From the original SynthMaker forum (2004–2014), with its members’ names and dates.
hudson_m ·
Has anyone ever tried building a VST Video plug. I was going to try using Flowstone because it has a video module, but I have just been told on their forum that you can't make a VST in Flowstone?!
My guess is it's not possible? But another thought occurred ... whether it might be possible to use the images from an animated gif? There are a number of tools to convert videos to animated gifs so I assume it might be possible to read/display the separate images in sync to a hosts clock..?
Any thoughts before I waste a lot of time trying..!!
philter5 ·
hey welcome to the forum !
first of all: the animated gif thing is no big deal. but you have to work with PNG strips or single Image files here,
SM can´t read gif animations. in the past few weeks i was working on a little VST
for making host synced/midi triggered animations (made it just for fun, for example to build funny
little sketchbook-style scenes,matching the song that plays in your host). i´ll upload the OSM later when i´m home from work. imagine a schematic with only 1 animated knob in it. The knob is a sequence of pics (saved as PNG Strip), and the knob can be automated by the host/react to midi messages or even react to audio.now you only need to replace the knob animation with your own image sequence.
of course you can use more than 1 knob/animation in your OSM, but you have to keep the image size small.
you can also use single files, for example assign every midi note a different picture, then you can play your animation like a synth/together with your synth. this thread that might be interesting for you:
[old link]
but now the bad news:
Video is not possible with SM, and Flowstone can´t make VST´s, as you know.
long time ago i posted a SM module to control Synthmaker with a webcam, but in fact it´s no real video as it only
reads continuisly saved pictures from hdd. real cpu killer...here s the thread:
[old link]
I had an idea with the flowstone video , too (but i was more thinking about EXPORTING the animation afterwards as *.avi) for video i think the only way is to make a EXE with flowstone and trigger it with the MIDI data that comes from your host/trigger it with MIDI data that comes from a SM made VST inside your host
if you´d like to collaborate on a little project let me know . phil 😉
hudson_m ·
Hi philter5
Thanks for the reply. It's just the germ of an idea at the moment - it just seemed that if video isn't possible, then taking the individual images and having a VST to display them in sync with a DAW timeline would achieve a similar result.
Will dabble a bit and see what happens... 😉
nix ·
Welcome!
I want to try this 2, for music videos.
The thing that will be constraining is how much CPU will be consumed.
Very inhibiting. SM graphic drawing just burns cycles sadly.
That said, I'm still going to dabble. Should be fun.
Cheers
hudson_m ·
It's all a bit new to me..... when I used to do some programming it was with endless pages of horrible code (Pascal - it was a long time ago!Q) .... visual programming looks cool but it is taking me a lot of time to get my head around what everything does!
As well as the bitmap loader used in philter5's drummer example I see there is also a bitmap array....
so if a set of jpegs were loaded into that they could be displayed by generating an index from the VST get song position module/component..? and not have to worry about the built in animation of SM..?
In theory... simple.. but I imagine a bit hard to actually do... I will find out soon!
philter5 ·
once you know the basics of SM it´s quite simple... compared to code languages like pascal hehe...
for host synced animations just use the PPQ module/the samplePosition module.
but remember that you have to add stream outputs to your vsti, even if you have no audio part inside your schematic, without the blue part the PPQ module does not work.
i used this techniques for example to display text popup messages at specific song parts
(for karaoke text displays or general information )
arrgh, forgot to upload my OSM yesterday. hope i remember to do this later... 😕
philter5 ·
BTW: if you are working with Ableton Live you should have a look at the MAX4Life website
http://maxforlive.com/library/index.php?tag=video
there are a lot of modules that make it possible to mix/sync/modulate video files inside ableton
or control MIDI data usind video input.
i´ve had a quick look at MAX4Live Editor Mode to see if i can make my own one but until now
i have not understood it all..
rl ·
not sure whether this might help you: there is vvvv (http://vvvv.org/). IMO vvvv is for video what sm is for audio.
It also has some support for VST (http://vvvv.org/documentation/vst) but vvvv itself does not run as a vst plugin.
philter5 ·
here is a basic example of what i am trying to to .... just working on a version that can play black notes, too
hehe 😈 you can achieve very funny animations when you have 2,3,4 or more overlayed animations working together 😍
trogluddite ·
He he, you've been secretly watching me playing piano havent' you?! 😉
tektoog ·
philter5 wrote: here is a basic example of what i am trying to to
Nice...
Maybe they can make a band with this old good Delay Lama...
philter5 ·
tektoog wrote:
philter5 wrote: here is a basic example of what i am trying to to
Nice...
Maybe they can make a band with this old good Delay Lama...
thats exactly what i am tryin to do hehe 😀
philter5 ·
@ hudson: simple things or "fake" videos like this are possible though...
Paul LGN ·
Nice video. I really like your post. Keep up the good work.
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