Jeromy Hopgood's Blog, page 3

Video Tutorial: Panning an Audio Cue in QLab 3

To create a realistic sound design, audio panning is a must. This video describes the process of panning an audio cue from the left channel to the right within QLab 3, thereby creating a “doppler effect” of a police siren passing by.

This is one of the instructional videos from the supplemental website included with my textbook “QLab 3 Show Control: Projects for Live Performances & Installations.” To find out more about the book, click here http://www.amazon.com/QLab-Show-Control-Performances-Installations/dp/0415857570.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: QLab, Show Control, Sound design

Projection Mapping

Projection mapping is the projection of imagery onto 3-dimensional surfaces (often irregularly shaped) and manipulating the image output in such a way to make this surface appear to be a flat one. This process is complex, costly, and time-consuming technology. Of course, this means that everyone wants it for their project and it is now quickly becoming ubiquitous. This video has made its way around a lot of different circles, and for good reason. Not only does it beautifully illustrate projection mapping, but shows a new possibility of incorporating projection mapping with robotics to create moving mapped imagery. The results speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Tutorial: Creating a Video Fade-In with QLab 3

The video link above is one of the instructional videos included with my textbook “QLab Show Control: Projects for Live Performances & Installations.” It walks you through the process of creating a Fade-In for a Video Cue. The book releases on November 11th, 2013. From now until that date, I will be offering up promotional goodies on this blog. Subscribe to keep in the loop! Additionally, you can pre-order from Amazon right now at a discounted rate http://www.amazon.com/QLab-Show-Control-Performances-Installations/dp/0415857570.

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Lost Art of Research (Digitally Rediscovered)

As a theatre artist, research is central to my work –particularly visual research. As a teacher, I can also say that it isn’t always the easiest thing to teach. Substantive text-based research itself seems to be a dying skill. Looking for that perfect image that communicates information about color, texture, or emotional response – well there aren’t many research classes that teach that skill. After seeing many of my own students turning in undersized, pixilated, non-evocative images, I decided that it was an important topic worth addressing.

In researching this topic for my own classes, I discovered some highly sophisticated internet-based tools for locating imagery that just couldn’t be replicated in the traditional library. The best such collection of tools I found housed in a singular website, labs.tineye.com. Tineye Labs (formerly called Idée labs) has a simple goal – to make images more searchable. While this may sound similar to traditional search engines, it has two great toolsets particularly useful to design research.

Multicolor Engine is an interface that searches for images specifically within a selected range of color. It is connected to the Creative Commons images from FLIKR, giving you literally millions of image possibilities. The interface is user-friendly, allowing you to choose up to 5 colors to generate the response. The Multicolor Engine searches FLIKR archives for images displaying the selected color palette. For more saturated colored images, only select one hue. In the example below, I clicked on the same yellow hue three times to create a color composition of 77% yellow and 23% red. My lighting design students have found this to be a particularly useful tool.

The second toolset, Tineye, is a combination of a image upload / URL-based image search. It is a simple tool with remarkable results. If you upload your own image or image URL, it will find visually similar results.  This is most useful in finding images of similar colors and contrast, not similar theme content. I have found this particular tool useful when you find that one image that’s close to what you want, but not a perfect fit. The website is online at www.tineye.com or it can be added as a plugin for your Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, or Opera web browser

Though there is no replacement for the library, the internet offers up many options to supplement traditional research methods. Online toolsets, such as these offered by Tineye Labs, are certainly making the job of visual research a more manageable task for everyone.

 

Filed under: Product Reviews

Crafting Worlds: Theatrical Design

This is a great video created by the American Theatre Wing featuring some amazing designers in Scenery, Sound, Costumes, and Lighting. I have had the pleasure to work with David Gallo and participate in his Broadway Scenic Design Master Class and can say that he has some great thoughts on approaching a design. A wonderful watch for anyone interested in design and A MUST for theatrical design students.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: American Theatre Wing, David Gallo, John Gromada, Peter Kaczorowski, Susan Hilferty, theatrical design

Why a Design Degree isn’t the Career Death Sentence your Parents Suspected

This is back to school week for me. It’s always exciting to meet a new crop of students. Every year I get to see parents send their kids off into the wild on their own. Frequently, I am posed with questions from these parents to ease their fears about their child pursuing a degree in the arts.

