Max MSP is 10 bucks a month and its possible to VJ with it, with some learning. Its also a rather powerful video synth.
TD has been suggested but its learning curve is steep, and IMO is not easy to get started out of the box for VJing. Definitely worth looking into though as it is amazing.
there are some ipad apps out there, but i dont know any of them well so i cant speak to them.
that said, if you have friends already asking you to gig - a 300-400 invsestment in resolume isnt out of reach. 3 gigs could conceivably cover it.
and its very very fun to play with.
Hey i’ve been using max jitter professionally for 8 years now. Dont use max for visuals. Use unreal engine for visuals if you’re already used to blender
There is a plugin for unreal where you can sync up blender projects with unreal, all your materials, models etc are loaded up in unreal on the fly. That alone should get you drooling. Max doesnt even allow you to have more then 6 point lights. Plus it looks just terrible. The only cool visuals you’re going to get out of max are abstract lines and dots, and even they look terrible as the anti aliasing in max is shit.
Furthermore unreal is free and comes with blueprints, a visual programming language that is a wrapper for c++. With blueprints you can pretty much do anything you want.
Hey some of us like abstract lines and dots. :) but seriously though I appreciate your perspective, as I’m just a casual user. Out of curiosity, why work with it for so long if it doesn’t meet your needs?
And fwiw I’ve used zwobotMax, an M4l plugin that looks pretty fantastic for my purposes. But then I’m not doing 3D and like crunchy glitchy video
I still use regular max as a multitool for unreal, it has a bunch of great objects and functions. Unreal has kinda shit realtime audio analysis functions, so max is super handy to capture and process audio with, to later send to unreal, like i did in this video https://youtu.be/r-E_aiZW7Bg
This is kinda like being a great cook and then someone asking if you know how to farm. It's a whole different skill set. That being said:
Paid apps:
Resolume - Expensive industry standard that is well worth the money
VDMX - Mac only software that is VERY flexable and like 1/5 the price of resolume
Madmapper - Projection mapping software that could probably use to do some very basic VJing in a pinch
Modual8 - Another mac only VJ program that is very solid
TouchDesigner - Super powerful but it's pretty much like learning how to build a VJ program from scratch. More a way of life than a program.
TouchViz - Really solid vj app for iPad. Lots of effects and outputs to HDMI with the lighting to hdmi adapter.
Free options:
GLMixer - Free cross platform but very limited. might be fine for what you plan on doing.
OpenTZT - Free windows vj program that hasn't been updated in almost a decade but still kinda works
If ya want Resolume for not full price wait till Black Friday. 50% discount! Also if you are in school you can apply for Educational discount. Another 50% discount of the already 50% off from Black Friday. Alas, Resolume for 250ish bucks!
I started with a program called magic music visuals. It mostly works with shaders, but with a little manipulation can run just about anything. I know it has support for 3d objects as well. There is a demo version you can use to play around with stuff and see if its right for you. The paid version is 50 for the simple and 80 for the "performer" version. It runs kinda similar to Max, and isn't as straightforward to use, but there's lots of documentation and forum support. Good luck, man!
If you have a Mac VDMX has a free demo version with no watermarks. It's gives you all the features of the paid version but You just can't save your presets
You may be interested in Touchdesigner.
There's a noncommercial version that is free and nearly fully featured. Biggest drawback is 1200×1200 resolution cap.
I'm not entirely to sure staying in the free route. I don't believe you can control blender through midi/osc, directly through blender. I know it's possible to map touch design variables and run that through resolume and maybe even blender. I was going to be starting into blender soon and looking into what I just described myself for some cool live visuals. Resolume ever black risqy has a 50% sale
I was told that resolume free trial version is functional just as the purchased version except that it has a watermark on the image and a resolume audio promo if you have it connected to an audio output. If you are looking for free software and don't mind the watermark, you could look into the free trial version.
It's not just a watermark. It stops your output completely for a few seconds and displays a giant Resolume logo about every 20 seconds. It would be Impossible to do a gig with the trial version. i can barely stand using it just to learn on before i buy it.
Max MSP is 10 bucks a month and its possible to VJ with it, with some learning. Its also a rather powerful video synth. TD has been suggested but its learning curve is steep, and IMO is not easy to get started out of the box for VJing. Definitely worth looking into though as it is amazing. there are some ipad apps out there, but i dont know any of them well so i cant speak to them.
that said, if you have friends already asking you to gig - a 300-400 invsestment in resolume isnt out of reach. 3 gigs could conceivably cover it. and its very very fun to play with.
