Blog

VIZZable

Posted by bob on Jan 17, 2011 in animation, excitement, software, video, vj | 83 Comments

i’ve been wanting to run video plugins since before Max for Live came into existence and Max/MSPs VIZZIE VJ modules seemed perfect as Ableton plugins. so i swapped out all the non-MIDI automatable parts and shoehorned some plugins together.

(VIZZable has a new home!)

These plugins are completely compatible with the amazing V-module suite by Fabrizio Poce. These two projects have now merged to provide a comprehensive suite of video, effects and real-time graphics tools for Live. If you’d like to become involved in testing and developing these plugins please join us in this google group.

Change list

6/12/2011

V 0.9.3

Updated auto-connect v 1.0
Syphon output added to the viewr module
new midigrid device – receives midi notes and outputs white squares. originally made for the novation launchpad but will work with any midi input
new 2switchr device to toggle video between two different outputs

17/4/2011
V 0.9.2

All modules can now auto-connect (thanks to Chris Gough from the Jitter in Live google group)
All module’s preview windows can be disabled by clicking
Viewr GL optimized
Viewr can now toggle menubar in fullscreen mode
Viewr acts as a central hub to all other VIZZable modules allowing toggling of module preview windows and setting global resolution for all modules
New Previewr device, similar to viewr but without global controls or fullscreen
New Zamplr effect module
Playr has several performance improvements
Playr now properly saves loaded movie folders with live set
Clicking the Playrs name below the preview window activates a FPS meter and unique frame toggle for performance monitoring
VIZZIE preset code removed – presets can be saved in Live browser

7/4/2011

Effect modules are now bypassed when device is deactivated.

6/4/2011

All parameters can now be automated with clip envelopes
Code cleaned up
Scribbler bugs fixed

3/4/2011

All devices now connect using the same drop down system as V-module
Player now has selectable resolution

25/1/2011

all devices frozen and outputs plugged with “.” to prevent stack overflow errors
Grabbr – webcam source now selectable
Playr – clips in drop down now save properly

