whoa. Abstractions, eh?
2 immediate suggestions, but these are jumps up from your basic NLE.
After Effects.
MAX MSP + Jitter.
—But of course, abstraction can be achieved by any number of means… with nothing, you can use the camera itself, and work the lens (defocus, fast movement, strange angles, unexpected edits and cuts)… these are ALWAYS amongst the first things that drive any kind of film. Unless its built on some purely animated or computer generated platform (see MAX MSP). If you have an 8mm camera, or even better if you have an 8mm film reel and a projector, try scratching, etching and sticking things to the film itself (the Brakhage technique). Or work with still photography, and montage them… millions of approaches…
If you want some help with this hit me up. If there’s enough demand, I guess I could write some forum posts on different techniques.
A good quick method for abstraction is Compression Artifacting, or Datamoshing as it got named by philistine youtubers. Maybe we can post something on that… soon.
I am tempted to do some things, both poller opposites….but I’ll just do them and submit.
I was generally thinking of software for overall manipulation of color, light, texture and…. but I could do that with a camera anyhow! Any how; never-mind.
After Effects.
Compression Artifacting would be the safest bet, though it reminds me of chip-culture, which I am not a true fan of. I’ll work on bending my old digital camera for you, T.
I agree with Garage. After Effects is your best bet… it’s a fantastic program.
Tom you can do a lot with Artifacting to remove the blockiness, and it has a very fluid potential…. OK I think a post is upcoming on this…
Tom – look at Processing (http://processing.org/), a free Java-based platform developed @MIT. I can’t praise it enough, and can’t possibly summarize briefly what’s possible with this software…
Processing is awesome. In fact, am working on something with it right now. Witkacy— what’s your skillset with this? I could do with some advice on some things. Trying to build a few apps for people to upload and input films and have them spit out image abstractions and cut-ups…
hmmmm…..
Maybe a few of us could get together and create some basic threads on techniques and approaches using all these different ideas?
—Also, Tom, if you seriously are going to bend your camera, hit me up, because I have a couple of dying camcorders I’d like to re-work, and you’re the resident circuit warp master.
T
Hey T – don’t know how’d I’d rate my processing skills…I’ve been using it for a few years, now. The frame-grabbing and image manipulation you’re talking about is all possible in processing…
Would love to talk to you & anybody else about this type of work in processing, After Effects, etc. – I’d definitely be interested in a thread discussing techniques…
I’ll try to get the hang of Processing this weekend and hopefully be able to gab then.
Witkacy, message me, let’s organise some Garage threads. Lots of new filmmakers coming in, so there should be high activity on here (Garage forum) imminently. Be worth the effort to plan it out a bit methink.
i would like to know more about possessing in general. I am a complete novice, but this stuff is brilliant. (in my opinion).
try an make it to around 1m00s watch your levels!http://vimeo.com/6532477
or if they are destined for short/music video applications? any thoughts?
ash
This all sounds very interesting. I’m working on a project right now and I wanto to overlap a few stills over some cell phone footage.
Is Processing a program or what?
Is there any audio software programs where I can make my own weird sounds?
Thanks
Processing looks very interesting. Would anyone care to go a bit more into detail about it?
Edit:
Yes, please do a “getting stated” Garage project on Processing.
possessing is a programming language based around Java.
everything you need to know (to start with anyway) at
http://processing.org/
for weird sounds – I have been using a lot of granular synthesis recently. good for making short samples as well as more sound scape/ambience.. you could try this free demo
http://www.thirdmonk.com/MacPOD.html
(the demo plays a lovely burst of white noise every minuet, unless your are recording where it just goes silent for a second – if you are crafty you can get around it)
if you want to delve a little deeper you could try max/msp (there is a visual component called jitter also)
http://cycling74.com/products/
there is lots of help ‘out there’.. but it is expensive
a (very) similar open source program PureData http://puredata.info/
It has a complex UI, but there is lots of help available too.. there is this e-book also..
http://www.pd-tutorial.com/english/
hope that helps.
Wow, this is really exiting. I’ve been very interested in programing but to be able to aproach it from a filmmaking prospective its like perfection.
Thanks Ashley.
Were could I find processing tutorials?
Tobias,
Im totally new to this. What does patch-based mean?
Mordlock99
They have a beginners section on the Processing web site. I’ve been palying around with their tutorial code and its not as hard as it looks.
Ah, I am way out of date. I just looked up Audiomulch and it’s available for Mac now.
Berjuan: Patch I’m using this out of context really: I just mean it as a shorthand for virtual effects and processes and little subroutines that affect the output of a signal in a software environment/workstation, which in programs like Audiomulch or MAX MSP you typically draw in or write manually.
sonofabitch.
