Gallery show is a new feature in Studio Artist 4 that can be used to put together free running art shows. A gallery show consists of a series of cycles. Each cycle generates an artistic effect, that can then be displayed on the screen for a specified period of time before another cycle starts. You specify the details of your gallery show in the Gallery preferences tab.

Each cycle can potentially select a new source image to work with a gallery show technique. The source could be randomly selected, sequentially selected, or the source could be derived off of a live video capture.

The technique options provide different approaches to building a free running gallery show. Your gallery show could be based off of randomly selected factory presets, custom folders of your own presets, or randomly evolved operation modes. Some techniques work with additional scan or painting options.

An additional start cycle option allows the screen to be erased or not before each cycle. A random preset from a favorites folder can also be used to provide a transition effect at the start of the cycle before the main processing technique is run.

The Random Vectorizer technique is the one we’re focusing on in this particular example. But there are many different techniques you can choose from to customize your gallery show. Working with custom sets of presets in favorites folders is a way to craft a personalized gallery art show for use in an art gallery display or for live presentation performance.

The first screen shot of the Gallery tab in the main preference dialog at the top of this tip shows the particular gallery show options we used to build this example. The Random Vectorizer technique mutates a new randomized Vectorizer preset for each gallery show cycle.

The Source option used for the gallery show chooses random source images from a specified folder. You can click on the Source Folder button to specify your own folder of custom source images.

There are a number of different Source Options available for your gallery show. The live Video Capture option can be particularly fun if you want to construct a gallery show in a public place like an art gallery that processes live frame captures from the room the gallery show is running in.

Our gallery show example is setup to wait for 2 seconds after a new art image is finished before starting on generating the next one. How long it takes to generate the new art image in this next gallery show cycle is a function of what kind of processing is being run in your gallery show technique and how computationally intensive it is. The screen will not be updated until the new art image is finished being generated.

Running a Gallery Show

After specifying the options for your custom gallery show you are ready to actually run it. To run a gallery show based on the current Gallery preferences, just run the Action : Run Gallery Show menu command. Depending on which gallery show technique you are running there may be a pause for a few seconds before your gallery show begins.

Galley Show will continue running until you stop it.  To stop a running gallery show, just press the spacebar key.

If you see a cool image generated at the end of a gallery show cycle you want to save, you can use the spacebar to stop the gallery show and then use the File: Save Canvas as menu to save the image.  If gallery show has already completed the cycle you were interested in and generated additional images you can stop the gallery show and then use the Edit : Undo menu to move back through previous gallery show cycle output.

You can also cancel the current gallery show cycle early and have it move on to the next cycle without stopping the gallery show run. This is not going to be particularly useful for the random vectorizer technique, but can be very useful to advance to the next cycle if you are using one of the paint synthesizer or dual paint techniques. To cancel the current cycle and move to the next on, hold down the shift key and then press the spacebar key.  Continue to hold down the shift key until the cycle advances.

The random vectorizer gallery show technique is capable of creating a wide range of different stylistic processing effects. Some different examples from our tutorial gallery show run are shown below.

Saving your gallery show art images

You can use Studio Artist’s Movie Stream features to save a folder of the art images generated by your custom gallery show. You could also save the sequential art show images in a movie file if you wish.

To save a folder of art images, you use the File : Stream : New Image Stream menu command. After running this menu command you get a standard file dialog that you use to select the folder where you want your art images to be saved in. You also specify a default name for your art images. Each saved art images will use that default name with additional numbering added at the end of the name.

After opening your image stream, you need to specify how frames will be written into the open image stream. To capture your gallery show art images you will need to run on the File : Stream : Flags: Enable Write on Gallery Show Cycle menu flag show above.

After you have opened a new image stream and enabled frame writing for gallery show cycles you can start your gallery show by using the Action : Run Gallery Show menu command. Each art image generated in a gallery show cycle will be written out into your specified movie stream folder.

