Live Animator is a Max4Live / Ableton device that lets you animate a series of still images, either manually or through the built-in envelope follower or LFO. The resulting animation can output to a popup window or to Syphon so it can be streamed to other apps / devices or recorded in Syphon Recorder.
The device was originally intended as a way to animate a cartoon character’s mouth based on the volume of incoming audio, to make it look as though they were speaking, but can easily be used for other image-based creations.
It’s very simple to use. First create a series of images which run through the whole animation cycle, one by one, and place these all in a folder. Make sure you name the files in numerical order when you save them to ensure they are loaded into the device in the correct order, eg.,
01 Test file.png
02 Test file.png
03 Test file.png
etc.
There are a few example image folders provided in the download.
Once prepared, drop the whole image folder into the device. The images are now stored and you can scrub through them using the ‘Animate’ slider.
You can move the Animate slider in various ways:
In ‘Host’ mode, the slider can be moved manually, mapped to a MIDI controller, or automated.
In ‘Env Follow’ mode, the slider responds to any incoming audio. Use the sensitivity dial to adjust how far the slider moves, use rise to adjust how quickly the slider reaches the maximum value when reacting to the incoming audio, and fall to adjust how quickly the slider returns to zero when there is no audio.
In ‘LFO’ mode, the Animate slider is locked to an internal LFO.
The resulting animation can be played in a popup window. It will also output automatically to Syphon, meaning you can stream the video into other apps, or other Ableton devices such as EboSuite.
Note that when you save your project, or if you drag the device into your User Library as a preset, the path of the folder is saved in the device. This means that as long as you don’t move the folder you dragged to in anywhere else, the device will remember its location and load the correct images when it starts up.
If you’re looking to do something similar but with video clips, check out my Video Scratcher device. It lacks the Envelope Follower, but lets you scrub through video clips with automation or the built-in LFO.
Windows Users!
Although the device will work on Windows, there is currently no option to stream via Spout. This is something I’ll come back to in an update but for now, if you’re using Windows, you’re limited to outputting to just the popup window.
Also, Max’s video engine needs to be set to VIDDLL and not Quicktime (the default) in order for images to display. If you are seeing a black screen where you’re expecting to see your images, please do the following:
1. Click the ‘edit’ button in the device’s header bar to open it in Max
2. While in Max, click ‘File’ then ‘Show Package Manager’. In the window that’s popped up, select ‘Installed Packages’ from the drop down menu. Scroll down the page and look for the VIDDLL package. If it’s already there, skip to step 4.
3. If the VIDDLL package is not listed, you’ll need to install it. Select ‘Remote Packages’ from the drop-down menu, then click inside the search bar and search for “viddll” (without the quotes). Click the ‘VIDDLL’ package from the results, then click ‘install’. Restart Ableton, load the device again and click the ‘edit’ button.
4. In Max, click Options > Preferences, then scroll down until you see the ‘Jitter’ section. Change ‘Video Engine’ to ‘viddll’.
5. Close the Max window, restart Ableton, load the device again, drop in your video folder and try selecting a video.
This should have fixed things.
Tips:
- Ensure all images are the same size / resolution to prevent stretching.
System requirements:
- MacOS 64bit / Windows 10/11
- Ableton Live 11, Ableton Live 12
- Max For Live (included with Live Suite or bought separately for Live Standard)