Mapping video MINI from VisionSonore on Vimeo.

The technique used is simple and affordable for a trained visualist. In the above example the software Modul8, three computers and three video projectors were used.

The technique of projection mapping can be taken much further and the above example does not really show the full potential. Giant outdoor video projections onto buildings using advanced 3d animations creates a stunning faux 3d effect. The example in the video below is not the first work of this kind, it has been technically possible for some years now to deliver projections on this scale, but this new years show is a humourous and well made example:

3D Projection Mapping from anema on Vimeo.

Finally another fun application of the technique onto a tennis court. Actually no advanced 3d here, just some simple 2d graphics. But I like the innovative idea of using the shape of the court. The creators also did use the opportunity to project the classic video game ‘Pong’ onto the playing field.

TETRA.Tennis from 1024 on Vimeo.

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Working with Quartz compositions in Modul8

By Udart | Published: 28 October, 2009

Screen shot 2009-10-28 at 18.55.38In Modul8 you’re able to play Quartz compositions (.qtz files) just by dragging them into your media bank like any other movie. However there are a number of problems with this approach:

No 1. Performance. I have done tests and often there is a severe drop in framerate for qtz files in Modul8 compared to the framerate in the Quartz Composer editor.

No 2. You cannot decide the rendering size of .qtz files in Modul8 (in version 2.5). They are always rendered as 640×480. In Modul8 v2.6 you can set the size in Preferences but there may be many situations where you’d like to set the size for the individual files.

No 3. You cannot set the duration of .qtz files in Modul8. Duration will always be 30 sec.

I find that these problems can be solved by following the steps below and converting the .qtz file to a .mov before importing it into Modul8.

If you have Quicktime Pro (as you should – it’s sort of a vj’s swiss army knife) just

1 – open your qtz file with Quicktime pro. Then
2 – resize the viewer window to your desired size. You can hit cmd+I to view the current size in the inspector.
3 – Save the file as a .mov using ‘Save as’ where you have the option to set another duration eg. 60 sec.

Now you can open the mov file in Modul8 and it will have the size and duration you want plus in many cases the framerate will improve. Note that even though the file is called .mov it is still a Quartz composition. It’s just been wrapped in a Quicktime packaging.

Also note that if the size is too big you won’t gain better performance even if you scale it down inside Modul8. You’ll have to scale down the mov file in Quicktime until you find a size that works.

Hope this works for you

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Quartz Composer performance in Modul8

By Udart | Published: 28 October, 2009

Screen shot 2009-10-28 at 18.55.38I’ve been doing some testing and it’s my impression that you get a much better performance in Modul8 if you convert your .qtz files to .mov before importing them to Modul8. This can be done by following the steps described in this article: Working with Quartz Compositions in Modul8

I don’t know the reason for this so I don’t know if it’s a general problem or something that is limited to my OS/hardware combination. I’m running Snow Leopard on a 2.4 GHz duo core Macbook Pro.

So if you’re curious here are the files that I’ve tested with. I get approx. 14 fps with the .qtz but 57 fps with the .mov in Modul8. In Quartz Composer editor I also get around 57 fps.

particleleaves 6 (mov)

particleleaves 6 (qtz)

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First impressions of Arkaos GrandVJ 1.2 beta

By Udart | Published: 24 October, 2009

Arkaos GrandVJArkaos is out with a new beta for version 1.2 of their GrandVJ application and that prompted me to check out their software. Especially since they promise support for native Quartz Composer files. The new beta is out for both Mac and Windows. grab it here:

http://www.arkaos.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=6828

So now I have the beta and since I am a seasoned Modul8 user I thought I’d try and do a Modul8 versus GrandVJ feature comparison. Keep in mind that I have a total of 5 hours of experience with GrandVJ versus 3 or 4 years with M8, but I will try to be fair and balanced.

General impressions of GrandVJ

The basic idea of GrandVJ is not that foreign when coming from Modul8. A lot of the features are pretty much the same in both apps and I don’t cover those here. For instance the midi mapping and key mapping seems to work in a similar way, and adjusting the size, speed, transparency of a movie is also basically the same. That said I will go on to describe the only the main differences between the two apps. Read More »

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Organizing your images and movies with Adobe Bridge

By Udart | Published: 11 October, 2009

This is a short demonstration of how to use Adobe Bridge for quickly browsing through all your images and movies and adding selected items to Modul8 or another VJ application.

Now I know that everybody has their own workflow and preferences when organizing their files but you might find this tip useful if you ever find yourself in situations (like I often do) where you want to create a VJ set from items in your library and you lose track of what you have inside your hierarchy of folders and need a visual way to quickly browse through the whole collection.

This tip is a demonstration of one way to use the software – Adobe Bridge has other features like filters, search and options for rating and labeling your media (or files of any other type).

Now when using Modul8 I realize it’s better to always keep your media in the same place as the project file. In the video I drag the media directly into M8. Another and better way may be to create a project folder first then copying the media by dragging them from Bridge into the folder while holding down the alt/option key.

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A couple of pics from my current project

By Udart | Published: 27 August, 2009

My current project is an experimantal short film. I had the idea one day looking at an orchid in the window sill. I have used no post processing tricks just the plant and some visuals beamed onto it with the video projector. The visuals were made with eMotion,  the QC patch Soundflower and a particle screensaver.

I hope to be able post the film soon although my little baby girl keeps pushing my personal deadline for when it should be ready. That’s okay – these days I only do projects with a very flexible time frame.

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    Udart (aka. Vibeke Bertelsen) is a visual artist based in Copenhagen who specializes in motion graphics and video projections for live music and other events. I use my own video and animation productions and mix them on the spot at the performance. Contact me on