XSI, Stereoscopy, & Interactive Directed Study

In Conclusion...

2008-05-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

Directed Study
Mentor: Kathy Smith
My intention was to research and explore expanded multi-media formats and new ways of presenting animated imagery that would support my thesis development. I concentrated my creative research interests on the following areas:

XSI/ 3D Animation
Mentor: Daniel Robichard
Practical development of news 3D skills and tools directly related to imagery I want to use in my thesis
Some Topics Covered:
Digital Slide Projector, Intermediate Shape Animation, More In-Depth study of lights & shadows, Displacement Maps & Extruding Polygons from B x W Images, Extruding Shapes from Vector Paths, Texture Layers, Basic Dynamics, 3D Cut-Out Animation, Exporting Camera Data to After Effects, Working with External Models, & much more. Working with Daniel was an amazing help!

AFTER EFFECTS/ Plug-ins, Filters
Mentor: Michael Patterson
I've been exploring how to create surface distortions of animated imagery to achieve a variety of lens and format effects. For thesis, I want to simulate the look of old film, hi-8 video, VHS video, HD, and looking through various lenses like a telescope. Mike Patterson suggested various effects and filters to help me give an old film* effect to my stop-motion project for his class last semester. Eric Furie helped me download these plug-ins. I was also able to experiment with a variety of old video effects for another current project*.

STEREOSCOPY/ Anaglyph
Mentors: Perry Hoberman, Lara Banks, John Helton
I am interested in making my thesis stereoscopic. Therefore, in preparation, I wanted to start researching and working with this technology now. Perry Hoberman assisted with my initial research into Stereoscopy last semester. See our website here:

I took Perry's workshop on creating Stereoscopic Images at the USC Interactive Media Lab this semester. This provided enough information for me to begin working with the Red/Cyan Stereoscopic Process. I developed an animated stereoscopic installation for Lara Banks' Brigade Parade gallery show as part of our CTAN 501 class.

I am glad that I started working with Stereoscopy now. It gave me a good taste of what it is really like to consider the "Z" plane, how shots need to be designed to truly play with depth, how this might be utilized to affect the psychology of the shot, and just how much more technical tinkering and obsessive rendering it takes! It also demonstrated the limitations of working with anaglyph stereoscopy. Color is really important to my work. If I do indeed take this on for thesis, I definitely want to work with polarized projection!

RESEARCH (beyond faculty instruction)
Web, book, & magazine based
Much of this is already documented on other blogs I've been keeping. However, I wanted to highlight some of my interesting "finds" throughout the semester on this blog as future reference. I have been researching what other animation artists are doing to push the medium of animation into expanded conceptual, visual, & media formats.

As it relates to my own work, I have been most interested in uncovering work which displays a connection between organic and digitally created work. I am curious about how this hybrid approach is being achieved regardless of whether or not the media is actually "organic" or "digital". Rather, how do artists utilize the best of both worlds?

Additionally, I have been curious about what the term "interactive" means and whether or not it would really be necessary for me to use new media interactive technology as the basic functional design of my thesis. To that end, I visited USC's Interactive Media Department. Kurosh ValaNejad gave Deborah Allison and I a thorough tour of the department and showed us current Game Media Lab research projects. I also spoke with current Interactive MFA (and recent Grad) students about the plausibility of designing my project to be interactive. Perry Hoberman recommended taking advantage of the Unity Game Engine. I might experiment with this during his Stereoscopy class I am enrolled in for Fall 2008.

In the mean-time, through this research, I concluded that tackling the technical challenges of creating an interactive thesis is beyond what I hope to accomplish as an Animation MFA student. I feel that the learning curve would take away from focusing more energy on the conceptual and visual design of the project. For now, I will concentrate on the ways in which a director can design animated projects to be interactive and immersive in psychologically engaging ways, regardless of whether or not the viewer is directly informing the outcome of the experience! In the future, I will definitely consider collaborating and experimenting more directly with interactive design.

Overall, participating in this Directed Study has allowed me to extend and expand my research interests beyond the scope of my other classes in ways which have directly informed and supported my thesis development.

Additional XSI Screen Shots

2008-05-14T00:38:00.000-07:00

This shows an example of a slight projector being attached to the shadow property of a Soft Light to project an external video (also created in XSI) onto a polygon surface. I plan to use this effect in my thesis for the point at which the main character projects images onto some trees.

Eric Hanson demonstrated how to use an ariel photograph of a landscape to create a ground plane surface in 3D using displacement maps in Maya. Daniel Robichard showed me how to apply this same effect in XSI using any b x w image. The difference here, though, is that we then extruded the geometry of the ground plane based upon the image, and applied the same texture to the surface. This example is very rough, but I would like to use this same approach for modeling the ground environments in my thesis. I am interested in seeing how I can use photographs or drawings that I have made to create models.

I imported paths I had drawn in illustrator around this tree into XSI. Using alpha channels, I extruded the geometry of the flat photographs to achieve this cookie cutter effect. I like the transparency glass effect of the teal image.

In this image, I applied the broken house textures to the front and backs of the squares. I used the slide projector effect and colored lights to apply the drawing and color to the edges of the pieces. As the bits turn in space, their textures move uniformly.

