VJ Heaven

Quartz Composer is arguably a groundbreaking graphics development environment that allows you to explore the incredible power of the graphics stack within Mac OS X. I have a terrible head for programming languages like C++ so I’ve been wondering if a node-based environment may be easier for me to grasp. Quartz Composer is, and I quote, “a node based visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in Mac OS X v10.4 ‘Tiger’ for processing and rendering graphical data.” Without getting too technical, I would describe it as MaxMSP/Jitter with a splash of Isadora thrown in. Okay, so why is it like these programs? Because you can drag wires between various boxes and eventually you create something that runs.

Its easy to make something distractingly beautiful. Within minutes, I was able to take live webcam input, apply it to a particle processor, throw in a textured rotating object, and I had something unique and original. With Quartz Composer, you can easily combine the capabilities of Cocoa, Quartz 2D, Core Image, OpenGL, and QuickTime, all using an approachable visual programming paradigm. Use Quartz Composer to prototype Core Image filters, build engaging screen savers, create custom user-interface widgets, make data-driven visual effects, and even perform live performance animations. The only downside is that your work can soon look like a mess of jumbled cords…