Sneak peek at AVS pack!!!

[cmountford]

Here's a sneak peek at assorted stuff I've made. Some of them are repetitious-but it's just a preview.

I especially appreciate feedback that says which preset out of a bunch of similar ones you like best (or if you like multiple ones).

I'm looking forward to any kind of feedback, suggestions, or criticism.

Again-just a preview; so tell me what you think.

--C. Mountford--
P.S. - the preview is starting out fairly large; but as I get feedback as to favorite similar presets, I'll refine it.

[Jaheckelsafar]

Certainly a huge amount of presets. I'll get through them eventually. Next time trim it down a bit huh?

[Atmo]

Not bad, but for that many presets i'd prefer to see some more variety.

There are too many remixes that just look too similar IMO.

Most of them give a nice high frame rate though.

[cmountford]

which ones to cut

Which to go, which to go? A tough question...
I know some of the presets need to be cut out from my final AVS pack, so as to give it enough variety; but being the creator of them, I have trouble deciding which presets should be removed from my final pack (I still keep them saved). I'm looking for other opinions as to which of the similar presets are the best; that's how I'll decide which to keep for my actual AVS pack release (that's why this is a preview)

As always, suggestions or improvements are always welcome

--C. Mountford

[cmountford]

one more preset

Here's another preset I made. It started out as one of my presets in the last pack, but I changed the superscope quite a bit.

Newbies: I have a lot of presets with superscopes in them. Some of them are very similar, but some of them are fairly different but obviously related (came from the same original preset). Only one or two DMs though. I'm still working on learning that.

I have a couple few questions about DMs. How would I make a DM that would be like a "shifted big swirl out" that would reverse nicely? By that I mean that it would do the reverse more gradually than the semi-selected ("ghost select") source map does? By semi-selected, I mean that the checkbox is gray (if you click it twice, starting out with it unchecked).

My 2nd question is a question related to all the presets in my pack that are different versions of "attempted recovery." What do you guys think would make it a little liss boring (DMs)? I want to get a smooth reversal possibly like the one in my first question, but if you can explain something better, I'll put it in the book I'm writing, too. The more ideas, the better. (The section in my book will be about making the transition from movements to DM. I'm trying to create a DM version of the built-in movements that will be like the semi-selected source map-so it can reverse.

Edit: I just realized that these next questions are more suited for answering in my thread called "LOTR Fans!!!"

Thirdly, is there some way to make a DM/Superscope combination to make a preset that looks like the tower of Barad Dur (in the Lord of the Rings movie, it's the tower built by the Dark Lord Sauron. I may have to settle for Mount Doom (Barad Dur will probably be too hard to do in AVS without using a Bryce picture I made, but I don't think movements work well with pictures. I don't know about DMs, though).

I'd like the preset to make some object appear in the distance. Then, I'd like it to start zooming in until the object becomes closer and closer. If I do Barad Dur, I'd want it to zoom into the bottom of it, then have it be like the camera were on top of an elevator and have it move up to the top of the tower. If I do Mount Doom, I'd want it to definitely zoom in, and if possible, distort it to where it appears that the the camera is rotating around it. If that's not possible, how would I just zoom in on the top part that's erupting?

I'm not sure if any of these are possible to make in AVS, (but if any of you know software made to create stuff like that, I'd be interested. But I have to admit it would take some of the fun out of making it if I used something exclusively made to create stuff like that. It's just one of those things that's cool simply knowing it's possible to make in AVS).

Any new ideas that would be more practical would be greatly appreciated.

(Here's a little note to explain the unusual name: The reason I called the preset "attempted recovery" was that I had created a cool preset on the laptop a few minutes before, but then I went back to doing homework for a while. I needed to type somethign up for homework, but the monitor turned off, so I pressed the spacebar not realizing that it would load a new preset in Winamp. I realized that I'd just lost it, but I had to finish my homework first, so I couldn't try to re-create it until the next day. Of course, after a day goes by, it's anything but imposible to get every setting exactly the same as before, so I called it *attempted* recovery.)

