Comprehensive wish list

[alphasuede]

Hi,

I am a computer scientist and do some video art on the side for fun. I have been evaluating Resolume as a live performance tool and am very impressed with it. Its like programming in c++ for the first time when all i have had before is machine language. I am an after effects junkie and also write my own OpenGL software so I have a little experience with visuals, however live performance is new for me.

That being said, i wanted to share my wish list of suggestions for Resolume Ave:

1) preview/live composion output... i want to be able to make one composition while another is playing and then flip back and forth between them. I know something like this is possible using the A/B slider, but you cant preview the comp. The preview window will only show one layer at a time, So that isn't much help. I think it would be better to provide a better system. (modul8 has this ability)

2) Text titler - this is really important to make an integrated text titler (modul8 has a titler)

3) Animated GIF support (with 1 bit transparancy)
Although there are a lot of limitations of animated gifs, VJs still love them because there are a lot of animated gifs on the web that are looping and are masked out. you could probably use Imagemagick's or ffmpeg to do a command line conversion of gifs to AVIs.
(modul8 supports animated gifs)

4) Shape masks and Paint/alpha eraser
For quick and easy masking.

5) Parenting
so if i want to add x/y/scaling motion to a clip that i would be able to sycronize children to move with it.
(similar to after effects.)

6) Adjust image scaling mode(smooth vs nearest neighbor)
Many low bit graphics look dumb when scaled up with smoothing. Imagine super mario scaled to the size of the screen- you would want to see the individual pixels crisp. (opengl scaling mode supports this in hardware)

7) Simple shader plugin - some way of importing a shader without having to bundle it into a dll. I have written a couple of shaders and think that its kind of unnecessary to bundle the shader source code into the dll when the only reason the dll is there is for the skeleton code...

8) Ability to position elements in display window with the mouse.

[edwin]

Thanx alphasuede for your wish list.

Hi,
1) preview/live composion output... i want to be able to make one composition while another is playing and then flip back and forth between them. I know something like this is possible using the A/B slider, but you cant preview the comp. The preview window will only show one layer at a time, So that isn't much help. I think it would be better to provide a better system. (modul8 has this ability)

Maybe being able to preview channel A or B would be a nice addition.

2) Text titler - this is really important to make an integrated text titler (modul8 has a titler)

The next release will have Flash support. Flash files can be controlled from within Resolume and you can change the text in Flash animations plus much more. This enables much greater flexibility then a build in text titler.

3) Animated GIF support (with 1 bit transparancy)
Although there are a lot of limitations of animated gifs, VJs still love them because there are a lot of animated gifs on the web that are looping and are masked out. you could probably use Imagemagick's or ffmpeg to do a command line conversion of gifs to AVIs.
(modul8 supports animated gifs)

We won't be supporting the animated GIF format, just too much work for a niche feature like that.

4) Shape masks and Paint/alpha eraser
For quick and easy masking.

Yes this would be great, especially when using non square screens or when mapping this would be a great addition.

5) Parenting
so if i want to add x/y/scaling motion to a clip that i would be able to scronize children to move with it.
(similar to after effects.)

This is why we created the layer level, you can set the Layer to animate and all clips played in that layer will animate.

6) Adjust image scaling mode(smooth vs nearest neighbor)
Many low bit graphics look dumb when scaled up with smoothing. Imagine super mario scaled to the size of the screen- you would want to see the individual pixels crisp. (opengl scaling mode supports this in hardware)

Yes more people asked for this, we will have a look how to build this in gracefully.

7) Simple shader plugin - some way of importing a shader without having to bundle it into a dll. I have written a couple of shaders and think that its kind of unnecessary to bundle the shader source code into the dll when the only reason the dll is there is for the skeleton code...

Also something we would like to see, maybe you can help us out building such a plugin. We'll need to build in support for FFGL Text parameters first. Contact us by email and maybe we can work this out together.

8) Ability to position elements in display window with the mouse.

Yep, is on our todo-list already, that list is getting very long though.

[GeeEs]

8) Ability to position elements in display window with the mouse.

This option is already present in Resolume Avenue isn't it?
Press "p" and move the mouse simultaneously will move the clip position inside the composition.

[edwin]

You can indeed move your clip withe mouse that way (forgot about that). Would still be usefull though to grab a clip in the preview window and drag it around.

[alphasuede]

Great! Thanks for your comprehensive feedback! A couple follow up comments....

3) Animated GIF support

http://ytmnd.com/ <- the youtube of animated gifs

5) Parenting
Still a little confused here with how to do a "layer level" animation...

7) Simple shader plugin
The most similar thing to what we want can be seen in Nvida's CGFX file format. We could make something much simpler... I will send you an email about this.

8) Ability to position elements in display window with the mouse)
Shortcut keys 'P' works great! 'S' does scale too!

[edwin]

5) Parenting
Still a little confused here with how to do a "layer level" animation...

If you set the first layer to rotate on it's x axis for example, each clip played in that layer will rotate.
So the 'Layer' is the parent of the clip playing in it.

We are discussing your email, i will get back to you tommorrow probably.