The Adventures of the Original Hamster

A video project I did a while ago. We were given roughly 1 hour of footage to remix into something new. This is what I came up with.

Six Frames from Matti Niinimäki on Vimeo.

Here is our VJ crew Superia United doing visuals for the one and only Ruckazoid.

Qstock festival in Oulu, Summer 2008.

Superia United meets Ruckazoid from Aku Meriläinen on Vimeo.

Some people have probably tried to use my tutorial on how to use SMS text messages with Quartz Composer. There were actually some errors in the php code in my tutorial as the wordpress WYSIWYG editor is actually a IWFUYBPWC (I will f*ck up your blog post with code) editor so it might not have worked for you. It’s fixed now. Thanks to Amon Robe for pointing this out.

http://originalhamsters.com/blog/2008/05/06/using-sms-text-messages-with-quartz-composer/

Månsteri 3.0 @ Kauppayhtiö
Friday, Feb 15
22-02

Månsteri Mixtape 3.0 for sale on Friday

UP! Tivoli - Rovaniemi (7.9.2007)

DJs:
Waxtastic
AKA Caputo
Dzei
Posten
Dann Doyle
Alfons Å

VJs:
SRVRS*& MKRF

Hosted by:
Rollo Killa, Bukka-Keke & Mega-Dogg

Expect to see mad 4 turntable action on both sides of Tivoli. I’ve got some special blends coming up for all the party peeps. Some old Finnish stuff with some new non-Finnish stuff. Check out UP @ MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/upklubi

Time Tunnel - Oulu (8.9.2007)

Our crew Superia United is doing visuals in the main room.

MAIN ROOM
Hosted by DJ Kaasi with Krafty Kuts and Pepe Deluxé-live!

CLUB B-EAT-Z
For local and national top disc jockeys. Meet Infekto, DJ Sam Lainio and DJ Sektori.

FUNKY CAFÉ
Caters for those who like their music soulful and black. The sets will cover all areas of black dance music from sweet soul harmonies to grittier funk toons.

www.handprod.com

OK. I’ll have to think of something else than this blog for Koala. I’m coming up with small improvements and new versions all the time.

Here’s Koala 0.5.1

- Keyboard shortcuts for video triggering
- Changed the buttons for the effects
- Fixed a bug with the audio sensitivity. It used to default to zero, now the default value is 1

Download Koala 0.5.1

A new version. Koala 0.5 (I’m not sure what the last version was. I’ll just start numbering from here)

Photo from Flickr

Improvements:
- Camera input (4:3 and 16:9 anamorphic)
- More video triggers
- More effects
- More blend and fade modes
- Improved interface

To-do list:
- Real fullscreen + preview window
- Better file handling and triggering for the videos.
- MIDI + keyboard shortcuts
- Lots of other things…

Download Koala 0.5.1
Mac OSX 10.4. –>

I’ve been working on a custom VJ-software for a couple of weeks and now I have something to show you guys. Meet Koala.

Picture from Flickr

Pretty simple app really. Made with Quartz Composer and Interface Builder. There’s no fullscreen option, yet. I’m working on it. The keyer is based on Sam Kass’s composition.

This a very early version. Things are not looking or working right, but you can test it if you want to. This should be pretty stable, but I take no responsibility in what might happen if you use this. So, if your computer explodes, turns into dust or starts wearing skirts, don’t blame me. I don’t have any time for manuals or such. It should be fairly straightforward, but if you have any questions, comments or bug reports you can contact me via email: matti.niinimaki “at” gmail dot com

Works only on Mac OSX 10.4 ->
Download Koala 0.5.1

This is it. I’m hopping on the Web 2.0 train with my very own blog. Here you’ll find information about some of the things I’ve been up to lately. So who the f*ck am I? Let me introduce myself.

I’m a Finnish guy living in Rovaniemi, Finland. Media student in the University of Lapland and an all-around hustler doing all kinds of strange things. I prefer to be called by my real name, Matti, but I have these different aliases for music and graphic projects.

DJ Waxtastic

I’ve been DJing for about 6 years now. Don’t ask about my DJ-name, I know it’s corny. I started DJing because I wanted to learn how to scratch and people told me I could get some girls and money if I was a DJ. After six years I still can’t scratch, I’m totally broke and sure as hell ain’t getting any girls. So kids, whatever you do, don’t spend all of your money on records. Save the money and buy a car instead. Chicks dig cars.

I’ve been spinning all kinds of funky music (hip hop, funk, breakbeats, d’n'b, dubstep etc.) in Rovaniemi, Kouvola and Helsinki. I’ve done a couple of mixtapes. The latest was Jamaikasetti, a collaboration with DJ Hesher.

Original Hamster

This is the name I use for my graphic design and video works. I think that this blog is mainly going to be place where I show you guys my media art and graphic design stuff. I’m a member of a VJ/media art collective called Superia United here in Rovaniemi. I’ve done VJing in clubs and projections in some events. Right now I’m working on a couple of projects. More about them later.

I guess that’s about it. Stay tuned.