Live Video in Director on OSX, No Xtras Needed!
November 20th, 2006
I rarely need to deal with video feeds in Director but with my new iMac I have one of those little built-in iSight cameras. While out web browsing the other day I noticed a discussion about being able to put a live video of yourself within a web page that only you can see (the video feed is from your own camera).
This is done via a Quicktime movie that uses live input from your iSight camera on a Quartz Composer compositions track (a new track type for QuickTime). There is an article on O’Reilly that shows you exactly how to create one of these QuickTime movies. The movie that you create will automatically turn on your iSight camera and place that video stream within the movie.
I created one of those movies (I used the full 640×480 for export size – the current resolution of the camera), dragged it in to my Director cast, and put the member on the stage. I hit play and there I was waving to the camera within Director. Live video inside Director via a QuickTime movie with no Xtras (ok..you do need the QuickTime Xtra, but that come with Director)!
Quartz Composer also allows for various filter effects to be used on the QuickTime movie (see last link in O’Reilly article).
Very slick! I’m sure this could be really useful for kiosks and science museum displays, and just lounging around the house 🙂
Download the Quartz Composer file (zip).
Download the sample QuickTime movie (zip).
Update (Aug 23, 2010): I have not been able to use this under OSX 10.6, so not sure if it is still possible.
Entry Filed under: Apple,Daily thoughts,Real-world Examples
4 Comments Add your own
1. Laurent | November 21st, 2006 at 8:36 am
Can’t download samples !
Anyway, very usefull info !
2. MultimediaGuy | November 26th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Whoops. I’ve updated the links.
3. blog properties | April 25th, 2007 at 4:54 am
I can download those samples but i can’t view clearly and sometimes prompt do u want to countinue or not.
4. DigitPro | August 23rd, 2010 at 11:30 pm
This is a great tip that I picked up with a Google search:
“adobe director isight” – you were #1 !
This would come in VERY handy for an interactive/video art installation I am working on … however.
I have experimented with the files provided and get the same behavior with QT Player 7.6.6 on Leopard (10.5.8) and Snow Leopard (10.6.4).
When opening the .mov file – no video feed and iSight light does not come on.
When opening the .qtz file – video feed OK (therefore iSight light is on)
Everything is OK in Quartz Composer 3.1 but no luck when exporting to QT (same behavior).
Any insight into these circumstances? Perhaps something more is needed in order to work as .mov ?
Thanks.
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