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March 10, 2010
12:20
ENTTEC DMX USB Pro special offer!
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As of today you can purchase the ENTTEC DMX USB Pro directly from us at a discounted price. The offer is available to all currently registered users of Modul8 2.6. Simply log into the yourspace page using your serial number and select your country from the drop down menu. The price includes the shipping cost and is best suited for people located within Europe.

Stage and event production relies heavily on being able to control lights using a protocol called DMX. If you have had previous any exposure to stage and event production you will be familiar with light desks and DMX compatible hardware that allow for controlling and automating lighting, smoke machines, lasers etc.

Modul8 can be integrated into any existing stage setup so that it can be controlled with a light controller. Using the module system, it is also possible to develop custom interfaces for controlling DMX devices. A few modules are already available on the online module library.
February 26, 2010
17:34
Hand Drawn Mapping from Retchy
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You read it right. Part of our creative community since 2007, Retchy (aka Graeme Hawkins) is a quirky animator with a curious esthetic sensibility and a taste for making it live. Graeme's work is definitely a soft spot for me. There is humor, illustration and a general air of adventure and sincerity.

Via the message system on vimeo I was able to ask him a few questions about this project and his relationship to modul8 and vjing:

m8.us: In one of your clips you mention that you were making it for VJing and you did not get to VJ or something like that. Is this still true?

Graeme: Yeah I've only just started in the last few months to actually get out there and do some vjing with a friend - that film was just an FCP edit of some content I'd created a while ago and which I'm now using in vj sets. To be honest, my VJ skills aren't really up to scratch yet. I need a lot more practice and content... love playing about with theses techniques though.

m8.us: Are you using a midi controller? If yes which one?

Graeme: I've got an M-Audio Trigger Finger drum pad that I use for triggering clips and cross fading etc, and a Behringer 2000R that I don't really use much.

m8.us: I love the TF. Its quite possibly my favorite. Its a damn shame that it has been discontinued. Can you expand a little bit more on the live drawing mapping project? Your ideas behind it? Motivations?

Graeme: The project was part of my studies at Norwich University College of the Arts where I was doing an MA in animation and sound design. It was really a series of experiments using the mapping technique, trying to find different uses for it other than on architectural, 'static' objects, but I kind of ran out of time for it on the course as I had to move on to other projects. With the first few tests I was trying to create floating, animated objects that I could move the camera around to create the illusion of movement.

The hand drawn version was really just an attempt to get away from the sterile, neon glow of the other tests you can see on my website, and I had grand visions of a really intricate, detailed setup with loads more transitions and movements (something similar to Michel Gondry's White Stripes projection video) but I just didn't have the time or resources to do anything like that. Plus it was bloody cold in the middle of winter in an abandoned warehouse - I couldn't leave the set up over night cos it might have been stolen, so everything had to be done pretty quickly and with very stiff fingers :D

My knowledge of the technology was perhaps a bit limited back then too - it was a struggle to get the dualhead2go even working! - but I reckon I could do something much better now if I were to go back to it.

And with that we both 'got back to it.'

If you're looking for some inspiration overload I highly recommend having a look at Graeme's website and his vimeo page. Personally looking forward to seeing him expand and blend his crazy animations with his ideas for mapping objects.
February 12, 2010
17:49
VisionSonore creates mapping display for MINI store in Paris
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I had planned to post this tomorrow but this was such good thing that I could not hesitate and posted a day in advance. The company of Gael Abegg Gauthey, the Annecy based VisionSonore, were commissioned by TBWA to create a mapping display for the MINI Cooper store in Paris. The campaign is called 'Live' and highlights all of the activities that can be done when they buy themselves a MINI. Gael confirms that for this particular installation they used three beamers, two laptops and (appropriately enough) a Mac Mini. From the module end, the setup was rather straight forward, using the Paint module to create masks and the SlideShow module to run through the clips.
February 11, 2010
13:36
Sweden report, Sonom again, Oigovisiones
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[ Audiovisual live based on sinusoidal waves ] from Sonom on Vimeo

I have a bunch of things to write about but this video above from Borja Alexander of Sonom. Water is one of those properties that does not come quickly to mind when working with computers. And here we have a pool a very, very cold water that is projected on with geometry responding to sound in real time. This is somewhat less moody then previous works of Sonom but no less otherworldly.

Just recovering from the past weekends festivities at PixelVärk. Some special special memories collected from this experience like walking a few kilometers, ankle deep in snow through fields and forrest, dimly lit with a half moon to take a bus into Gothenburg. Helping setup a video wall at club Nefertiti and in the process getting to know VJs of the area, most associated in the Swedish VJ Union. Chatting with a very enthusiastic couple who came up from Copenhagen and like to VJ to Balkan music. I also had a chance to meet up with part of the Startsladd crew again, the discussion led to an interview I am conducting with Andreas Apelqvist about the Startsladd project Club Visual Planet, coming to you in a future post.

