http://www.samkass.com/blog/index.htmlSam's Quartz Composer Blogensamkass-qcblog@samkass.comCopyright 2007 Samuel Kass2007-10-30T23:08:57-04:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:14:08 -0400samkass-qcblog@samkass.comDiscussion2007-10-30T23:08:57-04:00http://www.samkass.com/blog/files/7d5df850269139d33a04e0a030660b68-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.samkass.com/blog/files/7d5df850269139d33a04e0a030660b68-2.html#unique-entry-id-2
I've been playing with the iTunes visualizers and iChat effects. I put a few in the "Compositions" page. This sure makes it easy to extend the built-in effects; I'm amazed more online publications (especially Ars Technica!) haven't expounded on this feature at length. Video effects for the masses! Viva la revolution!
]]>samkass-qcblog@samkass.comImage Processing2007-10-29T00:14:58-04:00http://www.samkass.com/blog/files/cfc946240239a843b79604c857d4f5c7-1.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.samkass.com/blog/files/cfc946240239a843b79604c857d4f5c7-1.html#unique-entry-id-1first two Quartz Composer 3.0 plug-ins today. Some of the code was lifted from my old "hack" plug-in for QC 2.0 that I never released, and other code was pulled from all the great examples in the QC Examples directory. To use the plug-ins, download them and unzip them, then copy the plug-in out of the "build/release" directory into your "~/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Plug-Ins" directory (creating it if you don't have it), then re-start QC. Beware, use with caution, alpha-quality, and all that should be applied.

The plug-ins basically attempt to track N features across a video stream using a KLT (Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi) feature tracker I found in the public domain (written by Stan Birchfield and Thorsten Thormaehlen). It's really inefficient (especially the plotter), but I'll figure out how to get better. I think the feature tracking itself is pretty fast-- just my handling of the QC buffers leaves something to be desired. Full source is included, although I haven't attached any licenses to it yet. Just ping me and I'll give you permission to use it however you want. I also posted a little composition that uses the two plug-ins.

Needless to say, with the new built-in patches and the ability to write your own, QC has gained a lot of power. I could see using it as the mediator for all sorts of processing pipelines. If only Apple was at all interested in Java I could tie it in to the stuff I do for my day job. (Besides being faster to develop and execute than a lot of the Objective C stuff these days, and having a modern IDE, Java would give Apple access to zillions of trained developers, but I digress...)

So anyway, feel free to check it out and please offer suggestions. I'll probably get back to composition writing during the week instead of plug-in hacking.
]]>samkass-qcblog@samkass.comDiscussion2007-10-27T23:54:36-04:00http://www.samkass.com/blog/files/2d4a60750186071a8fc746628a201a60-0.html#unique-entry-id-0http://www.samkass.com/blog/files/2d4a60750186071a8fc746628a201a60-0.html#unique-entry-id-0
I plan on posting most of my old compositions as well as any new ones I create on the Compositions page, and I'm going to try my hand at some custom plug-ins now that they're officially supported and post them as well and post them on the Custom Plug-Ins page. I'll also have to check out all the old sites like QuartzCompositions.com and see what's up over there.

Last time I got into Quartz Composer I didn't have a kid (now I have two), so don't expect as quick progress as I used to make...
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