before even Starting

[Coilworks]

Hello everyone,

this is my first post so you can leave this thread immediately if you want

I just found about vjcentral in search of vj info sites and bumped into this forum. The case is simple. Some friends are doing a gig in a month or so and told me to vj for them. However, as they know too, I have no knowledge on vj-ing. Off course I am into graphics and stuff but not video that much (I know about video editing but not in a professional level) and certainly not vj-ing.

I don't want to bore you with many questions. I would just like to hear a few suggestions about
1)essential software (that anyone uses and needs)
2)vj-ing software

Now, I know that everyone must have his own opinion about the latter but a couple of programs ( the top in this field, as in any field are easy to start usually) would be ok.

Finally, I will give you brief overview of my pc in order to check if something's needed or needs to be changed.

Athlon XP 1800+
Gigabyte 7vtxe+ mobo
Hitachi 2500 DVD
plextor 8/4/32
256mb ddr memory
Terratec 24/96 audiocard
Viper 770 (tnt2) video card (that's old, but works smoothly)
40gb hdd Maxtor 7200rpm

and a 17" screen

I would very much appreciate your help. Thanks in advance

P.S. In the gig we will use a projector to project the graphics and the music in electronica/glitch stuff

[vjrei]

Welcome

I'm a Mac user and I do not know a bit about PCs, what I can tell you is that my first time too me about 2 months of preparations and that was when I was 100% in to become a VJ.

What I mean is that there is a lot of trial and error, let me explain:

1. You need to create material for the party, it can several (at lits 80) be 5 sec loops or and entire one hour clip.

2. You can use your computer and a VCR as video sources.

3. You may need a mixer or a switcher and a projector.

4. You need to set up all your equipment a week before the party, never the same day. You may need cables and stuff, so a rehersal a week before is the main thing.

5. You may need to capture some video or to create them. So, After Effects is your first choice for creating content. If you do not know how to use it you are in trouble. Get footage from some where, 30fps, 320x240 Cinepack compressor without any data rate.

The software that you need is something else, go to www.audiovisualizers.com and check out there, I guess in the "tool shack" section.

Good luck.

[holly]

Also read Where do I start? What software do I use? on VJ Central. It breaks down the main software into catagories to make deciding which softs to try a little easier.

[Coilworks]

Thanks a lot for the info.
I should add that I need 3 hours of visual material, I will have to synchronize videos with tracks played live (as much as I can) something that cannot and will not be prepared (arkaos has such features) and finally, I can only use a pc.

I will use 3dmax for making videos. It's fun. I don't know about After effects, I'll give it a try. Are 2 hours enough to familiarize with it?

Thanks again.

[Amukidi]

Forgive me for taking the cautious stance, but 1 month is a very short time for someone (by their own admission) so in-experienced to pull this off. It is highly unlikely that you will conquer After Effects in this time, let alone produce 3 hours worth of usable footage in 3DMax (sic). Your only hope (unless you have absolutely nothing else to do for the next month) is in "ripping" footage and fooling around with it to form the basis of your set, with, maybe some of your own stuff mixed in with it. Have you considered the issues surrounding Dual monitors/Scan converters? Whatever soft you use will have an output screen as part of the interface - you will either need a dual head card or a scan-converter to squirt this out to the projector. As vjrei so rightly says, you'll need a dry run using the projector to make sure you've ironed out any problems. My advice is to find a working VJ in your area and quiz him/her as much as you can - without getting on their tits!!- There's more to this game than just having a PC and a smattering of "Graphics" knowledge!

[Coilworks]

Well, you did well to prepare me but, apart from the pc-projector-connection thing, I don't think it's such a fuss. The guys who are doing the gig will give me (as I was informed later today) a bunch of demos (animation in .exe format) in order to put them in after converting them to video files.

However, you are very right about the link process (linking the projector to the pc). I don't know how, but is it so difficult?

So far I need to know the res I will have my videos in. Vjrei said 320x240. Is that definite?

Thanks again.

[vjrei]

You can use 640x480 but you have to notice that the pixels in the projectors are very appart one from the other. That mean that you can fool the resolution specially if the people are gonna look at the thing from far away. I test my images in a small 10" b&w tv.

Now, I use Arkaos and if you are gonna use that software you are all set. The demo runs for 20 days with all the features.