When you finish your gallery show run, remember to close your open image stream. You can close an open image or movie stream by running the File : Stream : Close Open Stream menu command. This will also happen automatically when you quit Studio Artist.

Saving your gallery show evolved custom preset for later use

You also can record the custom randomized presets gallery show is generating for each cycle in a gallery show run. To do this you can use the History Sequence palette. Open the History Sequence using the appropriate Window menu. The turn on history recording by clicking the Rec check box at the top of the History Sequence palette.

When you start your gallery show run by using the Action : Run Gallery Show menu command, a new action step will be recorded in the history sequence at the end of each gallery show cycle. After you are finished with your gallery show run you can turn off history sequence recording by unclicking the Rec check box. Every randomized technique effect run in a gallery how cycle has been recorded as a single action step in the history sequence you recorded. You can export the history sequence to disk to save you gallery show run.

You can then use the contextual menu commands to play back specific history sequence action steps. To do this, hold down the control key (right click on windows) and the click on the action step you want to playback. A contextual menu will come up. Select the Play Selected Action Step menu to play back your specified action step. If you like the particular effect that was recorded in that action step you can export it as a preset file.

You can also open your exported history sequence as a paint action sequence. This can be useful because you can then just click on an individual action step’s initial frame 1 keyframe to play it back, as an alternative to using the contextual menus to play the action step.

Conclusion

We’ve discussed how to build a custom gallery show.  The particular gallery show technique we used was the Random Vectorizer technique.  We also shows how you can save art images created in a gallery show run by using the Image or Movie Stream features. And we showed how you can use the History Sequence to record and save the custom presets generated and used in the gallery show run.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of what Gallery Show is capable of in this short tutorial. Try out your own gallery shows and see for yourself.

For More Information

This tip and this article provide a quick overview of Gallery Show.

This tip provides more information on working with Movie and Image Streams.

This tip provides more information on Studio Artist’s Vectorizer.

To run Gallery Show, you just use the Action : Run Gallery Show menu. Once started, it will continue to run unattended until you tell it to stop by pressing the space bar. If you hold down the option key while pressing the spacebar then it will stop the current action it is running and move to the next part of it’s random cycle, so feel free to use this to tell it to move on if you don’t like what it’s currently doing.

What it does is a function of the Gallery Show preferences, which you can adjust in the Gallery tab in the main preference dialog. The Gallery Technique preference specifies what set of presets are used for the gallery show. You can currently choose between the factory PASeq, MSG, and paint presets, as well as the current favorites folder. The MSG and paint preset can be mutated prior to being run, which enables you to generate endless variability as well as use Gallery Show to automatically mutate new preset collections.

By working with custom Favorites folders you can mix and match different preset types to build custom random art processes. This is the easiest way to work with Gallery Show to build your own personalized art processes. You could use Gallery Show to generate collections of artwork you then sort through for keepers. Or you could build custom art displays or live painting picture frames. You can also switch the current favorites folder on the fly while gallery show is running to switch between different sets of presets in a performance situation.

The Gallery Source Option preference lets you choose between a fixed source, a folder of source images, or live video capture.  The source is updated appropriately at the start of each gallery show cycle. The appropriate technique action is then run, followed by a 4 second delay, and then the cycle continues again until you tell it to stop. Both the specific technique preset and the source (if source folder is used) are randomly selected from the appropriate collection for each cycle. If the mutate technique options are chosen, then the randomly selected preset is mutated prior to being run as an action in the cycle.

By recording a gallery show in a session history you can save the entire performance to play again, as well as any generated mutated presets which can be culled through at a late time. You can use Studio Artist’s Image or Movie Stream functionality to save a folder or movie of the gallery show canvas images. And with Movie Stream AutoWrite functionality you can live stream a Quicktime movie while a gallery show is being performed. This is how you can record a movie of all the live painting going on in the gallery show.

For More Information

A tutorial tip that discusses how to generate random vectorizer gallery shows is available here. This tutorial provides some more detailed informaiton on getting started using gallery show features.

