Tagtool

The Basics

What is the Tagtool?

The Tagtool is a live performance instrument for drawing and animation. It’s similar to a music instrument, only it plugs into a projector instead of the sound system.

It is operated collaboratively by an artist drawing the pictures and an animator adding movement to the artwork with a gamepad.

What are the key ideas of the Tagtool concept?

There are a few key premises that are important to the Tagtool concept:

It’s now – Everything you see has been created on the spot, in realtime, by the artist. There is no playback of existing footage or pre-programmed effects.

It’s for everyone – Even people that have no computer background should feel at home with it immediately. The basic drawing controls can be mastered by anyone (including kids and old people) within a few minutes, but create virtually unlimited possibilities of artistic expression that can be explored by advanced users.

Real-world Interaction – One of the most important aspects of the concept is the possibility to interact with the world outside of the screen. The attention of the artist is focused on the whole performance space – whether this is a building, a projection screen in a club, or a theater stage.

How do you use the Tagtool?

It’s possible to create animations on your own with the Tagtool, but you really start taking advantage of its capabilities when an artist and an animator use it together. And even better when they are in tune with each other, and know each other’s style. The collaboration expands both the ideas and the possibilities.

The artist creates the drawings, and controls the color, the transparency and the width of the brush. He can also choose to fade out all drawings if things become too crowded. When he pushes the big red button, the drawing is then “handed” over to the animator. Then the artist can immediately start with the next drawing, without having to wait.

Meanwhile the animator adds life to the figures, letters, and ornaments – he can move, rotate, scale, and – most importantly – choreograph them. He can animate each drawing individually, combine it with others, or have it fade out.

There are detailed instructions on how to use the controls and the gamepad on the Tagtool Developer Zone.

Who’s the Tagtool for?

It’s for anyone who thinks visually – artists, kids, Vjs, architects, etc. The aim is to keep the Tagtool simple and adaptable enough to work in many different environments with people of all kinds of backgrounds. Anyone who’s a creative is a victim of the Tagtool, and it is especially these people that immediately catch on to it.

Some are just interested in drawing and animating, others are more focused on the hardware, the software, or the social aspects of it. It’s always an interesting experience to present the Tagtool to an audience and see what aspects of the project they can connect to.

What skills do I need to use the Tagtool?

An open mind and a willingness to play. A love of drawing sure helps. The aim is to make the drawing experience enjoyable for people that have no experience or patience with computers.

Of course if you wanna do the animation part, some Playstation experience can’t hurt. Mastering the gamepad controls definitely takes a little practice. The rest is up to the intuition of the users and the flow of the moment.

The Background

Who is behind the Tagtool Project?

The Tagtool project started out as an independent research endeavor of a group of friends based on curiosity. These days it represents an intersection of several communities – most prominent among these are the artists, the programmers, and the hardware/DIY people.

The core group that push forward the development of the project live and work at a place known as the Wassergasse near Vienna, Austria. They have recently founded the company OMA International GmbH, in order to be able to pursue their various artistic projects on a worldwide level with a solid legal and financial foundation. The Tagtool project continues to be independent and open source, with OMA International providing organizational and financial backing.

How do you finance the development of the Tagtool?

Apart from the efforts that people put into the project in their spare time, we are financing the continuous development by working with corporate partners.

It is important to us that the companies we work with appreciate the value of artistic freedom and embrace the open source nature of the project. We are lucky to have partners like our friends from Strukt that share our vision of a symbiotic relationship of business and art.

How did the idea for the Tagtool come about?

The idea was born in February 2006, in the course of developing a children’s theater play with the group Tetete. We wanted to tell an improvised comic story on stage together with musicians, a narrator and the audience.

We couldn’t find commercially available drawing software that fulfilled our performance requirements. Also we realized the need to devise an interface that worked on stage, even in the dark – fiddling around with a keyboard and mouse, and trying to deal with on-screen menus was a pain in the ass.

Why do you call it Tagtool?

We call it Darktool when the projector doesn’t work. The first prototype versions were called Gregtool because we wanted to use it in a children’s theater play that was about a guy called Greg. When graffiti writer Akim from Berlin visited us for a gig with Kool Keith, he started tagging away like mad. So we saved the program as Tagtool. And things went from there.

But of course the Tagtool is for more than just tagging. Recently we think of it more along the lines of ‘tag team’, which stresses the collaborative aspect of it.

