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Getting the iChat hologram effect back

When Leopard was released a lot of folks (well okay, just Star Wars geeks, but nonetheless) lamented the loss of the hologram style iChat AV effect demonstrated back at WWDC. Well for those folks, a little birdy told me that the Quartz Composer file for this effect can be downloaded here (download link). Just pop it into your /Library/Compositions folder, restart iChat and it should be available as one of the video effects. This file was apparently taken from one of the earlier developer builds of Leopard.

If you want a different take on the same idea, there's also a fan made version over at Mac Rumors.

When Leopard was released a lot of folks (well okay, just Star Wars geeks, but nonetheless) lamented the loss of the hologram style iChat...
 

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Ben Perry

link seems to be broken....i'd love to get this one

cheers

November 08 2007 at 8:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
PSM

The chat effects haven't been working great for me because the wall across from my desk is kind of an off-white and blends in with skin tones too much. Maybe I need to paint my apartment to get iChat to work. ;-)

October 31 2007 at 10:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sarsipius

Hi everybody

Could I use video and video effects with iChat 4 using Google Talk ?

Thanks

October 31 2007 at 6:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
RobCon

Does anyone know how to remove backgrounds in Photo Booth? I stupidly moved the qtz file into an empty spot and now I've got this creepy hologram sitting behind me.

October 31 2007 at 12:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Montezume

Well alot from the ichat keynote isnt possible in release version right?
the one were he puts his mouth into a picture, and even flips the screen upside down are not available :(
i liked the upside down one :P

October 30 2007 at 8:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gene

@BrianEnigma: The security screensaver IS in the final Leopard release, but it isn't installed by default. You can find it in the Developer tools (you have to install Developer tools separately).
Developer>Examples>Quartz Composer>Compositions>Screen Savers
You'll also find the "Retro" screensaver there which turns your screen into an old, shaky amber monitor.

October 30 2007 at 6:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bizzle

Brian:

It's available if you install Xcode. It isn't all that special though.

For those having trouble getting it to show in Photo Booth, you have to replace one of the user defined effects in EffectsOrdering.plist within the Photo Booth app package. Once you've put the .qtz file in the main Contents/Resources folder of the app, just removing the trailing slash and make sure you are capitalizing the name the same way as the file is capitalized. Just enter the filename, rather than filename+extension. Restart photo booth and it should show on your last pane of effects.

October 30 2007 at 6:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
johnwillo

Both the sepia and the security screen savers are included with the Developer Tools that come on the Leopard Install DVD. Install the Developer Tools, then look for the screen saver files at /Developer/Examples/Quartz Composer/Compositions/Screen Savers. Put the files from there into /Library/Screen Savers, and you will be able to use them.

October 30 2007 at 6:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian Enigma

I'm still waiting for someone to release the security camera screensaver that was shown in some of the earlier Leopard betas, but isn't in the final release.

October 30 2007 at 6:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ajvankesteren

It *should* work in PhotoBooth- there's a short how-to on the mac rumors forum (haven't got link right now, it involves copying the qtz file into the resources folder of PhotoBooth and editing a plist). I can't get it to activate in PhotoBooth however, the effect just doesn't show up...

October 30 2007 at 6:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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