[cmountford]

still need opinions & help with DM

I'm still anxious to hear your opinions about which presets are your favorites in my AVS pack! Please tell me your favorite presets so I can trim my pack down to eliminate all but the best out of the very similar presets!

I'm hoping maybe some of you experts can give me some help with my DM questions in the previous post.

In response to a post by Atmo The Freak "Not bad, but for that many presets i'd prefer to see some more variety."

I made some new presets today that I think have more variety than the ones in my previous presets (I hope). Please check these new ones & all my old presets so I can know which you like the best. Tell me what you think about these; if there's something you don't like or if there's something you'd like to see. I'm considering replacing some of the similar presets with these new presets I just modified today to give more visual variety.

"There are too many remixes that just look too similar IMO."

I agree that I need to get rid of some of them, so please give me some idea which presets that you like best.

"Most of them give a nice high frame rate though."
I started out trying to design ones to be good for fullscreen VJs, but I started doing some other projects that had slower framerates(like my LOTR-themed presets that are supposed to look like Sauron's eye). But I *hope* they aren't too terrible

Do you like them? Do you hate them? I have no idea right now, so please tell me (if you're saying that they're bad, please tell me which ones are bad so I can cut them out)

--C. Mountford--

[Jaheckelsafar]

finally got araound to it

I finally got around to looking at all your presets. Here's wha I come up with.


specifics:

chaz 3.5 - increase line width
color waterfall - again, linewidth - perhaps scope that reacts more to the music
colorful lazerlight - looks kinda like chaz 3.5
eye 2.5 cat 2 - already gave you my oninion on this
fountain of life 2.5 with colorfade - liked this one
ghosts in anoth dimension 2 - the colors work better in this one
goblet of life - coiuldn't really tell a difference between the mixes
blinding cydonia - looks like high gforces 2
high gforces - liked nuber 3 the best
much fanicier lightg effects - also looks like chaz3.5
superscope collection - these looked prettymuch the same
swimming in colors - again, couldn't tell much of a difference
the eye - I believe this one was covered in another thread
twisty freaking box - I couldn't see much of a difference again
new superscope change - lookes like some others, but the blitter feedback makes it better




overall:

- Check you movements. Some you use x and y when they are set to use polar coordinates. THe slows things down.
- You like the wather effect, don't you
- In some presets, you what going because there is too much going on. Combine that with a water effect and you completely lost.
- You might want to develop a bigger variety of superscopes, I saw the same one used several times, which isn't really bad, provided it isn't in a leading role



general comments:

Some I liked. Some I did not. I like trippy colours, but you can have too much of a good thing. I think some work needs to go into this before publishing. Trim it down (definately!), keep only the ones you feel are truly exceptional. Remember, we all design presets for ourselves, not others. In the end, you decide what goes and what stays, not us. They are your presets, don't let others pollute your vision.

[cmountford]

thanks

Thank you for your input. I've been working to make some better presets.

I've noticed that not many people have downloaded my new presets in the more recent .zip files. (fyi: they are just add-ons to the previous .zip files; none of them are actually a complete set.)

I'm still hoping for some help with my DM question earlier in this thread, and for some input for some of my newer presets.

With that said, I made a few more presets over the weekend. I hope you like them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, input is always appreciated. Praise and criticism, suggestions and complaints-I'm always grateful for any kind of input
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--Edit--:
P.S. I haven't forgotten; I'm still trying to figure which ones to throw out...but I'm making progress

--2nd edit--
This zip file may contain some duplicat presets (I did some weird stuff because I originally named it the same thing as my previous zip file, so I had to change some things, which may have messed things up a little bit.

[Atmo]

Nice work. Kalidoscopeaphobia and Strobacolorific plasma scopes are pretty cool, nice high fps.

Some more effects on a few of the others would be nice though IMHO.

[Jaheckelsafar]

Here's something that may help with your DM question. It's a PM reply I sent someone posted in entirety (frankly I don't know why it's on my HD).

Gimme a few days before I check the updates out.

