Virtual Marionette

Framework for Real-time chromakey in QLAB.

The main goal was to provide live chromakey to camera cues inside Qlab using still images or video files. My work  adapts the solution provided by George Toledo implementing it in QLAB.

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[Q-Chromakey-still.qtz]

Q-Chromakey-still provides an easy way to generate a real-time chromakey form inside Qlab using a still image as background.

You just need to drag the Q-Chromakey-still.qtz into the Video Effects tab of a camera/video cue and define the color to key, adjust the threshold and the smoothing values and finally define the image location (path and filename).

You can download all the files above (press more)

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A framework solution to load and play movies or other live material inside Qlab using syphon.

Qlab provides Syphon Server and Client. You can easily insert a Syphon footage with a camera cue. But if you want to mix a camera or video cue from Qlab with your syphon source you are in trouble. You could try to send your video cue to a syphon output, mix it or blend it with the other source and return it using syphon target (camera cue), but this is not a great solution and you will end up with strange effects.

Basically this framework will send the camera/video cue to a Quartz custom composition using the video effects tab and then mix it with the syphon source returning the image using the same channel.

The main goal of this framework is to be able to mix live images with other live or recorded sources. You can mix the image from a camera with a video using luma key or chroma key.

Qlab  3 uses Quartzcomposer as an image processor and not a video processor disabling the rendering of sprites, billboards, video importers and many other objects. This framework provides a workaround to this kind of limitations. Although i provide a solution to import a video, you can actually send graphic shapes from quartz composer via syphon, or a 3D graphics from Unity yo be blended with your cameras inside Qlab.

You can download all the files above (press more)

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A framework solution to play a sequence of images inside Qlab using a Quartz custom composition.

In the “Prometeu” project framework we used Modul8 as the visual effect (animation/video) engine. Since Qlab now supports video output with multiple live camera feeds,  custom surface mapping and Quartzcomposer compositions for visual effects we have chosen Qlab as the main visual engine.

But Qlab version 3 uses Quartzcomposer as an image processor only and does not allow object rendering like sprites, billboards, cubes, spheres, or meshes. There are other things  that are not allowed to be used in quartz-composer via Qlab custom composition, like: patch time, movie importer, stop watch, interpolation.  Things that are related to time and image buffer brings serious issues and won””””t work as expected.

Because in the project “Peregrinação” we use a lot of chroma key, motion was a requirement inside quartz-composer.
Although i knew some of the quartz limitations through Qlab i started to search a solution to play videos using quartz. The first experiment i´ve made was to use syphon witch i explain in another post. Then, i found a different approach, loading and playing a series of images.

You can download all the files above (press more)

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From the 10th till the 23th of  May at Mosteiro São Bento da Vitória, Porto.

Coproduction Lafontana – Animated Forms / Teatro Nacional São João (TNSJ) from the original text of Fernão Mendes Pinto, with the interpretation of Marcelo Lafontana.

Inspired by the adventures of Fernão Mendes Pinto, a portuguese explorer, reported
from the book “Peregrinação” , published in 1614, Marcelo Lafontana makes a journey through strange stories that are presented in a miniature world.

Through the intersection of puppetry, in particular, the expressiveness of paper theater with the cinematic language, this small world becomes a large space of illusion in which the narrative arises.

The stage, is transformed into a film studio, where scenarios and characters drawn and cut from cardboard are handle in front of video cameras. The images are captured by a multimedia architecture providing image processing, image mixing, sound effects, chroma key, performance animation, and all happens in real-time. The final result is projected on a screen, like a sail of a boat that opens to the charms of a journey through the imagination.
from
Fernão Mendes Pinto

staging e interpretation
Marcelo Lafontana

dramaturgy
José Coutinhas

scenography
Sílvia Fagundes

design of the characters and scenarios
Luís Félix, Rebeca das Neves

photography
JPedro Martins

music
Eduardo Patriarca

Multimedia (architecture and contents)
Luís Grifu

Lighting design
Pedro Cardoso

staging assistance
Rita Nova

I´ve implemented some of the digital puppetry methods in this project. Methods and tools are described in another post in this blog.

Street Outdoor

Exhibition of Virtual Marionette interactive installations at Teatro Municipal de Vila do Conde from 14th December till 31th December 2013.

I was invited to participate with my virtual marionette work as part of my contribution to Lafontana Formas Animadas (LFA) puppetry company. This exhibition gathers the work of 15 years of puppetry from LFA. My research and work contributes to new approaches of puppetry.

I invite the participants to interact with Inversus and bePuppit installations and to send me some feedback to virtual.marionette@grifu.com

more pictures, click the more button.

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[vimeo 78027358 w=580&h=326]

INVERSUS – artistic installation that explores interaction by using every-day objects

Why should a lamp be used only to illuminate ? … a speaker to play a sound ? ….or a fan to produce wind ?

This every-day objects are used commonly as transmission devices (light, sound and wind).
I knew, before starting this project, that a speaker could be used as a microphone.

My proposal was to find out if a transmission device could be used as a reception device for interaction purposes.

The Lamps (in this case: Leds) where used as light sensors, the speakers (in this case: piezzos) where used as pressure sensors and the fan was used as a blowing sensor.

The main concept of inversus was to invert the meaning of transmission devices into reception devices. A sensitive machine that capture human interaction to produce sound and visual kinetics. A performing instrument that gives life to a mechanic flower that spins when someone blows into the machine producing an animated shadow like in shadow puppetry. There is also a virtual marionette inside the machine that reacts to the pressure of the pads, this marionette is rigged with bones that are mapped to the pads that make them squash and stretch producing animation.
This instrument was made from a washing machine changing the meaning absorbing the spinning metaphor as a mixing machine. To extend the mixing metaphor i used a spinning wheel that creates a hypnotic effect.

Oct.2013
+ info at http://www.grifu.com/vm/?p=883#more-883
or http://www.virtualmarionette.grifu.com/

Collaboration with Teatro de Formas Animadas (TFA) to create a Live Film concept production using shadow puppetry. This concept applies film language and aesthetics  to a puppetry live performance. Mixing real-time editing, post-production and digital performance animation with traditional shadow puppetry with sand drawings and live music performance with digital post-production.

The puppeteer and the music performer controlled all the contents that were produced and presented in real-time in a screen located in the middle of them.

Click here to go to Prometeu keynote site (pictures and  workflow) or here to read more about the project at grifu.com

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Foto from Pedro Martins

Collaboration in the project “Prometeu – O que é um Gamelão” produced by Teatro de Formas Animadas and the Casa da Musica of Porto. Collaboration in the multimedia design system of a semi-digital shadow puppetry show Wayang type, with gamelan music. The Java silhouettes from Java had great popularity and are famous for their pictures. The wayang is a general term referring to a theatrical performance that combined with another word, defines the type of puppet, for example: Wayan ggolek, rod puppets made ​​of wood, this theatrical performance is usually accompanied by a gamelan music.
The proposal was to build a multimedia system that allows the projection of a film edited in real time. The film made by capturing a light table where the silhouettes were manipulated on a sand background.
With this system it was possible to create a cinematic language, particularly by creating different levels of camera, camera movement, animation and special effects in real time.
The results were very good, not only by the technological platform, but also the artistic platform. This show was on the scene several times in Casa da Música, Teatro de Vila do Conde, and in February 2011 was presented in four performances at the Auditori in Barcelona.

more information at www.grifu.com