pouët.net

virta by Brainstorm [web] & Ümlaüt Design [web] & Traction [web]
[nfo]
screenshot added by w00t! on 2011-08-14 09:32:53
platform :
type :
release date : august 2011
release party : Evoke 2011
compo : pc demo
ranked : 3rd
  • 109
  • 17
  • 5
popularity : 71%
 71%
  • 0.79
  • 2
alltime top: #621
added on the 2011-08-14 02:21:23 by Gargaj Gargaj

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The rain and final scene work very well.
Nice slow paced music Gargaj.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 02:24:14 by Zavie Zavie
Really really nice. Great atmosphere, nice visuals and wonderful music.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 02:24:20 by phobium phobium
Atmospheric and calm/moody soundtrack together with not too hectic, colorful visuals - great stuff!
Liked the rain scene in the end especially :)

Made a Youtube Rip for it:

Youtube(1080p)
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:01:33 by anni anni
music wase wonderful
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:12:18 by relias abardon relias abardon
That was seriously great. Beautiful visuals, almost perfectly matching a really good tune. Is the music in the zip, or do we have to beg for it? :D
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:14:12 by psonice psonice
Solid graphics and music, close to perfect execution.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:32:20 by kusma kusma
A very calm demo, but nice graphics and music. I like more the faster and actionful demos of Brainstorm & Traction, but this one here is anyway good.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:40:39 by Chainsaw Chainsaw
lovely.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:46:08 by mrdoob mrdoob
gfx wase wonderful
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:46:35 by QUINTIX QUINTIX
best demo in the compo, voted for it :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:48:55 by Alpha C Alpha C
very delicate and well balanced, love the music and the visuals, quite intriguing as a whole :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 03:49:38 by keito keito
Amazing direction to a wonderful soundtrack. Just my coup of tea.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 04:19:01 by pixtur pixtur
Great work!
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 04:25:06 by Saga Musix Saga Musix
Nice demo. I like a lot the part with the rain of particles over dark spheres.

Some transitions are beautiful but slow as hell on my PC.

The only think that I dislike is that, occasionally, the action in the screen is too static.

Cool slow pace soundtrack.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 05:35:20 by ham ham
Very touching and atmospheric as usual.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 07:22:23 by sq sq
Thumbs up for visuals & code. The music bored me to hell, though, with slow pace, repeating the same exact notes and eventually leading to nowhere.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 07:38:26 by lemonade lemonade
nice one. and the tune is really chillin'. cool.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 08:53:55 by yumeji yumeji
A journey you can take over and over again.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 09:17:17 by CONS CONS
Digital blues.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 09:42:01 by emha76 emha76
sweet, soothing demo. I associate it a bit with the game Osmos, which is never a bad thing, kind of same feeling, a cozy one. thanks!
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 09:50:40 by jaw jaw
What keito said + the minimalism is occasionally a bit jarring.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 10:00:26 by revival revival
glorious =)
cdc added on the 2011-08-14 10:05:50 by bfx bfx
also
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 10:06:14 by bfx bfx
Nice, but boring.
added on the 2011-08-14 10:10:08 by Murphy Murphy
Hmm.. I really like it, but it feels a bit empty at times. A shame, cause there is some really nice scenes in there! Piggy for now.
added on the 2011-08-14 10:14:20 by maytz maytz
clean design and nice music. thumb only for the second half of the demo. that was awesome!
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 10:22:23 by sensenstahl sensenstahl
It has the odd cool effects, but overall it's just too slow and basic. It seems you can add glow to anything these days and people will lap it up.

I know Gargaj is a talented musician and I really like a lot of his past work, but this particular track sounds like it was created with this...

http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0o1m11345g7g0v
sucks added on the 2011-08-14 11:03:50 by Wade Wade
Such a design accompanied by Gargaj's awesome music definitely works for me. Soothing :3
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 11:06:35 by xtrium xtrium
Seriously good demo with fitting music, congrats! In my top 5 demos of this year so far.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 11:56:05 by Navis Navis
classieux.
Ending scene saves the demo. I found the rest very well put together, but not really interesting. Too much glow in a couple of spots.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 12:16:42 by ara ara
(And answering my own question, yes the music is in the data folder :)
added on the 2011-08-14 12:16:55 by psonice psonice
Simple tune, nice effects, boring composition, a sleeper
sucks added on the 2011-08-14 12:20:26 by Zplex Zplex
Really like this one, soothing and calm.

