Some of you might have seen the Animoitu liike -workshop I did in collaboration with Päivi Hintsanen and Live Herring in Jyväskylä public library (September 2009) http://www.liveherring.org/animoitu_liike/

This week I’m going to do part 2 of the workshop in Jyväskylä in collaboration with Loiskis. The Kinect sensor has greatly improved the project as I no longer need to use IR markers.

Here is a small demo. Running with a customized build of OSCeleton, Quartz Composer and Animata.

For demonstration purposes, I’m changing the character and the background by clapping my hands.

The drawings were made by students from the Keski-Palokka elementary school.

At the same time I fixed a major issue that had been there since I made the plugins. I’m using the VVOSC and VVBasics frameworks from http://code.google.com/p/vvopensource/ and I finally changed the class names to get rid of some errors when using the plugin with other software that uses the same frameworks.

Download from the Software page.

IMPORTANT!

Please remove all of my previous OSC plugins (AnimataOSC and MonsteriOSCSender) before installing this new plugin.

Trying out the very awesome OSCeleton http://github.com/Sensebloom/OSCeleton with Quartz Composer.

What is OSCeleton?
“As the title says, it’s just a small program takes Kinect skeleton data from the OpenNI framework and spits out the coordinates of the skeleton’s joints via OSC messages. These can can then be used on your language / framework of choice.”

It works straight out of the box with Animata and many other software, but the OSC formatting is not compatible with Quartz Composer. So I made a little Max/MSP patch that converts the messages to a format QC understands. I will try to write a tutorial about how to get the whole thing running pretty soon. But here is a quick rundown.

• Install OpenNI http://www.openni.org/downloadfiles/openni-binaries/20-latest-unstable
• Install KinectSensor http://github.com/avin2/SensorKinect
• Install NITE http://www.openni.org/downloadfiles/openni-compliant-middleware-binaries/33-latest-unstable
• Download OSCeleton http://github.com/Sensebloom/OSCeleton
• Download my OSCeletonToQC Max/MSP app and open it. (I think you need to install the Max Runtime from http://cycling74.com/downloads/)
• Dowload my QC example and open it
• Run OSCeleton with this command:

./osceleton-osx -p 8110 -mx 2 -my -2 -mz -1 -ox -1 -oy 0.75 -oz 1 -a 127.0.0.1

The options are to scale the values to something that makes sense in QC. You can play around with them. Check the OSCeleton readme for more information about the different options.

Let me know if the Max/MSP app or something else is not working properly.

Update on the Iron project. Not perfect but it’s starting to sound pretty decent. Listen through proper speakers or headphones to hear the full effect of the bass.

Testing my new instrument and ironing my wrinkly papers at the same time. This is the beat slicing mode. Still needs a lot of work but I wanted to shoot some documentation anyway.

It’s a wireless controller for making music.

Features include:
- 6 different modes
- A mega wobble bass generator
- Beat slicer
- Sampler
- ???

Tech specs:
- Senses the grayscale values of the surface
- Accelerometer
- Tactile feedback (vibration)
- RGB LED
- Completely wireless

Stay tuned for more.

Also on YouTube (for slower connections)

Feather light or deadly serious? 


Ville Walo’s solo performance, Mortimer, is a contemporary circus theatre performance where juggling and electrical sensor technology come together. The focused, subtle performance juggles sound and video projections, brings small fluffy things to life and laughs at mortality. The performance’s soft hint of breath brushes the viewers’ skin.

Walo juggles with video projection and plays music by juggling objects equipped with movement sensors. Sensor technology and programming turn the stage into an interactive electronic instrument that reacts to Walo’s movements in perfect unison. Although the performance relies on sophisticated real-time computer controlling, its visual style is far from technology oriented sci-fi aesthetics. The stage is filled with humanely warm and clumsy everyday objects and jerky hand-drawn animations that create an intimate atmosphere.

Although Mortimer is a solo performance, Walo is by no means alone is the stage. He communicates with the objects he holds in his hands, with the puppet figures that share the stage with him, peculiarly assembled form various bits and pieces, with the skeletons and birds of the projected animations. Together they form the population of this special universe.

It’s a twisted little fairy tale world filled with death, naivety, playful cruelty and dark humour. Mortimer is a performance that provokes silent internal laughter.

Mortimer was first performed on the 16th of September 2010 in Kiasma Theatre, in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland.

Creation: Ville Walo, Anne Jämsä
Performer: Ville Walo
Lighting design: Meri Ekola
Music and sound design: Samuli Kosminen
Programming and projection design: Matti Niinimäki
Set design, costumes and drawings: Anne Jämsä
Choreographic assistance: Jyrki Karttunen

Kinect depth image in Quartz Composer via OF + Syphon.

Too tired now to post any code. Maybe tomorrow.

Månsteri OSC Sender Plugin v. 1.3 changes:
- Fixed a bug in setting the IP Address. The IP should actually change now.

Animata OSC Plugin v. 1.3 changes:
- Fixed a bug in setting the IP Address. The IP should actually change now.

Download: http://mansteri.com/software/

There is a new version of the Animata OSC plugin available. I’ve had the Z-axis support working for a long time, but I’ve just been too lazy to upload it here. Also added the option to change the IP address and port numbers. Useful when you need to send OSC from QC to a different computer running Animata. You really shouldn’t touch the port, but decided to throw in the option to change it just in case.

Download the plugin here.

Download the example seen on the video.

Version 1.2 Changes
- Added the Z Position port for the Layer patch. That means you can now move layers in Z-axis too. (requires the latest version of Animata 004)
- Added the option to configure the IP address and port number. (Please test this one)

I also updated the VDMX plugins to have the Z Position option.

Please test this and let me know if you run into any problems.