Basic Tutorial on Images and Directories in Quartz Composer

Tutorial covering 'Image Importer' and 'Directory Scanner' in Quartz Composer.

NOTE:
Having been made on-the-fly, this tutorial isn't up to my preferred production quality, but given the dearth of like tutorials, I elected to post it anyway. Hope it helps or at least interests you in QC!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• basic
• tutorial
• images
• directories
• quartz
• composer

[Spainintherain]

Great explanations, loved how you explained what things did, not just telling us how to do things.

Is there any thing different that you need to do for .gif files to display correctly on a billboard? I've tried a few things, and it doesn't seem to be working very well.

[AllocInit]

@Spainintherain I'm going to assume you mean animated GIFs; prior to looking into this, I would've said no, but as it turns out: Yes, you can animate animated GIFs!

Here's how I do it: Drag a GIF into Quartz Composer, right-click it and bring up the Patch Inspector -> Settings -> Extract All Images. The image will then be divided into a Structure which you can then iterate through with Structure Index Member! (Interpolation'd be a good start.)

Hope that helps!

[DeejayMnM]

It isn't working when I try to use a folder containing folders of images. I want to use the images from my 'backgrounds' folder which is split into folders within it (nature, abstract, dorky, etc). I'm guessing that because I'm linking the directory scanner to a folder of folders is why it isn't working, what do I do?

[AllocInit]

@DeejayMnM The answer to that could cover episode all its own involving (but not limited to!) the Iterator patch, publishing sockets, and an illustration of a particular bug in the Image Importer patch. (Short version: don't use one in a Iterator loop!)

On than note: Play around with the Iterator patch and check out Published inputs/outputs, though you'll mostly be using outputs. Sorry to be so vague about this, but the answer is more complex than 500 characters.

[samsimillia18]

I didn't quite get what the the Structure Index Member does.

Why do we need two of them?

[AllocInit]

@samsimillia18 Because, in this case, the data we get from the first is still a structure.

Here's an example of a (not very useful) structure: ( ( (1)(a)(b)(c) ), ( (2)(d)(e)(f) ), ( (3)(d)(e)(g) ) )

Okay, so the first Structure Index Member gets us data like this ((1)(a)(b)(c)) , but it's still a Structure, and we want a different value, so we use another one to select the 1, a, b, or c.

... that help any?

[AllocInit]

@TechReviews161 I actually find it's a little bit of the other way around, but by and large you can get around with the keyboard in OSX; it's just aggravating when you stumble upon the few instances where you can't.

I really don't like it when that happens, but the upshot is that the OS is structured to keep the mouse responsive in almost all situations. (And they're always included, so the issue's a bit moot.)

Of course, that aside, there's scripting, but let's not get into that. ; )

[AllocInit]

@basalduat Fair enough!

I'd like to reiterate that I did these on the fly, thinking that something was better than nothing, but since then I've been held back a bit by thinking about all that would be necessary in producing a series of tutorials --- it's not quite so easy as recording, doing, reviewing, and saying 'good enough'; that why I haven't had any other tutorials to date.

But definitely thanks for those points! I'd certainly implement them going forward... should I ever do that. : \

[AllocInit]

@gunter14 That would be 'Show Parameters' under the Window menu; more simply, you can toggle it by Command+T !

[AllocInit]

@operaeric One year. Again. So sorry.

I'm trying to picture what the problem is, and I'd guess it involves the Clear Patch, or lack thereof. The tiles aren't bad per-se, they just indicate transparency. Nab a Clear Patch from the Library, and let the number in its upper-right corner to 1; this number represents the order that things are drawn in: 1 stacks on 2, stacks on 3, etc...

Hope that helps!

[AllocInit]

@Recoil42 This is a little tricky.

The data has to go all the way 'through the pipe', as it were. If the data isn't connected to a rendering (blue) patch, it won't get executed, and you won't see its data, because there's nothing there.

I wish I could help you more with this, but it's a case-by-case basis sort of thing that you have to learn to fight with. Check your data flow to be sure everything's getting to its end-point, because if you're not getting data, it's not getting there.

[AllocInit]

@DreamSparksLLC That's the sort of thing I'd like to say 'yes' to, but I haven't touched these tutorials in years, so...

[AllocInit]

@strictpolicy I didn't! Apple did! (And, technically, it's a newer version.)