83 Comments

Jerrem
January 17, 2011
awesome! but do you need max for live to use your plugins? probably yes. but still looks awesome!
- bob
  January 17, 2011
  yep, you need max for live.
  - Ben
    January 16, 2013
    Hey man, really like Vizzable, but i need some help. I’m using the Recorder plugin to export the video to a .mov file but it doesnt seem like theres any way to up the resolution of the final file. I tried to link the Viewer to it but there’s no output, is there a good way to export my session in HD from vizzable?
    - bob
      January 16, 2013
      If you’re on mac, the recommended way to record your set is through syphon and syphon recorder.
      There’s currently a bug in the auto connect within vizzable that effects some machines and prevents output, particularly with the viewr module. the viewr should, however, still control the resolution of any other module in the set. So, if you are on windows give that a shot and sit tight – There’s a bug fix for the auto connection coming out shortly.
Adam S.
January 19, 2011
Wow! The possibilities seem endless. Great work.
Matt
January 20, 2011
Looks awesome. Can’t wait to try it out when I’ve upgraded my Ableton. Keep up the good work!
cosimo
January 22, 2011
Hi, great job.
I always wanted something like this inside Live, a sort of Modul8.
I hope you can improve it and make even better than Modul8.
Keep up the good work.
All the best.
Mike
January 25, 2011
Unfortunately I can just see small black frames where the videos should be. Any tip how I can solve this? I have to admit I’m just a beginner with Max4Live.
specs: Win7 x64, Live 8.2.1, Max 5.1.7
- bob
  January 25, 2011
  sit tight, i’ll release an update in the next day or two which should address this.
Mike
January 25, 2011
i was working on just this thing but since you beat me to the punch i’m just going to use these! Genius, thanks so much!
ctrlfreq
January 25, 2011
This is fantastic, just the tool I needed.
Tharon
January 28, 2011
Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for. 20 min into it and already have the basic set up I wanted for my bands next show. Will def credit you if someone asks how I did it!
- bob
  January 28, 2011
  great to hear! post some vids, would love to see it in action!
Eric
January 28, 2011
Player, grabber, and viewer all work great but every effect plugins pops up with a stack overflow error
- bob
  January 28, 2011
  yep, you need to make sure the effects inputs and outputs aren’t labelled the same or aren’t left blank – if they are the effect will get stuck in a loop and cause a stack overflow.
BellectroniQ
January 29, 2011
MASSIVE THANK YOU :D Really appreciate you made this as its exactly what im after and you just answered all my questions and then some. Will be definitely purchasing M4L now. Thanks again!
- bob
  February 2, 2011
  thanks, glad you’re into it :D
Leon Trimble
February 1, 2011
I got some good advice of how vizzie needs improving from vade:
http://forums.v002.info/topic.php?id=47
I’m a bit lost with some of it, hope you can optimize the things…
Engine
February 2, 2011
What up Dude ? Great, but a vizzplayer does not work ?
- bob
  February 2, 2011
  hmmm… it should be fine. try toggling the monitor modes. also make sure you’re using the latest max and ableton versions.
Michael Coelho
February 9, 2011
Great work! I saw this a little while back over at Create Digital Music, but just now got around to downloading the modules. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I don’t have the programing chops to do this, so thanks! My download didn’t have quite as many modules as your demo showed?
- bob
  February 9, 2011
  glad it’s working for you. there should be 22 plugins all up. some of them might look a bit different in the demo because they were still in-constructo.
Zhiwan
February 9, 2011
Hey this is freaking awesome. I am downloading now and can’t wait to try it out. Thanks so much for taking the time to make this!
Alloy
February 14, 2011
Fantastic – thank you! This is just what I’ve been wishing for. The fact that I can build my own combinations and control parameters with m4l LFOs and side-chaining devices (apart from clip envelopes and automation) is amazing – it leaves other VJ software IN THE DUST! Thanks thanks thanks again for posting this.
BellectroniQ
March 4, 2011
Hey just made my first video with your awesome appliance! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jilM4sGmImI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thanks for Vizzie :D
BellectroniQ
March 4, 2011
^ I meant Vizzable!
irma
April 14, 2011
Thank you very much!

Just a question,
I am a new user of M4L and Ableton and I would like to know how could I install VIZZable on Ableton.
I am sure it is a stupid question,
but I really don’t know how to do that.

Thank you very much in advance.
- bob
  April 14, 2011
  Hi Irma,
  there’s no need to actually install VIZZable. Simply unzip the folder where ever you’d like then drag the plugins into a midi track. You can drag them in from either the folder or from the live file browser.
  Have fun!
many things » ZEAL
April 20, 2011
[…] things By bob, on April 20th, 2011 much is happening. earlier this week i released an update to VIZZable, my set of video plugins for ableton live. it’s a big update with fancy new features like GL […]
PNP: Thu 28 April : Zeal (AV), Jean Poole (AV) + Vdmo Kstati
April 27, 2011
[…] More recently, he’s been developing a live audiovisual performance, and building his own a set of video plugins for ableton live (VIZZable). […]
h_double
May 8, 2011
This is an amazing set of tools! I made a little proof of concept clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLMbohmXTIQ
electronic djs
August 12, 2011
Wizzable plugin is TOP. Thanks for sharing DL link!

