A few months ago, the Barbarian Group was approached by Erasmus to help with promotions for the Relentless Energy Drink. Relentless, available only in the UK, is a frequent sponsor of music festivals and sports competitions. They asked us to make an audio visualizer that would run in real-time so they could show it at these venues. In addition to the live application, they wanted a content creation version and an iTunes plugin version. The content creation version would allow them to create renders from recorded audio and the iTunes version would allow members of the Relentless Order to experience it on their own computers.
The project went through many different looks. The primary art direction we received was that the end result should be dark and should have some baroque sensibilities. We did our best to hit these goals and we are quite proud of the end result.
Learning Experience
For me, the most rewarding part of this job was that I learned a whole lot. Fellow Barbarian, Andrew Bell, showed me many interesting tricks, not to mention working his ass off to optimize this project so it would run at 30+ fps and also handling the port to C++ for the iTunes visualizer version.
The early versions had the primary tendrils rendered as flat strips that always orient themselves towards the camera so you never (well, almost never) see the strips from the side. This was my way of faking the viewer into believing they were seeing a solid mass. However, this method had its problems. It was impossible to texture map it in an interesting way, and occasionally, the strip would twist a full 360° which added unsightly kinks. Andrew suggested we move to actual tubes instead of strips and I thought he was nuts. The piece was already starting to drag down the framerate and he wanted to add more geometry?? Nuts, I tell ya!!
A couple days later, he showed me the new build. I was floored. Not only did he do what he promised, but he improved the frame-rate in the process AND he added support for shaders. Awesome!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Suddenly, things got a lot more interesting… more lush. He ended up switching the tendril geometry over to VBOs (vertex buffer objects) which sped things up a great deal. He also pre-cached the texture coordinates because they didn’t actually change once the piece was up and running.
The Birds
The idea of flocking crows or ravens is very much in keeping with the Relentless aesthetic but there was some concern that we were simply repurposing a project we did with Nervo for Fox Movies. We decided to do away with everything we did for Nervo and start from scratch. The original Nervo piece relied on using 160 flat images of a 3D bird in flight. For the Relentless version, we switched over to actual 3D birds (admittedly quite rudimentary). Each bird was made up of 12 polygons. The wings actually flapped and they could be viewed from any angle (whereas the Nervo version worked best when the birds were viewed side-on.
The Background
From the beginning we were instructed to do away with the notion of an infinite black or white space. The entire scene should be filled with content and this proved to be quite the challenge. Originally, we just dropped the whole scene inside a large textured sphere but the end result was lacking. Andrew came up with the idea of using a flat plane as the background but by using some FBO trickery, he was able to make these beautiful flourished textures bleed into view. I still have no idea how he pulled it off but the effect is quite stunning. Later he added a dynamic light source to make the scene feel even more dark and slightly disturbing.
The (faked) Volumetric Lighting
After we settled on the look, we wanted to make it seem like the invisible center of the mass of tendrils was a hidden light source. Earlier versions actually had the tendrils glowing near their base but the look of shadow and silhouette was more intriguing so we killed the glow and added faked volumetric lighting. The light beams themselves behave as if they were magnetic particles. Each one is born, lives for a predetermined amount of time, then fades out and dies. While they are alive, they repulse each other if they get too close. This created a really nice organic movement which made it seem like the movement of the tendrils actually caused the light beams to form or disappear. Combined with the background lighting, the effect became quite engaging.
The Content Creation Tool
Erasmus wanted to be able to create renders from pre-recorded pieces of music so we tweaked the live version to accommodate the loading in of external audio as well as an XML file of adjustable variables. By modifying the XML file, they could run the application and customize their experience. Every graphic element could be toggled individually. So if you want a video with no background for compositing, or perhaps you want to leave the birds out, just tweak the XML and run the application. Additionally, since we were no longer confined to creating an experience that ran live in real-time, you could up the amount of objects as high as your memory will allow. This is how we made the following test render. The bird and particle count was turned up really high, as was the detail on the tendril geometry.
The following video is a test render from The REV content creation tool. Please note this is not an official Relentless video. This is simply a test render we did to make sure the audio responsiveness was as we liked it. The audio is by The Flashbulb (”Six Months Without Light” off the album Kirlian Selections) but be aware that The Flashbulb has no affiliation with Relentless. The chosen audio was simply a test track. I chose The Flashbulb because he is my favorite artist to audio visualize and I love this track.
Relentless, The REV from flight404 on Vimeo.
Or you can view the much higher resolution Quicktime here. Note, it is around 300Mb.
The REV iTunes Version
As I mentioned above, there is a free downloadable version for iTunes. You can find out more at the Relentless Energy site. Have at it!
Cthulu Lives!
Absolutely amazing!
[...] Hodgin does it again with this real-time audio visualizer done in Processing. Check out the video, [...]
Absolutely amazing, unfortunately us Canadian citizens can’t seem to access it. REV refuses to let us sign up.
Very demo-ish, are you sure you weren’t a demoscener in your previous life?
niiiiiiice
Simply beautiful. You (and Andrew) raised the bar again — and it even runs in realtime!
Processing is great for its simplicity, but I’m guessing you guys are using direct calls to the JOGL API for everything; have you considered moving to something like LWJGL? I was looking into it especially because of shaders, which are probably very important in this piece since you’re working with FBOs and VBOs, and handling most calculations to the GPU.
lovely. Where can I get the visualizer? And do you have good resources on how to create a visualizer? I want to port some OF files to work as a visualizer. Since they are c++ allready it should not be too hard. (I hope)
What a crap!
