Escher's Cube - New Desktop Toy Idea

Escher's Cube from George Toledo on Vimeo.

This is an idea I had when experimenting with what, in my mind, was a kind of 3D Spirograph, but with cubes instead of lines. I started making striped multicolored objects, and my results started hitting me as a kind of M.C Escher-ized version of a Rubik's Cube.

Basically, I like just "playing with it" like a toy (it runs as an application, and morphs into various shapes as you "do" different things), but I felt like making a video render with Quartz Crystal to show it morphing from a cube shape to something more ornate.

I'm flipping it from a "wireframe" outline mode to a solid object for a bit of this, changing color some, to give the look of it kind of fritzing out. I like the thought of tying that visual result to ambient sound, so that it can respond to vocals or music. I'm likely going to give it the virtual "beach ball" treatment, so that I can fling it around the computer screen and have it bounce all over the place. Totally a desktop toy, frilly app.

I'll post a simple app version of it soon.

Dancing

troupe from George Toledo on Vimeo.

Playing With Boxes

Playing With Boxes from George Toledo on Vimeo.

GT L3 Redux

I have changed the default opening parameters some, and fixed a bug with file info when loading external/internal qtz fx.

GT L3

Ok, I've made a new version of the line drawing app, posted in the Box account, and at the Kineme Composition Repository.

http://kineme.net/composition/gtoledo3/GTL3

GT Lines 2.0 Pop Art

Take 2. In the Box account on the sidebar here, or at the Kineme Composition Repository.

Parameters are available via the menu bar, or command-i.

GT Lines

I like those zingy lines that are used so much in advertisement art, and I've had it in the back of my mind that I would experiment with line groups, and a kind of animated line art where the apparent camera follows the line group. I haven't been able to get to experimenting with this for a bit, but a question that was posted on the Quartz Composer Developer mailing list has kept the concept towards the front of my mind.

I'm uploading a pretty alpha application that I haven't spent much time with, that can make groups of interactive animated GL lines in real time. When it opens, it will be on an auto horizontal scroll. Experiment with horizontal and vertical two finger scrolling, especially in the auto scroll off mode, and you can get your lines to move around or rotate.

This uses the Kineme GL Tools plug-in to render the structures, and I used Quartz Builder to "app-ify" it, after programming the qtz in Quartz Composer.

I've worked well past what is shown by this app, I'm just reflecting on exactly how I want to implement some of the extra functions I have going. In my more developed unreleased version, I've setup some stuff to make it look more organic and like an actual camera environment, with a feeling of focal distortion and peripheral blur, and ability to back up the relative camera distance and coordinates, and some audio and motion interplay.

It's working well, but I'm contemplating if and how I want to implement a few of the control methods, especially whether or not I want to hook up some artnet and osc control or keep it simpl(er). Adjusting for x/y when I adjust Field of View and dynamically rotate the scene and translations has been the cool part. I'm just undecided if I want to make the x/y point automatically adjust when I change my view point, or what exactly makes most sense. I'm leaning towards preset modes.

Today, I told myself I would work on a video for some music I have recorded using a mostly non-QC image tricks, but ended up starting on this in the morning and got totally side-tracked. After spending this much time on it, I feel like I might as well change my video plan, and use this for a major part instead!

Massacre - The App

I decided to make a running application version of the "Massacre" blood effect for those who Quartz Composer technology is more obscure for. So, this works like a typical standalone OS X app, and doesn't need to be run like it's a special effect inside of another application.

If you want to pull up your controllable parameters, either use the menu bar, or hit your command key and the "I" key. Hit "Esc" to exit.

There is an audio reactive setting in the parameters with controllable sensitivity, some scaling options, etcetera. It is the "massacre.qtz plus".

Compiled with Quartz Builder. Runs on OS X 10.5 or 10.6. It's available in my Box account on the side bar.

New Fractal

Vimeo put this vid up on their staff picks a couple of days ago. I was happy with the way it turned out, so it was nice to see them do that.

The visual was put together in Quartz Composer, using some different methods of image generation, and tons of creative filtering. The render is a Quartz Crystal render, though I did render to png in High quality, and then run through a separate H264 pass using MPEG Streamclip (to make the movie easier to view for people with slower internet connections), after joining the audio back to the movie render using Quicktime Pro.

I made the music using Garage Band and mixed with Logic, and it's loop driven stuff. It was a rare case of having a visual, and wanting to fit some music to it, instead of the other way around.

As far as the choice of Garage Band goes, it's not for lack of having other stuff (I have Logic, ProTools, Cubase, Acid, Digital Performer, Samplitude, some Roland recorders, Tascam stuff, and an MCI reel to reel, but Garage Band is fun for quick stuff, especially on the run... if I'm working with loops, I actually prefer it to Logic for the arrangement part. I think Garage Band is a particularly well done program).

This was put together in 10.5. It makes some heavy use Kineme Audio Tools and GL Tools, and the v002 Optical Flow, and some other slight of hand!

New Fractal from George Toledo on Vimeo.

I was thinking...

They say that one day your life will flash before your eyes and to make sure it is worth watching. Just make sure you don't watch the part where your life starts flashing before your eyes, or else it's "hey, this is some crazy infinite loop going on here".

I was thinking...

It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. What's easier still, is to accidentally find a magic lamp and ask the genie for unlimited wishes right off the bat.

Best Hall and Oates Video EVER

Ben Franklin - Totally Radical

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

I was just doing a bit of reading on a childhood idol of mine, Benjamin Franklin. Fascinating.

The Purposeful Exception - Inducing Errors in QC for a Reason - 3D Transform Tutorial

With Snow Leopard, the 3D Transform patch (QCCamera), has had an update. Along with the options available in 10.5, 10.6 has introduced x/y/z scale option. This allows one to manipulate the view matrix.

Using these parameters, we can get a Sphere patch to look like this:



This is great; we've turned a spherical shape into an ovoid using built in patches! The scale manipulation can be used not only a simple example like this, but also with complex scenes.

The only problem is with this scenario is that someone using Leopard will see the following, with no warning that anything is "wrong":


What to do, what to do?

The x/y/z scale info remains inside the .qtz, in 10.5. It just doesn't do us any good. If we write that our file is for 10.6, it's still very likely many users may not notice that info, and use the qtz without knowing anything is awry.

Enter our friend, the insert splitter. Creating insert splitters for any input port wherever a QC patch has new ports will cause a state restoration error in Quartz Composer 10.5.

Sweetness.

Usually, we try to avoid programming that causes errors, but at least in the scenario it lets the user know that something isn't restoring correctly. We get a message that looks like this:

In this case the only part of the scaling that was manipulated was the Y scale, so I made an insert splitter for that value to show that the Y scale restoration actually fails whenever the qtz is opened in Leopard 10.5. If one was to take this same qtz and open it back up in 10.6 - no harm, no foul - the scale manipulation remains.

It is only if one takes the same file once the insert splitter has been broken, and re-opens in 10.5, that a warning will no longer be generated. This isn't a great scenario, but at least it's part of a working method for handling this problem.

Cool Air Vid I'm digging:

AIR MUSIC VIDEO SING SANG SUNG from MATHEMATIC SAS on Vimeo.