VJFX: Intrinsic FreeFrame plug-ins

Tiny Demo from ilan katin on Vimeo.

I receive quite a few inquiries regarding support for FreeFrame plug-ins in modul8. Thus far 1.5 is fully supported. Unfortunately it is difficult for us to actually test each and every plug-in out there. In my own personal work I almost never use filters. My goal is usually to focus my time on fun eye grabbing loops that can be suitable for any type of music. This is my quest. That said we were approached not too recently by VJFX to share information in regards to our mutual progress in order to ensure greater compatibility between modul8 and VJFX's Intrinsic FX plug-ins. So now I have Intrinsic FX FreeFrame plug-ins and I am getting a chance to play around with them a bit.


In my initial run through testing the plug-ins I found the most stimulating of them to be the 'isFeedback.' If you are familiar with the Edirol V4 this is one of the more trippy 'mindflossing' filters onboard. Being that I don't have regular access to a V4 I was delighted that I could have the one effect that I like available to me within modul8. One of the advantages, or disadvantages depending on your point of view, is that the effect is applied only to the layer allowing for other elements in your composition to remain untouched. To demonstrate this I was motivated to create a little mix entitled 'Tiny Demo.' I applied the effect in various ways with or without using automated animation within the filter controls.


No doubt if you are into pixel based effects these plug-ins are a fine addition to the plethora of effects already available in the 'filter' module within modul8. Check out the VJFX website where you can see a full listing of all of the filters available.


If you are not familiar with FreeFrame filters at all I recommend you navigate over to the FreeFrame site. They have full listings of FreeFrame filter developers as well as a community.


If you did not know that there was such a thing as filters in modul8 beyond the basic offerings within the main interface all you have to do is access the 'filters' module from the module menu. Modul8 has a series of its own home grown filters and also supports CoreImage filters as well as the FreeFrame plug-ins that are the main thrust behind this post.

Interview with Astrid Steiner of Luma Luanisch

Last month I visited Vienna. I am discovering that it has a very vibrant VJ scene. I must have already had hints of this from brief interactions with some VJs from there such as Luma.Luanisch who were invited to the Mapping Festival last year and performed a colorful audio visual set that was one of the highlights of the festival. The person I was in contact with the most was Astrid Steiner who is one half of Luma Luanisch. The other half Luma.Luanisch is Florian Tanzer whom I only had the chance to meet during my visit to Vienna.

I actually knew of Astrid's work when she contacted us with some questions about modul8. Her signature included a link to her web site and I was very pleased with the types of projects she was working on. She was not only doing VJing but also working with Jazz groups and choruses. On top of that her images were curious constructs that were not completely literal but balanced in such a way that there was room for the viewer to connect the meaning in their own way. I believe this is one of the cornerstones of live visuals.

After meeting her briefly at the Mapping and then again in New York City last summer I proposed to conduct an interview with her for modul8.us. Proving how busy we both are it took a while to get this interview finished and I am very happy to post it for you the readers today.

m8.us: How did you get into VJ'ing? What attracted you about it?

Astrid: I’ve been working as an editor for film & television and started to VJ about 6 years ago. Video editing is a beautiful work. You influence the tempo, the look, the storytelling of a film. But it’s always somebody else’s story you tell. You are one link in the chain and have to deal with a lot of compromises. So I started to shoot and create my own footage, my own stories and to collaborate with musicians who loved to integrate videos into their concerts or DJ Sets.

m8.us: What did you study originally?

Astrid: Before I started to work in film & postproduction I studied media technology and media design. These were very technical oriented with classes in programming, information technology, signal processing. Very boring. But now I find it extremely helpful to this technical foundation.

m8.us: What process do you use when creating visuals? What are you thinking about? Is it a certain amount of experimentation that goes into it? Or do you have a clear picture in your head before handling the materials you want to use? How much of it is personal?

Astrid: The footage I use in my shows is always my own material filmed by myself or by artists I collaborate with. I don’t use found footage. That doesn’t inspire me.

When I started VJ-ing I walked around with the camera in my hand, shooting pretty much everything and anything that attracted me visually. I collected tons of clips with an interesting motion or an appealing motive, like “power poles out of the train window”, sky-scrapers, tunnels, time lapsed clouds, dancing people, highways, neon signs, graffiti. It's nice, but when you see other VJs working with exactly the same subjects you start to think. Composing video live in a club or concert is such a great opportunity to reach people, so why waste it by projecting the same pictures over and over again? VJs should seize this chance and add real creative input to an event. We should start to surprise our audience with visual differences and bring this art form to the next level. So my approach in producing clips changed a lot recently. Now I want to show visual stories rather than visual moments.



m8.us: What has been your best and on a creative level the most rewarding performance project you have worked on?