I get it. Really, I do. I am hoping that my own 3-year-old sticks with her game plan of becoming a doctor (I’m not exactly as comfortable with her plan of her Mom being the nurse and myself serving as the receptionist, though she assures me that the medical school she attends will have classes for the two of us, as well).

The fact is, a life in the arts has never been a golden ticket to wealth and leisure. It is, in fact, a career filled with hard work, long hours, and (at times) less than glamorous work conditions. The entertainment industry is particularly challenging in that your job happens when other people want to relax. Nights, weekends, and holidays are your work week. Monday is your weekend. If you freelance, there is the added pressure of working to secure the next job (or jobs) while working on another. Believe it or not, this is the beginning of my pitch to those parents mentioned above. It’s the follow-up that’s so important.

If your son or daughter is committed to learning, works hard and proves to be a good collaborator, they are going to get a job after graduation. How can I make such a claim? It’s pretty simple, really…

Supply and Demand

Statistics say that those in our field looking for work stand a much better chance than most other fields. In this economy, we all know jobs have been hard to come by. People have gone back to school in record numbers to learn new skills and the market is now flooded with graduates. At the undergraduate level, recent polls show the greatest majority of undergraduates majored in business (358,000 majors). On the other hand, all of the Visual and Performing Arts combined together numbered less than 100,000 majors. In short, while other professions are being flooded with graduates, the arts have less people competing for the jobs.

What about the jobs, though? Are there enough of them? Well, that is where we see some other good news. It seems that when times are hard, people still want to be entertained. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation industry is predicted to grow 15% by 2015. This is second only to the Healthcare and Social Assistance industry! In other words, not only are there jobs available, but there are jobs being created.

Versatility

The other reason for future job security with design and technology graduates is the versatility of their training. Designers are not trained to only do one thing – they are trained to solve problems within given constraints of time, budget, and resources. This is why we see major business schools increasingly creating partnerships with design programs so that tomorrows CEOs can be trained to think like a designer. Designers are problem-solvers, and problem-solvers are always in demand.

That’s why I feel good about what I do. Let’s be honest, a college education isn’t the the panacea it was made out to be for so many years, but if you can can find a program that gives life skills and helps prepare students for the realistic demands of today’s world, then it is still worth it. Just remember, though, even the best education is only worth what you put into it.

 

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: design, education

Indispensable: Great Products We Can’t Live Without

QLab 3 is developed by Figure 53

QLab 3 Show Control Software

PART I: Audio Control

Welcome to the first of an ongoing series of product reviews I will be running on here. Like the blog itself, it is my intention to cover a wide range of products, both new and old, that have made my work easier. This first installation covers the newest version of QLab* recently released in May 2013.

In a span of roughly 7 years, QLab has evolved from a sound playback program for Mac OS X into an industry standard show control platform featuring a robust package of functions, featuring cue-based sound and video control, MIDI and OSC integration, video and audio effects plug-ins, surface-based video output for projection mapping, and more. Used in applications from Broadway to Britain’s West End, churches, museums, art installations, and more, QLab makes it easy (and affordable) for anyone to put together rich multimedia designs for live performances and installations.

For this review, I would like to talk a bit about the new audio tools available in Version 3. In later installments, we will look at video and show control.

V3 Audio Additions at a Glance

Up to 24 Audio Inputs / 48 Audio outputs per Cue.
Dynamic Audio Effects: Built-in Audio Unit (AU) capabilities for applying audio effects to individual cues, cue outputs, or even audio device outputs. These effects (EQ, reverb, pitch bend, and more) each have adjustable, real-time parameters, as well.
A new Mic Cue, offering up to 24 channels of live audio input for each Mic Cue (also featuring audio effects).
Unlimited slicing of Audio Cues, with each slice having an individual loop count for internal vamping possibilities.
Easy manipulation of playback rate for speeding up or slowing down the playback of an Audio Cue (with or without a resulting pitch shift).

