I would really recommend things like
hydra, Hydra learning
or
ffmpeg
hydra is a great way to explore video synthesis concepts without having a system in front of you.
shape creation, feedback, digital noise, movement, kaleidoscopes/mirroring
There is a lot to learn!
For instance I wanted to see about how to do edge detection/hipass filtering within hydra which led me to experiment with offsetting a video X&Y then overlaying/subtracting back over itself and boom “edge detection” appears. It isn’t perfect but it is controllable in a fun and different way than traditional filtering. I presented the idea to the folks the work on the erogenous tones structure and soon it was a shader on their system.
Now I can apply that same idea to patching within the system.
ffmpeg is a workhorse of a program. I do all my scaling/padding/cropping/concating/gif’ing with ffmpeg. It also has many creative applications like displacement/morphing/bluring/slow down & speed up etc…
getting to know your post processing workflow is good when you have the time available.
this video is using ffmpeg to do some resolution post processing play on an older video synth output of ours. Again I brought up the specific workflow to the erogenous tones folks and they incorporated it as a shader into structure.
this is ffmpeg doing morphing. I love these videos and getting textures that are hard to find within the video system as it stands. This came about from just playing with ffmpeg.
have a look over the patch book we put together a while back. This can be a really powerful way to “interact” with modules that you don’t have and try to understand what they are for before buying them.
or better yet depending on what kind of video output you ultimately want to be making get any camera whose video you can or will be able to get into the system and start filming. I can’t say enough for how much filming feels like video synthesis to me now.
We made a video sample pack a while back
if you haven’t also check out our meta video synth information post
We collected tons of information about a video system into one place.
So many of the questions I saw popping up over and over again are answered in that post.
in our vidicon presentation we focused on using physical objects to manipulate within a system. having something you can touch going into a video system makes a huge difference for interaction.
Remember video synthesis is about patience
this is and has always been our most important module
video synthesis is about learning
synthesis is about working with what you have
enjoy each step