1

I'm thinking of creating a custom JVing application as a Quartz Composer composition controlled by a MIDI controller.

Tempo-aware

I want to use the track's tempo as data to affect the visuals - see below for details. That tempo will be input manually by the VJ, while listening to the music and figuring it out "by ear". In the app, it would be possible to input the Beats Per Minute number, and the app would also allow the VJ to (re)set the time of the "tick" by hitting a key/pad.

How this tempo would be used

  • Duration of animations: this tempo value will be used to set the duration of some of the looping animations, so that they loop at an interval of tempo * N.
  • Rendering on next "tick": Each time the VJ triggers a live change in the composition (for example changing from color A to color B, from image C to image D, or from animation pattern E to animation pattern F), that change is rendered on the next "tick" of the tempo.

I'm a total beginner with QC and VJing, but I'm an experienced programmer (Java, JavaScript). I have a decent amount of free time and I'm getting really interested in digital art. My question is the following: if you were in my situation, would you build the above custom VJing application based on QC? Or would you choose another software solution to achieve the same features?

Thanks for your time.

Blackbird
  • 2,368
  • 4
  • 26
  • 41

2 Answers2

2

I work in a high school theatre. Just this weekend we had a live band come in as an act. I had some of our advanced students help me build a VJ software in QC to run visuals with a midi controller and iPad (via OSC). If we had a little less time we probably would have just purchased something like VDMX to control everything, but seeing as we had two weeks of free time before the show, we made it a learning opportunity.

If we had found something published in QC, we probably would have used it as a good base tool for what we had created to get a little more function out of what we got in the time we had.

If you are doing it for personal use/shareware, I say go for it. We had a great time making what we did with some fantastic results

CameronS
  • 38
  • 7
  • unfortunately Apple has regressed QC. Facebook publish Origami, very much inspired by QC and began life as a QC plugin/extension. Vuo is probably the nearest contemporary match for functionality on macOS to QC. – wide_eyed_pupil Apr 27 '22 at 08:44
0

I highly recommend you to use Quartz Composer for your needs. Despite some flaws in the application (nothing is perfect), QC is deeply integrated with OS, compared to other apps (such as Vuo, Derivative TouchDesigner, VVVV, Troikatronix Isadora, Cycling'74 MaxMSP, etc), supports JavaScript, has third party tools for working with XBox Kinect, can work with Catalyst Pixelmad and can be implemented via Swift or Obj-C.

Andy Jazz
  • 49,178
  • 17
  • 136
  • 220