Check it out PEEPS! Very cool, especially the 'Roid emulation.

I'm starting a new blog for publishing our Core Image/Quartz Composer image processing kernels, patches. As such, the body of this post was moved to our free Quartz Composer downloads page.

Basically, the terms of the license are non-commercial, share and share alike. Any other use please ask us. VJs are welcome to use these in their live performance rigs.

Usually after we release a significant upgrade we do a stress test to make sure everything is kosher. In this case we setup an original Intel iMac, started both DotMatrx and Qamera, enabled the rebroadcasting feature, opened Quartz Composer with the 2x2 DotMatrix/Qamera display and let it run. It's been two days now and it's still running. In other tests we did find a couple of very small bugs with the CoreImage "Image Units", which we will be issuing a fix for shortly.

The new Qamera is here, with enhancements for Leopard (including PhotoBooth effects, install the Goodies folder). Most significant in this new version is our plug-in for Quartz Composer (Tiger compatible).

In the picture to the right, we've got both Qamera and DotMatrix running, along with CamCamX (to mix the output). In the bottom is a custom Quartz Composer patch that is taking both the Qamera and the DotMatrix inputs, and mixing them into a 2x2 grid. Sweet!

Now, not only can you use Qamera (and other b-l-a-c-k-o-p apps) with Arkaos VJ (the professional VJ standard on the Mac), but you can also integrate Quartz Composer with any existing VJ application that supports webcam input. While there are many VJ solutions out there, not all of them natively support Quartz Composer. But almost all of them support iSight/webcam input.

Since our Qamera effects REAPPEAR as a virtual camera input, any camera enabled application automatically becomes Quartz Composer enabled. And, if your VJ system already supports Quartz Composer, you can use Qamera to easily "chain together" two Quartz Patches. And with the integrated bookmarking system, which supports drag and drop, it becomes a snap to sequence a live performance. Just build up your bookmark list, arrange it from top down in performance time, and quickly switch patches on the fly.

Qamera also makes it possible to do 2-camera live interviews with Leopard PhotoBooth. Using our Picture in Picture effect, you can setup two Mac compatible webcams and run the primary cam as the PhotoBooth input (start PhotoBooth first), and then use the secondary cam with Qamera. Then, simply select one of the Qamera PhotoBooth effects and start interviewing. Or build your own effect in Quartz Composer using one of our pre-defined effects as a starting point. The Qamera part of the patch is already a macro, so it is super-easy to copy and paste it into another Quartz Patch.

We've added many presets, fixed some bugs, and introduced a new easier way to flip between designs, the mini browser. Also in this version we've added some auditory feedback for snapshots. Also a timed snapshot button for a quick 3 second countdown.

REMEMBER TO REFRESH DESIGNS!

Some time to play, here's a shot Mr. Black took demonstrating the plusses of having a transparent alpha channel propagated through the camera feeds. Here, he's set a DotMatrix preset to have a fully transparent background (added in 1.500, click the background color well), and when DotMatrix rebroadcasts the video signal into Qamera, the transparent parts of the image are preserved, resulting in really cool effects.

Here's another configuration. You run DotMatrix first, set the Rebroadcast @ 640x480 from the Camera menu, and then DotMatrix output can simultaneously be used in Photo Booth, Qamera, Yahoo Messenger and more.

It is also possible to then take the Qamera output and say, use it in Skype, all at the same time, but that's another screenshot for a different day.

It is possible to use DotMatrix in conjunction with Qamera. Both configurations are supported: you can use Qamera as the connection to iSight and then run Qamera output into DotMatrix, or vice-versa, you can use DotMatrix as the camera source, and run the input into Qamera.

Here's how to do it:
1. Open Qamera and choose the Rebroadcast button.
2. Open DotMatrix and select Qamera (ARGB) as the camera input.
3. Open Skype or Yahoo Messenger and choose Qamera (ARGB) as the camera input.
4. Under Tiger, PhotoBooth should also pickup the Qamera input.

Welcome to Qamera, the latest edition to our little collection of tools for VJs and Mac enthusiasts.