Wouldn’t it be great if you could use those wild face filters live in an AV show / VJ set / music video? Well, you can, thanks to the magic of Syphon – and this VDMX tutorial by 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 at Vidvox, the excellent purveyor of live visual software for the Mac.
Technically, this trick can be accomplished with any live visual app you want, on macOS (with Syphon) or Windows (with Spout). It’s easier on the Mac than Windows, though, and VDMX makes an excellent example. (Snap could do more – see note from Cornelius below – so hopefully this gets their attention. Anyone at Snap reading CDM?)
There are a lot of little details – like using the Syphon Virtual Webcam from Isadora developer TroikaTronix and not the one that comes with OBS Studio. So read the full tutorial, and we’ll track 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 great. You get exceptional quality live processing, robust tracking, and… mustaches on everything. So Silicon Valley‘s joke really did turn out just to be reality.
Here’s how it works:
Here’s how to put the pieces together:
Kate Bush, reimagined (and gotta love the narration):
And here’s the part to address to Snap:
I’m writing this hoping SnapChat will make this easier in the future, a simple update to their SnapCamera.plugin or the addition of Syphon for Mac and Spout for Windows would allow more versatility for live performers to use their lenses during performances, and (most likely) have the desire to create new lenses of their own.
If people are interested, I’ll try to make a windows version, but it would be easier if SnapChat supported Spout for windows. (fingers crossed). Here’s where you can spam them and request support: SnapChat Forums