I need something easier to use than MPEG Streamclip and iSquit, T. damnitall!
time to save my money, I guess
Thanks Berjuan, I just found in some random blog a ebook full of tutorials ‘’Learning Processing A Beginner’s Guide to Programming Images"’
Cool stuff BroFor audio/sounds:
I personally love VST for generators/samplers/drum machines/effects and what-have-you…There are a number of VST hosts out there (I use/love Ableton Live; have used Audio Mulch and Fruity Loops, both of which are rich in features). A great number of VST plugs are available for free – for instance here and here
Among the VST instruments which cost $$$, Native Instruments Massive is in particular a dream: the name fits…
The MIDI Yoke utility
(free) is a must for sending data/slaving MIDI apps without a fuss.
Some other apps I’ve discovered & have been using lately:
Glitch Sequencer
(an app created w/Processing, great for fairly randomized & complex patterns/loops)
Quotile sequencer
(haven’t yet tried this one out)
Nodal – generative music software
(low license price) Have been using this for a few weeks; it’s intuitively graphical, and yet extremely powerful…Still in development – can only get better.
So far I’ve been able to try Processing and Audio Mulch.
Processing looks serious and I will have to make more time for it, but for right now I don’t think it is really what I need. It does remind me of that guy who manipulated images in “the zone” in Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil
Audio Mulch looks very promissing. I was able to create a very good ambient sound track only using two of the samples and the sound manipulation tools already available within the program.
THIS TUTORIAL REALLY HELPED with AudioMulch
Thank you TOBIAS and WITACKY, your post are becoming a point of reference for me.
MORDLOCK99, how are you doing with Processing?
ASHLEY, I couldn’t break into/make WinPod work… any tips?
Does anybody know of a good program for creating audio samples for Audiomuch PC?
Thanks in advance.
when you say samples, do you mean ripping clips from other people’s work? or creating your own sounds?
the former: a quick google will reveal a plethora of people who rip soundfiles, from scratch musicians to bog-standard beat producers. try freesoundproject for creative commons samples.
to crop and trim soundfiles you will need other software (although you can do it in mulch by setting in/out playback parameters)— try something like adobe soundbooth, which is about as simple as it gets. again, if money is an issue, there’s a legion of freeware applications out there, some good, some bad, but ultimately all you need is something that can record, handle basic top-tail editing and maybe primary EQ clean-up.
creating your own soundfiles: this is infinite, and ranges from using the CPU itself to generate noise (try taking a basic modulating sine wave patch in mulch and playing about) to inputting field recordings from your microphone: or simply record sounds from the web direct and save the soundfile. best results always come from a musician playing an instrument: now by play (and I will kick myself for saying this later, but it’s the way things are now) this doesnt mean you actually need to know anything about your instrument: all instruments have a texture, and specifically in mulch, it’s most often texture you are after. so grab something: a guitar, a horn, a harmonica, a casio keyboard, and fiddle about: in mulch you can pretty much manipulate any soundfile to do what you will given time: warp and bend your sound to your heart’s content.
those are my tips. audiomulch favors rampant experimentalism. I have taken everything from whispers to white noise in and emerged with all sorts of pearls, from beautiful granulated ambiences to hard jarring beats…
for inputting sound and processing live (and this where mulch really scores big) get yourself a decent mic, set up a patch, and invite some folk over to jam. I’m always down with schoep mics, but they might set you back a bit. record, adjust parameters on the fly, and edit the soundfile after. to my mind, that’s the correct use of mulch, but like I say, is infinite…
Tobias
Thank you so much for your post. I’ve been doing exactly what you described on your post about the mulch sines etc… I guess there really is only a few places the process can take you as a beginner. But I will try some of your other recomendations. As you said before this program really invites for experimentation, and I’m having lots of fun!
ah, I got the site name wrong: been awhile since I was there: B, seriously, have a look at this site: freesound.org
It’s a free sign up and then you can download samples to your heart’s content: there’s some good stuff in there, ranging from sax overtones to mad signal processing clips… all creative commons, so it’s mix friendly… if you’re getting into audiomulch, then my biggest tip is work out how to play with loopers, canons and players: they all have different potentials (esp. the canon loopers). And get some extra VST plugins. I’ll maybe drop some patches into the Garage production notebook this coming weekend, depending on work, if not then, then soon ( what’s this ‘Garage production notebook’, you ask? aha… Later this week. Shhhh… ). Take them and modify. I’d be interested to hear what someone else made of them anyway. Mostly granulation set-ups and the like.
I know I was not looking hard enough…or I am too picky, but freesound just made me want to make sounds verses hope I might find worthwhile ones on the site. That’s bad. The frogurt is also cursed.
tom
So, I want to either get some software or some plug-in’s so I can dabble in abstraction.
any suggestions. All I have is what came on my Mac…so…