about LiveBlender, featuring BlenderVJ and KyperMover
the original proposal for the presentation is under the line --- something about the presentation should be put here (the video is not on-line yet)
- this is an answer to the call in http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender_Conference.52.0.html
- Title of paper, presentation, workshop or course
Use of Blender for VJing / live art
- Brief summary of your proposal (max. 200 words)
The use of BlendeR for LivePerformances is demonstrated. Different aspects of it, from preparing the material to actual performing, arecovered. The systems used include BlenderVJ by Pildanovak and KyperMover by the presenter (or hopefully they have merged into a unified app. (LiveBlender?) by the time of the conference!). Lessons from developing and using these systems, and feedback from audience,are gathered to guide the development of both the system(s) and Blender itself.
(note: this is based on information about an old version (Spring 2004) of BlenderVJ - the presentation shows the current one (Autumn 2004). BlenderVJ features multiple scenes and backgrounds, producing visuallycompelling output. It is uses logicbricks, including message actuators etc., together with Python scripts, and includes MIDI support. KyperMover, instead, does almost everything in pure Python. It uses an underlying library, developed with the possiblity of using other real-time engines in mind. The current implementationof KyperMover is limited to advanced control of character animations.
These VJing-oriented developments may be interesting for other purposes as well. For example, one developer of a robot control systemtook a look at KyperMover as a source of information. Among thechallenges live use poses for Blender is enabling the use of the normalGUI while the game-engine is running (for e.g. setting the parametersof effects, showing the contents of presets).
- Outline of technical needs (in terms of set-up for courses, equipment needed for presentations, etc.)
Any computer that runs Blender and the game engine well should do. MIDI support would be great, and then some MIDI controllers that could be used. (e.g. sliders? Levon would prefer a guitar, but he'll be in Australia, so if we use his controller input from there the device wont be needed, just a network connection..)
- Brief biography (max. 200 words)
Uh. Besides many kinds of mostly Internet-related work, I've done VJing since 1998. Most active period so far was during the winter of 2002-2003, when our group was resident in a monthly local club (b-eat-z) and did some other gigs in techno parties in Northern Finland (even a major gig / week at a point). I've been responsible mostly for setting up the performance tools, and using them in the actual event, while other people have focused on the video clips, animations and 3d objects that have been used. During that time I developed a VJ tool on top of the OpenGL VJ engine PixelShox, codenamed and released as KyperjokkiWorkPSX, featuring a simple object & videotexture banks and switchers. In spring 2003 I gave a presentation on PixelShox in Pikseli‰hky, which was an international seminar on VJing in Helsinki. In august 2003, I developed KyperMover as an experiment in using real-time controllable 3d character animations in live performances, and used it in a major local event at the end of august (Time Tunnel X). This first implementation of KyperMover uses Blender for everything, but is mostly implemented as a somewhat engine-independent library. Since then, I haven't had the time to do gigs from other work, but have been documenting the work done for Mover with Blender, and trying to follow up the emerging scene for using Blender for VJing.
- Url(s) for visual and/or other supporting material
KyperMover is available from http://studio.kyperjokki.fi/engine/KyperMover , but this pre-release version is still a bit difficult to configure and use.
Pildanovak's BlenderVJ should be found via that too, but is available directly at http://server.ffa.vutbr.cz/~novak/files/
Levon has so far made pre-rendered material with Blender that he has used for VJing, I'll add a link to that if he can show some of it.
A draft of my master thesis, which presents KyperMover and discusses VJing and Blender in general too, is available at http://an.org/gradu2/ (also linked from the KyperMover node, as the thesis tries to act as a documentation of the system).
More visual material will hopefully be on-line soon.
Basic information about our group is at http://www.kyperjokki.fi/ , including some old video clips that have been used on some gigs.
extended version of summary:
This presentation demonstrates the use of Blender for VJing and/or live art. The different aspects of it, ranging from preparing the material to actual performing in a show, are covered. The systems used include (working/codenames) BlenderVJ by Pildanovak and KyperMover by the presenter (or hopefully they have merged into a unified app. (LiveBlender?) by the time of the conference!). Lessons learned from developing and using these systems are concluded, and used to derive requirements for the development of both the system(s) themselves and Blender itself.
BlenderVJ features use of multiple scenes, backgrounds etc. so that it is up to visually compelling performances. It is implemented by using largely the GameBlender GameLogic logicbricks, including message actuators etc., together with Python scripts. KyperMover takes another strategy, by doing as much as possible in pure Python. It uses an underlying library, developed with the possiblity of using other real-time engines in mind. The current implementation of KyperMover is mostly limited to advanced control of character animations. Naturally, Blender is used for pre-rendering material to be shown by other means too (at least by Levon).
These VJing-oriented developments may be interesting for other purposes as well. For example, one developer of a robot control system took a look at KyperMover as a source of information. Among the challenges live use poses for Blender is enabling the use of the normal GUI while the game-engine is running (for e.g. setting the parameters of effects, showing the contents of presets).