StrongMocha:  Tell us about yourself and how you came upon the idea for nVeil.
As an architect working with visual art and teaching design, it occurred to me that television could be put to a new use: the creation of art in motion. That led to years of experimenting, playing with the light, color and motion found in any video; first optically/analog, then digitally.

StrongMocha: What exactly is nVeil, how does it work, and who is the ideal user?
nVeil is a digital video filter, running on the Mac for now, that superimposes a line drawing, a “veil” (similar to a stained glass window), onto  any imagery.  Each  closed “cell” within the veil processes its portion of the image by zooming in or out, producing a blur (the original image becomes unrecognizable)or an “insect-eye” view (the original image is repeated) in each cell.

The user is an artist, or anyone who enjoys transforming an existing image into something completely new, through a veil that is easily created.

StrongMocha: What inspired you to create this plug-in?
Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express and Motion are graphic hosts readily available to 3rd party applications such as nVeil, using the FxPlug architecture. It is our first step in making nViel available to everyone.

StrongMocha: What is the best way to create a new Veil using the Scalable Vector Graphics SVG format?
Draw a simple pattern (containing only closed cells) in any SVG editor, such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, LineForm or Inkscape. Save it as an .svg file and open it in the nVeil video filter in Final Cut or Motion applied to video or a still image of your choice.

StrongMocha: Are there creative application that allow the nVeil user to create easily and fast new Veils?
Either use the library of veils that comes with nVeil, or simply draw a new veil in a few minutes. You can also use “auto-trace” or “live-trace” features to trace the outlines of an existing image.

StrongMocha: Are there any references or examples where nVeil has been used in production?
nVeil is brand new, and we expect to see great works. The artists/editors at CurrentTV are the first professionals to use nVeil. We are hoping others, too, will send us examples of their work to show on the nVeil site.

StrongMocha: What are potential uses of this plug-in that have not been realized?
We have experimented with digital signage, stage projection, building-wall projection and live television applications. We are sure there are creative minds that will come up with other new uses in the world.

StrongMocha: Tell us more about the planned additional veils (presets)?
We are creating veils for different purposes. The most recent issue is with a series of veils that leave the central portion of the image unveiled.

StrongMocha: How does the Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express plugin differ?
nVeil works equally in each.

StrongMocha:  What are the future plans for nVeil?  Do you anticipate supporting other editing or VFX design apps?
We will be programming an Adobe After-Effects version, and a stand-alone application of nVeil, for starters.

StrongMocha: How does this plug-in relate to the work of Storek Studio?
It is the latest focus of a Bay Area design firm that has produced sandcastles to highrises, but always working in the visual arts.

StrongMocha: Tell us a little more about Storek Studio?
We are a confederation of a few talents, from programming and writing to editing, fine art and architecture, working in the woods at the foot of Mt. Tamalpais in Mill Valley, Marin County, just north of San Francisco. Guided tours with wine on request.

About Rich Storek:

A native San Franciscan with a love of boat design, Rich studied architecture at the University of Oregon, then practiced architecture and product design, and taught design at San Francisco State.

With the U.S. Foreign Service Rich directed Peace Corps programs in architecture and town planning in Africa and Iran. After five years living in North Africa Rich Storek returned to his design practice in San Francisco, specializing in historic buildings.

Along the way Rich initiated an Architect-in-Schools teaching program for  Bay Area kids, assembled a championship sandcastle-building team, and pursued a lifelong engagement with visual arts through Storek Studio. That adventure involved experiments with manipulating and projecting  light, and putting my television to a new use.

nVeil is the result; a new artform, software that captures the rich graphic information of most video content, transforming it into a new visual realm that is configured by the user: the artist.

Imagineer did introduce mocha shape for Final Cut. To support the launch of mocha shape for Final Cut Imagineer has released updated versions of  mocha,  mocha for After Effects and motor. 

“For years, Final Cut editors have asked for better masking tools to perform tasks such as isolated color correction and the blurring of objects,” said Ross Shain, chief marketing officer for Imagineer Systems. “The new mocha shape FxPlug, combined with mocha shape for Final Cut offers an affordable and easy to learn solution.  Now editors, can quickly track masking shapes to objects, import the XML data and finish their shot within Final Cut rather than another finishing software.”

mocha shape for Final Cut is designed to import rotoscoping shape data exported from mocha into Final Cut, mocha shape for Final Cut enables Final Cut Pro users to easily import multi-layer shape data with variable, per point edge feathering.  This new development significantly saves render time and improves the workflow between Imagineer’s mocha family of desktop VFX products and Final Cut Pro.

Imagineer’s mocha shape FxPlug for Final Cut is supported currently by mocha v1.5, motor v1.5, mocha for Final Cut v2.

mocha shape for Final Cut features:

• import XML roto shape data from Imagineer’s products to Final Cut Pro
• variable per point edge width feathering
• mocha layer names translate to Final Cut
• high quality rendering
• works with Final Cut Pro and Express

[See post to watch Flash video]

If you want to learn more about mocha shape for Final Cut you jump over to the tutorial that is available on imagineers systems web site where Ben Heusner from Curious Turtle covers mocha for Final Cut and the mocha shape FxPlug to track shapes and import them into Final Cut.

Imagineer published also maintenance releases for some of their products which fixes several bugs and adds support for several new tracking and shape export formats.

[See post to watch Flash video]

New  mocha 1.5 features:

• After Effects Corner Pin has been changed to provide motion blur on the translation, rotation and scale components when rendered in After Effects.
• Shape data export to mocha shape for After Effects (sold separately) is included.
• Tracking data export to Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express is included.
• Shape data export to mocha shape for Final Cut (sold separately) is included.

New mocha for Final Cut v2 features:

• free point release for existing owners
• adds mocha shape for Final Cut export
• now supports all ProRes QuickTime formats

New motor v1.5 features:

• free point release for existing owners
• adds mocha shape for Final Cut export
• adds mocha shape for After Effects export
• now supports all ProRes QuickTime formats

New mocha for After Effects v2.0.3 features:

• free point release for existing owners of v2
• now supports all ProRes QuickTime formats

Imagineer recommends that Mac OS X user should save a copy of the license file before installing. When updated mocha I did run into little issues under Windows Vista 64 as well so I recommend to save a copy of the  license file before installing  on Windows and Mac OS X.

Pricing and Availability
mocha shape for Final Cut, mocha for Final Cut v2, mocha v1.5 and motor v1.5 are all available immediately and are priced as follows:

• mocha shape for Final Cut:  $99.00 US
• mocha for Final Cut v2:  $199.00 US
• mocha v1.5 (full version):  $995.00 US
• motor v1.5:  $495.00 US

For more information on these solutions or to place an order, please visit www.imagineersystems.com.

More about nVeil in our nVeil – Interview with Rich Storek

[See post to watch Flash video]

To learn more about nVeil you should take a look at the available nVeil tutorials, which we recommend as they give a good overview on what the plug can do for you.

nVeil contains 60 veils (presets) and there should be more free  filter presets also called “veils” each month.

nVeil takes you source footage and based on the Veil selected transforms it as shown in the examples below.

Currently (as of June 2009) nVeil offers a introductory price of $99, a trial version is available allowing you to take your hands on this fine Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express plugin.

nVeil does not run on Windows today and we hope that Storek Studio considers to develop a Windows version for After Effects at a later stage.

(Update): See also our nVeil – Interview with Rich Storek