The central source for quartz composer creations.

Quartz Composer

Quartz Composer is Apple's node-based tool for building real-time graphics on Mac OS X. You build a composition by wiring patches together rather than writing code, and it renders as you work. Compositions are saved as .qtz files and can run as screensavers, iTunes visualisers, QuickTime movies, or layers inside other applications.

It shipped with Apple's Graphics Tools and Xcode downloads from Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) onward, and was deprecated in macOS Catalina (2019). The last release was 4.6.2. To open .qtz files now you need an older Mac OS X version or a virtual machine running one.

A Quartz Composer composition running in VDMX 6.

Reference

The reference explains the patch model, the way a composition is evaluated, and the coordinate system. The patches and plug-ins page is a list of the built-in patches and the main third-party packs (Kineme, v002, 1024 and others). There are also notes on notable compositions and a FAQ.

Related tools

VDMX Real-time video performance software for macOS.
Vuo Node-based visual programming environment for macOS.
Origami Interface prototyping tool. Originally a set of Quartz Composer patches.