What do you mean when you say the Tagtool is an open source project?

Our approach is that all knowledge acquired within the Tagtool project should be shared and openly available in the interest of advancing the cause of digital artistic tools that are free from corporate control. We are inspired by the open source movement and believe that it is also relevant for the digital arts.

Therefore, the software that runs on the Tagtool is freely available under the conditions of the GNU GPL 2.0, which basically says that anyone can modify and re-distribute the software, as long as they in turn make the source code available under the same license.

Also, we aim to make available the information on how to build a Tagtool. This happens on the Tagtool Developer Zone and Instructables.com.

If you want any information that you can’t find anywhere on our homepage or the developer zone, go ahead and ask in the Tagtool discussion group or write us an email.

What are the plans for the future?

Because Tagtool is a community driven project, it’s difficult to define goals that are valid for everyone involved. We can only speak for the core group of Tagtool developers around the Wassergasse and OMA International.

We would like to consolidate the efforts so far, especially improving on the documentation side of things. We are continuing our work with artists around the world to get Tagtool performances to the next level.

At the same time we are looking at new features, technologies and artistic concepts that could expand the range of possibilities of the Tagtool.

And finally we would like to set the foundations for a strong and vibrant Tagtool community by improving the online platforms and supporting people who want to organize events and gatherings.

How can I get involved?

Just write us a mail or post to the Tagtool discussion group. We are always keen on talking to artists, programmers, web designers, industrial designers, DIY people,… people from any background in fact. If you see a way you can contribute with what you know, or if you’d like to use or abuse the Tagtool in any way, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

How to get a Tagtool

Can I build a Tagtool myself?

Definitely. Just like the software is open source, we aim to make instructions on how to build Tagtools available here and on Instructables.com.

Can I buy a Tagtool?

Not right now. You can ask the somebody to build you one if you don’t wanna do it yourself.

Can I book a Tagtool performance?

Bookings of artist performances or open sessions are handled by OMA International or the official Tagtool Partners.

Technical Stuff

What are the basic components of a Tagtool?

The controls
The Tagtool controls consist of six faders (for colors, line thickness, etc) and a big red button (for releasing drawings for animation).

The drawing area
This is usually a graphics tablet.

A computer
A PC running Windows and our open source Nodekit software.

What do I need to set up a Tagtool Session?

Apart from the Tagtool all you need is a projector and somewhere to project on – like a skull made of cardboard boxes.

What types of Tagtools are there?

We distinguish between three types of Tagtools:

Tagtool All-in-One
(also known as Version 2, or V2)
This version achieves our goal of being as easy to use as a music instrument. It combines the controls, the drawing area and the computer in one compact case. It’s ‘turn on and draw’, so you can show up at a gig and get going with virtually no setup time.

Tagtool Mini
With this version, you don’t have a compact instrument, but it is nonetheless fully functional. There is a separate device with the Tagtool controls (the ‘Mini’) that is used together with an external computer and a graphics tablet. This is recommended for people that don’t need a dedicated Tagtool but want to use it with their computer and graphics tablet.

Tagtool Suitcase
This version integrates the controls and the drawing area into a flight-case, but still needs an external computer.

What software is running on the Tagtool?

The software running on the Tagtool is made with a versatile toolkit for interactive graphics called the Nodekit, whose development is coordinated by OMA International. It’s a node-based environment for graphical programming written in C#.

Why does the software run only on Windows? What about Linux or Mac?

There are plans to port the Nodekit to Linux and Mac via the Mono framework. Programmers who would like to contribute to that effort are very welcome to get in touch.

What are the Hardware Requirements for the computer?

We haven’t made really comprehensive tests, but we can give general recommendations based on our experiences:

Graphics card
This is the single most important component for running the Tagtool program. We have used the ATI Radeon series with good results (eg. X1600, HD2600). It’s not recommended to use computers with integrated graphics cards.

CPU
Any fairly modern CPU should suffice – we work with Intel Dual core processors, but we have also tested it with AMD processors (Sempron 3000+, Athlon 64 X2).

RAM
Anything with 512MB of RAM or more will work fine.

USB slots
There should be a minimum of 3 free USB slots (for the gamepad, the Tagtool controls, and the graphics tablet)

FAQs compiled with the help of Bianca of Wiseup.de