A) Understanding the basics:
First to get to grips with Pixelshox you need to get accustomed with node based software. Node based software is very close from programming. But you do not need to know code routines. These routines a represented by plugins witch you connect to each other via virtual cables. Also known as graphical programming these peculiar interfaces resemble electronic components that you would solder one to the other at the clic of the mouse. You might have seen such interfaces using software such as Reason or Reaktor. So before you get anything out of pixelshox you will have to get soldering and make your first patch .

Pixelshox is made out of four main sections :

1 - The pixelshox renderer shows the result of your patch in windowed mode
2 - The effect editor lets you edit you patch
NB: You either select the renderer or editor but you cannot render and edit at the same time your patch !!!
3 - The effects browser lets you add, delete and move effects.
4 - The plug-ins browser lets you add plugins.

A pixelshox file (or patch) is composed of one or more effects. Each effect is built using various plugins to perform a task (egg: play a movie). Then the different effects are ordered as layers in the effect browser . The first effect in the list is the bottom layer, the last effect is the top layer.

Pixelshox is openGL based. All the hard work will be done by your graphic card using all the powerful openGL routines used by the video game industry. OpenGL is optimized for realtime 3D, so everything you will render from pixelshox will be 3D. If for instance you wish to play a movie, you will have to create a 3D plane (a square or rectangle) which will have a texture, texture being a quicktime movie.

The plugins :

- Video renderer: They will render an object in openGL on the screen.
- Video filters and modifiers : They will effect what ever is on the screen.
- Color generators and modifiers : Generates a color.
- Texture generators : They will create a texture to map on a 3D object (movie, image, etc...)
- Object generator : The will create a 3D object (cube, sphere, .obj file etc...)
- Object modifier : Modifies a 3D object (distort, explode etc...)
- Controller : Used to control all the variables in pixelshox (LFO, MIDI, audio input etc...)

B) Creating a 3D plane :

Create a new pixelshox file (file -> new). Clic on the effect editor . Look on the right at the effects browser you should have one effect called Empty effect . Double clic on it and rename it video .

Clic on the plug-ins Browser tab. You can now browse the various plugins. Double clic on video renderer Sprite . In the effect editor you should have a box with sprite written on it. This is your first plugin. You can drag it in the editor by clicking on the top bar of the plugin. This plugin has many inputs (texture, color etc...) but no outputs (Inputs are on the left of a plugin and outputs on the right). A sprite is a square or rectangle in 3D environment.

C) Adding a texture :

We now need a texture for this sprite. Go in the plugins browser and double clic on texture generator quicktime movie . You will be asked to select a movie from your hard disk. Once you have done so you should have a new effect in the effect editor called quicktime movie . Move this plugin to the left of the screen (to give you space to see what you're doing !!). And connect the output (on the right called texture ) to the texture input of your sprite . To do so just drag from the little circle at the right of the quicktime movie plugin to the circle at the left of texture on the sprite plugin . A cable should appear to connect the two plugins.

Now switch to the effect renderer to see the result (you can to so by pressing the ESC key). You should now see your movie playing in a square. If you get weird graphic bugs (the editor still showing) just press apple-F to go in full screen mode.

So a quicktime movie is playing as a texture on a 3D square plane. Go back to the effect editor we will now play the movie fullscreen. On the sprite plugin you have two variables called width and height. Double clic on width and type 2 , then double clic on height and type 1.5 . You can go back to the effect renderer your movie should play at the size of the renderer.

D) Controlling your effect :

In the plug-ins browser double clic on controller Smooth Random . Double clic on the the max input and type 2 . Connect the value to the width of the sprite . The smooth random will now output a random number between 0 and 2 which will control the width of the sprite. Go in the effect renderer and check the result.

E) Adding a Clear effect :

For the moment the screen is not cleared. So you should get trails of the movie when it scales down. To stop this from happening (you might not want to, this can some
times give interesting results) go in the effect Browser and clic on the new button at the bottom right of the screen. You now have an empty effect, rename it clear screen .

Clic on the plug-ins browser and add a video renderer clear . You need to tell pixelshox what color to clear with. So add a color generator apple color picker and select a color (usually black to clear screen). Connect the color output to the color input of the clear plugin.

If you go back to the effect renderer you should have a black screen (no movie !!!). This is because of the layering. Go back to the effect editor and clic on the effects browser . Drag the clear screen effect to the top of the list. You should have clear screen and then video .

That's it you have a movie playing and a random width. Now try adding a different controller, maybe a sound controller, or midi. Try playing with the different variables X and Y for the position or rotation. You could also put a different texture on the sprite. Have Fun !!!
JeSs`(more to come)

Last note: If you create various effects you can assign a keyboard key to them in the effects browser . Double clic on the key column in front of your effect and press a keyboard key. You can now switch the effect on and off from that key.