Sadly I had too much stuff to cary with me, 2 midi controllers, small LED lamp, DMX controller, all in one backpack and the camera got left behind. The Midi Thief (aka Mikael Wehner) was taking a lot of photos so I hope we can see some of those at some point.

The weekend ended with trip off usual path to a similar world of obsessions, at the recommendation of a friend, GOTO80, Mikael and I took a cab to an industrial park area of Gothenburg to see the week end long demoparty, Datastorm. If you are not familiar with the demoscene, the basics are that computer enthusiasts use older computers like the Commodore 64 or the Amiga to create short animated sequences with music that represent their skills in coding, design and sound. The demoparties bring the community of demoscene creators together to compete in various categories. The animations are never rendered but are played back in 'real time' as you would do if you used the animation FX in modul8 or if you coded it using the module system.

What really excited me about this party, besides beer drinking computer enthusiasts was how people were gathered together and motivated to do something, to be creative amongst other creative people. There were no big sponsors and you could actually talk with people about what they were doing. It reminded me somewhat of LPM in Rome, the ongoing bustling activity, a cycle of presentation and creation. It was spirited and therefore liberating.

DesOrbitArte CUE Berlin TorpeDeArte from JERONI on Vimeo

If C64 and Amiga programming is not your style there are a variety of other activities that combine social activities with creation. The video above features a semi-time lapsed video of a party with visuals created on the spot by Visual Berlin's one and only beloved
Oigovisiones films. Not the entire video is dedicated to his humorous VJing, but the overall concept of this event is quite endearing. Get a bunch of people together, put up a green screen and camera, take video portraits of everyone who attends, get some bananas and then promote it on sites like qashqaiurbanlife. I am a huge fan of Oigovisiones. Unfortunately I can't embed my favorite demo of his here for the same reason he got kicked out of doing visuals at a party in Berlin last year. Now that's a reputation a VJ can stand on.
February 01, 2010
17:52
PixelVärk, Gothenburg, Sweden, modul8, workshop.
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Opening Party, Gothenburg Film Festival from Startsladd on Vimeo.
They got the party started up in Gothenburg.

As promised here are some more precise details in regards to the modul8 workshops taking place in Gothenburg.

Who?

To start with there are two workshops. A basics workshop provided by the VJs who featured and published the video, Andreas Apelqvist and Dan Nordgren from the local VJ group Startsladd. This class is a prerequisite for the advanced class that I will host. Please do not let the advanced label scare you away. Take the basics class and you can enter the advanced class with head held high.

When?

The basics class is on Thursday, February 4th from 18h00 through 20h00.
The advanced class is on Saturday, February 6th from 14h00 through 18h00.

How?

Both workshops are free! But you will need to register for both because there is limited seating/computers available.
To register for the basics class access the related page and scroll to the bottom. For the advanced class access its page and do the same. The basics class will be done in Swedish or depending upon how many people who attend speak Swedish. The advanced class will be done in English because my Swedish is limited to saying hello.

Where?

The precise location is Södra Allégatan 1B. The google location is in the link. But you still need to register to know the exact room. Fun secret VJ society stuff.

I recall quite a few requests in the past from people in Coppenhagen about a modul8 workshop. Gothenburg is only about four lovely hours by train. May be well worth a free workshop no?
January 27, 2010
17:08
Modul8 Workshop: fair - NIU Barcelona. 30 and 31 January
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Wednesday, and with the experiences of the workshop this past Saturday still fresh in my head some more announcements of upcoming workshops, in fact a whole series of them, this time hosted by a regular on the GarageCUBE forums, gNomalab.

The first of these will take place at NIU in Barcelona and will be conducted entirely in Spanish. I am not sure exactly what qualifies as 'intermediate' but you can get a taste of what may be in store for you by checking out the workshops page on the VJ Spain website that features several videos of what has transpired in past editions of their workshops.

Here is a quick listing of the other upcoming workshops hosted by gNomalab:

- Modul8 Workshop: Intermediate level - Artenet, Madrid. 9, 10, 11 February.
- Modul8 Workshop: Advanced level - Artenet, Madrid. March. (date tbc).
- Modul8 Workshop: Intermediate level - Artenet, Barcelona. from 19 to 23 April.

I will post reminders of these as their date approaches.

As for me, the upcoming workshop will be in Gothenburg, Sweden as part of the PixelVärk festival. This is actually the first Pixelvark is hosted in this city. Previous editions were hosted in Stockholm, home base of the Swedish VJ Union, who that put all their energy into this effort.

