Wouldn’t it be great if you could use these wild face filters live in an AV show / VJ set / music video? Well, you can, thanks to the magic of Siphon – and this VDMX tutorial from Projectile Objects makes it easy.
Projectile Objects is the home of Cornelius Henke III, Writer/VJ/Creative Technologist/VFX and Performance Producer. Cornelius is also a team member of Vidvox, the excellent provider of live visual software for Mac.
Technically, this trick can be done with any live visual application of your choice, on macOS (with Siphon) or Windows (with Spout). It’s easier on Mac than on Windows, and VDMX is a great example of that. (Snap could do more – see Cornelius’ note below – so hopefully this gets their attention. Does anyone at Snap read CDM?)
There are lots of little details – like using developer Isadora’s virtual Siphon webcam TroikaTronix and not the one supplied with OBS Studio. So read the full tutorial, and we’ll follow this as it evolves.
Snapchat Lens VJ Tutorial [ProjectileObjects blog]
Snapchat filters with VDMX [Vidvox Blog]
The major secret sauce:
https://troikatronix.com/add-ons/syphon-virtual-webcam/
But wow, the results are just awesome. You get stellar live processing, robust tracking, and…whiskers on everything. So Silicon Valleythe joke really did turn out just to be the reality.
Here’s how it works:
Here’s how to put the parts together:
Kate Bush, reimagined (and I gotta love the storytelling):
And here’s the part to send to Snap:
I’m writing this hoping SnapChat will make this easier in the future, a simple update to their SnapCamera.plugin or adding Siphon for Mac and Spout for Windows would make it easier for live performers to use their goals during performances, and (most likely) have a desire to create their own goals.
If people are interested, I’ll try to make a Windows version, but it would be easier if SnapChat supported Spout for Windows. (crossed fingers). Here’s where you can spam them and ask for help: SnapChat Forums
