Magic Music Visuals

Hello,
I'm currently experimenting with the demo version and looking forward to purchasing the full version soon. I'm a professional musician making my first foray into video so I apologize if these questions are answered somewhere else. I did look throughly through previous topics and the manual before posting though:)




I'm having 2 issues...

1) When I import an image the color is highly saturated, turning the image into a neon version. This is only occurring on images I manipulated in photoshop and exported as jpegs, it's not happening on images that haven't been processed, ie if I import a film photo I digitized it imports normally. The images from photoshop are not being exported from photoshop that saturated and they don't appear like that if I open them with another program.

2) Regarding kaleidoscope...I'm unable to import an image and get it synced to the music using kaleidoscope . Other effects sync up with the image and the song and if I import a video file then kaleidoscope syncs with the music no problem. I'm assuming my audio is routed correctly being that the other effects sync and the video file syncs. The first time I used the program I had no issues syncing kaleidoscope with the same image, since I don't own the full version I wasn't able to save that session to double check my routing but I believe I've recreated numerous times since with no success.

I'm assuming this is operator error but any advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm really enjoying the intuitive nature of this program and wanna dive deep on it, I've just hit these two roadblocks.

Thanks in advance...
-John

Welcome John
I'm sure you will get your issues resolved via this forum. They raise further questions so more information would be useful (see below). I've used Magic for years but haven't got any immediate answers, but you will find other users very responsive, and Eric (Magic's creator) will answer many questions. BTW, have you tried screenshots to record your Magic experiments prior to purchase?

1) Saturation. I've never had any saturation problems with images exported from Photoshop. I've tried a quick experiment exporting in different colour spaces, but couldn't get anything like the effect you mention.

Perhaps it would be helpful if you upload "Before" and "After" images that illustrate the problem, ie both an original image and a version processed in Photoshop that shows the problem when imported into Magic (perhaps just stamp some text on it saying "processed").

When you post a forum reply an "Upload attachment" button appears on a dark bar underneath the "Post a reply" box.

2) Kaleidoscope. I can't understand how this (or any) module would respond differently to video or an image as input. Can you post screenshots of your project?

Personally I find it far more responsive if I use a Translate module in front of the Kaleidoscope if I want to modulate the effect with the music.

Terry,
Thanks so much for your reply. Sorry for the late one on my end...first time having a chance to dive back in. I'm posting a screenshot of the art from Preview (tried a jpeg upload but too large) and a screenshot of the same image after import to Magic. For what it's worth, I had this experience occur when trying to upload this image to Soundcloud (it's the cover art to an album I'm releasing). I searched for that issue and learned it was somehow directly related to Google Chrome and I was able to upload the image at the correct saturation using Safari. So similar issue with the image but I'm ignorant to how it would relate.

I will tackle the Kaleidoscope issue in another post! Thanks again!

Putting Translate before Kaleidoscope was the simple fix. Wonderful, rookie move haha thanks:)

Hi John,
I'm glad the Kaleidoscope issue is sorted

I can see that there is a (severe) image problem from your screenshots, but need the actual files to compare before I can try to see what's happening.

You could perhaps upload to the cloud and just put the links here using the chain link "Insert URL" icon in the "Post a reply" box.
As an example, I used WeTransfer to send myself a JPG then copied the link here: https://we.tl/7jfGVIOpAf.

The links only last a week but you can send a single file up to 2GB, free of charge and with no signup. You'd have to do this twice, unless you zip up the two images into a single zip file.

Terry,
Here's a link to google drive of the Jpeg. I wasn't sure what other image would be helpful to upload? Just lmk and I will upload it. Thanks in advance!
-John

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RpFAd ... 3sF4NJCh4K

Ah, that image is in CMYK colourspace. For Magic (and web) you need sRGB colourspace.
Here's an (old) link that shows how to see which colourspace an image is in https://www.p4pictures.com/2012/01/chec ... photoshop/

For a given image you can use Photoshop Edit>Convert to Profile then select profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1. You can then save the image.
I did that with your image and got this one, which works just fine in Magic. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RpFAd ... 3sF4NJCh4K

Alternatively use File >Export >Save for Web and make sure the "Convert to sRGB" box is ticked.

It seems that Photoshop is set to save your images in CMYK by default, and this needs to be changed to sRGB.
Sorry, it's my bedtime and I'm too tired to look this up. Let me know if you can't find out how, and I'll have a look later.

Wonderful Terry thanks so much...You saved me a real headache!
Best,
John

Glad to be able to help, John.

You'll find this forum very supportive regardless of your experience level. Lots of enthusiastic Magic users, many doing advanced work but happy to help newcomers!

Best,
Terry