Expanding Sci-Fi Neon: From VJ Clip Pack to Modular Visual Performance System
Sci-Fi Neon started as a compact smp: VJ clip pack: 20 seamless sci-fi loops designed for direct use in live visual sets, LED environments, VJ software, and screen-based installations.
The original idea was simple: finished clips, strong visual identity, clean playback, and no unnecessary technical preparation. A pack that could be dropped straight into a performance and used immediately.
Now Sci-Fi Neon is being expanded.
The smp: edition will grow from 20 clips to approximately 30–35 clips. These additional clips are not a completely separate new world, but extra variants of the same visual language already included in the original package. The aim is to give the existing pack more range, more pacing options, and more flexibility while keeping the same plug-and-play structure.
Alongside this, I am developing a much larger upgraded mod: version.
This is where the pack becomes a more serious live visual system.
The Expanded smp: Pack
The smp: version remains the straightforward edition of Sci-Fi Neon.
It is still built around finished loops that can be used immediately in Resolume, VDMX, TouchDesigner, Millumin, or any other VJ and playback setup. There is no need to rebuild the clips, composite layers, or manage a complicated folder structure.
The expansion from 20 clips to around 30–35 clips will add more variation to the existing collection. These will be extra variants based on the same visual world: alternative timings, compositions, movement patterns, light behaviours, and pacing options.
This gives the pack more practical value in a live set.
Instead of having only one version of a visual idea, the performer gets more ways to use the same aesthetic across different parts of a show:
calmer moments,
build-ups,
heavier sections,
transitions,
ambient passages,
high-energy sequences.
The smp: edition stays clean, direct, and performance-ready. It is still the best option for users who want strong sci-fi neon visuals without needing modular control.
The mod: Pack as a Major Upgrade
The upcoming mod: version is not just the smp: pack with a few extras added.
It is a major upgrade.
Apart from the additional 10–15 clips introduced in the expanded smp: edition, the mod: pack will include a deeper modular structure designed for live mixing, beat control, and more advanced visual improvisation.
The mod: edition will include:
the expanded clip selection from the smp: pack,
a minimum of 2–5 Visual Stems per clip,
pre-made beat variants,
9:16 vertical versions,
32:9 ultra-wide versions,
reframed and re-rendered alternative formats,
additional graphical accents and performance layers.
The important point is that the 9:16 and 32:9 versions are not simple crops.
They are reframed and re-rendered versions of the clips. That means the compositions are properly adapted for each format instead of just cutting into the original 16:9 frame. This matters, especially for vertical screens, social content, ultra-wide LED walls, stretched displays, stage strips, and panoramic installations.
A simple crop usually feels compromised.
A reframed render keeps the composition intentional.
Introducing Visual Stems
The main concept behind the mod: version is something I call Visual Stems.
In music production, stems are separated parts of a track: drums, bass, synths, vocals, effects, and so on. They allow a track to be mixed, rearranged, performed, or adapted with more control.
Visual Stems apply the same logic to VJ loops and motion design.
Instead of receiving only one finished video file, selected Sci-Fi Neon clips will also include separate visual layers that can be mixed live. These layers are rendered and prepared so they can be used as performance elements, not just as production leftovers.
The goal is to make each loop more playable.
A VJ can use the full clip as a base, then add, remove, pulse, trigger, fade, or tempo-sync individual light and structure layers on top.
What the Visual Stems Include
The Visual Stems in Sci-Fi Neon are focused on useful performance control. They are not built to expose every technical render pass. That would overcomplicate the pack and make it less practical in a live environment.
Instead, the stems are based around layers that make sense for VJs and live visual artists.
These include:
main light passes,
secondary light passes,
moving light passes,
structural layers,
wireframe versions,
stylised line versions,
additional graphical elements,
accent layers.
This keeps the system focused.
The stems are mainly about light behaviour, rhythm, structure, and graphical control. I am not using diffuse passes, reflection passes, or overly technical render components as part of this structure, because those would make the system heavier and less intuitive.
The point is not to recreate a full compositing pipeline inside a VJ pack.
The point is to give performers the right layers to control the mood, timing, and energy of the visuals live.
Try It Yourself: Visual Stems, Live
Below is a small interactive demo built around the Visual Stems idea described above. It's not a finished VJ tool, just a quick way to feel the concept before working with the layers yourself.
What you're looking at: The player shows one looping clip, but underneath it's actually four layers running in sync. Stem 0 is the base, the fully composed shot, exactly as it would look in a normal video file.
How to use it: Each of the other three sliders controls one additional light or structure layer, blended on top of the base using a lighten mode, so it adds brightness and detail without flattening the image underneath. Drag a slider up to bring a layer in, and back down to fade it out. Because it's a slider rather than an on/off switch, you can dial in exactly how much of each layer shows through — a hint of glow, or full intensity, or anything in between.
Try moving two or three sliders at once. This is the same kind of live mixing a VJ would do mid-performance, just with a mouse instead of a controller. There's no "correct" combination. Keep everything low for a clean, minimal read. Push the sliders up and the same clip becomes denser, brighter, and more energetic, a different mood from identical footage.
