Ok - I finally got a chance to digitize the video of the abstracts that I took earlier. I've uploaded the video to google video. Here is the
direct link to the video. (You can also find it by searching for "Pangolin Abstract Generator".)
Now, I should warn you that the video quality isn't the greatest. The problem is that under the low light conditions, my camera just can't capture the intense colors of the laser. (Low light is *really* a problem when shooting laser show graphics, at least for my old Hi-8 camera.) I was projecting onto the angled part of a vaulted ceiling, so the popcorn stuff (blown ceiling) also added a little fuzzyness to the lines. Then too, the video compression doesn't help things. (But without it you'd have to download a 60 meg file!)
Finally, remember that a video camera doesn't have persistence of vision, so some of the effects look funny. But rest assured that in real life they look a whole lot better!
I had the music playing in the background ("Again", by Peter Heyt), and just selected various abstracts from a large list of them by clicking on the files in the frame window. It's very crude, but I wasn't trying to do a syncronized show. I just wanted to get some video of some abstracts, so I slapped it together as quick as I could. I could have loaded them into the Showtime Live! player I guess, but this was a quick and dirty way to get the video done.
The first pattern is one that I made. The rest are stock abstracts that come with Pangolin. The one that starts at about 1 minute and 15 seconds in is one of my favorites. The one that immediately follows is also very cool in real life, but on video you can't see the colors or the after-images so it doesn't look nearly as good. The one at 2 minutes and 15 seconds is also very cool, as is the one at 4 minutes.
Like I said, all the images look much better in real life. If I can get my hands on a better video camera I might try this again. But trust me, if you think any of the patterns in the video look cool, you have *GOT* to see them in real life.
Adam