So, with the Werkstatt announcement you will have perhaps see a workshop called "Introduction to GLSL Shaders in Isadora." As it says, the next major release of Isadora will allow you to use this extremely powerful feature of your graphics card directly in Isadora.

For those of who you don't know what a GLSL Shader is, perhaps the easiest way to explain it is to send you to this site: http://shadertoy.com and have a look around. The most interesting thing about these shaders is that there is no "video" per se – instead, the code you see when you look at the individual shaders generates the images you see at high resolutions, and, generally speaking, really really fast. Using this new feature, in many cases you'll simply be able to cut and paste the source code from Shader Toy or other sites directly into the new GLSL Shader actor in Isadora and _voilà!_ you'll see be generating the same image.

Most of the code you see on sites like Shader Toy is generative. But one can also find code to do video effects on incoming video streams.

But the best part of all is that we've created a method to allow you to add interactive input to these shaders. The workshop will focus on helping non-coders understand how to find their way through the "gobbledygook" and add their own interactive parameters. To give you a little taste, below you'll find an example where using the Sound Level Watcher modulating the 'bumpiness' of the sphere in real-time.

http://troikatronix.com/files/glsl-example-640p.mov

(the beat by was created by Hoerspielwerkstatt_HEF)

We'll be sharing more information on this feature as we get closer to releasing it to you. 

This is going to be a really exciting feature that will open a massive number of new doors. Keep your eyes open for the release date which will happen at some point before the Werkstatt.

Best Wishes,

Mark