Developer Tools Tutorial 1

mfreakz's picture

Hi, Could Someone explain and describe a "step by step" short and easy tutorial to compile and use the Quartz Composer uncompiled Plugins provided in the Developper Tools Exemples. It could be very useful for the beginners (like me!) Thanx.

cwright's picture
steps

Open folder containing the plugin you wish to build.

Locate the "project file" (foo.xcodeproj). Double-click it. It will open in Xcode.

locate the Active Target selector at the top, and change it from the plugin name to "Build & Copy" -- this will compile it, and install it in the proper location automatically.

Click Build, or Build and Go. Build will compile it and install it. Build and Go will compile it, install it, and launch quartz composer (so that you can test it from xcode, handy for developers).

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dwskau's picture
Hidden

I had no idea that these were even there. Are there any other plugins hidden anywhere besides these, private ones, and those listed on the third party list? Maybe a comprehensive list of plugins or plugin sources could be posted somewhere?

gtoledo3's picture
Maaaaaannnn :o)

Maaaaaannnn :o)

I would say, do a google search for quartz plug in, and read the heck out of every result.

I know that some people make plugs that are "in house" production things, at some tv stations/ graphic design, etcetera... In a sense, the plug-ins are there to show you various starting points on how to make your own, or just to modify those for your own use. The Kineme xCode template is the next step to learn after getting a handle on that... if you read the page on it in here, you will see how it allows for more control. I haven't gotten to far with that yet, but am eager to when I get some time...

Some of them are going to be functional, others are going to be more "example".... like the "iPatch" plug in. I personally thought the FreeFrame was a cool addition. You'll have to go and find the free frame files though.

Optical flow is a very cool one too...

I was really surprised to see that iDVD "private" plug in posted awhile back... is that somewhere in OS X, or what is the back story on that if anyone knows...? It is kinda cool.

mfreakz's picture
Thanx !

Thank you Christopher ! I will try to compile some of those exemple like you show me. I think this Tutorial will help other newbies like me too... I'm very interested by MovieExporter. I'm trying to help a friend to build his project. Does some one test the MovieExporter ? Is it a patch that could save an image/video input as a video file like his name seems to mean ? Do you know the Category name for those Patches in the Patch Creator ? How do they appear ?

gtoledo3's picture
The movie exporter is okey

The movie exporter is okey dokey, but unless I have seriously missed something it always requires image input. So, for me it is worthless, since so many things don't need the actual "render" to create the visual effect, and anything that I ever want to put inside of "render in image" to attempt to get a useable image output doesn't work inside QC anyway.

All of the developer examples appear as plug-ins in the category list, and should be put in the regular plug-in folder when you install. With the free frame plug, you will need to follow the instructions and make another folder.... do a web search for pete's free frame plugins... install the appropriate folders.

I wouldn't waste a much time with the movie exporter personally, I would just go with Quartz Crystal... as I think about this, maybe some kind of regular, mouse active stuff would be cool with the movie exporter, but for me the frame rate control and other options on Quartz Crystal are indispensable for me.

franz's picture
use Quartz Crystal

Quartz Crystal is esp. designed to export movies, with tons of extra controls allowing for better quality output.

mfreakz's picture
Export during rendering...

I'm sure that Quartz Crystal is the best way to export a movie from a composition ! The Antialiasing and Motion Blur option rules ! But what i'm attenpting to do is to "record" a video stream during the composition development, inside the composition, as a Patch... I would like to control the recording of a video input, saved in a defined folder in the computer, and then with the same composition, load and play videos from that folder, in random order. The idea is to record interactively and to play randomly. Quartz Crystal is a stand alone application that render a composition as a movie or as an image sequence, but it's not a Patch ? So that's not the same thing... Let me know.

franz's picture
understood. try this:

oic then use a KnM GL Read pixel patch, and connect it to your Movie Exporter. GL read pixels outputs a copy of the current GL state (aka your view content), then you can record it. Be carefull to set its rendering ID to the last one, as it reads everything that's under its layer.

cwright's picture
movieexporter

Yes, the movie exporter records images from QC to an output movie -- this would do what you're wanting.

QuartzCrystal solves a similar, but sufficiently different problem - turning the composition itself into a video.

I use the movie exporter when I want the composition itself to produce a movie, while rendering something else. For example, you could make a spy cam that records the isight to a video, but displays a screen saver or something... There are probably less suspicious uses of this too. ;)

cwright's picture
appearance

Official-api plugins (all the ones apple provides, and most you find on non-kineme QC sites) show up with the category "Plug-in" (this can't be altered, which is really annoying, and one of the reasons why we don't use the official api ;)

The MovieExporter works as expected -- before QuartzCrystal, I used this and a render in image patch to record compositions -- kineme3d's teasers were mostly done this way, for example.

the patch name is Movie Exporter.

mfreakz's picture
Developer Tools Tutorial 2

CWright 007 ! (spy cam!) 1 patch to rule them all... StoreWars 3... Apparently, we like communicate by cinematic réferences !

Thanx for your tutorial. That's great i will compile all exemples to test those plugins. The movieExporter seems to be great for my friend installation project.

Another question. Could you explain me the different Plugins folders in OS X. There is different path to install custom/official/... Plugins. I know you explain those difference many times in different forum topics, but could you synthesize a rapid explanation (like the first tutorial) for us ?

I think it could be great to keep those tutorials in a better forum place. Could you re-post them (Developer Tools Tutorial 1 & 2 &...) in a safer place (the wiki for exemple ?) If i could help you, it will be a pleasure ! Maybe i could group and synthesize those informations, make graphics or drawings ? Let me know.

gtoledo3's picture
On the render in image... I

On the render in image... I have always been wondering this... is it possible to have a macro with a renderer in it (cube, billboard, whatever), and then place that inside of render in image, so that the renderer could run through a filter, and then onto another renderer?

I should do more investigating before posting this I guess... it is just that I get mondo glitches (screen grab type weirdness) whenever I have tried to do this, so I have assumed it isn't possible.

gtoledo3's picture
Hmmm... I think this answers

Hmmm... I think this answers my question above about the "render in image" ....it sounds like I can do what I want with GL read pixels (which seems fairly obvious from the name, lol). I'm off to test it now...

vade's picture
Yes, this is exactly what it

Yes, this is exactly what it is for ;)

gtoledo3's picture
I am going to have to

I am going to have to examine some comps that I have where render in image isn't working and post them to the developer group or something....

I did understand what it is for, lol!

I think I was having problems taking something like a cube or sphere with shader, and lighting, and then trying to render that on a billboard.... hmmmm.

psonice's picture
Need to clear

Sounds like you forgot to put a clear patch inside the render-in-image. If you don't do that, it'll output whatever happens to be in the video memory with your cube or whatever on top.. i.e. you'll get a big bunch of glitch.

I use render in image VERY heavily these days, quite often with inside it a lighting patch, a bunch of cubes or whatever, a glsl patch etc.

gtoledo3's picture
Yep, that is exactly it.

Yep, that is exactly it. That has to be my biggest brain fart with QC in general- forgetting to set the clears correctly, besides forgetting to check asynchronous mode on media loader type patches...