A tiny bit of criticism would be that the cuts to black in the last part seems somewhat misplaced.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 12:41:57 by lug00ber lug00ber
Beautifully understated.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 13:59:21 by jonnyram jonnyram
I love minimalism but this feels maybe a bit uninspired, both visually and musically. I when people say this but it really feel look like a 64k intro. I think there could've been a lot more done with this. But for what it is, it's not bad.
added on the 2011-08-14 14:00:49 by noby noby
enjoyed the relaxing visuals a lot. nice colours and well-balanced effects.
the tune...well... it's not bad. but a bit too simple. some light variations in the main melody wouldn't have hurt. don't mistake minimalism for emptiness.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 14:40:33 by a-move a-move
"I *hate* when people say...", damn typos
added on the 2011-08-14 15:18:19 by noby noby
I found it hard to concentrate at all. For what it is I guess it's OK, because I bet it does what it should for the purpose for which it was intended.
Some good looking parts, but mostly too simple and basic. And I can't help but feeling intensively bored, from beginning to end
added on the 2011-08-14 16:01:31 by Duckers Duckers
Classic traction stuff. A bit uneventful and too familiar looking overall, but still worthy of a thumb up.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 17:12:14 by tomaes tomaes

Boring like hell ! :(

sucks added on the 2011-08-14 17:23:59 by BiTbUsTeR BiTbUsTeR
A little long-winded, sure, but there is nothing wrong with the execution here.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 17:43:20 by gloom gloom
Beautiful and moody.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 18:28:15 by DragonL DragonL
very pleasant
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 18:59:12 by superplek superplek
also: u00dcmlau00fct design!
Mesmerizing.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 20:08:35 by Den Den
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 20:34:20 by m0d m0d
Beautiful stuff, especially the final scene. Sync with the music is also very subtle.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 21:17:06 by Claw Claw
This was truly mezmerizing.. I love how the effect "hugged" itself at the end. Beautiful stuff.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 21:25:41 by Trenox Trenox
I'm getting really really tired of this kind of glowing-lines-and-particles-stuff, sorry.
sucks added on the 2011-08-14 21:26:22 by Stebo Stebo
I felt completly relaxed while watching this, nice trip
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 21:58:59 by decca decca
+1
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 23:02:35 by thec thec
Lovely sparkles effect and what a nice last scene.
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 23:23:37 by BackSpace BackSpace
Should have won.
added on the 2011-08-14 23:47:40 by pixtur pixtur
nice
rulez added on the 2011-08-14 23:55:40 by psenough psenough
Beautiful
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 00:07:09 by SiR SiR
Wow. Incredibly beautiful! One of my favourite demos this year.
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 09:15:23 by chock chock
great. to bad it didnt won the compo
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 09:47:26 by xeNusion xeNusion
the thing with slow paced prods in democompos is that they almost never hit the party mood. while i kinda liked the feel of it on the bigscreen (and of course the nice, calm music by gargaj) i couldnt help but wish for the next prod with a little more UNZ and energy.
now, 2 days later, suffering from PPD and other emotional stuff i rewatch it and am totally carried away.
this IS art. <3
rulezcdc added on the 2011-08-15 10:06:53 by wysiwtf wysiwtf
strange but cool
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 10:09:56 by krusty krusty
<3 that track by Gargaj. Ending scene is great too! Rest is slightly too slow for me.

