This walkthrough creates a short 1920×1080 loop using a built-in effect. It uses the same project, preview, timeline, and export workflow as a larger production. 1. Set the project Open Settings and choose 1920×1080, 30 fps, and an 8-second duration. MP4 with H.264 is a practical first export format. 2. Choose a visual Open Browse Visuals in the Parameters panel. Select Neon City, or choose any scene from the eight effect groups. ...
Making a VJ loop means producing a short video clip that repeats seamlessly — its last frame must flow into its first with no visible jump. This guide walks through the complete beginner workflow: planning the length, choosing a visual, making the loop seamless, and exporting. If you want a hands-on first project instead, start with the first visual tutorial. 1. Pick a Loop Length That Matches the Music A loop should be long enough to feel musical and short enough to stay in memory. The rule of thumb is 4 to 30 seconds, matched to a whole number of bars at the set’s tempo: ...
Color in VJ Loop Studio 3D is split into two useful layers: palette mapping controls where colors appear, while surface and lighting controls determine how 3D forms respond to the studio rig. Choose a palette Select a built-in or custom palette from the Color & Surface tab. The preview strip shows the complete color range before it is mapped onto the effect. A narrow palette creates a controlled, branded result; a wider palette produces more separation across complex geometry. ...
Spout is how live visuals move between applications on a Windows machine. One app sends frames, another receives them — with no file, no network, and no compression in between. It is the standard handshake in the VJ world for a simple reason: the frames stay on the GPU, so the transfer is essentially free. This guide covers the two setups you will actually use — OBS Studio for streaming and recording, and Resolume for mapping and mixing — plus the others that speak Spout, and why VJ Loop Studio 3D is built to be the best sender in that chain. ...
Two systems drive motion in VJ Loop Studio 3D: Audio Link, which follows real sound, and modulators, which generate their own. They target the same thing — any numeric parameter on a clip — and they are often best used together. This guide covers both, and the one behaviour that surprises people: why a render does not match the live preview exactly. Audio reactivity at a glance Audio sources Bass, Midrange, Treble, Loudness (RMS), Detected Beat, Low Blend, High Blend, Body, Spectral Brightness Modulator shapes Sine, Triangle, Saw, Envelope, Random Step, Sample & Hold, Macro Route modes Add or multiply, unipolar or bipolar Tempo Tap tempo, project BPM, tempo-synced modulators Targets Any numeric effect parameter, per clip Audio Link: following real sound Every numeric parameter in the inspector has a small ~ button beside it. Click it to open the Audio Link editor for that parameter. ...
Export is where a good-looking preview becomes a file somebody else has to play. The settings that matter depend entirely on where it is going, so this guide is organised by destination rather than by dialog. Export at a glance Containers MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, animated GIF Codecs H.264 (libx264), H.265/HEVC (libx265), VP9, MPEG-4 Resolutions HD, Full HD, 2K, 4K, 8K, or any custom size Platform presets YouTube 1080p and 4K, Instagram Square, TikTok / Reels, VJ Loop (ProRes-grade), LED Wall 4K, Draft Preview Audio The project song is muxed into the finished file unless you turn it off Looping Seamless by construction — effect motion is derived from loop phase Start from a preset The export dialog ships presets that set resolution, framerate, container, and codec in one click: ...
These are the effects where the app is doing real 3D rather than drawing a clever pattern. Each describes a shape as a distance function and walks a ray into it, so the lighting, perspective, and occlusion are genuine. They cost more per pixel than the tunnels and stage effects, and they look it. Raymarched effects at a glance Catalogue 124 effects total, across eight groups Covered here Fractal Cosmos, Box Fold Dimension, Blob Fusion, Crystal Dimension, Quantum Grid, Organic Fluids, Tron Organic, Retro Sphere Rendering Signed-distance raymarching on the wgpu pipeline, with PBR lighting Cost Higher than the screen-space effects — use Performance Mode or a preview-quality drop while editing Looping Seamless; motion derives from loop phase, not wall-clock time Fractals Fractal Cosmos A kaleidoscopic fold — box fold plus ball fold — applied in the wall space of a tunnel, so the corridor you fly down is itself a fractal. Depth scrolls the fold rather than scrolling a texture, which is why detail keeps appearing at every scale as you approach instead of just getting bigger. ...
The 3D Tunnels group is now 18 effects, and it is the fastest route to a usable club loop in this app. They share a family resemblance — a corridor rushing at the camera, neon against black — but they are built differently, and the differences decide which one suits a given track or venue. The tunnel family at a glance Tunnels in the catalogue 18, inside a total of 124 effects Rendering wgpu compute/render pipeline, anti-aliased at every depth Looping Every tunnel closes on itself — no visible seam at the loop point Colour Any of the 187 palettes, plus projection and animation modes Typical output Seamless MP4 loops at up to 8K, or live via Spout/NDI What makes a tunnel look expensive Three things separate a convincing neon corridor from an obviously cheap one, and all three are handled in the shader rather than left to you: ...
VJ Loop Studio 3D is a generator, not a mixer — so it is built to feed the mixer you already use. There are three ways out of it: Spout for another app on the same PC, NDI for another machine, and rendered files for anything else. This guide covers when to use each, and the specific settings for the apps VJs actually run. Integration at a glance Live to other apps Spout (same PC, GPU-to-GPU) and NDI (same PC or across the network) Live to a screen Fullscreen mirror on any connected display or projector File handover MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, GIF — H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP9 Confirmed destinations Resolume Arena/Avenue, OBS Studio, TouchDesigner, MadMapper, Notch, vMix, Millumin Latency Spout is frame-local; NDI adds a small network buffer Platform Windows 10/11 (64-bit) Pick a route in one decision Your situation Use Why Resolume/OBS on the same Windows PC Spout GPU-to-GPU, no compression, no added latency Mixer or encoder on another machine NDI Travels over normal gigabit Ethernet Driving a projector or LED processor directly Fullscreen output No third app in the chain at all Handing visuals to an editor, client, or a media server Export a file Deterministic, seekable, no live dependency You can run more than one at once — a fullscreen output on the projector while NDI feeds the stream encoder is a normal setup. ...
This is the checklist to work through before a set, in the order that matters. It assumes you already have a project with a few scenes in it. 1. Open the Live Console first Ctrl+Shift+L. Everything below lives in this one window, and it is non-modal — put it on your laptop screen with the main window on the other display and leave it open. The Status block at the top tells you what is actually going out and how fast frames are being drawn. If something is not reaching the projector, this is where you will see it. ...