Cables (cables.gl), the powerful, completely free, browser-based, node-patching generative graphics tool, adds custom Ops and more in its February update. Even better, if you’re looking for how to work with this, they’ve got a profile of a user who built a concert-ready video mixer entirely in Cables, with tips on how to create your own.
All of this is free to use, with some added storage benefits and perks for folks supporting on Patreon.
VJ Pawel (Pawel/Kolektyw) walks us through the creation of a video mixer, as he uses it in live performances. It even works with external rendering, so you can keep the browser-based UI on your computer and still work with high-res external output. I imagine we have a hard-core Cables user out in our readers, so if that’s you, feel free to share what you’ve built, too!
Contents:
(0:01) Introduction to the Video Mixer Concept
(0:14) Pawel’s Background and Mixer Overview
(1:51) Discussion on External Render Feature
(2:50) UI Design and Functionality
(3:44) MIDI Controller Integration and Controls
(4:10) Audio Reactivity and Visual Demonstrations
(14:21) Exploring the Patch Structure
(16:00) Challenges and Solutions in Development
(26:03) Future Plans and Standalone Version Discussion
(36:34) Closing Thoughts and Invitation to Cables.gl Meetups
The February release looks great, too – with the ability to create your own Ops without coding. New in this release:
- Total overhaul of SubPatches, which now makes it really easy now to create/reuse/share your own Ops – a huge boon for your own productivity but also collaboration and community sharing.
- Larger upload sizes (above 100 MB) for Patreon supporters
- PopOut Canvas separates the render window from the patching window (independent from ExternalCanvas for external output), which also aids in testing on different screen sizes and orientations.
- Color refresh and reorganization, plus an updated op-page on the site
- Cable highlighting to show connections, and a neat feature where longer cables fade out in the center (never seen that in a node-based system before).
- New Ops: RgbMathExpression, Mix, AudioBufferChannelRouter, ComposingGridOverlay, MontageTextures
The blog post on the topic walks through each of these in more detail:
February 2024 Release [cables.gl]
A new page lists all the Ops, too, which is a great place to start if you want to check out what Cables can do.
Plus, here’s a big 3D tractor with experimental Gaussian Splatting:
SOLD.
Let us know if you’re using this tool. It ranks high on my list of stuff to play around with visually in some spare time, for sure. Berlin has no colors in winter; we can find them here.