Cheers
ha ha ha
August 15, 2011
hi, what video format does the player use?
- bob
  August 16, 2011
  it’s built using jitter and jitter works with quicktime *.movs.
  for performance photojpeg is a good codec choice.
Marty Lake
August 20, 2011
Hi! I can’t get it work =(
It’s playing videos that I load (in the preview screen) (I m looking for the button to get them stop if I don’t want them to play until the end)

But the module don’t want to link in auto, or in the same setting (eg. stream1, stream1), and the preview screen is black ='(
- bob
  August 23, 2011
  Hi marty – first things first – make sure you’re running the latest versions of both ableton and max/max for live. the auto connect won’t work with older versions and it’s likely other things will break too.
  
  there’s currently no stop button on the playr module – what i tend to do is route the playr through a mixer and then use the mixer to turn of the video channel. hope that helps – send me an email if you need some more in depth help. or join our google group! http://groups.google.com/group/jitterinmax4live-
  
  cheers,
  bob.
leon
September 23, 2011
hello,

is it possible somehow to send pixelized video to midi? (or any kind of video motion)
i mean to play with the webcam and generate some sounds

thanks
leon
Nicolas
September 30, 2011
all I have to say is you are AWESOME!!
- bob
  October 3, 2011
  That is indeed possible but not currently with vizzable. I do remember seeing like it done. Have a google for “max for live video musicbox” and you might find it.
Sham79
September 30, 2011
Love your plugins, been playing around with them for a couple of hours absolutely glitch free. Makes me wish I knew M4L better so I could help develop new devices.

Good job!
- bob
  October 2, 2011
  Thanks. You don’t need to be a m4l guru to help us develop the plugins. Join our google group and you can help us test and pitch ideas etc!
Philip
October 21, 2011
fantastic plugins,great work,i am running ableton 8.1.3 and max 5.1. the plugins are loadfing ok. grabbr is working but nothing is coming up in viewr. is this because of the version I am running or am I missing something else. looks like lots of fun to be had with this, thanks
- bob
  October 21, 2011
  correct. update ableton and max and it will work fine.
Sham79
November 23, 2011
Thanks Bob,

I will check out your google group very soon.

Is there any reason why the VIZZable plugins will not succsesfully load once saved on my machine. I can build from scratch pretty quickly which is mostly what i do when i’m playing around but have discovered that Video and streaming fails on my PC once I save a set with a VIZZable effects chain within. WIN7 64
Sham79
November 23, 2011
I take it back!

just gathered VIZZ files in to project folder and the problem fixed itself except that AUTO function does not work on reboot, but I can get around that.

Cheers

S
- bob
  February 6, 2012
  sounds like you might need to update your version of max.
Ralf Briechle
December 9, 2011
Hallo,
thank you for this great work.
But i have problems with syphon out. I cant get the signal in another
application. Do you habe a tip?
Thanks Ralf

OSX 10.6.8
Live 8.2.7
- bob
  December 9, 2011
  hi ralf,
  what version of max are you running?
  do you have syphon client installed – would be good to test connectivity with that.
  also, make sure the syphon button on your viewr module is yellow.
  
  if all that fails email me a screen shot?
  
  cheers,
  bob.
Jules H
February 20, 2012
Hi Bob

I’m new to Vizzable and can’t seem to make it work. I tried to watch your tutorial vids but they’re a bit ahead of where I am. I have a playr in and a viewer. i have dropped a folder of short QT’s into the playr but don’t see any videos playing. Can you help me? What should I be doing? I am on Max 8.2.7 and have downloaded the Vizzable devices from your site which show me that they are 0.9.3.

Your help would be much appreciated.

Best

Jules
- bob
  February 24, 2012
  Hey Jules,
  So far so good. what you might be missing is the playr module responds to midi notes so if you have a midi keyboard or similar: set that as your midi in and set the track to “monitor in” or record arm. then as you play notes, videos will be triggered.
  
