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GH2 Hack for intentional glitch art and general video-art destruction?
  • lordgordlordgord

    I'm curious what video art potential is possible in camera by utilizing the GH2 hack? I've got a lot of life out of my GH2, but my interest in milking the best image out of it are long gone. I never delved into customizing my own hacks, so what parameters could be leveraged to break the image in interesting and beautiful ways? Finding guides is almost impossible do to all the generic ptools tutorials out there.

  • 10 Replies sorted by
  • endotoxicendotoxic

    Look no further

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FnG5M5xJ-hg

    Datamosh is the one!

  • lordgordlordgord

    Hey I think I watched that years ago!

    I've got some real-time datamoshing set up in TouchDesigner that I prefer to that method. My question is about using the GH2's ability to load hacked firmware to distort the image in-camera.

    I'm sure the color info is easy to manipulate, but I've seen peeps complaining about unintentional glitches in the development of the hacks and I have to assume it's possible to introduce some interesting effects by encouraging weird compression artifacts and such.

  • endotoxicendotoxic

    You’ll have to modify the quantization, color matrixes and another coding characteristics like blocks 4x4 8x8. that will with no doubt generate faulty video and glitches. I wish I could help more. I know that user @apefos would help you. He likes to experiment a lot.

    The only problem I think could happen is that sometimes camera crashes if detects bad coding and strange coding behavior. All has to do with write speeds and codec.

  • lordgordlordgord

    Thanks for the insight, endo.

    I don't have enough base knowledge to do anything with intent, but maybe I'll just guessing my way through it. Any written guides out there on how to hack it correctly?

    I bet this would spark some interest in the glitch community if it's even possible. I'll report back if I can get any results with my reckless experimenting.

  • apefosapefos

    The hack cannot distort the image. The hack can only change the image texture. I did some experiments with hack to create different textures, you can see at: http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/12748/grind-grid-crazy-matrices-for-gh2

    I think the only way to destroy the image using hack would be increasing compression to introduce mud and artifacts, this can be done increasing the quantization values or decreasing datarate. You can use any hack and change these parameters in the ini file or in ptools.

  • MeierhansMeierhans

    I would suggest to introduce the glitches in software later on. As this all happens in the digital domain anyhow, this is as genuine as in the camera. If you are interested I can see if i still have some links to do this on my PC.

  • lordgordlordgord

    Thanks for all the insight @apefos! So in the ini file, there are the general quantization numbers, you're using 14 for 720 & 1080 in the Grind Grid post you linked, but then there is the quantize table after that. Do you know how those effect each other, and should I focus my hack on one or the other? Both? Does the table need to increment according to a formula or something?

    I'm going to give this a try this evening for kicks.

  • apefosapefos

    You do not need to change the tables. In the 3 quantizer values: "Initial quantizer=28", "Quantizer for 1080 modes=14", "Quantizer for 720 modes=14", you can try to change all 3 values for the same number =30, or =40, or =50, or =60, or =70 and so on... until you find a number that gives the results you like most... (you can try any number from 0 up to the value you like most) Smaller numbers mean less compression, bigger numbers mean more compression. Remember that the camera can freeze or stop recording, if it happens turn camera off, remove the battery, reinsert the battery and turn camera on again and load a new hack until you find a number with good results and make the camera work stable. In my tests I never destroyed the camera, but I do not know if it can happens, so do it under your own risk...

  • endotoxicendotoxic

    Uuuuuffff !! Camera crashes lol, i forgot how tedious is that process but usually comes with results so good luck @lordgord

  • apefosapefos

    If I could go back in time I would never experiment with hacks... After lots of time spent on hack then another better camera arrives and all the hack work turn obsolete... time lost...

    Another way to destroy the image is to lower the datarate, from the default 24000 try 20000, 16000, 12000, 8000, 4000, 2000, 1000 and see what happens...

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