User:Tomvision/sandbox/VHS Camcorder

VHS Camcorder is a mobile camera app by Rarevision that simulates old video tape recordings using real-time image processing. It is currently available for devices running the iOS and Android operating systems. The app was created by filmmaker Thomas Worth.

History
In April, 2010, Rarevision published a video clip of an animated logo on YouTube that garnered interest due to its incredibly accurate depiction of an animated film distributor logo typically seen at the beginning of video tape releases from the 1980s and 1990s. Both the logo and video tape effect were created using Blender and Adobe After Effects. Due to the overwhelming number of requests by YouTube users for tips on how to recreate the effect on their own, Rarevision decided to develop an app that would apply the effect automatically to existing footage without the need for the user to recreate the effect themselves.

Development
Work on the app began with the development of the image processing functions. Most of this work was done on a Mac Pro running Mac OS X. Once the image processing algorithms were created and stable, they were then tested on various mobile devices for compatibility. Mobile debugging was mainly done using a 5th generation iPod Touch.

VHS Camcorder is written primarily in the C programming language. Device-specific functions such as accessing a device's camera, video encoder and file system are written in Objective-C (iOS) and Java (Android).