Sessions

Notch founder Matt Swoboda opens NotchCon 2019 with a keynote address.

Panelists: Matt Swoboda, Joshua Eason, Scott Millar & Brett Bolton.

With more tools, projects and experiences incorporating real-time rendering and interactive elements, the nature of how people work is also evolving. In this panel, we will discuss how real-time is becoming a tool that affects all parts of the design process, from initial idea to finished product.. and beyond.

Update: this session has unfortunately been canceled.

A session about the creation of a 360 music video for the band Lost Under Heaven.After many years designing video for the live environment we were keen to explore the possibilities of environmental video design without the constraints of a live venue.We will discuss how Notch was an integral part of the process from the initial tests to the final product.

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Creating one scene for a full show. The assignment for this event was to create an as close to reality street in Amsterdam and keep it interesting for the full show. During the different performances we traveled through the seasons, holidays and special events and changed the scene accordingly. Lighting was placed inside and around the street, and controlled real-time to match the show-lights and the look of the performance.

Using Notch in live Broadcast environment is a gift. But it has its challenges. In this session hear all about how Notch was vital in the graphics created for the revival of the TV show Soapstar Superstar.

Lexy, Lewis and Sam from Comix will discuss how Notch has been a major addition to their live setup, drawing from years of experience with VJing all around the world, and how mixing motion graphics with live video brings energy to stage performances.

Previously we have been slaves to time code. If we wanted anything to land on the beat or significant musical moments Time Code was the only way. Musical directors changing BPM or adding bars causes havoc and often a lack of understanding of how other departments use time code leads to chaos; all of this makes producing content for live theatre or anything else a challenge.

In this talk Armin will be deconstructing some stunning particle based scenes; showing what makes them tick and providing the hints and tips needed to take your particle systems to the next level. He will be joined by Ryan Barth from the Notch development team.

Co-hosted by Joshua Eason. From building a face tracking genie in a bottle, to visualizing brainwaves, to an interactive psychedelic acid trip, we explore and breakdown the ‘what else’ uses of Notch, all while having some fun and testing new technologies along the way.

Armin takes you on a journey through video and 3D elements, and shows you how you can build next-generation IMAG effects by integrating the two in new and creative ways. He will be joined by Brett Bolton who will be sharing his experience with IMAG on the road.

Co-hosted with Nick Rivero. In a brand-centric world with demanding visual identities and client needs, we breakdown projects ranging from AT&T to Amazon to take a look at how Notch fits into existing motion design workflows and moves us forward.

“The best way to predict the future is to build it”. As real time content moves from the fringes of live performance to the mainstream, it’s worth taking a little time to look at where we are, how we got here, what the next level looks like, and what we have to build to get there.

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Notch definitely isn't an island. It has a huge array of mechanisms for getting data in from Web APIs to ArtNet. In this session, we'll be exploring these in-depth, showing their uses in an increasingly connected, but creative, environment.

The demand for larger real-time canvases is insatiable. With higher pixel densities, falling prices in LED and huge architectural fixed installs being specced, these are real challenges needing real solutions. In this session, we'll be looking at various techniques that can be employed with Notch today and looking at some of the future product developments that are in the works.

“There's more than one way to skin a cat.” and many ways to set up your 3D pipeline. In this session, we'll show some of the mainstream and lesser known format interchanges for Notch and other packages; particle caches, pre-baked mesh animations, file formats, it's all in there.

Matt will lead you through the workings of physics and dynamics simulations in Notch. This talk will explain how to make best use of it - with focus on features, performance, limitations and stability.

In this session Matt will take you through a number of fluid simulation methods in Notch using particles, fields and level sets. Learn how to create smoke & liquid effects, which method to use for which effect, how to control the simulations and tune them for the best possible real-time performance.

In this session Matt & Edd - the creators of the procedural system in Notch - will explain the true inner workings of the procedural system, enabling you to unlock its full potential in your projects.

Get your materials right and your scene just sings. In this session, Will will be taking a deep dive into the world of materials. As well as showing you how to master the settings and nodes in Notch, he’ll be presenting best practices for working with third-party packages.

In this session, Will will be taking you through the full workflow. From mesh preparation and UVs, through to content mapping, UV cameras, lighting techniques. Everything you need to see your projected building, set, proscenium or whatever it is you are pointing your beamer at, come to life with rich content.

Sometimes, quality vs speed is not a direct trade off on a slider. Sometimes it's actually about really good know-how. In this session, you will learn the skills and techniques to really push the envelope of what is possible in real-time, while keeping a flexible creative workflow. Topics such as: when and how to bake. How to optimise lighting to get the best bang for your cycles and much more. Don’t miss this session.

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It's been some time since a new GPU powered codec came along. And not without good reason... they're complicated and getting them balanced is hard. In this session, Luke will be doing a deep dive on the why & how of NotchLC; a codec that is receiving a lot of attention right now.

Sales might be a dirty word in the creative industry, but so often when you rock up with a new tool you're having to convince your client, colleagues or CFO that using it is a really (really) good idea. Luke Malcolm has spent the last years bringing Notch into the lives of creative directors, designers, systems integrators, video techs. He'll be sharing his experiences of helping people understand the value of Notch and how you can cut through the ever-present noisy hype of 'real-time'.

Panelists: Luke Malcolm, J.T. Rooney, Nick Rivero & Michael Al-Far.
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There is no doubt that bringing real-time tools to content creation workflows is 'disruptive'. But when harnessed, it brings such huge benefits that it can't be ignored. In this panel, you'll be hearing from people who have been at the front line of this for the last years; sharing their wisdom on the challenges, successes and best practices for navigating these new dynamics with your clients.

It’s pretty satisfying to make visuals that sync and react perfectly to live or pre-recorded music. But what if things could go the other way and the visuals created the music instead of being an afterthought? In this session, Brett will go through a couple different methods he uses to generate music in Ableton Live from visual systems in Notch. This will be a modifier heavy talk with demonstrations of his MIDI controller use, OSC pipeline, and a short demo performance.

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Adventuring through some of the largest pop-tours over the past year, J.T. Rooney discusses some of the new challenges, potential pitfalls, and exciting new opportunities in using Notch for content and live visuals. Going through some of the creative tricks and exciting parts of Notch in a live show, but also discussing the business implications and potential shifts in a financial aspect, the session should bring up healthy debate and discussion about how this new industry can evolve.

Augmented reality in broadcast and film has been gaining momentum as GPU technologies advance and tools, like Notch, allow 3d artists to directly create for these canvases. Bild have been pushing the boundaries of Notch in AR since their first broadcast demos in 2016. They will be sharing their knowledge of the technologies, creative workflows and integration points for this emerging space.

Last minute changes, last minute requests, last minute content orders. Notch is clearly the weapon of choice if you are a content designer and work in the live entertainment field. In this session you will hear content design horror stories and how Notch solved all those problems with ease. You will also see how we developed the ALLE FARBEN Festival show in a single day.

Taking Gorilla Style Projections up a Notch: A demo of recent interactive activation for UK electronic artist Aphex Twin, who is known for his evasive temperament and experimental production style. To promote the release of his new EP "Collapse", Brotherhood Media approached Bluman Associates with a brief to create an outdoor activation projecting the EP’s artwork on buildings across London — guerrilla style.