This is so flippin’ cool.  You can now watch me paint, create and animate in real-time while interacting and chatting with me and others here on the site!  Click here for my “live” page.

How does this work?

I have set up an account through the most-excellent UStream.tv.  (You can go there for more details about the UStream service.)  The result of this affiliation is that I can now broadcast LIVE streaming video from my studio. 

I currently have the ability to broadcast my computer screen and from a camera in my studio.  This means that you can come to ChrisOatley.com to watch my art happen in real-time.

When will I be on-the-air?

The most general answer to this question is “as often as possible.” 

I am in a freelance-heavy phase of life right now.  I spend a large portion of my life at my computer working on all kinds of various projects.  This means that I currently have the opportunity to broadcast very often. 

However, for many of many of my freelance projects, I have to sign nondisclosure agreements which would restrict my ability to broadcast while working on those projects.  So, whenever I am working on a personal project or a professional one that is not “undisclosed,” I will have the freedom to broadcast.

Notifications:  You can follow me on Twitter if you want to receive notifications when I am about to start a new broadcast.

Computer Performance: I have tested this process and it seems that my computer is powerful enough to run Photoshop and the broadcast at the same time.  The possibility remains that larger image or animation files could bog down my computer to the point of inhibiting the broadcast, but only time will tell.

Future Lifestyle Shifts:  If I go to work for another studio in the future, I may not be able to broadcast while I am at the studio.  We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

UStream has a lot of live, online ‘shows.’  Will we be seeing any live shows here at ChrisOatley.com?

I sure hope so.  I have been lining up interviews for my podcast and I would love to see some of those happen as live video.  ...which would include viewer interaction.  You always ask good questions and it would be great if you could present your own good questions to whoever I happen to be interviewing at the time.

I also hope to broadcast other interesting things like zoo drawing sessions, collaboration meetings that I have with other artists and jam sessions with my musician friends.

How does this new feature relate to Chris Oatley’s ArtCast?

My plan is to broadcast live as often as possible and to record-and-release only select portions of the live broadcasts as podcast episodes.

Obviously, I won’t be able to record everything that I broadcast live.  While broadcasting, I have the option to record.

Example:  If I were to paint for twelve hours straight, I would love to broadcast that entire painting session.  However, I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind sitting and watching me paint for twelve hours straight, notwithstanding the novelty of live streaming. ...not to mention how huge that video file would be... So when I broadcast all day long, I will only hit that ‘record’ button if something particularly interesting comes up. I hope to have live Q&A sessions during or at the end of the broadcast.  I might record only the Q&A and release that as a podcast episode.

Focus:  I will not be able to talk through or interact with viewers for the entire painting session.  I’ll be “in the zone” and focused on the task at hand.  When I am streaming those long broadcasts, the cool part will be that viewers can check in throughout the day to see how the painting is coming along or ask an occasional question.

Just go to the “live” page at ChrisOatley.com and click on the huge ‘play’ arrow in the middle of the video window.  Its that simple.  You can also see a teeny-tiny video in the top-left corner of the main blog page.

How does one use the chatroom?

I currently have it set up so that you do not need a UStream account to chat.  Just type a message into the lowest region of the chat window and hit ‘send.’ 

However, if I end up with crazy people spamming my chatroom or being jerks, I will have to turn on the setting that requires people to sign into UStream in order to chat.  We’ll just have to see how it goes...