Full Screen Display

The Window : Show FullScreen menu toggles full screen display on or off. There is a command 0 menu hotkey for this menu command for ease of access when working.

There are some FullScreen Preference options that can be configured to customize what happens when Studio Artist drops into FullScreen display view. How you configure these options for live visual performance will depend on your particular computer and display(s) setup. Typically you would want to hide control palettes and toolbars when projecting the working canvas during a visual performance. But if you have a second display monitor for your floating control palettes you might not want them to hide when dropping into full screen display mode. If you are using something like an Edirol video mixer you might want to force a black background as opposed to the normal gray Studio Artist background. And you may want the cursor to vanish (or not). All of these different options can be chosen from the Full Screen Display and Cursor preferences.

Favorites Preset Toolbar

The Favorites Preset Toolbar provides an easy way to access sets of custom presets. You can mix and match preset types in a favorites category, so you could for example include paint, image processing, and MSG presets in one favorites category. Working with the favorites preset icons provides a quick and easy way to change presets on the fly when working in a live visual performance situation.

The arrow icon popup at the left side of the Favorites Toolbar can be used to change the current favorites category. The individual icons to the right of the arrow icon popup are the specific presets in the current favorites category. Clicking on one of these icons will load that particular preset.

Command keys can be used to load favorites presets in the toolbar as an alternative to clicking on a preset icon in the toolbar. Command F1-F6 will load the first 6 preset icons in the current bank. Command option F1-F6 act as bank shifts.  A bank is a set of 6 presets. The F1 bank would be presets 1 through 6, the F2 bank would be presets 7 through 12, etc. These command keys can be especially useful when working with live visual performance using loop action since the Favorites Toolbar might be hidden from view when using full screen display mode during a video projected live performance.

PASeq Action Steps

A Paint Action Sequence can also be used as a flexible container to store various operation presets for quick access on the fly in a live performance situation in a controlled fashion. Record the various presets you are interested in accessing as individual action steps. Take the time to individually give them custom names so its clear what each one is and what it does.

Under the main Action : paint Action Sequence menu are 2 menu commands with associated menu hotkeys that will Move Forward (or Backward) to the next PASeq action step and load the interface with the contents of the action step.

Loop Action

Loop Action is a new feature in version 4. When loop action is turned on using the Action : Run Loop Action menu command the current Studio Artist operation is run repeatably until loop action is stopped by pressing the space bar. You can import new presets when loop action is running and they will seamlessly be executed when the loop cycles. Using the favorites Preset Toolbar is a great way to quickly move between different presets when in loop action.

You can interactively adjust parameters in the Editor on the fly while running loop action to change the visual appearance and behavior of the looping action. So you could change parameters in the paint synthesizer to change the  visual appearance of live painting, or adjust MSG parameters interactively to change the appearance of a MSG visual effect.

You can also setup recursive loops by feeding the canvas as the source for the particular image operation or MSG preset you may be running. This is a way to generate live visual feedback effects.

Dual Mode

Dual Mode is a new interactive paint operation in version 4. Dual Mode allows you to build presets that will run a second processing effect in real time while you paint. This includes interactive painting as well as manual hand painting. The second processing operation could be any of the image processing effects, the texture synthesizer, a MSG preset, or an interactive warp effect. Dual Mode can be configured to simulate things like painting on a wet canvas. But it can also be used as a wild visual performance tool.

Dual Mode presets allow for a unique method of interactive control using Wacom pen proximity. The Wacom tablet can sense when a pen is when proximity (hovering above but not touching the tablet). There is a new Path Start Generator in the Paint Synthesizer called Pen Position Live Track that can be used with loop action or dual mode in live performance situations. This path start generator will track the current pen location (pen down or hovering) and provides a way to dynamically control the positioning of automatic painting with the pen. If you pull the pen away from the tablet and out of proximity then the path start generator will stick at the last in proximity pen position.

