Tag: psytrance

Entries for tag "psytrance", ordered from most recent. Entry count: 6.

Warning! Some information on this page is older than 6 years now. I keep it for reference, but it probably doesn't reflect my current knowledge and beliefs.

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# Music Visualizations - Plans for the Future

Mon
14
Sep 2015

Last weekend I was showing my music visualizations on two parties. First one was in a club, projected on flat screen, while the second one was an open-air party (my 7th and last one in this summer season :) with the image projected on trees. For this one I had to prepare something different - simple, contrast shapes and single color only, so it could be clearly visible. Here is a small video:

It doesn't look like this because I wanted it exactly this way or because that was my "artistic vision", but just because showing some rotating images downloaded from the Internet and blending transformed feedback from previous frame was the easiest way to start with something interestingly looking.

Now I have tons of ideas to improve this program as soon as I find some free time. Next to some small technical tasks like refactoring code or simply adding new graphical effects, I plan following big TODO-s (with no particular order decided yet):

Video playback. Being able to show video streams instead of still images would be great, but is also hard to implement. I plan to use FFmpeg library for this purpose. There are other options as well. I'm afraid of performace of uploading each decoded frame from CPU to GPU, so maybe using Microsoft Media Foundation/DXVA (it seems to work with Direct3D 11) or DirectShow would be better, but on the other hand, codecs for various file formats could be a problem, while FFmpeg has its own codecs.
A second window with GUI to be displayed on laptop's screen, because right now I have only standard Windows console with output done using printf() and input taken from console commands (which is not a convenient way to control the program). Next to some buttons and other controls, an important feature would be to display in this window a small copy of the final image presented on the projector (so the operator doesn't need to turn around to see it) and some technical parameters shown in real-time (like current FPS, audio UV meter).
Music analysis. Right now I have some basic audio input implemented using Windows Multimedia/WaveIn. I want to switch to Core Audio APIs/WASAPI. Currently I only measure peak amplitude and visualize it on this shape in the center, but I could extract much more information from the audio input (perform FFT, detect beat), control more parameters with it (like alpha transparency of some image layers) and try to automatically synchronize visuals to the beat.
Some framework for parameters of different types (bools, ints, floats, vectors, strings, sub-containers etc.), where each one can be serialized to/from a file and exposed to GUI for editing. I guess all progammers love to implement this :) I also did it multiple times already, but this time it will be the ultimate, universal, all-encompassing solution ;) I want parameters to have constant value, to be animated in time according to some curve or to be evaluated from a function depending on some variables, like the data from music input. This way I could use the framework to describe elements of a scene (parameters like position, size, orientation, colors etc.). I already have such system implemented to some degree, but it definitely could be improved.
Support for some input device more convenient than laptop touchpad and keyboard, like a MIDI controller (or a smartphone or tablet simulating one) or... a Wiimote :)
Asynchronous loading of resources, like textures, in the background, on separate thread. Because I know one day all my resources won't fit into GPU memory and I will have to load them on the fly to prepare next scene while showing current one.
Video capture from a camera (or better camera with depth, like Kinect), plus maybe some processing with computer vision algorithms (like in OpenCV library).

Comments | #events #music #psytrance #vj Share

# My visuals on Headrush party in Protokultura, Gdańsk

Fri
03
Apr 2015

Next Saturday, 2015-04-11, you can see my music visualizations on Headrush party in Protokultura club in Gdańsk. There will be 3 scenes with various genres of electronic dance music, and the club is big and very good, so I'm sure it will be great party. My visuals will be shown on psytrance scene. Unfortunately I can't be there myself, but I'm sure my friends Wooffer and Brain Massage will handle setup of this system very well. Some random screenshots:

Comments | #psytrance #music #events Share

# Psychill Evening Vol 2 with my visuals

Fri
06
Feb 2015

On Friday, 13 February 2015 I'd like to invite you for second edition of Psychill Evening party in Paszcza Lwa club in Gdańsk, Poland. Once again the music will be "Psychill, Psybient, Downtempo, Psydub and Ambient", so basically more calm genres of electronic music. Once again I will be doing visuals on this party. See also my blog entry and video below from first edition.

