slit-scanning

jelly deli from julaps on Vimeo.

over the last couple weeks I’ve been experimenting with slit-scanning, a technique which works on exposing different times of a video in the one frame, making it possible to glimpse into the past and future of the video. the above is an audio reactive piece ive built in processing where the video becomes temporally distorted by the audio. i didn’t want to get carried away ( as i often do ) so i limited the effects only to slit-scanning.

decomposing time from julaps on Vimeo.

in this sketch time moves across in a sine wave, exposing the past and present of the video in a smooth, undulating motion. the original video is of a mushroom decomposing, slowly decaying over time. by applying the temporal distortion the mushroom looks more like it is being blown away by an explosion of sorts. i can see many ways this technique could be used to create special effects in video, first by recording a time-lapse of something growing, expanding, decaying, disappearing etc, and then applying some form of time distortion to create the final effect.

here is the source for this sketch, its all pretty straight forward but churns out some nice results.
please note, you have set maximum available memory to 1024 in processing -> preferences.

temporal vortex from julaps on Vimeo.

the technique can be extended to change the video image on a per pixel basis. the temporal vortex sketch creates a hole in the video which allows to see into the future as it pours out into the present. there really is no limit on the types of distortion and final output you can create.

flong writes a great paper on the history of the technique.