The following is ArKaos VJ DMX v3.5, but also works in v3.6. First, I

The following is ArKaos VJ DMX v3.5, but also works in v3.6.
First, I setup ArKaos. This is Edit, Preferences, DMX from the Menu.
I picked the Tiny fixture because most of the features of the full fixture (XYZ position,
etc.) only work with NVidea hardware, which I do not have. Looping to endpoints does
work with all adapters, but let’s use the tiny to keep things simple.
For ArtNet Setup (“Setup” button on top right) I entered the following:
After hitting OK, next I ran BlueLite X1. I then opened the Device Manager
(Windows/Device Manager) and inserted 8 layers of Arkaos Tiny into Universe 16.
Next I inserted a Cue in the Cue List (Window, Cue List -- Edit Insert)
Double Clicking on the Cue opens the Editor
When prompted, I added all Arkaos Layers to the Cue
This leaves me with the Cue Editor:
At this point, the applications are NOT connected to each other. But before we connect,
we want to set ArKaos so we can easily see the results of our edits.
In the bottom left corner of the ArKaos screen there are some tool bar buttons. If we
click the one that looks like a circular DIN connector (lookin in the end), we get a display
of each layer and its current settings, like this:
Notice that the Din is the third button from the bottom left in this version. Next, lets go
back to BlueLite and pick Tools, ArKaos Interface from the menu. If you are connected
to a Network, the connection should happen automatically (even between two machines).
If you are on a lone machine with no network connection, you will be prompted about
transmitting locally (‘Yes’).
Once the connection is established, there is a slight change to the ArKaos window:
Notice each layer now has a small cyan rectangle up and left of the blue square. This
means that video position is now top left (matching our position control setting). Since
we are currently single display, this puts us offscreen.
The template works this way because it lets you do nifty additive things like have effect
buttons, positions buttons, etc.
To get something going, lets set a few params on just the first layer (you can multi select
to edit multiple together). First, clock on the position control and just press the Home
key. This forced the video center (the default active view in ArKaos). We see it in
BlueLite:
And we see it in ArKaos:
Next I pick a Visual Type of “Movie” and a Visual Index of “1”. Again, in BlueLite:
And In ArKaos:
However, we do not see anything in the Preview window. This is because the Movie is
set to Transparent and we have our Dimmer intensity at zero. If we bring up the Dimmer
Intensity on the editor:
We will see the image start to fade in on the Preview Window:
Last, I set the Movie Mode to “Normal”:
The movie now plays continuously, both in our Layer display, and in our preview:
Notice that the intensity is lower (since I didn’t set the dimmer to full).
Now we can get fancy, I set the second layer to:
Movie 4
Centered
Copy Mode Multiplication
Dimmer Full
Mode Normal
We now get movie 4 (a face in my case) on top of the background movie:
In BlueLite, I now pick Cue, Duplicate from the Menu (I made it #2, “Test 2”).
I then turned on a Figure 8 effect on Layer 2 (the head) and adjusted Gain Rotation and
Speed to get the head flying around the screen the way I liked:
I can cross fade between my two cues the head will go from centered to flying around
smoothly.
ArKaos has a lot of good effect stuff built in. One nice thing about the DMX version is
that it gives you a lot of param control not available via MIDI. For example, I picked a
simple 3D effect for the face:
I now have a zooming floor of faces:
Let me know if you need more help.
-jjf