21 presets by StevenRoy

StevenRoy

21st June 2005 07:56 UTC

21 presets by StevenRoy
Hi, guys. Long time fan, first-time caller...

A bunch of the presets included with WinAmp are cool, really cool. After staring at those for a while, I was tempted, really tempted, to see if I could come up with anything remotely like those. So, I started doing a little experimenting and tinkering of my own, with AVS. So far, I've managed to come up with [this set of 21 presets]. I originally wasn't intending to distribute these, since I was doing it mostly just for fun. Lately, though, I'm starting to think that some of them, especially the later ones, might be good enough to share...

So, aside from the fact that my inexperience shows in the first few presets... How did I do?

Tuggummi

21st June 2005 15:30 UTC

Some pretty nice stuff for 1st publish, though you said the last ones are the best i actually liked the first ones a bit more :p Especially 'Swallowed' is extremely cool even though it looks so simple :up:
As for 'look into the orb', well i guess it's okay, but im not too excited about it since i don't like my own stuff ;) Well not the ones that were selected for the winamp 5 newpicks anyway.

Oh yeah and 'Dual effects' is an idea i have to steal from you someday :p

Overall decent stuff.

PAK-9

21st June 2005 17:50 UTC

OMG Teh RGB, it buuuuuurns!

Tuggummi

21st June 2005 18:13 UTC

Oh come on Pak's there is maybe 2-3 presets that have the awful RGB colors here, no need to be so anal about it.

StevenRoy

21st June 2005 21:03 UTC

Originally posted by Tuggummi
...Especially 'Swallowed' is extremely cool even though it looks so simple :up:

That was actually my second-least favorite of the set. (Next to "Ring Thing".)

Simultaneously posted by Tuggummi
As for 'look into the orb', well i guess it's okay, but im not too excited about it since i don't like my own stuff ;) Well not the ones that were selected for the winamp 5 newpicks anyway.

Well, I'll agree that Magma Flow II and Club Seizure probably aren't as good as what you've been doing since then... but I still like them, and that's why I tried combining the effects.

I'll also agree the result is far from being the best preset in my set. As long as you "guess it's okay", though, I'm satisfied.

Incredulously posted by Tuggummi
Oh yeah and 'Dual effects' is an idea i have to steal from you someday :p

It would be an honor.

Extemporaneously posted by PAK-9
OMG Teh RGB, it buuuuuurns!

I'm guessing it was "Revenge Of The MPs" that prompted that reaction? It was actually meant to burn, a little. (It uses MPs, for goodness' sake!)

eheiney

22nd June 2005 04:32 UTC

Nice first pack!

I liked Swallowed, Engulfed in Neon, Isn't That Spacial, Escape From Planet Square(I and II) I'm Seeing Stars Here, Look Into The Orb, and Wave Reports.

There were a lot of things about the pack that I didn't like, such as some of the colors, the fyrewurx, some of the data values of the scopes, and a few other various effects.

But overall it's a pretty nice pack! It shows promise, keep up the good work!

MaTTFURY

22nd June 2005 05:51 UTC

I quite liked it, it didn't have that all soo new n00b smell attatched...

StevenRoy

22nd June 2005 06:33 UTC

Originally posted by denkensiefursic
There were a lot of things about the pack that I didn't like, such as some of the colors, the fyrewurx, some of the data values of the scopes, and a few other various effects.

I think I only recall one place (17 - Dual Effects) where I used FyrewurX, and it was where I could easily have used a SuperScope if I was slightly less lazy. It's all obscured by a Mosaic and Mirror afterwards anyway; I'd actually be surprised if anyone could tell (without looking at the code) that FirewurX was what I used there.

"Some of the colors"... Well, color is a subjective thing. If, though, you're referring to "Revenge Of The MPs" or "My Ion You" or another one of those that suffers from what I call "RGB syndrome", then I think I know what you're talking about. (In fact, I'll probably be remixing "My Ion You" at some point in the future. It needs more color and more getspec() responsiveness. I think I even mention that in the comment.)

"Data values of the scopes"? I'm not sure what you mean. If there's a preset or two that you think I can improve by fiddling with the values a bit, feel free to point it out. I'm eager to learn how I can improve!

eheiney

22nd June 2005 23:36 UTC

Oops, I meant the music data(getspec, getosc, v, ect...).

