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Space is the Place

Live performances or exported movies created with Magic.
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artnik
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Space is the Place

Post by artnik »

Recently I did a live gig and created a ton of new sets. This is one I was particularly fond of. I've been playing a lot of "No Man's Sky" and was inspired by the art style. Most of the effort went into trying to get more complicated feedback effects on simple waveforms to give them more texture.

For the clouds in the second scene, it's just the Starfield module. I wish it a few more options. Specifically:
  • The ability to specify the emitter's proportional area and not have it squish the graphics by the same ratio.
    The ability to set a fade in and fade out to avoid the layers just disappearing when they hit the plane of the screen.
    The ability to Depth Test multiple Starfield modules to facilitate multiple source images (I ended up using a single really wide cloud image).
    The ability to hook up multiple inputs and have each input map to an equal percentage of the stars.
And... I have to say that it breaks my heart every time I see what YouTube and Vimeo do to stuff when they recompress it.

Cheers!
Sadler
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by Sadler »

Me likey.
Magic
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by Magic »

Very nice, as always! I will make sure to add your suggestions to my list.
And... I have to say that it breaks my heart every time I see what YouTube and Vimeo do to stuff when they recompress it.
Vimeo seems to be a little more opaque when it comes to the resolution options, but for YouTube, if you upload at a really high resolution, the recompression isn't as bad, because they allocate more bandwidth.

Have a look at this video (which I always use as an example), and compare 720p to 1440p: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qbY8BKnjEM. 1440 looks *much* better. In the description, the author even says "select 1440HD for a decent preview quality".
artnik
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by artnik »

Thanks! WOW, that difference is night and day. I'll definitely keep that in mind for future uploads.

The suggestions are all geared to having a module that can act as a generic emitter. The Starfield module can be massaged, but only so far, and for 99% of the use cases I'd be interested in those changes would accommodate, without creating a full-blown particle system.

Cheers Eric!
Terry Payman
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by Terry Payman »

Very enjoyable and uplifting - and some lovely effects.

I feel much happier for having watched - many thanks for posting artnik!

A trivial point, but I would prefer if the moving starfield in the opening scenes was obscured by the planets. Otherwise I don't understand its scale and origin.

WRT the link Eric posted, I was amazed at the improvement at 1440p. The video's full res of 2160p (4k) is even sharper (slightly) .
artnik
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by artnik »

Hey Terry,

I'm happy to hear it resonated well! :-)

Thank you for the feedback. Those early stars are there to show that there is forward motion of the viewer, chasing behind the cube. I know that they are confusable with "stars" but in this case they're performing the same function similar dots do in a space flight sim, acting as perceptual motion clues. (In those kinds of games I think they're supposed to be analogous to dust or micrometeroids.) I can see how it might be confusing, though. Perhaps I can tweak their shape or colour or address that issue in another way.

Cheers!
Terry Payman
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by Terry Payman »

Ah!
I don't play games, so haven't got their conventions as a reference point. My untrained eye sees the early "Starfield" as moving, and everything else as stationary.

However, I get a strong sense of forward motion when the pink clouds come in at 0:28, to a slightly lesser extent at 2:13 with the golden "plasma", and with the great closing scene especially from 3:05 . IMHO part of the effectiveness of the first two of these is from the changing viewpoint onto the planets.

I get a strong sense of rotation at 1:55, myself as a traveller not the planets. However that is countered rather than supported by the "dust/micrometeroids" which to my mind should be rotating along with the apparent rotation of the planets, as should any "static" star backgrounds. There are a few places where I can't reconcile all the motion cues - I think there's more to be done than just changing the colour or shape of the dust - perhaps more consideration of consistency of perspective.

Your cube rather reminded me of the 2001: ASO Monolith - although it's much cuter. Did you try it in front of your awesome 2001_slit-scan background? https://vimeo.com/169046718
artnik
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by artnik »

I love it when people take the time to elaborate. Your consistency point is well taken. I'll incorporate tweaks with that in mind next time I'm in that file. Cheers! :-)
thedid
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by thedid »

:o love it ...
OblongBox
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by OblongBox »

Great!
arhnos
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by arhnos »

I LOVE those clouds, but have a hard time replicating them - do you mind sharing your settings? - I'm doing a VJ session in short time and those are fitting perfectly for one of the tracks.
artnik
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by artnik »

Pretty simple effect. Just a wide cloud texture applied to a Starfield. You'll need to make a PNG, or similar file with an alpha channel for the transparency on the clouds. I used a 4096px wide image for that video, but the 2MB file limit means I can only post an example image at 1024px wide. If you have any questions let me know.

Cheers,
nik
Screen Shot 2017-10-10 at 3.22.06 PM.png
Screen Shot 2017-10-10 at 3.22.06 PM.png (48.36 KiB) Viewed 9153 times
wide_cloud_test_1024.png
wide_cloud_test_1024.png (746.98 KiB) Viewed 9153 times
Magic
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Re: Space is the Place

Post by Magic »

Nice, very creative! :)
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