I'm now working on my software to prepare some new stuff. Some random screenshots:

Of course this is a blog about programming, not about art or parties, so in the next posts I will explain some of the technical details behind this program.

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# PsyChill Evening - my first music visualizations

Sat
22
Nov 2014

Yesterday I had an opportunity - for the first time - to show my visualizations as a VJ on a music party. The party was called PsyChill Evening, took place in Paszcza Lwa, Gdańsk, Poland and its musical style was described as "Psychill, Psybient, Downtempo, Psydub and Ambient".

Just like DJ is someone who plays music, a VJ is an auxilliary role of someone who makes visualizations in real-time, displayed using a beamer. There is some software dedicated for this, like Resolume or ArKaos, but what can be more fun for a graphics software enginner than coding my own software? So I made one. Honestly, I planned to write program like this for years, while now I had to do it in just one week, right before the party. It's written in C++ using DirectX 11. Here is how the result looks like:

As you can see, the rendering here is not very sophisticated, CPU- or GPU-intensive. There are just some 2D textures transformed and blended together (plus feedback from previous frame, plus symmetry) - all fading in and out smoothly, as it was for chillout music. But that's not the point here. There is some interesting code under the hood, like the way a "scene" is described in memory with all these changes that happen over time. Time is expressed inside the program not in seconds, but in beats, so after setting right BPM (Beats Per Minute), it synchronizes nicely with the music. The movement of these textures, as well as color transformations are all procedurally generated and random, so it's somewhat different every time. Of course, there is much more to be done here. But now all I need is some sleep :)

I love electronic dance music, so I'm very happy I could connect it wih my profession - graphics programming :D

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# Fluorescence

Mon
05
May 2014

The main and general formula in computer graphics is Rendering Equation. It can be simplified to say that perceived color on an opaque surface is: LightColor * MaterialColor. The variables are are (R, G, B) vectors and (*) is per-component multiplication. According to this formula:

When the light is black (there is no light), the surface remains black, because: (0, 0, 0) * MaterialColor = (0, 0, 0).
Similarly, when the material is black, it stays black regardless of the light color.
When light is white, you can see original color of the material, because (1, 1, 1) * MaterialColor = MaterialColor.
Similarly, when the material is white, you can see the original light color on the surface.
Green material lit with red light looks black, because: (1, 0, 0) * (0, 1, 0) = (0, 0, 0).

There are many phenomena that go beyond this model. One of them is subsurface scattering (SSS), where light penetrates object and goes out from different place on the surface. Another one is fluorescence - a property of a material which absorbs some light wavelength and emits different wavelength in return. One particularly interesting kind of it is UV-activity - when material absorbs UV light (also called blacklight, which is invisible to people) and emits some visible color. This way an object, when lit with UV light, looks like it's glowing in the dark, despite it has no LED-s or power source.

I've never seen a need to simulate fluorescence in computer graphics, but in real life it is used e.g. in decorations for psytrance parties, like this installation on main stage on Tree of Life 2012 festival in Turkey:

So what types of materials are fluorescent? It's not so simple that you can take any vividly colored object and it will glow in the UV. Some of them do, some don't. You can take a very colourful T-shirt and it may be not visible under UV at all. On the other hand, some substances glow while they would better not (like dandruff :) But there are some materials that are specially designed and sold to be fluorescent, like the Fluor series of Montana MNT 94 paints I used to paint my origami decorations.

Comments | #art #psytrance #rendering Share

# Origami Psytrance Decoration

Sat
03
May 2014

I've posted before about modular origami. This time I made some bigger spike balls, painted them with fluorescent colors and used as decoration on yesterday's psychedelic trance party - Nirvana Open Air. It's 24-module Super Spike Ball (it's a link to Wayback Machine / Web Archive, because the great website spikeballheaven.net is no longer online), painted with Montana MNT 94 flourescent paints. Now I'm too tired after the party, but in the next two posts I will try to explain some theory behind it. And yes, it will be related to computer graphics :)

Comments | #art #psytrance #origami Share

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