You can follow the links for further details.

The workshops are free but you will have to register as they have a room with several iMacs. Because of this seating is limited. There will be a basic workshop hosted by Andreas Apelqvist and Dan Nordgren from Startsladd, for those that have never had any previous experience. The advanced class will be my domain. the basic workshop should fulfill the requirements for it.

I will post more detailed information right on this page by the end of the week.
January 22, 2010
20:04
Oh so pragmatic. Quick glimpses.
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This past week was Bread & Butter here in Berlin , the international fashion fair. And what is a fashion fair without after parties and visuals to decorate these events where new trends are concocted and consumed simultaneously? A series of photos by Kriszta Turna provide a glimpse of a setup by David Szauder for a Custo after party at CHB in Berlin. David (aka Pixel Noizz) works a lot with Quartz Composer and Flash and was able to integrate these elements together quickly in order to have control over the atmosphere in the entire room. Color plays an important part in mood and this series of photos demonstrate Davids understanding of what is necessary in order to acheive this. David says "I was able to bring together my material quickly, QC compositions, .swf files, still images. No MIDI controller, mouse or any other external device. Amazing how quick and simple it was to put everything together. On top of that the client was really happy with the results."

I recently modified my keyboard. Look closely. I don't need to look at the keys anymore when I type, but when I am using my keyboard to control modul8 I like to have an alternate way of changing layer sets and for this I use the 1 through 8 keys. Fine for the numbered keys that control group A. But what about group B? The solution? Grab the 1 through 8 keys from my older, backup laptop and swap them out.

Our recent move gave us access to more space and finally ready is the production space for t-shirt printing and box assembly.

Installation, created by Fred from the Le Zoo crew in the Kab club for last weekends 4th edition of the Drum & Bass + Hardtek party. It was a 4 output setup with a Mac Pro. Connected the MacBook Pro in FireWire transfer mode so I could use my own system. Most charming. The tech was pretty much the last minute and setups were scrambled for at the last minute yielded the following setup:

After creating compositions with all of the layer sets using the library of foreground material at my disposal it was just a matter of re-arranging layer sets over time for variety sake.

If anyone has their own Korg NanoKontrol that they want to share please let me know. Would be fun to see what other people are doing with the same controller and I would gladly test them out and then post them here.

Finally would like to give a big thanks to Visual Berlin and fh.Meppen as well as all who attended the workshop this past Saturday. It was a small but very friendly group of people. Not only did they have a lot of good questions that kept things rolling along, they also communicated with each other giving the whole thing a sort of communal affair. There have been a few requests to do another. Likely in August. So if you are interested in a workshop, live in Berlin or happen to be coming to Berlin this summer please be sure to communicate so we can all get together.
January 16, 2010
15:47
First modul8 workshop for 2010!
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The year is brand new but already there are several modul8 workshops lined up. The first of them is in Berlin within a few days, hosted by the near and dear Visual Berlin at a share studio space that I recently started to occupy called fh.Meppen.

This is an excellent chance to learn a lot of the basic operations of the software, and as usual, learn some methods about mapping midi controls and organizing your projects. I will also cover some of the new features such as the Sound Analysis and a quick run through controlling lights with DMX.

The workshop will be in English. The workshop is free for members of Visual Berlin and 20 euros for non-members. The proceeds go to Visual Berlin and fh.meppen. No need to reserve. Just show up and we'll find a seat for you.

The address: Schliemannstr. 37
Time & Date: Starts at 13h00, ends approximately at 19h00.

If you have any specific questions please do not hesitate to email me at support at garagecube dot com.

Look forward to meeting all who attend.
January 05, 2010
18:32
Modul8 Team wishes you a Happy New Year for 2010
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The modul8 Team wishes you an exciting and productive new year. With it we bring several announcements.

We are pleased to announce update Modul8 2.6.1 and Modul8 2.5.10.

The following changes have been made in Modul8 2.6.1:

- Improved assignment of live video capture feeds.
- Fixed minor problem when updating images in a Movie Folder and added the ability to load an empty folder.
- Fixed a potential problem with DMX when quitting modul8.

In both Modul8 2.6.1 and Modul8 2.5.10:

- Fixed some small problems with the authorization/de-authorization process.

You can download the updates by using your serial number to access the 'yourspace' page located at the following address:

[www.garagecube.com]

If you experience any problems with modul8 please be sure to contact us at support - at - garagecube - dot - com.

HomeVJ loops!

As a special thank you gift to those who purchased modul8 within the last year, or upgraded to modul8 2.6, we present to you a selection of free video loops from the HomeVJ label.

You can access the yourspace page to download the loops.

The HomeVJ label specializes in a unique flavor of quality designed VJ loops.