The bits were then composited in After Effects.

Wonderland

2008-05-14T00:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some more stills from the Stereoscopy project, "Wonderland". Unfortunately, the web compression minimizes the 3D depth in these images. This was a good introduction into shooting actor pixelation on a green screen, keying, and compositing. For this project and the experimental animation project, I also shot a number of live action organic special effects and combined these with digital effects in After Effects. I plan to apply a similar approach to thesis.

Interactive Thesis Show

2008-05-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

I went to the opening for USC Interactive Department's thesis show this past Saturday. See info here:

I found the conceptual intention behind Jesse Vigil's design to be particularly interesting. I also enjoyed playing the game because I was slowly guided through it by a human voice in a humorous narrative way. Here's what he says about it:
"While on the surface a game about telekinetic fish, ORIGINAL FIN is the showcase for something Jesse calls Adaptive Story Architecture. Using simple universal programming tricks and a method cribbed from the personality quizzes in women's magazines, the game uses the your own personal play style to make determinations about what will happen next in the game's story."
Unfortunately, I do not have screen shots for most of the projects.

Old Film Effect - Stop Motion Pics

2008-05-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some stills from "Twilight". They are color corrected. Old film lens effects, blur, dirt, grain, highlights, etc. have been added.

These are some examples of the original raw footage. While I liked the vibrancy of the color in some of them, such as this close up of the man, others were way too extreme, purple, and saturated. Applying effects helped to unify the look.

Joshua Davis's Generative Art

2008-05-14T00:16:00.000-07:00

Image from the OFF (International Festival for the Post-Digital Creation Culture) See here:

Joshua Davis creates programs and develops a library of imagery which visually follow and react to what he draws live.

The computer then generates semi-random images based on specific parameters. Finally, Joshua acts as the critic and editor by choosing which images to display. I appreciate his connection and interaction with setting up a process that is ultimately beyond his complete control. I find that it is that organic interaction with the environment and materials that is often missing in digital work. There is less room for happy accidents. Introducing this element of chance encounter into the work breaths more life into it.

Fitting In

2008-05-14T00:14:00.000-07:00

Jessica Rosenblatt, USC Interactive MFA 2007 student, created a project for her thesis, which provided participants with an experiential physical immersion into another time and place. Through somatically feeling what it would be like to be a woman wearing the aristocratic fashion of the time, participants gain a better taste of the era.

"Fitting In" Thesis Abstract

Night Journey

2008-05-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

I was originally inspired to create an interactive thesis through having been introduced to "Night Journey". The project uses video game technologies to explore the universal story of an individual mystic's journey towards enlightenment. It is currently being developed in collaboration between video artist, Bill Viola, and the USC Game Innovation Lab.

It seeks to expand the conceptual, visual, and experiential boundaries of what game design is used for. It asks the question, "what is the "game mechanic" of enlightenment? How can we abstract and systemize such an intensely personal, yet archetypal experience?"
See more information here:

Vibeke Sorensen

2008-05-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

Vibeke, former chair of USC's animation department, is an inspiring example of an artist who creates work beyond media boundaries. She explores time-space utilizing installation, interactivity, photography, sound, film, & hand-made touches. Here are a few examples:
Dreamscape video

Documentation of "Sanctuary"

From "Memories of Diamantina" I especially love the way in which the picture plane is both broken up and enhanced to create an alternate reflective reality overlapping memory, presence, and dreaming

MassMarket Umbrella

2008-05-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

Funny old-fashioned imagery & 3D visual effects in the style of "Being There" meets "Mary Poppins"

See the spot here:

Whimsical Cut-out Storybook Style

2008-05-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

Imaginary Forces used digital 3D animation to simulate this wonderful picture-book cut-out animation style in a title sequences for a new movie, "Nim's Island". Here are a few stills

Shilo Designs for Burma

2008-05-13T22:38:00.000-07:00

The painterly old-photography look of this video, produced as a PSA for the plight of Burma, by Shilo Design is gorgeous.

It represents the color scheme, texture, & mood direction that I am going towards for thesis.

Aaron Koblin's "Flight Patterns" and new work

2008-05-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Aaron Koblin uses mapping to create gorgeous visual imagery. See his interactive representation of real flight pattern data here:

Aaron's website

He was recently commissioned by Blip Boutique to create artwork for Interpol's new video, "Rest My Chemistry". The intention was for the work to be created for on-line interactive viewing, as opposed to for a broadcast format. See it here:
Interpol - Rest My Chemistry - by Blip Boutique

Blu

2008-05-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

Artist Blu makes amazing moving paint installations outdoors, which when documented, turn into animation.

