A added twist to my Final Major Project

In my latest project, I used a Nintendo Wii Remote to control Arkaos, This idea got me thinking, on how i can use this tool to control visuals with music.

I used Midi Yoke (Windows) to transfer midi notes from one piece of software to another, and also used a basic glove pie script to map out the Wii remotes controls.

Now i plan to take what I have learned and use the technology in a larger scale. Recently I have been Visual Jockeying and Disc Jockeying in Venues in Bournemouth. One of my latest shows in Bournemouth was in 60 Million Postcards (http://www.sixtymillionpostcards.com/) Where we played music and live visuals, and we also had a MC (my housemates cousin).

This was the first time i ever used a live voice in a show, and i felt it worked.

In recent posts I have been looking at Andy Warhols screen tests, and i was thinking how i could take this concept of close emotion and use the idea as a video that will complement my composed music possibly with the same voice as we used live in the live performance in 60 Million Postcards.

I have booked a day in the studio in my college to film certain subjects in a similar style to Warhols screen tests and Herve and Cremes Cry (see earlier post).

The idea is to take these visuals and have them all individually controlled by Midi signals from Ableton live so the visuals are all seperatly in snync with the music!

FLASH errors.

Whilst attaching Movie clips to the script (view previous post) I had a issue with making buttons inside these movieclips work. I still do not no why they wont work, so i decided to attach buttons and scrap the idea of using movieclips, this is a shame because it limits the amount of detail i can create to the transaction effects of each button. 

Vital actionscript

this piece of script take a vital part for the shuffle idea to work. After much help from a fellow student, i finally got my head around the script that i needed in the project. this script is a test. the script is saying that if the user clicked a certain button it would sent random buttons(btn2) to certain parts of the page (x,y) this is reasonably simple code and i am still finding it hard to understand!!

 

the Shuffle idea

I thought i could make the interface interesting by implementing a shuffle that enabled the user to shuffle through media randomly to add exciting depth to the design and keep it as interesting as possible.

I knew that this would probably involved  a substantial amount of in depth action-script, but i felt it was a vital part of the project that would make the idea interesting and innovative. 

Main Idea….

After many storyboards and rough sketching, I felt I had a decent enough plan to start designing the interactive advert for the course. 

I felt it was important to make it light hearted and keep it real, not to pretend the course and life in Bournemouth is something it isn’t. I was looking back at all the photos and videos of all the fantastic times I have had during the years at the Art Institute and felt that these powerful pieces of media would be enough to sell the course because this media is what the course is, its all there. All I needed to do was think of a smart and original interface it all to fit into the page in a attractive manner. 

FMP -looking at the brief

After much heartache, me and my lecturers thought of a interesting FMP for me to develop, Liam Birtles (lecturer) designed a brief that was open and gave me space to inject my own ideas.

Birtles wanted me to create a interactive page for the internet that sold the course in a light hearted manner. He suggested using video and imagery to show off Bournemouth, the Institute and the course. 

This appealed to me because I felt the course lacked a interested Interactive interface and felt it was the perfect project for me to do! 

Saw 4 (1st idea) title sequence

 

This is a motion that I designed on Ae, I feel it has simple quilities such as a scary flicker inspired from the film Se7en.

Unfortunately I will not get to use this motion because I have changed my original motion idea due to the hideous fact that the old Saw 4 project got wiped from my hardrive, my fault for not backing up!!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg8gHqkdu5s

 

 

Video Djing

 

 

As far as i know, this is live virtual dj’ing, i find it hard to believe because there are so many things going on at the same time with fantastic timing and transitions, it hints that it has been produced on a program such as After Effect, either way its a great piece of Video art.

The sound itself isn’t what i am into, but thats besides the point, its the production and detail of the piece that I admire.

The future of Dj’ing and Vj’ing

After saving a hell of alot of cash, i decided it was time to upgrade from standerd cd and vinyl decks. I decided to purchase Numark ICDX because I was interested in connecting them up to my Mac and use them as midi controllers. It took me a while to decide to buy them because i was not sure if I could afford them, also because most of my gigs are out of this country and traveling with all the gear wouldn’t be easy. but i am really happy I got these fantastic decks, they are so cheap for what they can do, great technology!! The decks have usb ports where you plug them into your laptop. The decks are also fantastic if you are a dj that take requests, or if you have hardrives with all your music, for example you could be djing with a friend and you both have ipods with music, just plug them into the back of the decks and thats your set, no need for cds anymore!!

….I have posted the official description of this product underneath.

There are a few limitations, all the hardware and software comes at a price, the chances are you will need to buy another soundcard (if you want to use a traditional mixer) witch come at a price, also the software on the computer is 300pound+ (depending on what you choose). Also setting up can take quite a bit longer than standard decks.

-numark.com

I use Virtual Dj software to acompany the midi controllers, again, amazing technology. Official description underneath (www.virtualdj.com)

the customer is the most important aspect of, Bedroom Djs.

I have created a myspace, facebook account and an email to compliment the website, this will offer lots of support for venues and makes replying to questions easy, this will also be a easy way to emply new djs for the future of the business. I may create another webblog and forums to really make sure the customer is 100% satisfied with the service.