veygo1

Hi. Im an experienced musician but a newbie to motion graphics. My mission is to to learn how to do some funky projection mapping. (and just create interesting films to go with my music) Aside from the music programs i use (Logic, Liver, pro Tools) Im very interested in After effects, max, Final cut and I am finding it difficult to see if all these programs can work together to create what i want - can max control after effects or can i just create the same with Jitter....any pointers on where to start making all these programs work together in harmony. thanks.

maxafter-effectsfinal-cutprojection-mapping

There are few problems in your idea. Even if you will be able to connect max to AE or FC you will not have the power to see the videos in realtime especially After Effects that require a render to reproduce the video in realtime.

What you can do is: use After effects and Final cut to create your clips and then build a max patch that reads the clips you render out from FC & AE to play the on your beats. To add a bit more spicy to your projections you could use some random generative pattern in gen or usig particles to mix with your clips. My suggestion about the clips: try to make them short (to get better performances from your patch). And to get the higher sync possible try to use separate machines for music and video.

Hi Veygo1
There are few problems in your idea. Even if you will be able to connect max to AE or FC you will not have the power to see the videos in realtime especially After Effects that require a render to reproduce the video in realtime.
What you can do is: use After effects and Final cut to create your clips and then build a max patch that reads the clips you render out from FC & AE to play the on your beats. To add a bit more spicy to your projections you could use some random generative pattern in gen or usig particles to mix with your clips. My suggestion about the clips: try to make them short (to get better performances from your patch). And to get the higher sync possible try to use separate machines for music and video.
Cheers


Thanks Cristiano...It crossed my mind about the render issue, thanks for clearing that up. So it seems that AE/FC/C4D are best for creating original content, then using Jitter for realtime manipulation and projection mapping is the route to follow? Thanks.

Yes that's the way... or one that works. Also you can use c4d to generate the model and then manipulate them using max to get more complex result. If you plan animation in cinema 4d you will have always the same animation while if you import the model and then use max to animate them you can achieve customized animations directly connected to the music (For example you can build a rig and let it go with the music)

you might also want to check out syphon which lets you send and receive video between different applications. there are objects for max and a plugin for after effects

One suggestion I have for presenting visual content is VDMX. It supports OSC, Syphon, Quartzcomposer, and ISF shaders (interchangeable with Max now). So I create all my generative visual content in Max (which is what Max is good at) and send it via Syphon to VDMX, which does all the real time presentation and FX. It is pretty powerful setup and allows you to realize your vision very quickly.

After thinking about it a bit, it would be nice if you had an easy way to key frame animation in Max (both 2d and 3d). That way I would not need After Effects, which is an expensive subscription.

Max/after effects/final cut/projection mapping