Live drawing demo by VJ2C

. modul8 v2.6(beta) wacom tablet from a nomad on Vimeo.

My hat is off the VJ2C for delivering to us this very clear and straight forward demo of how to use a Wacom tablet with modul8s Painter module. His little trick with repeatedly pressing the 'add frame' button with a key to reproduce a 'drawn on' look is something I never thought of. Always great when someone not in the modul8 team figures out a way to do something we never thought of. It means that the user base is really energized in exploring all of the possibilities and in return inspiring us with our development efforts.

I recommend you to show it to your friends who use modul8 and even show it to people who simply enjoy drawing and are maybe interested in VJing but are not video loop fanatics. As I have seen with the growing community of the open source TagTool platform, there is tremendous creative potential in this tool being that unlike TagTool you can mix in the usual tool box of VJ materials.

The Painter module is one of those modules that most everyone seems to have missed since its inclusion in v2.5. For me though it was one of those blessings. Firstly because I simply love to draw. I am not one to just sit there (no offense) letting the BPM do the work, and so what better way to pass a night of VJing then to add some live drawing to the mix?


JAB:Visual. A demo. 2008 from ilan katin on Vimeo.

I also found myself looking for creative work arounds to the limitations of the module. Firstly without proper Wacom support there was no pressure sensitivity. My solution for this was to use a MIDI knob bound to the 'dot' width so that I could emulate pressure sensitivity by making the 'dot' size small at the beginning of a line and then making it wider towards the middle giving it that hand drawn feel. It was tricky to do. Try drawing and moving a MIDI knob. It took a bit of practice but felt very satisfying.

Now there is Wacom support. And that is a good thing. For those who may have avoided the Paint module due to this lack of support the path stands open before you.

We still have a ways to go with this though. Would be nice to see the 'pen' tool also have pressure sensitivity added to it. At the moment the Paint system in modul8 needs to be modified and I hope that this can be added in 2.7.

But lets get 2.6 released first.