Astrid: My favorite project is “MONEY”, an opera by Gene Pritsker, an outstanding composer who integrates chamber music, hip hop and jazz in an absolutely unique and “ear-opening” way. We premiered the opera 2006 in New York City and performed it since then in Sicily, Austria and New York.

I had absolute freedom with the visual implementation of the scenes. The opera is a performance, with the musicians, the singers and me performing live on stage. The visuals play with analogies and symbols according to the lyrics. For one scene I decided to document everything I spend money on within a month by photographing the money transaction and what I bought.

Many companies pay millions of dollars to get this information about us. Having those commercial traces presented so frankly may feel intimidating for the audience. It demonstrates in a truly striking way how much you learn about a person when you trace their commercial behavior. And is that something we really want to share?

m8.us: How did you find out about modul8? What did you use before you started using it?

Astrid: I started to VJ with Arkaos and loved it. You hit a key and suddenly the video turns crazy, kaleidoskopy, flashy or distorted. I was amazed and excited by the great looking effects although I was never quite sure what exactly would happen. After a couple of gigs my excitement dropped realizing that I need more control over what I was doing. I did my research and found modul8. It was exactly the tool I was looking for, the way you control the layers complimented my idea of mixing. I needed a reliable and stable tool with a clearly arranged interface, MIDI integration and I very much liked the idea of its scalability by modules. So playing around with effects doesn’t exist in my sets any more. I focus on using images that are striking and imaginative.

m8.us: Do you prefer focused and rehearsed projects, VJ'ing or both?

Astrid: I need both. I love the club VJ-ing where you improvise and just go with the flow.

You can create so much atmosphere with the visuals, you enhance the intensity of the music and you can push the party. I love minimal techno and I love to dance behind my laptop and drift away with the music. Especially in Europe VJs became an integral part of the club scene, which is definitely a result of the VJs dedication and strong engagement rather than the club promoters’ effort. Also the audience appreciates good visuals and demands that more and more.



m8.us: Where do you see yourself moving forward with this medium?

Astrid: I am mainly interested in telling stories. Sometimes when you see a really good photograph it tells you so much more than what you actually see. I try to find equivalencies in compositing different video clips into one image. I want to trigger a story in the viewer’s eye without showing the story. What interests me most is sparking the audience’s imagination and fantasy.

m8.us: Is it important for you to be seen during the performance?

Astrid: I definitely prefer to perform on stage, especially with the interaction that’s possible when you work with a band. For example when I play with Jazz musicians they would give me a solo where I can go crazy with my video. It feels much more like being a part of the concert, so I always demand to be close to the musicians. To me visuals are more than a decorative background element. They are a creative, performative act and I want to see the VJs on stage.

m8.us: Are there other VJ's who inspire you? If not then what artists or things do?

Astrid: I love the work of my partner Florian Launisch. He is my favorite visual artist and I am very excited about our collaboration. The warm, analog and rough look of his animations has a high recognition value and I honestly don’t know a better live performer than him. Last year at the Mapping Festival I saw the band EZ3KIEL, maybe one of the best music & video symbiosis I’ve seen so far. They fascinated me with their great visual ideas and a unique look.

But in general I don’t find my inspiration in the arts. I find it in real life. Random words I catch, images I see, people I meet. It’s always reality itself that shows me what to film and tell.

Weekend (March 6/7th 2009)

TripleHead2Go VJ set. (Micro Edit.) from Novak Collective on Vimeo.

Back in Geneva for the weekend for more Mapping Festival 09 duties as well as the fundraiser party at the Le Zoo. For this all VJs in and around Geneva get together to support the night. This is really nice for two reasons. First because we all inspire each other with our work and second each of us only does about an hour of VJing and sometimes that is just enough.

On deck were Intizart, G33kConnection, Sigma6, Jehanne Zaki, VJ Lupin, Post Babylon and the very special guest presence of Superposition.



Superposition's real name is Vincent Chambacher. He is a very talented print graphic designer living and working in Geneva. He also happens to be a VJ now and then and is very good at it. On top of that he was also on of the very early supporters of modul8 contributing the modul8 logo, the Mapping logo, sticker and poster designs. He was also frequently VJ'd with one of my favorite Geneva based DJ's Dachund. He spends much more of his time just designing for print these days so it was a real treat to have him amongst us. Jehanne Zaki is a designer as well. Also one of the more seasoned VJ's of the crew she currently lives and works in Zurich and occasionally comes down to Geneva to VJ. Says something about the scene in Zurich don't it?