@xcom: what's with your video? the video in top link has 1080p, the one you linked is only 720p and seems to stutter in some places. Is there a reason for that? Maybe check the links first before posting?
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 12:57:35 by Olivier Olivier
Also: what Pixtur said.
added on the 2011-08-15 13:53:53 by gloom gloom
yeah. a nice, relaxed trip
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 18:20:09 by mueslee mueslee
What Gloom said, both times.
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 19:45:53 by ferris ferris
Great demo and for me best from compo. Slow pace, still camera and calm music making a very tranquility and dreamy atmosphere.
Should have won.
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 22:43:33 by Trauma Zero Trauma Zero
yep
rulez added on the 2011-08-15 23:41:55 by pandur pandur
What gloom said once again :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-16 00:10:11 by rez rez
Stylish!
sometimes reminds Replay's intros.
rulez added on the 2011-08-16 10:10:49 by Manwe Manwe
It has it's atmosphere.
rulez added on the 2011-08-16 12:25:53 by Optimus Optimus
simple but effective, yet still gives me a bit of a 'meh dunno' as it's just more of the Tractionesque same-same.
looked nice, but not my cup of tea
added on the 2011-08-16 14:30:12 by prost prost
pretty cool.. was nice to watch this at evoke..
rulez added on the 2011-08-16 15:04:58 by mad mad
nice. but i can't say i was engaged...
added on the 2011-08-16 20:36:05 by blala blala
Expected more. Just looks like a sequel of 2019.
added on the 2011-08-16 20:37:41 by ok3anos ok3anos
Pretty.
rulez added on the 2011-08-17 05:07:07 by xernobyl xernobyl
neat.
added on the 2011-08-17 07:37:38 by Raven^NCE Raven^NCE
should have won.
rulez added on the 2011-08-17 09:58:59 by radman1 radman1
good one
rulez added on the 2011-08-17 11:31:17 by seρρjο seρρjο
clean stuff. good work.
rulez added on the 2011-08-18 10:00:05 by Skate Skate
Nice !
rulez added on the 2011-08-18 16:57:59 by hylst hylst
I like it. Clean and great ambient soundtrack.
rulez added on the 2011-08-18 20:35:06 by d3pth d3pth
sweet
rulez added on the 2011-08-18 22:34:50 by Ger Ger
Very goodlooking!
rulez added on the 2011-08-18 23:12:27 by Emod Emod
Very lovely!
rulez added on the 2011-08-19 15:47:35 by waffle waffle
added on the 2011-08-20 14:41:39 by Gargaj Gargaj
glow
rulez added on the 2011-08-20 14:46:28 by Defiance Defiance
Well that's different and it makes you actually feel something and sort of analyze urself from 3rd perspective what is happening. And this is good. The best demos don't aim to serve you a prechewed story but let you be the story. Virta uses very uncomplex building blocks to present you this experience.
rulez added on the 2011-08-20 15:33:51 by funkdoobiest funkdoobiest
Not the style I like.
added on the 2011-08-20 21:22:39 by jack-3d jack-3d
Nice. :D
rulez added on the 2011-08-20 22:24:30 by AntDude AntDude
great tune and magic visuals, only starfield/dots in the middle where a bit off in my opinion.
rulez added on the 2011-08-21 20:01:25 by elfh elfh
nice one :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-22 09:38:14 by Spewk Spewk
Gargaj :D
rulez added on the 2011-08-22 10:45:31 by chromag chromag
pretty conceptual
rulez added on the 2011-08-22 15:14:02 by closed closed
Stylish++ Love the fine tuned particle fx, especially the particles hitting dark balls. Very good and moody quality indeed!
rulez added on the 2011-08-23 15:17:21 by deepr deepr
Sleeping pill. Way, way, way too boring.
added on the 2011-08-23 19:34:33 by StingRay StingRay
Form over tech. Always appreciated.
rulez added on the 2011-08-24 21:05:27 by cxnull cxnull
Great effects, beautiful colors and tripping atmosphere. Lovely :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-26 19:52:25 by Hexogen Hexogen
nice. sync
rulez added on the 2011-08-27 18:42:01 by dila dila
okay for visuals in a dubtechno set, but not my style of demo art...
added on the 2011-08-27 20:25:46 by -SP- -SP-
This is one of my favorite demos from that party.

Especially liked the song except for the tiny scratchy noises that seemed a bit out of place.