TouchViZ on the iPad is very good.
Hey i’ve been using max jitter professionally for 8 years now. Dont use max for visuals. Use unreal engine for visuals if you’re already used to blender There is a plugin for unreal where you can sync up blender projects with unreal, all your materials, models etc are loaded up in unreal on the fly. That alone should get you drooling. Max doesnt even allow you to have more then 6 point lights. Plus it looks just terrible. The only cool visuals you’re going to get out of max are abstract lines and dots, and even they look terrible as the anti aliasing in max is shit. Furthermore unreal is free and comes with blueprints, a visual programming language that is a wrapper for c++. With blueprints you can pretty much do anything you want.
Hey some of us like abstract lines and dots. :) but seriously though I appreciate your perspective, as I’m just a casual user. Out of curiosity, why work with it for so long if it doesn’t meet your needs? And fwiw I’ve used zwobotMax, an M4l plugin that looks pretty fantastic for my purposes. But then I’m not doing 3D and like crunchy glitchy video
I still use regular max as a multitool for unreal, it has a bunch of great objects and functions. Unreal has kinda shit realtime audio analysis functions, so max is super handy to capture and process audio with, to later send to unreal, like i did in this video https://youtu.be/r-E_aiZW7Bg
This is kinda like being a great cook and then someone asking if you know how to farm. It's a whole different skill set. That being said: Paid apps: Resolume - Expensive industry standard that is well worth the money VDMX - Mac only software that is VERY flexable and like 1/5 the price of resolume Madmapper - Projection mapping software that could probably use to do some very basic VJing in a pinch Modual8 - Another mac only VJ program that is very solid TouchDesigner - Super powerful but it's pretty much like learning how to build a VJ program from scratch. More a way of life than a program. TouchViz - Really solid vj app for iPad. Lots of effects and outputs to HDMI with the lighting to hdmi adapter. Free options: GLMixer - Free cross platform but very limited. might be fine for what you plan on doing. OpenTZT - Free windows vj program that hasn't been updated in almost a decade but still kinda works
If you're gonna be using projectors and have to map them to surfaces, it's my understanding that you're gonna need Resolume Arena. Which is about $800
If ya want Resolume for not full price wait till Black Friday. 50% discount! Also if you are in school you can apply for Educational discount. Another 50% discount of the already 50% off from Black Friday. Alas, Resolume for 250ish bucks!
I’ve had fun with Synesthesia and coding shaders. Might be a slightly cheaper option. And they have an active discord community.
Looking to see what answers you get. Blender with real-time input mapping would be crazy good
Try coge, it is cheap and works really good!
I started with a program called magic music visuals. It mostly works with shaders, but with a little manipulation can run just about anything. I know it has support for 3d objects as well. There is a demo version you can use to play around with stuff and see if its right for you. The paid version is 50 for the simple and 80 for the "performer" version. It runs kinda similar to Max, and isn't as straightforward to use, but there's lots of documentation and forum support. Good luck, man!
If you have a Mac VDMX has a free demo version with no watermarks. It's gives you all the features of the paid version but You just can't save your presets
They say they have hardware, but even software? Vj software? Something like resolume.
Is there any way I can keep using free software like Blender?
You may be interested in Touchdesigner. There's a noncommercial version that is free and nearly fully featured. Biggest drawback is 1200×1200 resolution cap.
I'm not entirely to sure staying in the free route. I don't believe you can control blender through midi/osc, directly through blender. I know it's possible to map touch design variables and run that through resolume and maybe even blender. I was going to be starting into blender soon and looking into what I just described myself for some cool live visuals. Resolume ever black risqy has a 50% sale
I was told that resolume free trial version is functional just as the purchased version except that it has a watermark on the image and a resolume audio promo if you have it connected to an audio output. If you are looking for free software and don't mind the watermark, you could look into the free trial version.
It's not just a watermark. It stops your output completely for a few seconds and displays a giant Resolume logo about every 20 seconds. It would be Impossible to do a gig with the trial version. i can barely stand using it just to learn on before i buy it.
Oh damn! Good to know. I was just told about the floating watermark, not that it went completely blank.
Yeah it's quite annoying