**********************************************************

Here's an equation I used in a dynamic movement that you might be able to modify to use in a superscope. It was used in "moving kalidescope" in my AVS pack where it included rotation and zooming. It produces a nice movement that can gradually or suddenly change direction depending on the value for cmx for x and cmy for y.

----------------

perframe:

mx=mx+incmx*.2;
my=my+incmy*.2;
incmx=incmx+(destmx-incmx)*cmx;
incmy=incmy+(destmy-incmy)*cmy;

onbeat:

destmx=rand(200)/200-.5;
destmy=rand(200)/200-.5;
cmx=1/((rand(200)/10)+1);
cmy=1/((rand(200)/10)+1);

per pixel:

x=x+mx;
y=y+my;

----------------

Variable Explanation

mx = the amount to move x by
incmx = the amount to increment mx by
destmx = the target value for mx to be
cmx = how long you want the change in direaction to take to take (the smaller, the longer)

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How it works

- x is changed by the value in mx, multiplied by .2 to scale it down
- mx is changed by the value in incmx
- [COLOR=blue]incmx/color] is changed by the value of the incmx minus destmx, all multiplied by cmx
-incmx minus destmx gives how much destmx is greater than incmx (call it diffmx for convenience)
- devide diffmx by any value to get that fraction of the difference
eg.
mx=5
incmx = -2
destmx = 1
cmx = .2

second frame:
mx=3
incmx = -2 + (1 - -2) * .2
incmx = -2 + 3 *.2
incmx = -2 + .6
incmx = -1.4

third frame:
mx=1.06
incmx = -1.4 + (1 - -1.4) *.2
incmx = -1.4 + 2.4 *.2
incmx = -1.4 + .88
incmx = -.52

fourth frame:
mx=-.54
and so on...

- distmx is determined by a random number devided by the number of values to put it in the range [0]..[1], then shifted down by .5 so the range becomes [-.5]..[.5]
- cmx is determined by a random number, devided to make sur it isn't too big, then shifted up by 1 so there is no devision by 0, which can cause funky things to happen :wierd:

----------------

I hope that helps. Just ask and I'll post the development preset (I still have a version with just the scrolling, no zoom or rotation) in the forums so you can DL it to get the visuals to go with.

Hope this helps.

****************************************************

[cmountford]

thank you very much

Yes-it helps a lot! Thank you very much for explaining that to me! I can't wait to check it out tomorrow.

Just FYI: I don't know why I posted this question in this thread, but I did (a couple of my DM questions I probably should have posted in my LOTR thread, but I didn't; and of course there's still the other non-LOTR DM question left). I'll check this DM out tomorrow!

This is great for teaching some people who are trying to apply DMs in certain situations! Thanks again for your help

[Jaheckelsafar]

NP. If you do end up using it, just mention me once. Please? <turns on puppydog eyes and whimpers>

Please ignore the typos in the above post aswell. I just noticed them and can't edit. (ARG!)

[cmountford]

what goes in init?

I tried making it today, but I couldn't figure out what to put in Init. Could you please explain what to put in Init? I think I understand the rest of it, though-I just can't get it to work without something in Init.

Yes, (of course) I'll give you credit for anything you helped me with. No begging was necessary

Were there any typos in the equation parts, or just the text? Don't worry about the text typos, but I'd like to know if there's any corrections in the equations. If you look closely at a lot of my posts, you can usually find a few that I didn't see until after the editing time had expired-so don't sweat it.

Thanks again!

[Jaheckelsafar]

how it works, example, third frame, mx should by -1.4, not -1.04, plus a few others.

Anyway, I initialized everything to 0 execpt cmx and cmy which were initialized to 1. If they are zero funky stuff begins to happen.

[cmountford]

still working on it

I'm still working on it, but I've made a few more I'd like to post here. One is a really old one I almost forgot I had, and the others are kind of chaotic.

Please be sure to check out my earlier zip files with my other presets & tell me what you think. As always, any suggestions, input, criticism, or other opinions are always welcome