Overall very enjoyable, thanks guys for the demo!!
rulez added on the 2011-08-28 10:41:01 by SunSpire SunSpire
nice clean source too. reinforces my belief that democode doesnt *have* to be a detrimental mess.
added on the 2011-08-28 10:57:43 by superplek superplek
second BB Image for the source :)
added on the 2011-08-28 10:58:50 by Defiance Defiance
oh no thats not 2011
sucks added on the 2011-08-29 21:44:06 by syntaxl syntaxl
ok
very nice visuals i like the brainstorm, üml stuff.
Cool
rulez added on the 2011-08-31 11:41:17 by bitl bitl
very aesthetic
rulez added on the 2011-09-02 20:24:10 by frostpfote frostpfote
:)
rulez added on the 2011-09-03 03:21:43 by las las
Liked it a lot.
rulez added on the 2011-09-04 19:26:34 by peturba peturba
very beautiful. That's the good old traction style i used to love and missed a bit in the last productions..
rulez added on the 2011-09-04 19:38:19 by v3nom v3nom
Appreciated it on the Big Screen.
Good production, fitting music!
rulez added on the 2011-09-07 12:11:06 by sim sim
Put me in a nice state of mind.
rulez added on the 2011-09-08 19:29:10 by Jerware Jerware
I like the simple style, but the music (no offence gargaj) makes it appear too long.
rulez added on the 2011-09-11 21:30:17 by moqui moqui
awesome looks!
rulez added on the 2011-10-05 22:13:54 by loaderror loaderror
a bit too slow paced, but <3 anway
rulez added on the 2011-10-29 22:23:39 by T$ T$
love it!
rulez added on the 2011-11-04 04:25:58 by blackpawn blackpawn
beautiful, thank you
great great stuff!
rulez added on the 2012-02-29 02:25:37 by gentleman gentleman
nice nice!
rulez added on the 2012-04-01 14:02:45 by Frequent Frequent
yay ^_^
rulez added on the 2012-05-27 13:53:08 by Fell Fell
Great demo!
rulez added on the 2012-07-11 19:17:20 by dafuq dafuq
nice and minimal, just the way I like
rulez added on the 2012-07-15 02:44:06 by praetor_alpha praetor_alpha
nice music.
rulez added on the 2012-08-15 16:51:37 by kimi kardashian kimi kardashian
Beautiful demo. Really like this style of music too.
rulez added on the 2012-08-19 22:36:43 by velusip velusip
Wonderful!
rulez added on the 2012-08-19 23:01:41 by LLB LLB
BB Image
rulez added on the 2012-08-19 23:39:31 by d0DgE d0DgE
Cool :)
rulez added on the 2012-08-24 18:59:13 by Danguafer Danguafer
Relaxing.
rulez added on the 2012-09-01 22:15:30 by Eldrik Eldrik
Another piece of art! Indeed it's Relaxing. :)
rulez added on the 2012-12-24 05:35:19 by Templeton Templeton
Ossom.
rulez added on the 2013-03-14 00:02:22 by trc_wm trc_wm
total coup d'foudre. the last scene is a bliss.
rulez added on the 2014-07-21 02:43:24 by iks iks
fresh'n'clean.
rulez added on the 2014-11-02 23:02:41 by sm sm
Of course.
rulez added on the 2015-10-15 07:35:39 by NokoNoko NokoNoko
A real success. Gargaj's best track and beautiful little particles combined with suggested geometry and mature pacing. The intro scene reminds me of an art installation where fluorescent lamps were set standing straight on a field just under big power lines.
rulez added on the 2015-11-19 16:19:16 by cce cce
Maybe my best demo. I spent ages, ages, ages tweaking and tuning all the little things in it. I got the track and didn't show it to Gargaj (who's a perfectionist) until very late in the process, fearing his reaction, and I remember how palpable my relief was when he loved it.

This is, despite it being abstract, also one of my most personal demos in a way. A relationship of almost six years was coming to an end while writing this and in the end it did come to that. When we visited Evoke together in 2011 we weren't a couple anymore and I think that some of that bittersweet sentiment is visible in this demo. I coded this mostly at work outside office hours, because I didn't have a proper PC at home at that time. I even did it during my summer holiday, ie. sneaked in in the evening after people had left and disappearing before dawn.

