Cameras and Live Video Input for Hipno

Do you have simple step-by-step instructions for setting up my video camera to use it with Hipno?

In general, the setup for every camera is different - particularly on the Windows operating system. While we cannot provide detailed instructions for every camera, below are the steps used to get a little USB webcam from Creative working on a Windows XP computer, written from the first-person perspective. Other cameras may use a similar proceedure.

1. I Plug USB Cable from camera into the back of the computer
2. New Hardware Wizard pops up. I tell it "yes" to look for the software needed by the camera.
3. It then asks me if I want to install the software automatically or from a specific location. I choose automatically.
4. After searching for a while, it tells me that it cannot install this hardware. I click "back" and then choose install from a specific location.
5. Now, I go rummaging through my apartment to find the install CD that came with the camera. I can't find it. So I go to Creative's web site, find the support link, and to try and find the drivers. I download them.
6. I Cancel out of the hardware dialog thing. Then find the drivers I downloaded, and run that installer.
7. I start up my favorite host, load a video plugin, and both the device list and input list a blank? What did I do wrong? The WinVDIG stil needs to be installed. This allows the web cam to communicate with QuickTime.
8. I go to http://www.vdig.com/WinVDIG/ and download the WinVDIG software.
9. I run the installer for WinVDIG.
10. WinVDIG comes with an application called QTCap. This program lets you see if your camera is working. If it is, you should be able to run the program and see the video from your camera on your screen. If you can't see it, then something is wrong (and this outside the scope of any Hipno documentation).
11. So I now start up my favorite host application again, and again load a video plugin.
12. I select a preset other than the default (the default preset in all of the video plugins has the camera turned off). Ta-da! It works!

Where can I find more information on what video cameras work well with Hipno?

Hipno's video capabilities are built using Cycling'74's Jitter. More information on this subject can be found in the JitterCameras topic in our FAQ for Jitter.

What tips do you have for getting the color tracking to work well

• The most important factor is good lighting. This will make all of the colors in the video stream clearer and more accurate.
• Adjusting the saturation, contrast, and brightness settings in the video input pane can make a big difference too. For example, turning the saturation way up but the contrast down can sometimes make bright objects stand out from the background.
• There will almost always be some jitter in the tracking. This can be smoothed out with the "smoothing" parameter. The smoothing will make the tracking feel more accurate.

I'm looking for some color swatches or something so I know what colors that presets are looking for. Do you have any?

For the best results, you will likely need to modify the colors in your presets. However, we do have some examples for you!

Modulator.VColorTrack Swatches

Preset 3

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VAirTime Swatches

Preset 2

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Preset 3

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VTheremin Swatches

Preset 2

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Preset 3

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Preset 4

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Preset 5

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What Codec is being used by the video input?