New ways to export compositions are 3 of the 4 highest-voted features coming in the next release — FxPlug plugins for Final Cut Pro X, FFGL plugins for Resolume and other apps, and macOS screensavers.
You, the community, realized the exciting potential of these features. Now will you help us spread that excitement?
Here’s how you can help:
Create a composition in Vuo 1.2.8 that you think would make a good screensaver or FxPlug or FFGL plugin.
For screensavers, use File > New Composition from Template > Image Generator.
For FFGL and FxPlug plugins, use File > New Composition from Template > Image Generator or Image Filter.
If you need a refresher on image filters/generators, here’s the user manual section.
In FFGL and FxPlug plugins, for parameters that you want the user to modify, create published input ports. You can right-click on the published input port to set the name, default value, and range.
Please tell us the type of export you have in mind.
We’ll use our in-development version of Vuo to export your compositions. That way, we’ll be able to start showcasing cool demos made by you, the community, before the release.
If we export your composition, you’ll get a copy of the export to use and share. We’ll export as many compositions as we have time for. (We’d like to export them all, but our top priority is to finish developing the release.)
We’re looking for compositions that show off Vuo’s high-quality graphics, flexibility, and ease of use to folks who work with these export formats, such as video editors, VJs, and designers. We plan to share your demos on social media and send them to bloggers and news sites.
You can submit compositions from now until the end of December. Thanks!
UPDATE Edit ; after posting I answered my own question by getting a Play Movie node to work correctly in this context (I had been making a careless mistake) - so this works for previewing moving video - sorry for the clutter
regarding working in Vuo within a protocol-compliant composition, in the docs it says ;
When you run an Image Filter composition in the Vuo Editor, you can change the image being filtered by dropping an image file onto the running composition’s window.
I find that only still graphics seem to work (.movs and .mp4s result in a black preview window as if the image has been cleared) - is this currently an expected limitation of previewing when working on FxPlugs or other protocols in Vuo ? Or is there some node configuration that will allow moving video in the preview in this context ? Thanks for any info.
I’m very interested in this feature (specifically being able to export a Vuo comp to FxPlug) and I look forward to giving it a try. And hearing that this feature is coming to Vuo within the foreseeable future I’ve now started to build some Vuo comps specifically for this purpose.
As many of you probably know, FxPlugs do not appear directly in Final Cut Pro, but rather they appear in Apple Motion and it is possible to create an Apple Motion “template” project which can use the FxPlug(s) and which can appear in Final Cut Pro as an “effect”, “transition”, “title”, or “generator”.
I’ve been doing this now for a few years and my process involves adding quite a bit of functionality at the Apple Motion template level (making a lot of use of Motion “behaviors” and “rigs” and the possibilities of image compositing within Motion), and also involves a lot of tweaking and re-tweaking of any FxPlugs I’m building (and rebuilding) for use in Motion while creating the template. And then of course the process also involves a lot of checking (and re-checking) the template I’ve created in Final Cut Pro and going back and making adjustments based on what I see there.
Considering this, I’ve decided to hold off on having the folks at Vuo convert any of my Vuo comps to FxPlug for me, but rather I’ll wait till I’m able to do the FxPlug export myself using some kind of Vuo (alpha or beta?) build in which the export to FxPlug feature is available - because trying to do the kind of things I want to do any other way would be inefficient and potentially frustrating. There are too many questions I have about the feature’s capabilities and limitations, most of which I could probably answer myself by using the software for half a day and doing a bunch of quick exports and re-exports to FxPlug etc. Having been involved in this process for a few years now (while using a different platform that allows for Quartz Composer based FxPlugs) I think I could probably offer some worthwhile feedback on the feature. Also, I’ll be happy to share some Final Cut Pro software I create in Motion using Vuo based FxPlugs as soon as I’m able to get my hands directly on a build of Vuo which has the export to FxPlug feature. I’m looking forward to it.
I had similar thoughts about the frustration for myself and those at Vuo when I uploaded my second and third versions of Star Glow.
I then remembered I could save my composition to the node library to test it as an image filter within Vuo, not quite the same as when it’s within the intended host app for FXplugs/FFGL but good enough to make some tweaks and see the results. I also tried things out in Resolume using a Syphon client/server loop.
For now I want to give something to Vuo to be used in promotion so that we can all benefit from a larger user base and faster development of this tool.
I also don’t want to give away too much of my work as there is commercial potential for some of my ideas, just need to remember to find the right balance.
can comps exported as FxPlugins from Vuo include embedded graphics for referencing within the comp/plugin (I know that an exported Mac app can) ?
Yes. They get bundled in with the FxPlug (or FFGL or screensaver), same as they would when exporting to app. Quick demo attached.
FxPlugs do not appear directly in Final Cut Pro, but rather they appear in Apple Motion
FxPlugs exported from Vuo do appear directly in Final Cut Pro. Part of the export process involves creating a Motion template automatically. You can use Vuo FxPlugs in Motion but you don’t have to. They’re already set up for FCPX.
FxPlugs exported from Vuo do appear directly in Final Cut Pro. Part of the export process involves creating a Motion template automatically.
Right - so what I wrote stands. FxPlugs don’t appear “directly” in Final Cut Pro - in Final Cut Pro you are never looking at the UI of the FxPlug but rather the UI of a template created in Motion (whether created automatically or otherwise). I’m not trying to complain about this, but rather just to say that for what I do the creation of the Motion template is an important opportunity to add a lot of value in the design process of creating the effect for FCP - and I would want to do that for anything I planned to pass to anyone to look at as a demo of what’s possible etc.
Yes, having the Motion template will potentially fill gaps where the Vuo UI is limited to simple value inputs restricted to known datatypes. Can’t wait to check this out, I use Premier Pro and AE but will have to learn FCP and Motion to play with this I expect.
I just spent several hours over a couple of days trying to program something in After Effects using expressions to create a paramedic text quote FX and it was pretty nightmarish just because the UI is not set up for coders. took about 20-40 different expressions, possibly a JS script writing the expressions into the file is the way to go but I haven’t gone that far yet. Any how I hated the experience, as I could have made something in QC to do same WAY more easily and wish I had have gone that route and bought the NI wrapper software to make it PremPro/AE compatible. So really interested in a beta of this, and the other FR for the Adobe apps (bigger market than FCPX/motion if you include Windows machines).
But having programatic changing of input lists and ranges is something I’m really wanting was a constant source of frustration with QC for me, so I ended up making HTML?CSS/JS interface for one client doing livestreams at stadium venues.