You can also use pen orientation and tilt modulators in the paint synthesizer to dynamically modulate paint parameters while the pen is hovering in proximity.

Live Interaction TG Modulation

There are also several new Temporal Generator (TG) options available for MSG processor parameter modulation that sense pen positioning and proximity. The Pen Horz and Vert Position TG modulators sense the % horizontal and vertical position of the pen on the canvas (0 to 100 %) and modulate the associated MSG parameter accordingly. The Pen Proximity TG modulator returns 0 or 100% based on whether the pen is out or in proximity. Keep in mind that 0 to 100% modulation will sweep the parameter being modulated from the TG min to max setting, which are also user adjustable in the Parameter editor located on the right side of the MSG Advanced Editor.

There are also interactive TG modulators associated with pen pressure, tilt, tilt orientation, or rotation. Pen pressure modulation will only work when the pen tip is down on the tablet, but the other pen modulators can be used when the pen is hovering above the tablet in proximity.

All of these different pen proximity and position modulators can be used in many different artistic ways in Dual Mode or loop action presets that will give you a lot of control over the visual appearance of dual mode painting.

Paint Synth Live Pen Tracking 

There are 2 different Pen Position Live Track path start generator options in the paint synthesizer.  

These are designed to provide you more live performance options and would typically be used with the paint synthesizer in loop action mode. You can start a paint preset running in loop action, and when you bring the wacom pen into tablet proximity the path start location will track the pen as it hovers above the tablet.  

This lets you interactively define where action painting is occurring, and opens up new possibilities for the use of action painting as an interactive live performance tool.

The Pen Position Live Track MP path start generator allows you to specify multiple path start locations using the pen while hovering in proximity. If the shit modifier key is pressed when the pen comes into proximity then a new live track point is added to the path start generator. If the shift modifier key is not pressed then the next multi tracking point will track the pen location. This feature allows you to interactively specify multiple path start locations and move them around in real time while action painting is running.

There are also 2 new Pen Track options for paint synthesizer Time Particles.

The Pen Track On-All option will cause all of the time particles to be attracted to the pen when it is floating above the tablet in proximity during loop action painting with time particles. By setting the Attract Force negative you can repulse the particles from the current pen position.

The On-MP Pen Track option works like the Live Track MP path start option described above. Every time the pen comes into proximity the next time particle in the queue will individually track the current hovering pen position until it leaves proximity.

Live Video Capture and Processing

Version 4 has a number of live video capture features. Live video can be captured from a built in iSight camera if your computer contains one. Or you can use any firewire or usb camera or web cam that comes with a Quicktime driver.

You can set the canvas current layer to a live video frame capture by running the Canvas : Default Color : Live Video Capture menu command.

There are several different menu commands and options for capturing live video to the source area. They are located in the File : Source Settings menu as shown below.

Running the Live Video Capture Now menu command will immediately capture a live video frame to the source area.

Setting the Live Video Preview Manual Capture menu flag will start a live video preview in the source area. When you click on the preview image in the source area then a frame from the live video stream will be captured and the live video preview will stop. If you click on the source image again then the live video preview will start up again.

You can also capture live video at the start of each loop action cycle.  To do this turn on the Live Video Loop Action Advance menu flag. Each time a new loop action cycle starts a live video frame will be captured to the source area. If you are running DualMode Paint presets a live video frame is captured each dual mode cycle when this menu flag is on. If you are running a PASeq animation then a live video fame will be captured for each frame cycle of the PASeq animation.

Using the loop action live video capture while running an image processing effect in loop action is the way to process live video with the image processing effect. The actual frame rate of the processed output is a function of how computationally intense the image processing effect you are running is.

However, you can setup an open movie stream that records a frame for each loop action cycle by turning on the Enable Write on Op End Movie Stream menu flag. The generated movie will playback at whatever fps rate you had specified in your movie preferences. So your generated movie file of the live video processing can play back at full 30 fps rates if you want it to even if the actual processing time for a video processing cycle is slower.