CoGe v 1.0 (OSX) has been released and is no longer free. The creator made the decision to go commercial to be able to keep the project going. The software costs only $99 and is right on sale for $79 which is good bang for the buck.

The software has been reworked an now features arbitrary layers, effects, the mixer chain, native Syphon support and even a beat detector. CoGe supports Quicktime, Quartz Composer comps, Flash files and Collada 3D meshes and Core Image effects which makes it pretty damn powerful software. Go to the CoGe site to download the demo and purchase the program.

Through the Syphon project’s Twitter I got aware of an interesting software called eMotion that just has been Syphon enabled. This means that you can bring in contents from other VJ software or send eMotions content to a Syphon enabled VJ program. eMotions declaration really spoke to me:

“eMotion is a tool for creating interactive motions of objects for live visual performances. Electronic motion seems often artificial, synthetic… well… in fact it does not convey any emotions. By defining new rules to create movements, eMotion is a new kind of software made for visual live animations.
As it is based on real world physics law, all motions seems natural, full of emphasis. It allows to manipulate different kind of objects like still image, videos, text, drawing. Targeted mainly for theatre/dance performances, it can be used in broader situations.”

As I’m interested in working more with dancers and interactivity this seems like the perfect tool. I did a quick test by bringing in eMotions output into Modul8 (using the QC Rehab trick) which worked perfectly. Bringing in Syphon content into eMotion from VDMX seemed to work fine. I’m ready to explore this software more and also investigate if it’s easy to bring this into video mapping projects.

The software is free (donation is encouraged if you decide to use it) and it’s still in Beta at the moment. Download eMotions at Macupdate.

So finally, the long awaited Modul8 version 2.6 is now out in beta. Along with some bug fixes and Snow Leopard compatibility there are some exciting new features: blend modes, sound analysis, dmx support, 4 video inputs and importing/exporting of midi & key maps.

The beta is available for registered users and the final version will be charged a €49 upgrade fee. Garagecube hasn’t charged for minor versions before and even if annoys me a little bit, I’d still buy the update in a heart beat. Even if I’m missing better OSC and Quartz Composer support in this release, this is a huge step in the right direction.

Read more about the new version at modul8.users.

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

All Modul8 users are eagerly waiting for the next update that was promised for the first quarter of 2009. The Graragecube (the makers of Modul8) crew has said that they won’t bust out anything premature and rather wait until they have a stable release. However, I was emailing with a member of the crew who revealed that DMX support will be in the next release and you will need a ENTTEC usb to DMX interface to communicate with your DMX equipment. Modul8 will only support the ENTTEC drivers.

I’ll be continuing waiting eagerly… 

A little bird also whispered in my ear that Garagecube is co-operating with the Austrian company VMS (Video Moving System) so that is going to be possible to control the mirrors of the Video Mirror Units straight from a Modul8 Module through DMX.

Resolume is finally out of beta, version 3.0.0 was released on friday (the guerilla marketing scam in the Modul8 forum confirmed, see previous post). There has been a lot of bug fixes and small improvements. The biggest news seems to be that the audio analysis is back and the hardware accellerated codec we mentioned earlier. Still no support for Flash.

Read all the details here.

The poll covering what softwares we’re using is over. Modul8 and Resolume are the favorites among the named applications, but what softwares are hiding among the anonymous? And what do you thing is out standing in the softwares that your are using? Use the comments to reply.

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