For more information about the HomeVJ label visit their website at [www.homevj.com] .

Initially planned for January 4th the deadline has been extended to January 15th.

You can apply through the Mapping Festival website at [www.mappingfestival.com] with your proposals, be it a VJ set, AV performance, theater, dance, installation or lecture/workshop/presentation/demo.

If you want to present your products and/or activities (hardware, software, collective, agency, company, etc) in a space dedicated to VJing professionals, please contact them for more information at: pro - at - mappingfestival -dot - com

Best wishes,
The Modul8 Team
September 14, 2009
14:03
Modul8 v2.6 Public Beta
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Hello everyone,

GarageCUBE has released a public beta of modul8 v2.6. It includes several new features and fixes as well as compatibility with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

This public beta is free for testing to all registered users and will expire at the end of this month.

The final release will be a paid upgrade of 49 euros. For users who purchased modul8 within the last year the upgrade is free.

DO NOT USE THIS VERSION OF MODUL8 FOR PRODUCTION PURPOSES.

Features and changes
- Compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
- Irresponsive and blurred module buttons in Snow Leopard.
- Screenshot of preview/output.

- Sound Analysis Configuration panel accessible using 'Edit > Sound Analysis.'
- Apply sound analysis through the Animation FX menus.
- New function for modules: modul8.getSoundBands() returns the 23 bands (20:low, 21:mid, 22: high)
- Adjusting the sound input level within modul8 changes the default input level in System Sound Preferences.

Layers / Media
- Increased live video feed to 4 simultaneous streams. Cameras can be assigned to the inputs available in the Special Media panel using the QuickTime preferences panel in the Video Capture preferences.
- Dragging and dropping a folder with images into the media set creates a sequence that can be controlled like a movie. Adding and removing images from the folder will dynamically modify the sequence within modul8. The maximum pixel size of movie folder can be set in the preferences under the Misc tab.

Blend Modes

- Additive and subtractive blend modes made available for all layers.
- Wacom tablet input is available in the module system. The Paint module has been modified to take advantage of this feature.
- Sound balance can now be controlled in the Opt. tab of the main layers interface.

DMX

- DMX support available exclusively using the Enttec DMX USB Pro device.
Using the module system it is now possible to control modul8 using DMX and to control DMX devices using modul8. Fully functional and sample DMX modules are currently available.
- DirectEvent returns a new type: DMX (universe, channel, value, timestamp).
- DMX functions for modules: getDMXUniverseList, sendDMX, getDMXValues.

MIDI / Keys

- Automatic scan of MIDI devices when they are connected or disconnected.
- Added the option to filter MIDI devices. The filter is located in the preferences panel under the Key/MIDI Mapping tab.
- Import/export of MIDI and key mappings.

New module keywords:
direct_snapshot_mainOutput
direct_snapshot_previewWindow
direct_preview_position_z
direct_media_bilinearFiltering (write only)

Preferences
- The preview window can now be customized to any pixel size. This option replaces 'free mode.' Also added is a preset for 16/10 aspect ratio.
- Rendering size of Quartz Composer file can be set in the preferences under the Misc tab.

Bug fixes
- Added missing and or incomplete descriptions to the keyword browser.
- Modul8 was not receiving data from Korg nano kontrol when two controls were used simultaneously.
- In a specific instance the alpha IN/OUT buttons in Transformer/Particles were not updating.
- In some instances preview tabs disappeared when playing back a Logical Record.
- In the module system some values were returning incorrect values or the value could be misinterpreted.
- Logical Record not recording time position, not displaying counter accurately and Layer Logical Record not recording with Logical Record and hide/show of layers.
- Invert Output, Add Output colors and Trace not rendering when using a large Clip in Advanced Output.
- Double clicking on module icons, pressing command + Q on launch causing modul8 to crash.
- Search for missing files could produce memory leak.
- In some instances QuickTime movies in photo-jpeg codec could cause crashes.
- In modules using drawView, fillrect not erasing and filled canvas with color causing color to invert.

Freeframes plugins are now searched in:
"directory of Modul8"/Plug-Ins
/Library/Application Support/FreeFrame
~/Library/Graphics/FreeFrame Plug-Ins
/Library/Graphics/FreeFrame Plug-Ins

If you have not received a message directly from us and would like to participate in the Beta release please contact me at support [at] garagecube [dot] com and I will provide you with the info for downloading it.

Your feedback is very valuable to us. If you find a problem please send contact support [at] garagecube [dot] com with your serial number, a clearly outlined description of the problem, your system profile and your crash logs if they are available.

A section of the forum has also been created for sharing your feedback with the community.

Happy testing!

Kind regards,
Modul8 Team