Category: Animation

  • Best Live Visuals II

    When I was making my first steps in VJing, around the early 2000s, I was looking around for information and stumbled upon these two mystic guys who were using Amigas to make their VJing while saying they were “the worst, and getting better at it”, a phrase that certainly denoted the kind of humour handled by them.
    As the vintage computer freak I am (and this was soon after I embraced the PC for the first time, still keeping my Amiga), I was interested about them and started to find some info. These guys were hard to get a hold on, and information was scarce! I realized they were playing in almost every show organized by Micromusic.net … certainly at the time the -only- crew dedicated to VJing for what was then emerging as “contemporary chipmusic”. Found 2 or 3 videos and wanted more. Nowhere to be found, and I was living in Argentina! How to catch the shows? Damnit! That was the catch. Kept drooling at those posters coming from the old continent…

    With 10 years in the game and no sign of stagnation, our next nominee is definitely the most experienced of the bunch, and the one with the heftiest trajectory. Today existing as a one-man workforce, after performing and lecturing all across the world (from the USA to most all Europe, passing through Russia and even China) and being one of the leaders of the project C64 Orchestra, our eyes are still rocked by this marvelous artist.

    Ladies and gentleman, a warm welcome to…

    The C-Men
    [Enschede, Netherlands]

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/v-acAdEpmtY" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
    The C-Men + Psilodump (Live @ En Festival i 8 Bitar 2008)

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  • Best Live Visuals I

    VJs are a core element in today’s music shows.
    Wherever you will go to a show, you will see an assortment of screens with visuals on it. Unfortunately, the importance of the VJ is usually under appreciated.

    For certain they yield big power: they can enhance or destroy a performance. Many times I have remained in awe gasping at a screen on a music show, and many times I wanted to yell “turn off the fucking screen”… Having being a “full time VJ” (that means, this being my main and only means of income) for about 8 years, and having curated many a VJ events and exhibitions in that time, I am pretty certain of what makes or break a good one and some times believe me, for the sake of conserving the good name of live visualists, it would be best to shut the screen off :P

    The task is a complex one. In my view, the VJ is a bit of a “Swiss Army Knife” in the electronic music business. He or she has to have a grasp of visual aesthetics, obvious dominance of the video field (be it live motion video or animation), a bit of layout/design skills, music sense or, better, more advanced music knowledge and last, but not least, notions of scenography and stage setup, as well as all the tech know-how that makes each of these possible. They usually have to provide, as well, all the gear that makes their set possible, with no such thing as a “house backline” for VJs existing in many places (sometimes, venues will not even have a projector). It makes you think a lot each time you think that shoving images on-screen is an easy task.

    I’ll cut the babble short now and present you with our first nominee in the Live Visuals Award. Hailing from Philly in the United States, he is a very regular VJ at the monthly Pulsewave events at NYC, as well as other events around the area and abroad. Frequent workshop lecturer and fine 6502 coder, please welcome him:

    NO CARRIER
    [Philadelphia, USA]

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/LQ1PBTsJ4lw" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]Cow'p + No Carrier @ Blip Festival 2008
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  • The History of Computers

    Wonderful Pixel Film, found at Digital Tools.

    DOT MATRIX REVOLUTION* from superbrothers on Vimeo.

    More at Superbrothers

  • Announcing the 2008 TCTD Awards

    Handcarfted using only the finest child labor.
    Handcrafted using only the finest child labor.

    As 2008 comes to a close, the staff at TCTD takes time to take stock and acknowledge the best and brightest achievers in the International Chip Community. TCTD is pleased to announce that we are accepting nominations for the following Categories.

    Please email all one paragraph or less nominations to:

    2008@truechiptilldeath.com
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  • Video for Stu’s “MEGAblaST”

    While not an offical video (apparently) I found it pretty cute and fun. More info on the animator here (in russian).