In short, audio capabilities have improved and you now need a lot less external equipment. With the addition of Audio Effect plug-ins, you can say goodbye to many of the signal processors once needed (EQ, digital delay, compressor/limiter, etc.) In addition, there is a new level of function with slices and playback rate that allows for greater flexibility once you get to tech. Does the director want four bell clangs instead of three? Add a slice. Does the set designer need 10 more seconds for that scene shift? No problem. Just slow down the playback rate a bit.

Obviously, the new features for V3 are a great selling point. One of the other big plusses for this software is the company itself. Figure 53 stands behind its product 100% and has some of the best customer service you are likely to ever come across. It is a small company and you will talk to the programmers on a first-name basis. What’s more is the user-base of fiercely loyal QLab users on the QLab Forum. Go to figure53.com/support and select the Discussion List to either ask a question or look through the archives to see past requests. This has helped me out of a tight spot on more than one occasion (even at 11pm on a Saturday night)!

Cost

Unlike many other show control applications, QLab offers a number of features for FREE. For many of the high-end features you will have to buy a license, but there are a number of options that make this a cost-effective program. The licenses are split into 5 tiers (Basic Audio, Pro Audio, Basic Video, Pro Video, and Pro Bundle) so you can choose to pay for the number of features needed for your project. In addition, there are rental licenses for as low as $3/day, so you can try out the full package at a small cost. Educators should be aware that there are reduced costs for schools, as well.

Requirements

One important thing to know is that QLab is for Macs only. In addition, you will need to be running OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or greater to utilize QLab 3. The good news is that the licensing activates both QLab 2 and 3, so you could use V2 on your 10.7 or lower Mac.

Closing Thoughts

The bottom line is that audio control just got a lot more powerful with QLab 3. For those Mac users looking for a cost-effective and user-friendly application for live audio, this program is a Godsend. The free version is likely powerful enough for most small companies, featuring many of the new additions. Notably, the audio effects are missing from the free version, though, so those serious about the full audio capabilities of version 3 should look into licensing.

Part II will look into the video advances in Version 3. Tell a friend between now and then!

* The Fine Print: In the interest of being completely forthcoming, this product is near and dear to my heart, as I recently authored the book QLab 3 Show Control: Projects for Live Performances and Installations. If you are interested in finding out more about the text, follow the “QLab 3 Show Control” link at the top of the screen. I am not an employee of Figure 53, nor have I received any compensation from the company for these reviews. I am a long-time QLab user and have extolled the virtues of the software long before writing the book.

Filed under: Product Reviews Tagged: Figure 53, Product Review, QLab 3, Show Control, Sound

A Short Film About Design in Britain Since 1959

Design is one of the most powerful of human inclinations as it gracefully combines together two concepts: teamwork, and serving others. No designer ever truly works alone, and the purpose of design is to serve a function for the end-user. Whether designing a product, an image, or an idea, the designer’s role is problem solving through creativity. By its very nature, design transforms creativity into a tangible outcome – linking thought with action. This video covers a wide array of British designers who shaped the world through their designs and received the Prince Philip Designer’s Prize for their work. Enjoy!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: design, Design Council, Prince Philip Designers Prize

Beginnings

Welcome to the first installment of my new blog on topics related to Entertainment Design & Technology. My name is Jeromy Hopgood, a theatrical designer and university professor. For me, the times that we live in are exciting ones. Technology is rapidly evolving to create new opportunities for designers to be better storytellers and, as such, we are constantly challenged to adapt or find ourselves behind the curve.

One of the things I like the most about working in the entertainment industry is the collaborative nature of the job. We all better ourselves by working in groups and interacting with other designers / technicians / directors / actors / managers, etc. My motivation for writing this blog is to extend that collaboration from small groups and out into larger circles of this increasingly interconnected digital world. I like to share my experiences and interests with other folks and assume you will do the same. I hope to get just as much out of this experience (or more) than what I put into it.  My goal is to update on a regular basis about topics related to the entertainment design & technology industry, most often in the areas of scenery, lighting, sound, and integrated media  / projections. I will try to vary the content as much as possible featuring techniques, new products, and as much media as I can manage (since everyone likes pretty pictures).

I hope you enjoy what you find here and, if you do, pass it along to someone else who might be interested. I’m always looking for someone new to bounce ideas off of (and hopefully get some new ones in return).

Filed under: Introduction Tagged: design, entertainment design & technology, technical theatre, theatre