Arkaos has a very nice video out put, so 320x240 is fine, you do not want to abuse from your computer video ram neither because the clips may look slow down to 2fps and they usually run from the ram and you are gonna ask a lot from the computer system bus, so keep things easy.

Now, the best wat to sincronize a clip is to punch it at the beat, for get about making the clip sync with the sound, you have to do that yourself. Do it when the song have a beat very present.

Now, my recomendation is to prepare at list 20 to 30 clips, 320 x 240, cinepack codec (that is what I use) with no data rate. With 60 you are all set.

Now, do not get crazzy using all your clips at once, the very first thing a new VJ do is to use all the footage the first 30 minutes. You can use one clip for 5 minutes with no problem. To learn to distribute your footage is a big thing.

Something that I do is to use 3 clips per song, I really burn them for about 10 minutes and that is it.

Now, one good tip.

Prepare one clip with the name of the party (if there is one) and let it roll for an hour while the people are arriving. Prepare another clip with the same name but with more effects (for later on the night).

And prepare a clip with the name of each DJ, each clip it self may last 10 seconds but they can run for 10 minutes at the beganing of each DJ session. That way you promote the people and call the attention a lot to your work.

The average clip may be from 5 to 20 seconds long.

If the DJ is boring you can play some JackAss clip or something funny to distract the people, but that is only late at night, I use the Muppets Show.

And remember to use things with big graphics, forget about clips with too many details. Use big letters, faces, objects and with bright colors. Projectors have the tendency to make clips lighter, no too much contrast as a tv, only 3000 lumens proyectors are good.

Now, start capturing stuff first and then edit them, do not spend time with 3D studio. Capture video and process it first and make your computer work with the projector. If there are not VJ around find some video editor, they know about that most of the time.

[Coilworks]

Great. Thanks.

[WordVirus23]

while some demo's are great, some are awful and/or promote something other than you, the party, or the DJ at your event, be sure to go through them ahead of time to make sure they're suitable. also, if you go with a program like Arkaos (which I also use on a PC laptop) these demos aren't going to work, unless you've got 2 computers, one having a capture card, and the other having a tv out of some sort or a scan converter. lots of hassle. you're going to need a bigger hard drive heh... right now I've got ~80 gigs just of video clips. most averaging just under 2 seconds or so. track down Adobe Premiere and edit found footage (altavista offers a Video Search, really wish Google would search for video <drool>) finding usable video online can be a somewhat tedious venture, but can be very rewarding at times. there are some good starter video resource links @ www.resolume.com
and since I'm typing URL
www.arkaos.net
arkaos VJ is my application of choice... is pricey for a starter tho, check out their app called VMP, it does NOT allow you to use movies (AVI's, MOVs & SWFs as VJ does) but produces some nice effects on still pictures (I only use JPGs, but I think it can handle another format as well... not sure) VMP is only like $65 USD or something... I like it for shows that want to see sponsor pics, promotional, club logo, etc. a lot. a wee tip for Arkaos products, which if you've read this far, you kinda deserve. when laying out pics/movies on the keyboard, have some keys as just an effect. so my keboard is usually laid out like such:
ESC & F1 ---> F12 just effects
~ &1 ---> [backspace] Promotional and DJ pics
[spacebar] is usually negative effect (great for beatmatching)
the up & down arrow keys are my current fav effects
the left & right arrow keys are color cycles or strobes
everything else is a pic/movie with an effect or transition

I use laptops, so I don't get a 10 key unless I bring an external keyboard, which is just another thing to carry around and find some place to put it. I've found that space is a very valuable commodity at clubs, the less room your rig takes up, the better... screen=bigger=better (but white walls work fine too)

(on a side note, I've had a lot of fun projecting on textured surfaces: Brick, textured metal, etc) its fun to find a good scene that just blends into the "screen" texture really well.

<rambles on>

..james...
Pilot/Director
N:VP

[Coilworks]

thanks WordVirus23. I was thinking of getting the demos into video formats with a screen recording application. There are a lot.

Now, these guys doing the gig, I think they're going to give me a small keybord and I'll use that for triggering effects. I hope arkaos offers more midi features as I'd like to use knobs and stuff for opacity and blending prcentage and the like.

Anyway , I got great tips here, thank you all.