There weren't really anything wrong with the colors, except the few RGB. What I didn't like about them, however, was the either rapidly changing colors, usually induced either by a water effect, or by using v in the red, green, and blue variables in the scopes.

beeferoni

24th June 2005 20:38 UTC

Man, these are good for a first posting. I am just a beginner, but I believe you could be one of the really good avs artists if you learned everything you can about avs coding. I agree with Tugg, Dual Effects is obviously a great idea, however I think It could have been executed better. But overall I like 'em. I am definetly going to keep a few in my random preset collection. ;)

StevenRoy

3rd July 2005 09:50 UTC

Thanks for all your feedback so far. I believe it's helped me quite a bit.

Now I've created a few more presets for you to look at, bringing the total number to 25. Download 22-25 here.

"22 - Entranced in Neons" is a remix of the two "Engulfed in Neons" presets, with a lot more color. Somewhat hypnotic, I think.

"23 - Barbecued Spiralled" is a remix of "Wild Spiralled" with more varied color and texture. Less of that RGB syndrome.

"24 - The Dog Ate My Reports" is a combination of "Swallowed" and "Wave Reports" (hence the creative name). I love the color effect in this one!

"25 - Portal Patrol" combines some ideas from "Dual Effects" and "My Ion You", with more varied colors. It has a bit of a "fractal" vibe, too, I think.

So, what do you think? Am I improving?

MaTTFURY

3rd July 2005 10:24 UTC

still the RGB burns!!!11!!!1!1 try using prime colours, and inversions...

eheiney

3rd July 2005 21:43 UTC

Matt, go lay down. Even you could use a few lessons in color schemes.

There's still plenty of room for improvement, but overall I would say that you're certainly getting better.

The only one that I wasn't too fond of was Entranced in Neons. Imo, with a fadeout, some blurring and, yes, Matt, even a little color fix, this would be just all that much more sweet. It seems to be overall just too grainy, if that makes sense.

Barbecued Sprialled is nice. I see you're experimenting with more effects, which is always good. I've included a sort of remix, how I would have made it. Take it with a grain of salt, it's just my crazy idea. [edit]I know it's slow as all hell, could use some of Tomy's optimization tricks that I've learned, but it's just a sort of preview, an example.[/edit]

The Dog Ate My Reports is perhaps my favorite of this new bunch. I really enjoyed the dynamics. My only two concerns with this would be the custom bpms, and the fact that a sort of fadeout is needed, as this gets a bit too bright at times.

Portal Patrol reminds me in a way of amphirion's malevolent shattering. Anyone else notice that? Either way, it looks good.

Again, overall, good work. Keep it up.

JaVS_v2.5

5th July 2005 11:19 UTC

stoopit avs preset!! eshol! babi

StevenRoy

7th July 2005 23:46 UTC

Pardon, JaVS, mais j'ai oublié tout mon Français.

"The Dog Ate My Reports" does get a little bright at times; that's due to the way the color effect works, which makes it tricky to fix without adding a bunch of stuff. I've been experimenting with tweaks, though; so far the best one seems to be adding "red=red*red; green=green*green; blue=blue*blue;" to the Color Modifier near the end of the preset. The preset becomes much darker, but still has bold colors... and it also gets bright at times, but not as much. This may be all the improvement that's necessary.

As for the "graininess" in "Entranced In Neons", I think I have a pretty good idea what you mean by that. A lot of the blame probably goes to the empty Effect List I use to smooth the animation a bit so the colors don't occasionally "strobe". I had the input set to "50/50" and the output set to "Every other pixel". That created an interesting effect, which I liked at first, but now I don't care for it that much. It probably looks better with the output set to "Replace". I also tried adding a Blur (Medium) before and after the Dynamic Movement to create a subtle fading effect and make the background look more like a background. It changes the effect a little, but I'm not sure if it's an actual improvement or not.

Currently, I'm working on a more colorful variation of "Portal Patrol", but I'm having FPS issues. I'll keep experimenting for a while, but I might end up needing to post the unfinished version here for advice on how to speed it up.