By Kurst and sometime Knifedgers, Karim Beyrouti and Farley Brian.
Wella ITVA – Young Talent and Colour Competitions Visuals from Knifedge on Vimeo.
November 6th, Halle Freyssinet, Paris.
Projection introductions and flag sequences provided for the ITVA competitions.
Projection – Knifedge and Kurst
Lighting – Richard Knight
Choreography – Kim Gavin
When we were asked to create a set of live audio reactive visuals for the Wella International Trend Vision Awards we initially researched the use of various technologies, this boiled down to a choice between; Adobe AIR and Processing. Processing (an open source programming language based on Java) was a strong contender for this project, however we were also aware that Adobe AIR 2.0 has a new feature that allows for raw data access to live audio streams, as well as being more flexible in terms of quick amends and customisation.
One test concept incorporated a 3D engine where thousands of multi coloured particles work in tandem with wireframe meshes to animate in time with any live audio input. In conjunction with the 3D compositions, we also developed a 2D particle system to create additive visuals that looked like audio reactive light beams.
The use of Air also provided a common set of features for asset management, layout, and controlling the overall visual output in a variety of ways. We went back to the client with these results and began the process of incorporating concepts and ideas that formed into storyboards for the three audiovisual pieces.
As the application was going to be used in a live environment, the first step was to develop a dual screen application framework that incorporated a user interface so the visual pieces can be triggered, switched and adjusted without having to reload or reconfigure the application in between sets.
With the core framework in place we began to develop the individual audiovisual compositions. The biggest technical challenge was implementing audio processing and analysis for the live audio stream; running an FFT (fast Fourier transform) analysis on the audio proved too processor intensive, so we ended up using an ‘arithmetic mean’ to calculate the changes in levels over time, as well as using an external DSP mixer and an ASIO audio interface to process the audio signal before sending it to the visuals machine.
The DSP mixer helped equalize the live audio input levels and bring out the rhythms with a gate effect to process the audio, this passed through the ASIO interface to the computer with zero latency enabled so the audio processing could take place without any unwanted delay to overall signal processing. Also, Offloading some of the processing to dedicated external hardware helped remove some intensive calculations in flash and allowed us to push the visuals a little more.
Once complete and approved the visuals were optimized for the Catalyst system during technical setup. This involved optimizing the content for alpha keying, and transparency blending. All this is only half the story though; we also developed a number of animated 3D video backgrounds that complemented the audiovisuals.
Joint MD of Knifedge 