Final full System example with Resolume explanation

Here is the last installment from me about the projection mapping system before hand-in. I think this video out of all the ones included in my portfolio, is the one that demo's the combined systems strengths and weaknesses. Obviously in an ideal world I would invite everyone in the world in my room, alas a video must suffice..

As you can see from the thumbnail, the colours are once again matching up. So lets look at how to recreate this in Resolume Arena.

I have written a post a couple of months back about how Resolume works, so please read that first if you havent already to bring yourself uptodate

So in the case of replicating my Light Speaker, I used a relatively simple range of parameters

 

As a source for the colours, I am using the FFGL Colour Strobes built into Resolume. You can set the Hue or Colour you want displayed per channel using the hue slider, pictured above.

In the case of the colour organ, I used three channels, just like the Arduino - RGB. The Brightness and Opacity levels were then mapped per RGB channel, using the FFT reading as input.

In the picture above the brightness wasnt mapped yet, as that came through practical experimentation with the system. The Opacity is however. As you can see above, there are also sliders to control ranges of values being applied to each parameter, allowing for very deep control over the whole interface.

As you can also see, Resolume have actually included quick Low Mid and High buttons for mapping you parameters to one of the three main bands.

The two main controls, which effectively control the blending of the colours when audio is recieved, are the Gain and Fall knobs. these can really be thought of as attack and decay knobs on a synth and they control how senstive the reaction to the FFT reading is. Unfortunately for use as a colour organ, finding a sweet spot was really difficult. In the end, the most pleasing and representative way was to have the reaction gain set to 2/3rds on all three colour channels.

As you can see, the opacity band is fully open, meaning that is no audio is coming through, there is absolutely no colour being displayed, which was one of the main requirements of any system. However as talked about the projecter still spills light. Thats not resolumes fault though.

I found through testing that keeping the brightness band at the lowest of half open was the most effective for getting a nice colour blending, and all the previous videos shown on the blog, along with the accompanying portfolio were done using these parameters (bar one for illustration of my point).

There is a quick screen shot I just took illustrating my point about the width of control given to brightness, by comparison to Opacity. Both are just showing the Lowend Red channel. The same applies for all three.

As demoanstrated through the portfolio, the system works well, however unfortunately cannot be implemented for actual production purposes, and perhaps wouldnt be that good even if you could due to increased levels of distraction.

for the remainder, I shall be showing practical examples of my working setup that I am using to write music with currently. Cheers.

Audio Reactive and Generative FFGL Projection Mapping

So in my hunt for the most efficient way to convey the idea of colour and sound relating to one another, I have turned back to Resolume and a platform within it that until very recently I didn't actually know existed. FFGL is a framework related to Fireworks and Supercollider, which enables the use of generative graphics from within Resolume.

When combined with the hundred or so FFGL effects that come bundled with it, you can really create an astounding number of cool graphics. The beauty of this of course is that, as I have mentioned in previous blog posts, the parameters of these Generative Graphics and Effects can all be controlled with the on board FFT analysis that can be performed with Resolume.

So after a quick Sunday morning jaunt around the Matrix (Internet), I discovered a great series of tutorials covering the basics of projection mapping in order to set up the room in some semblance of what I have previously discussed here, all be it slightly roughshod (Sunday Morning, remember?)

Unfortunately the HDMI cable I have currently is only a meter or so long, I am going to go out this week and get a 5M one so I can get the projector fully back and square in my room, enabling me to map both bass traps on either side. As this video shows, currently I only have the left side of my room going, however I feel the results speak for themselves. I must stress that, when combined with my tutorial dig, I have spent three hours on this particular mapping.

I unfortunately discovered that I could have had this operating at a much greater resolution, which is annoying, as now I have to re-do the set in 1920x1080 for maximum impact come Presentation Week. As I said though, a couple of hours and I will be back to this stage full res. From that point on, minus the time I spend on the LED side of the project and written work, I will be focusing on building that set up to the point it can be run for hours and hours without experiencing the same visuals twice.

As I suspected to begin with, I have found that so far, the more dynamic the audio signal being fed into the system, the better the results. Before watching, I feel I must post a warning that this video contains strobing lights and music of a graphic nature. See what I did there? Please excuse resolution, a new one will be up tomorrow.

More tomorrow, see ya!