how do the pros make visuals?

[blackdot]

sometimes i wonder, how the pro's do their visuals. for example this video of moderat performing intruder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZetuERY ... Cvx9xZrftE . first you have those curves that seem to be responding to the beat AND seem to start at their initial position (all visible) also at the right time (when the singer starts to sing again). in addition to that you clearly see the left guy hammering in that beat, so it' cant be just prerecorded and just scripted. so... how the hell are they doing this? .


then at 1:25 comes the part with the flashy images, which seems lag ab it in this one, but in this other video it's perfectly timed : https://youtu.be/Shw2FJLUyzA?t=27s . so how are they doing this?


the only explanation i can come up with is that in the first part the guy that is hammering buttons is acutally sending out midi (or similar) signals out to the visuals. then at the part at 1:25 some visual guy switches to a movieclip freehandedly, and then after switches back to the curves. but then things seem even more complicated as the guy that was first hammering in those beats, is now not doing that but playing the melody that's on top of it. so from a musical perspective i assume he saved the thing he hammered at the beginning as a loop that he then can again. but how is it then synced to the music?

or do they play with a click signal so they cant fuck up the tempo and the visual guy just presses play at the right times?

[Magic]

or do they play with a click signal so they cant fuck up the tempo and the visual guy just presses play at the right times?

It could very well be that the entire thing is just one pre-rendered video, which starts playing according to some kind of master time clock for the show, and the musicians also follow that clock. It's a very common setup.

[blackdot]

hmm. but that would mean the graphics are not even truely reactive . we can make that better

[dj0le]

The pros use super expensive media servers that utilize LTC timecode to synch lock everything. Check out the Avolite Infinity RX8, a lot of big time performers use them to control their entire stage setup.

edit: forgot to add a link to the Ai software that runs on that Infinity server:

http://www.avolites.com/ai-features

[blackdot]

The pros use super expensive media servers that utilize LTC timecode to synch lock everything. Check out the Avolite Infinity RX8, a lot of big time performers use them to control their entire stage setup.

edit: forgot to add a link to the Ai software that runs on that Infinity server:

http://www.avolites.com/ai-features

this sounds interesting and complicated. i have trouble following even the wiki entry for ltc timecode XD. guess i need to look further into it.

[Fractal Grinder]

My last two shows I got a little insight on how some Profressional Djs do their own visuals..

First are "The Funk Hunters" which I actually tried talking to one of them for a bit on how he ran his visual set, because he manipulated his own visuals live, they are some of the few DJs that use Seranto video mixing to do their visuals, they had a bunch of old school hip hop and funk videos, A Tribe Called Quest, Wild Cherry, etc... But also they had some really well done profressional videos that had to have been made in Cinema4d, as well as some animations that had to have been made in other animation software, I couldn't tell you every program specifically but I could tell there was different software and different animators behind some of the videos, so I asked him how he had so much content and he basically said that he paid a few animators to make some stuff for him, then he mixes it live in cue with the music he is playing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHNau2OWjEc

That is rare, or at least from what I have seen in the business, uncommon, for them to run their own video in the same software they DJ with.

My last show, Saturday actually, I was sent about 100 videos for the headlining DJ playing, Funtcase, and about 20-25 for the other DJ headliners, Dirtyphonics, basically they had a these clips prepared to send to any VJ, and they could throw them into a program like Resolume and let the Vj mix or tell them to just hit AutoPlay/Mix or whatever. All those 100+ VJ clips had to have been made by profressional a animator(s) as well.

Basically theres a lot of different ways that the pros do it, and now some of us are even using Magic, but when you see visuals like you do for Moderat, most the time there was a animator or a team of animators paid to prepare video for that particular DJ.

[blackdot]

@fractal grinder: very insightful, thanks. so most of them just use clips that have little to do with the music itself and just look cool or/and rely on the vj to play them in a fitting fashion?

how did the one guy manipulate his visuals live though?

i have another one to analyze for you guys: the beginning of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyV2d-Svffk Is this too just "scripted" and fake or are the visuals actually reacting to the input? and if so: how?

[Kvasnik]

Hi Blackdot,

I watched the Moderat video - it actually didn't seem so perfectly synced to me... I wouldn't underestimate how perceptually, our brains sync audio to video even if there is only close syncing in reality. For example, sometimes I use (my) video clips which were made for songs at a certain tempo. When the clip is slowed down (or sped up) for the live music, it often seems to 'hit' the beats naturally. Also don't forget that so much music follows the same patterns (16 bars, then some change, etc etc), so if a video clip has sections designed to fit with this, it'll sync up with any other regular song as long as the speed is the same.

Regarding the last clip with the 4 DJs, my guess is it's pre-prepared, including the performance of the DJs. But to get similar effects, you could have a short animation clip, and just trigger it with a midi controller. That way, if you have a repeating sound you could just keep hiitting the midi key and send the loop back to the beginning,

I plan to work in this direction, so I should have some clips to show it soon.

[blackdot]

thanks for your inputs . i'm interested in what you'll do.