  Your other option is to create clips with midi notes in them and then trigger use them to trigger video.
  let me know how you go and don’t forget to join the google group here: http://groups.google.com/group/jitterinmax4live-
  bob
Fun+Art » ZEAL
March 2, 2012
[…] there cause you’re there then come check it out. I’m also going to be doing a demo of VIZZable at the Adelaide College of the Arts and hopefully some outdoor projection at JACK IN. Fun + art = […]
RH
April 29, 2012
**Has anyone mapped for the novation launchpad??
- bob
  May 6, 2012
  as in midi mapped? There’s nothing stopping you. I’ve used the launchpad extensively. I’m also working on plugins especially for the device: http://zealousy.com/2012/02/lores/
jorge
June 19, 2012
hi Bob, just one thing, the viewer doesn’t seem to work… i chain it to the grabber or the player and all i get is the preview window from either of those two but the viewer sits black… any thoughts

thanks, you’ve built some amazing software
- bob
  June 19, 2012
  What OS, ableton version, max version?
  
  The usual cause of that sort of thing is an older version of max. latest version of max 5 is the go.
  - jorge
    June 20, 2012
    i have max 5.1.8 and live 8.2.1
    - jorge
      June 20, 2012
      os 10.7.4
      - bob
        June 20, 2012
        it’s possible it’s a lion thing. those versions of max and live should be ok but try upgrading to max 5.1.9 and live 8.3.
        could you send me a screenshot of your vizzable set up?
  - jorge
    June 20, 2012
    Hi Bob, here’s the pic:
    https://twitter.com/mrjflowers/status/215336039609409536/photo/1
    
    didn’t know how to do it, here’s a link to the twitpic
    could there be another way, i actually can’t afford the upgrade for live… i’ve downloaded the max upgrade but live has to be upgraded too
    - bob
      June 20, 2012
      From the pic it should work. Have you tried manually connecting them? IE set grabbr out to video1 an viewr in to video1.
      
      My guess is it’s a lion issue and upgrading max and live might fix it. If you’ve got live 8.2 it should be free to upgrade to 8.3? I can see a download for 8.3 when I log into Ableton.
      
      Also try a system update to make sure QuickTime and everything is up to date.
      
      If these things don’t work it might be good to hit up the jitterinmax4live- google group to see if anyone there’s having the same issue?
      
      Bob.
      - jorge
        June 21, 2012
        thanks Bob, it actually worked by manually connecting them
        now there’s one more issue, when i put on an effect it says “stacks overflow” and doesn’t work. Any idea what’s that about?
      - bob
        June 21, 2012
        That can happen when the an effect has the same input and output. If your sending in on video1 you need to send out on video2. We’ve actually fixed that in the auto connect module – it seems that’s what’s broken for you. Could you post the issues you’ve had on the google group? The author of the auto connect module is there, it’d be good to get him in on it.
      - jorge
        June 21, 2012
        ok great, I’m on it
cami
July 6, 2012
Hey, you haven’t made a version of VIZZable that’s compatible with Max for Live 6 yet?? I got a trial of max for live 6 just so i could try using these plugins and now they won’t work :(
- bob
  July 6, 2012
  hmmm… the plugins should work fine with max 6 even though they’re written in 5. If you’re just using trials go grab the max 5 trial and see if that fixes the problem (make sure you’ve got this too: http://www.ableton.com/maxforlive )
Ableton
September 24, 2012
[…] for M4L’s ability to manipulate video – I would highlight the Vizzable project. It’s a set of M4L devices that let you easily generate and manipulate video inside of […]
Kz
October 8, 2012
Really, really good work! A longer time I was looking for something like that and now I found it for free and for m4L! Thank you very much!
Jeremy
October 29, 2012
Hey Robert, just came across these utilities, awesome stuff!

Only problem I’m having is a loading delay in loading the videos – any way to preload the playr videos into ram?