“The Order memberships are currently only available to UK residents.”
Any way to download this plugin in the US?
The Relentless site login doesnt seem to work in Firefox, but does in IE, although through firefox you can login here : http://e-visual.net/relentless/
(might be worth telling them)
works great in itunes, nice work!
two things that i noticed with all itunes visualizers, if I press mute on my laptop button, it mutes the volume but comes back on straight away. anyone else get this?
oh yeah was going to say reminded me of a piece karsten did in Director many years ago, very demo-scene-esque
http://www.toxi.co.uk/macronaut/
Re: iTunes download… Yeah, I noticed yesterday the order memberships were for UK only which seems a bit odd. As for the mute volume behavior, I have not seen that before.
Very nice… the three things that strike me the most are the use of shaders, the cylinders, and the non-infinite-black/white space. The shaders + cylinders seem to be a huge departure from your normal “flat” aesthetic.
Something about this reminds me of Zelda 64.
It’s very different watching it muted. The flashes of particles become a lot more noticeable… they’re very well integrated.
flashbulb!!!!! once he settles in… he’s addictive.
Ah Wes, thanks for introducing me to Flashbulb. It is a good match.
[...] Tobias Hoffmann – Relentless [...]
I’ve been reading your blog for the past few weeks and you are doing things that I can only dream of!
Love this new visualizer! Very dark, and those birds and light particles are amazingggg
robert,
This is really cool, perhaps more impressive than Magnetosphere. Is there any way that a .pkg compatible with OS X 10.4 could be posted? The download I found only works with 10.5.
[...] It’s a classic demo effect (seen in various productions in realtime :fr-019, 604 by and, and more). It’s the first processing video I’ve seen that has a good direction. What’s rare is the animation : the background is moving in a parralax way that gives a great sense of depth, the sharp lighting effects are moving in a nice non-linear way, the camera is rotating in an interesting way putting the “tentacles” in the strengh points of the screen. Making of : http://www.flight404.com/blog/?p=151 [...]
Great Job Robert,
I saw you at FlashBelt in the Twin Cities this summer. Inspirational presentation!
I tried grabbing this new awesome REV visualizer, but have the same problem as John Harrison mentions above. The package is only for OS X 10.5. Does it have to be? If not, Is there any way you can pull some strings to get Relentless to post a 10.4 PKG file? I’m also throwing a local party this weekend and have some fellow Flash developers coming I’d love to show your work to with the iTunes visualizer on projected onto the wall. Thanks for posting the QT file too. That’ll be my backup.
Keep up the mind blowing work!
Cheers!
Brilliant work… very very cool and trippy.
Only wish it had the controls that Magnetosphere has, I love being able to play along to my mixes…
Any chance you’ll ever write an actual app that would we could use in Real time from an external audio source or even built in mic ? I’d so love that !!!
Please continue the outstanding and inspiring work.
Amazing stuff as usual!!!
As for US resident being able to download, I had no problems. The UK only thing is the free ‘zine they want to send you.
Wow, this looks incredible! Nice job!
Hi
DOH!
Just to let you know that you should have no problems whatsoever in downloading from the Relentless site at relentlessenergy.com. Joining The Order to download The REV isn’t only open to UK citizens at all. IT”S FOR EVERYONE.
Just give the basic sign up details and you’re free to download. The other info is only required to have Relentless send you a free magazine which for annoying legal reasons is only available within the UK. The statement on the site is a big dumb error that will be fixed first thing tomorrow to remove the confusion for which I’m sorry.
I am the creative director of Erasmus, the London based agency that worked with Robert and Andrew to make The Rev. Just want to say that it was an absolute privilege and an education. The guys took every one of my crazy and naive requests, never laughed in my face (although there were a few stunned silences)and then just went off, worked out how to do the impossible and blew me away. We’ll be back for more envelope pushing in 09.
Thanks…and spread the word. We obviously want The REV to be in as many hands as possible.
Beautiful work!!
Another great production! I only wish the iTunes plugin had more of the features of the test render, particularly the vine growth in the background, more shaders, and customizable detail.
Still watching your videos and reading your posts. Still a great tool of procrastination, thanks for that.
jes
Haven’t missed a post. The work of a true visualist. Bravo.
With magnetosphere and now the Rev; does iTunes run Java visualizers natively or do you need to port them? I had only seen visualizers being made with Quartz Composer before.
Wiley: They need to be ported to C++, sadly.
Hey,this is pretty artistic work.
I have question for those of you who have a membership on the relentless website;
If you have signed up for a subscription to “This Is The Order” Magazine,how long did it take for you to receive your copy,did you even receive one? It’s been way too long since i entered my details for a subscription,and i STILL haven’t received a copy?!
To be more specific: How long did it take to receive a copy,for those of you who live in WALES,CARDIFF,also after subscribing did you get a confirmation email specifically confirming that you have successfully subscribed for “this is the order” magazine?I didn’t(I’m aware that it could be that you don’t get an email anyway) but that’s rather strange,and to say the least quite confusing.
For those of you reading this,help me out if you can.
Hi A Anagram Pent Foolish
Email vicky@erasmuspartners.com. She’ll sort out your problems with The Order registration, magazine etc. Sorry you’ve had difficulty.
Nice. Really. Shocking nice, i’d say. Do u have other works? It’d be great 2 c them 2.