What VJ software should I pick?

People often ask me what VJ application they should start with. I usually suggest that they should to go to softwarevj.com, find something for their platform, download a beta and play around for a bit. Let me present a slightly different solution:

Turn to the video hosting sites and look for groups and tags with the name of the major VJ softwares. You will get plenty of examples. The software that, in your opinion, has the best examples is the the software you want to pick. I still think it’s worth downloading a beta and see if you can handle it. And don’t forget to read the manual. Most of these softwares has very active user forums and FAQ’s that will answer most of your newbie questions. And don’t forget all video tutorials out there too!

Here’s some fast links to the video hosting sites:

Arkaos (Win/OSX) examples on Youtube
AV Mixer (Win/OSX) examples on Vimeo
Modul8 (OSX) examples on Vimeo
NuVJ (Win/OSX, both hardware & software) examples on Vimeo
Resolume (Win/OSX) examples on Vimeo
VDMX (OSX) examples on Vimeo

Published by The MIDI Thief

I started VJing in 2003 after being introduced to the topic by my friend, the digital artist, Marius Watz. “My style can be expressed as intensively colorful compositions with rhythm based animations of images and particles combined with a modest amount of video loops. I try not to continuously fill upp the whole screen with graphics in an attempt to illuminate the feel of a square screen. I work mostly with my own material that occasionally gets mixed up with stuff from the lost and found department. I like programming my own modules for Modul8, my favorite VJ software.”