Resolume / APC40 MK2 / NOOB

[JoeMotion]

Hi, I am seeking some advice as we lost some of our previous show/build and cannot get in contact with the guy that built it, so as much as I could manipulate/VJ/use the show before, I now need to reconstruct/build a similar build to use for a show this Saturday.

The projector used is a Christie DHD670-E (1920x1080)
All of our video content is 500px x 250px and we need to create a wall fill of 28 3D Diamonds.
So far I have selected the compositiion setup/input selection to 500x250 to represent out content and the output transformation to 1920x1080 to represent our output projector?

Screen Shot 2015-02-24 at 13.27.54.png (18.29 KiB) Viewed 8955 times

SO, before I begin/try to map my APC40 to the composition, I want to make sure it has been built/arranged correctly taking all elements into consideration, so it maps/works nicely for a LIVE VJ setup.

I have a few concerns and questions here before I beging to arrange and build it:

1)
I have noticed through the preview monitor that not all of the content videos have been masked, so some still contain a background (black) instead of having been masked in the production process. Is there any quick way I can create a mask but assign it to all the slices I have created to get rid of this background?

2)
On the output transformation it is very difficult to get a precise view of the edges of the diamond, (as view is so small) as when we go to the venue/and install for the show, I will need to tweak the perspective/points/nodes to fit on the Diamond Wall we create (as there will be many elements/tollerances that will be out/unallighed due to rigging/projector height etc etc.)

3)
At the moment the 28 diamonds will all be showing the same image/video, but I would like to be able to change the variation and select set clusters/shapes to show different content (i.e not all 28 diamonds showing the same thing) So for instance If I wanted to select a set amount of diamonds to create a shape like below, how would I go about doing this is I have already made 28 diamond slice?

I want to be in a position where by I can then MIDI map the layers/channels to my APC40 Mk2? Is there any tutorials or plugins i need to do this? All I can find is the old APC40... I have the MK2.

Below the 2x variation in colour (red/blue) represents a basic design for different content to be used?

Screen Shot 2015-02-24 at 13.48.59.png (113.53 KiB) Viewed 8955 times

If I wanted say 6-8 basic layouts for content, how would I go about doing this? I am just curious to find out the best way of organising my content as I would like to maybe set it into layers of e.g:

layer 1: Strobe effects
layers 2/3/4: Colour related fills (e.g. red, green, orange
layer 5: Outter chasing effects etc etc?

So if I were to lay out my content like this, how would I need to setup my composition to allow me to make these various designs to keep the content/event varied, whilst taking into consideration I want to map it out over an APC40MK2 for Live Use. Any ideas, comments, suggestions, tutorials would be great, as again I am in a bit of a struggle to get this sorted for Saturday :-/

Regards, and thanks in advance,

Joe
joe@structevents.co.uk

[Lodurr]

Changing your screens is very easy . You will have to select each one individually
changing what layer it is determined to 1 2 3 4 and so on . Right now you have
all screens set to configuration witch is all layers being mixed . Go in to your mapping
screen and and click on said slice . Then click on input selection after go to the right top
hand corner to you'r import source and you can change what layer you want
coming through your selected screen there. but then make shore to click the yellow
box and turn off you'r layer opacity .
that should help you on your problem ..

[Lodurr]

And for your compositions just make layers of source solid with a color effect.
Then map you'r HUE parameter to a nob or crossfader to change the color at will .
Set different clips in the layers with different strobe effects and colors

[Joris]

Layer to slice routing is a great way to quickly prep a mapping show when you have little time. It does have quite a few limitations and is not very flexible once you've set it up.

Especially when you're taking a show like this on the road and need to use it in many venues, I'd take a little extra time and use input mapping. Input mapping involves preparing a grid which has square input areas for each of your diamond surfaces. How big to make it depends on your source content, the aspect ratio of your diamonds and how many layers your computer can handle. Going with 1080p and a 3:1 ratio for the diamonds, it would look something like this.

In Resolume's advanced output, you create 28 slices and use the input selection tab to let each take their input from one of these squares. In the output transformation tab, you warp and stretch each slice to fit your physical object. An immediate advantage is that this is all you need to do mapping wise. On the next show, you only have to adjust the output warping for these 28 slices. Instead of 28 times for every layer you have, which is what you end up with when using layer to slice routing.

Then you take your input mapping still to After Effects, and spend an evening creating different loops from your single diamond animations. You place each diamond animation exactly in a square. But you make each loop special by using different diamond animations in the same loop, offset start points to create wave loops, leave squares blank so you can later on overlay loops in Resolume etc etc.

Even if you're not that handy with AE, if you spend one day creating loops like this, you should have 100+ unique source loops easily, fit exactly to your mapping and ready to play with on each show.

[Joris]

PS, I noticed you use Animation as the codec for your source content. That was great for exporting motion graphics from AE to Final Cut, 8 years ago. In 2015, you really want to use DXV for loops you use in Resolume.

[JoeMotion]

Hi,

many thanks for the heads up.

I have converted to DXV codecs, but the alpha channel (transparent background) is not present.

Even if I select in the convertor to 'preserve alpha channel' it still does not work?

Any ideas?

Cheers

[Joris]

Well, if I had to guess, you're using MPEG Streamclip to convert your single diamond loops to DXV.

MPEG Streamclip, for some reason, doesn't preserve alpha. But having the source content in Animation is fine. Just make sure you render the show loops you create in AE in DXV. Those are the loops that you should use in Resolume, so that's where DXV matters.

There's walkthroughs on how to set that up here: https://resolume.com/manual/en/r4/dxv#e ... v_encoding

The codec is not the real issue though. Did the technique of using input mappings become a bit clearer to you now?