Some individual tidbits:

The demo was almost called Distance, but then I decided to go with a Finnish name. Virta means flow or stream, and I think that's very appropriate for the mood.,

The logo part was one of the few moments when I gave creative control away to Prowler, because he was adamant about it. I'm glad I did, it looks magnificent and the logo itself is stunning.

The part with the vertical lines after the logo was inspired by title graphics in a documentary by Joy Division that I saw at a festival. You can see it here if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1qQsHGHi8w. It's a great as a documentary as well.

The part with the circles is based on a poster I saw in Budapest while attending Function 2010. It's very static and I tried giving it more motion, but nothing worked.

The particles in a vector field is one of my favorite effects of what I've done and it was and inspired by Peon's demo Movement. I guess almost all of Virta has that kind of vibe to it. Go check it out, it's great.

The falling particles thing came from a dream. I love how the glow filter bugs around 3:30 and it seems like there's light falling.

The last scene was totally an accident and made in a day. The shape looks great though.

Now, watching this, I wonder if I should get back to coding demos. If only there was time...
added on the 2015-11-19 16:59:54 by Preacher Preacher
A lot of making this is still very vivid in my head. I don't quite remember what spurred me to make the track technically, I know I was in a bad headspace at the time (I think it was still the time when I wrote most of my music at work because I didn't have a home PC) and I guess I just wanted to express it, so I made it and I never really planned to show it to anyone. Fun fact: the little glitchy twerps in the music are actually from our (commercial) game's executable put through a little script I called "MP3izer" which takes any binary data and wraps it into valid MP3 frame headers so it looks like a valid MP3 file and the result (only Winamp plays it back I think) are these little isolated compression artifacts - I just liked the idea of the otherwise smooth track broken up by these atonal little "errors".

I think the year before this got released (2010) I remember hanging out with Martti at Breakpoint and for some reason I mentioned I have an ambient / minimal techno track lying around and his eyes just lit up. I sent it to him after the party, but then I guess we just couldn't approach the demo the right way for about a year - our previous collaboration was a disaster and I think that kinda still weighed in on our minds.

I remember getting the preview for this in 2011 pretty much out of the blue (re-reading the emails from this period is heartwarming) and I just thought it aligned to the music so well, and the last effect was amazing, so I thought, well, this could be really good. The next 2 weeks or so were spent with putting poor Martti through the wringer, because I thought there was a lot of room for improvement in direction: the preview version had no crossfades (just fade in/out) and there was a credits sequence at the start, but I insisted that anything that breaks the flow of the demo has to go.

I was a bit scared of the reception for this, because it's not a "party" demo, but I think the relative success of this has been inspiring when it comes to making "non-crowd-pleaser" material.
added on the 2015-11-19 17:29:21 by Gargaj Gargaj
nice late writeup for my favourite preacher-demo.
thanks.
added on the 2015-11-19 17:54:23 by wysiwtf wysiwtf
Actually on second thought now I remember where the influence came from: The Knife's "Silent Shout" album.
added on the 2015-11-19 22:43:07 by Gargaj Gargaj
The two weeks through the wringer did me and the demo a world of good. I've always been lazy about doing polishing properly, but after that experience I've tried to do it properly (or at least felt bad about the lack of polish :))
added on the 2015-11-19 23:58:43 by Preacher Preacher
I really like this demo. Such a peaceful mood and beautiful particles. Music and visuals work perfectly together. Thought I thumbed it already but apparently not so here is the late thumb. Also was very cool to read the story of the moods and situations of how it was made. It is really nice to see the human side behind the productions, demo making is such a weird combination of technical and artwork. It is nice for me to see the emotion and thoughts that other people have and it makes me feel ok to know that other demo makers that I look up to are not just machines and they also work hard to make something that other people might enjoy. It can be challenging putting your personal work out in the world to be judged, at the same time dealing with the realities of life and the real world around you.
rulez added on the 2015-11-20 00:42:10 by drift drift
Another BB Image for the stories.
Thanks for the peek behind the scenes :)
added on the 2015-11-20 23:32:50 by cce cce
neat
rulez added on the 2018-02-28 16:41:20 by nagz nagz

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