A quick note on sync: The four layers are separate video files, started together and kept in sync as they play. Browsers don't guarantee frame-perfect sync between multiple independent videos, so on slower connections you may notice a brief moment of catch-up right after the page loads, or very rarely a tiny drift during playback. This is a limitation of the web environment, not of the layers themselves — in dedicated VJ software, the same files run on playback engines built for exact frame sync, and this won't occur.
Think of this demo as a preview of the idea, not the instrument. The real performance happens once these layers are loaded into your VJ software of choice.
Light as a Performable Element
One of the key ideas behind Visual Stems is that light should not be fully locked into the final render.
In a standard VJ loop, the lighting is baked into the clip. You can change opacity, colour, speed, and effects, but the internal light behaviour is fixed.
With Visual Stems, the light becomes more flexible.
A main neon pass can remain steady while a moving light layer pulses on the beat. A secondary light pass can be introduced during a build-up. The colour of a stem can be adjusted, effectively relighting the scene and shifting the mood of the clip. A line layer can sit on top as a graphic structure, while accent elements can be triggered for transitions, drops, or syncopated moments.
This gives the same visual idea multiple states.
A clip can become:
darker and more minimal,
brighter and more aggressive,
cleaner and more architectural,
more rhythmic,
more graphic,
more atmospheric,
more reactive to the track.
That is the real value of the mod: pack. It gives the user a way to perform with the material instead of only playing it back.
Beat Variants
The mod: pack will also include pre-made beat variants.
These are versions of the clips designed with rhythm and musical timing in mind. They are prepared to work more naturally with tempo-based performance, especially for electronic music, techno, electro, industrial, synthwave, ambient, and sci-fi stage visuals.
Beat variants help solve a common problem with VJ loops: a clip may look good, but it does not always sit correctly against the rhythm of the track.
By preparing rhythmic alternatives, the pack becomes easier to use across different sections of a set.
A performer can move between versions depending on the energy of the music:
slow and atmospheric,
pulsing and controlled,
more active,
more intense,
brighter,
more strobing,
more stripped back.
This gives the VJ better pacing options without having to force the same clip to do everything.
Mixing the Stems
The Visual Stems are designed to be layered on top of each other using standard compositing blend modes.
Depending on the setup and the desired look, they can be mixed using:
Lighten,
Screen,
Add.
Each blend mode gives a different result.
Lighten is useful when the performer wants to combine bright details while keeping the image relatively controlled.
Screen gives a softer, more photographic glow and works well for atmospheric light layers.
Add creates a stronger and more intense result, especially for neon flashes, light hits, moving accents, and high-energy moments.
This makes the pack more flexible in real time. The VJ can keep the image subtle, push it harder, or build up the visual density layer by layer.
The same clip can be used in several different ways depending on how the stems are combined.
Reframed Formats: 9:16 and 32:9
Another important part of the mod: version is support for alternative screen formats.
The pack will include 9:16 and 32:9 variants.
These are not basic crops from the 16:9 version. They are properly reframed and re-rendered so the composition works in each format.
This is important because modern visual content rarely lives in one aspect ratio.
A VJ pack might be used on:
standard 16:9 screens,
vertical displays,
social media reels,
portrait LED panels,
ultra-wide LED walls,
stretched LCD displays,
panoramic stage designs,
club installations,
festival screen systems.
Each format has different compositional needs.
A 9:16 version needs vertical energy and a properly balanced frame. A 32:9 version needs horizontal movement, spacing, and visual structure that works across a very wide canvas.
Simply cropping a 16:9 render is not enough.
The mod: edition treats these formats as real versions, not afterthoughts.
Why This Upgrade Matters
The expanded Sci-Fi Neon smp: pack gives users more finished clips.
The Sci-Fi Neon mod: pack gives users more control.
That is the main distinction.
The smp: edition is for direct use. It is simple, clean, and ready to play.
The mod: edition is for performers who want to go further. It gives access to stems, rhythmic variants, reframed formats, and more ways to build, layer, and control the visual result during a set.
This makes the mod: pack more suitable for:
VJs,
live visual artists,
electronic music performers,
LED stage designers,
club visuals,
festival visuals,
installation work,
ultra-wide display content,
vertical screen content,
audiovisual performance.
It is still practical, but it gives much more room for improvisation.
A More Playable VJ Pack
The direction behind this upgrade is simple: a VJ pack should not only be a folder of video files.
It should be playable.
The clips need to look strong as finished pieces, but they should also give performers ways to respond to the music, the venue, the screen format, and the energy of the event.
The expanded Sci-Fi Neon smp: pack adds more range to the original collection.
The mod: version turns the same visual world into a more flexible performance system, with Visual Stems, beat variants, and properly rendered alternative formats.
This is the next step for Sci-Fi Neon, and also part of the wider direction for Meta Story packs: creating visual material that is cinematic, practical, modular, and ready for real live performance.
