VideoActionWall

Note: This is an old project and the downloads on this page probably won't work with current operating systems.

The VideoActionWall is a program that allows you to easily create interactive arrangements of running video clips. The program and technique for analysis has been developed over several years at the Mads Clausen Institute for Product Innovation at the University of Southern Denark (www.sdu.dk/spire).

Setting Up

To set up a project to use with the VideoActionWall, create the following folder structure wherever is most convenient for you.

  • /project
    • /clips
    • /arrangements
    • /backgrounds

The 'project' folder can be any name you choose, but the others should be named as you see them. You can use the 'example_project' folder in this directory to help you in setting up these folders.

Next, copy any clips you want to include in the VideoActionWall into the 'clips' folder. The clips should be small and short and quicktime format with a *.mov file extension.

Put any pictures you would like to use for backgrounds into the 'backgrounds' folder. The pictures should be *.jpg format, and a good size for them is 1024x736 (other sizes will be stretched to this). There are some prepared backgrounds in the 'backgrounds' folder of the example project.

Basic usage

Click the 'VideoActionWall.exe' (VideoActionWall.osx on Macintosh) file in this directory to start the program. When the program first opens it will show a dialog to choose a folder. You should navigate to your project folder and click this (not the 'clips' folder inside). Once the project loads, click 'n' to create a new arrangement to start with (if there isn't one already).

You should see your clips playing in the middle of the screen. You can click on them and drag them around the screen.

The user interface is minimal at the moment. You can use the following commands to do things...

  • 'l' - create a new label.
  • 'c' - copy the current arrangement.
  • 'n' - create a new arrangement.
  • 's' - save the current arrangement.
  • 'CMD+Q' - quit the program.
  • 'f' or 'esc' - enter/leave fullscreen.
  • 'LEFT arrow' - previous arrangement.
  • 'RIGHT arrow' - previous arrangement.
  • 'UP arrow' - previous background.
  • 'DOWN arrow' - next background.

Reporting bugs

If you find bugs in the software or have ideas for how it could be improved, please email to jared@jareddonovan.com