Intizart went all out creating special material for the MC duo 'Yo! Majesty.' Two days before the show she goes out onto the street and asks some girls if she can shoot material with them dancing and licking lollipops and stuff. She also put together a fun graphics package.


Isn't it cool that he is using a Trigger Finger?

VJ Lupin (who happens to be the author of some of the best non-GarageCUBE authored modules under the VS moniker) delivered his full body suit action along with some really tasty animation loops. He gets his materials from a lot of different sources. I don't really care where actually. I always have a soft spot for straight up fun images that will work with any moment in a club.



The highlight for me though was the mixing of Sigma6 six and GeekConnection. Both of these teams usual partners were absent so Florian (sigma6) and Vincent (GeekConnection) switched between Vincents' hand drawn concoctions and the vector/polygonal de constructions that are a signature of Sigma6. I thought they complimented each other quite nicely. Also I was really impressed at how the both of them applied themselves physically to the task.



Post Babylon is Roman Urodovskikh. I don't have any images from his VJing but he is a regular of the past two Mapping Festivals. His work is usually a mixture of 2D and 3D that occasionally converges into abstraction. One of his strengths is that he also has a sense of rhythm and knows how to mix with others. Calm and laid back he is always a pleasure to work with.



I take great pleasure in working with these people. They are sort of like family. I have inspired them and they in return have inspired me. I recall a VJ set that Intizart did with photographs of herself. It was one of the first times that a VJ set made me laugh. So I have been given this wonderful gift in that I have watched these artists evolve. This an experience that does not come with a price tag.So you are probably wondering what the video at the beginning of this post is all about? It pretty much speaks for itself. The Novak collective from the UK posted this on the forum so I thought it might be fun to add that. It did not take place on the same weekend but the video itself went 'live' right after this past weekend. Nice rear projection fun with a good Benga track always makes me happy.

Soft edge blending with the Dual Head2go and Modul8

Our good friend Deep Visual has provided some answers to many a modul8 users deepest desires. If you are not familiar with his previous efforts I recommend you have a look at his other related tutorials that we here and Modul8 often refer our users to watch.

What's more you can read for yourself how the resulting demo came to be. Big thanks to module making talents of modul8 user Anome of Iduun for cooking up a much needed tool for setting up layers with pixel point precision.

MGFest: Cambridge

Some notices of some events coming up in the U.S. If you are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts you are in luck because the Chicago based MGFest will be in your town showcasing motion based design and realtime audio visuals. Be inspired and quite possibly win some software or other objects of desire.

The directors of the Motion Graphics Festival provided the following fest info.

Motion Graphics Festival 2009
New Motion + New Sound + New Code
Cambridge Mass :: March 5-8
4 Days of Workshops & Art Showcases
http://www.MGFest.com

In its 6th year, MGFest stands as the premier US event showcasing creative motion picture design. The festival presents a year-long, regionally focused program of events focusing on motion design, sound design, and interactivity by hosting: art showcases, workshops, classes, panel discussions, studio tours, theater screenings and industry mixers.

The Cambridge Motion Graphics Festival begins March 5th, 2009 in Harvard Square with 4 days of Workshops & Art Showcases by internationally recognized artists, including: Shepard Fairey, Nine Inch Nails, Addictive TV (Slumdog Millionaire), The Mill, Digital Kitchen, Dvein, Trollback & Co, Robert Rich, Passion Pictures, Animal Logic, David Lobser (Harvard), Peter Kirn (Create Digital Music), Eric Gunther (sosolimited), Halfadeer, superDraw, Bob Trahpek (Zia-Trance), Tremble, WiiWhorld and more.

This 4-day festival in the fast moving field of design technology has opened it's Art & Entertainment events for only $7. Rather than charging the typical $500-$1500 conference fee, the Cambridge Motion Graphics Festival encourages participants to spend their money on new books, DVDs and software, offered at a discount rate during the events.

.: MGFest Schedule + Registration :: http://www.MGFest.com


Back in Chicago on March 5th, the brains behind modul8, Boris Edelstein will be participating on a special performance at the 2009 edition of the CIMM Festival.This will be the premier CAMERA WAR, a film by the distinguished film maker Lech Kowalksy. The screening will be accompanied by the composer Mimetic (aka Jerome Soudan). I am not a huge fan of the term 'Live Cinema.' Is it not just another way of saying 'Theater'? In any case this performance will probably a journey to the shores of this genre. I am sorry that I cannot be there for it. Hopefully someone will document it in some way so that we can feature/post it here.