Big thanks!
- bob
  November 30, 2012
  hey, no ram preview is available – best bet is optimizing your video files to be photojpeg at just below 75% quality. let me know how you go!
Jeremy
October 29, 2012
Ps. I’m trying to use this for live triggering…
Music Visualization with Ableton Live and Processing | Discolingua
November 30, 2012
[…] and honestly this is an area I haven’t explored much. I HAVE tooled around with the Vizzable plugins for Max For Live which are extremely snazzy (you can see my Vizzable experiment on […]
In studio this week | Richard Windeyer
December 17, 2012
[…] captures from experiments in generating MIDI-controlled video feedback using but a handful of Zeal‘s VIZZable VJ (Max4Live) modules. Part of the latest development period for bluemouth […]
Andreas Bolldén
August 6, 2013
Hi Bob. I installed Vizzable yesterday, and its fantastic! Thanks a lot!
I want to insert a photo or a video in just the top right corner. Is there anyway of doing that?
Ive only managed to mix in a photo / video which take up the whole screen.
Thanks
- bob
  August 6, 2013
  you can use the zoropr to zoom the image back but it currently doesn’t have a wrap mode that blacks the edges (I’ll implement this in the next release). the easiest thing might be to adjust the video or photo itself before importing it. New version isn’t far off!
Faust
October 9, 2013
Hi! I have problem.. why when i make WARP for av clip as a result I have no sync audio and video?
..thanks in advance!
- bob
  October 9, 2013
  Make sure you leave the end marker at the end of the file. Check out the clip slot video above, I mention/demo it there.
  Bob.
synthjunkie
October 9, 2013
I’m looking for the ability to trigger a video when a scene is started. I load all of my patterns in clips and want to load videos as clips and have them start when I start the scene. I saw your video saying you can now do this with Ableton 9 and VIZZable 2. Can this not be done with Ableton 8? I really don’t want to upgrade right now. Thanks!
- bob
  October 9, 2013
  Yep, you can only do that with live 9. You can try the older version of VIZZable which let’s you trigger clips with midi notes. VIZZable2 is far superior though. If you really want to work with video in live, it’s worth the upgrade.
  Bob.
synthjunkie
October 12, 2013
Thanks for your response. I have to stick with Live 8 right now since I have everything working and don’t want to introduce more risk for the rest of the shows this year. Is there a manual or other support anywhere? I have a few ??…1-Do I need a separate player for each clip I want to trigger independently or can I set a midi note for each clip within a folder inside 1 player. 2-When using the mixer, can I have a default player that it goes back to after playing another clip? I want to trigger a video then have it go back to another clip when done (sort of like a screen saver). Thank you for your help! Awesome plugin!!
- bob
  October 12, 2013
  You only need one playr. MIDI notes c1 and up trigger clips (might be c0, i forget). Re reverting back to a clip – you could probably do this with some sort of midi automation but it’s not a feature built into VIZZable 0.9.3 (would be significantly easier in VIZZable2). Although if you want to stick with live 8, I’d probably look into alternative video solutions like resolume or VDMX. VIZZable2 made has some major performance improvements that put it’s performance on par with commercial VJ software whilst VIZZable 0.9.3 is slow in comparison.
synthjunkie
October 24, 2013
Thanks again! I finally got just about everything working. I’m just triggering clips so I really don’t need to spend more money on resolume and will eventually upgrade to 9 once our show has some downtime. The last thing I need to figure out is how do I control the volume of a video clip from within Ableton? since Vizzable is inserted into a MIDI track there doesn’t seem to be a way to route volume to someplace where I can independently control it. Is it possible?

I appreciate your help! I will be using this much more when I upgrade to Live9!
- bob
  October 24, 2013
  VIZZable 0.9x doesn’t really support audio. The fact you can hear things is really sort of an accident and all audio is being handled by max so you don’t really have access to it without modifying the patches.
  
  I’d suggest decoupling the video and audio and playing the audio in an audio track. VIZZable 2 has native audio support and audio is piped straight into ableton.
  
  If you really need to work with the audio and video coupled in live8 I’d suggest trying V-Module. I believe you can use the video rack and spigot device to pull audio from the clips.
Working with Max for Live Jitter modules
November 26, 2013
[…] VIZZable by Zealousy (http://zealousy.com/2011/01/vizzable/) […]