beatfix studios

At the recent Kinect Glitch meetup, I showed off SenseBloom’s sample script for controlling Animata with a Kinect, via OSCeleton.  A few people asked about creating their own custom avatars.

The simplest way to do this is to use SenseBloom’s example as a template, and draw a new character in place of the one he provides.  This makes it easy to reuse the skeleton data.

Here is the sample character (doll.png):

Open the above image in your favorite image editing software, draw over it, save as a PNG with transparent background, and voila – you have a custom character that should work flawlessly with SenseBloom’s Animata example.  The key is to make sure that all of the joint positions (hip, elbow, etc.) remain in roughly the same place.

For reference, here is a screenshot showing the joint and bone positions.  Note:  do not use the image below to create your custom character.  It is provided for reference only.

Whorld installation at Fort Point Open Studios, Boston, MA.

[View with PicLens]

Jeff Mission and Chris Korda performing live with the visual software tools WiiWhorld and Fractice. Fractice is used to create the background layer, while WiiWhorld is being controlled in the foreground – the two layers were lumakeyed together with an Edirol V4 video mixer.

The wonderful people (and talented VJs) of Eyewash in New York have been gracious enough to have me out to perform three times over the years.  Eyewash is a performance night where VJs take center stage – literally, you stand in the middle of the room, surrounded by four giant screens and audience members on all sides.  Here are links to my performances, from the Forward Motion theater website:

Eyewash: Fixation

Eyewash: A Good Friday

Eyewash: Boston2NewYork

Excerpt from a live DJ set by Jeff Mission. GREEN is a weekly radio broadcast on WZBC 90.3 FM, hosted by Shwilly B and Jeff Mission, broadcasting throughout the greater Boston area every Monday night from 10pm-2am (EST). The video here was recorded using the Third Eye, a custom-built VJ camera worn on the center of the forehead, giving an accurate first-person perspective as Jeff Mission spins live on the air. Audio was captured live from the sound board. The result is a unique look inside the DJ process.

A live video feedback performance by VJ Jeff Mission. The smooth, colorful waves in this piece were generated by chaining together two pieces of equipment – an Edirol V4 video mixer, and a JVC JX-C7 Video Corrector – in a continuous loop, then making incremental adjustments to the settings on the JX-C7. The result is a digital organism, composed of pure feedback, that can be manipulated at will. The technique used in this piece is one of the core components of my live performances.

This piece was performed live as part of a visual jam session held at Beatfix Studios, Boston, MA. A combination of organic motion and digital technology, ‘Timbale’ is a new twist on a classic lightshow technique. By using an artists’ lightbox and overhead camera, hand movements are isolated and captured. The image is sent in real time to a video mixer and blended into a live feedback loop, where it creates echoes that ripple through the frame.

VJ Phi (Jen Rosselli) and VJ Mission perform live visuals at the Phoenix Landing in Cambridge, MA, USA. The technique shown in this piece involves a lightbox, video camera, video mixer, and mesh fabric. Images of the mesh fabric being moved back and forth by hand over the lightbox are captured by the camera. The image is then sent to the video mixer, where a mirror effect is applied. The background is lumakeyed out and replaced with a second image, of live video feedback.