See his new video, "Muto" here:

and his blog here:

The Magic of Stereoscopy

2008-05-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

"Lin Kayser, CEO of Iridas, describes the learning curve like this: "When people ask me where I see stereo right now, I compare it to the early days when people realized they didn't have to shoot films on a stage: they could film outdoors, shoot close-ups. That opened up a whole new visual vocabulary for film-making." With stereo, this new vocabulary has to be reinvented. "You can't do the same kinds of cuts, and set design is a whole new game since you cannot do out-of-focus backgrounds. Filmmakers are finding new ways to focus audience attention on elements in the image and new ways to create transitions."
January 2008 article on Stereoscopy

Karolina Sobecka

2008-05-12T00:29:00.001-07:00

"Karolina Sobecka makes night projections of wild animals from moving cars. The coolest thing about the project is that the movements of the animals are programmed to match the speed of the car that is projecting it."*

She writes... "as the car moves, the animal runs along it speeding up and slowing down with the car, as the car stops, the animal stops also. The framerate of the movie corresponds to the speed of the wheel rotation, picked up by a sensor. If the presence of a moving object (such as another car or pedestrian) is detected with proximity sensors, its animal "avatar" appears in the projection.
See Karolina's videos here:

Leandro Erlich

2008-05-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

Leandro Erlich's work plays with our sense of space, time, & perspective. "Swimming Pool" has 2 layers, the audience above, and the perspective of the audience below, looking up at the water distorted glass. Both see each-other as above or under water. In "Piedro" (Invisible), an invisible man's footsteps are drawn on fine sand. This reminds me of my stop-motion piece, "Twilight" in which I created this effect using animation.

Walk On Water Installation

2008-05-11T23:58:00.000-07:00

Michael Cross
"The Bridge is a series of steps which rise up out of the water in front of you as you walk from one to the next, and then disappear back underneath behind you as you go, leaving you stranded with only one step visible in front of you, and one behind. The bridge ends in the middle of the water, where you find yourself totally isolated and cut off from the shore. You return the way you came. The mixed feelings of peace, isolation, relaxation and fear that the piece elicits are powerful. The project is on-going will ultimately lead to a permanent installation in a lake.."

XSI Texture experiments

2008-04-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

Here is some work I've been doing utilizing XSI (composited in After Effects) and the wonderful texture techniques that Daniel has shown us.

Here, I've mapped images to a slide projector attached to a spot light for the edges. The other sides have the house image individually attached to them.

Stereoscopic 3D Imaging Workshop

2008-03-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

I'm going to attend this workshop at the Interactive Department on Monday.
---------------------
Stereoscopic 3D Imaging, Monday March 10, 1-5p, RZC 201 (The "ZML")

Instructor: Perry Hoberman

Recent developments in digital cinema display technologies have
brought us to the brink of a cinematic revolution: high-quality
mainstream stereoscopic 3D cinema has finally become a reality. As
stereoscopic production becomes more common, there is a growing need
for artists and designers with vision, experience and training in this
new medium. This workshop will cover the basic principles of binocular
vision, as well as the various available methods for creating and
displaying stereoscopic images.

Painterly Panoramic Natural History Dioramas in 3D!

2008-03-03T22:34:00.000-08:00

These stills from directors, Encyclopedia Pictura, are amazing. The sense of space feels like a meeting place between old-fashioned romantic landscape painting, natural history museum dioramas and 3D panoramic photography. I would love to achieve a similar sense of surreal space within a 3D environment.

Screen Effects

2008-03-03T22:18:00.000-08:00

I'm inspired by programs which alter our experience of the screen time-space field. See examples here:
Khronos Demo 1
Khronos Demo 2
Camille Utterback "Liquid Time"

Imaginary Worlds Symposium

2008-02-26T17:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a great resource for research into the design and construction of imaginary worlds, available on the Imaginary Worlds Symposium website

Imaging Gameplay – The Design and Construction of Spatial Worlds
Bernadette Flynn (Griffith University, Queensland)
read paper here

Composing Space: Cinema and Computer Gaming – The Macro-Mise en Scene and Spatial Composition.
Mike Jones (The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney)
read paper here

Representing Traumatic Space
Dirk de Bruyn (Deakin University, Victoria)
read paper here

Space Time Play - Interactive Narratives

2008-02-26T17:27:00.001-08:00

I've been researching how narratives are incorporated into interactive media design. Here are some quotes taken from the book, "Space Time Play"

"...Most existing embedded narratives take the form of detective or conspiracy stories since these genres help to motivate the player's active examination of clues and exploration of spaces and provide a rationale for his efforts to reconstruct the narrative of past events." p.59/ author Henry Jenkins

"In the case of embedded narratives, the gamespace becomes a memory palace whose contents must be deciphered as the player tries to reconstruct the plot. And in the case of emergent narratives, gamespaces are designed to be rich with narrative potential, thereby enabling the story-constructing activity of players." p.60/ author Don Carson

Indie/Experimental Video Games

2008-02-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

I've been searching around for various examples of Experimental Video Games. Having never been much of a gamer, this world is quite new and fresh to me. I am curious about what users like to see happen in their interactive experiences, what activities are satisfying. Here are some links to blog posts I have recently made on other sites.

Night Journey
Flow
Toribash
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Flipside
Katamari (of course! I even played this projected in a screening setting at Machine Gallery a few years ago)
Eternal Darkness

Introduction

2008-02-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

This blog chronicles our CTAN-593 Directed Study Research within the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts at the University of Southern California for Spring 2008. Our research will focus on exploring alternative techniques and uses of the XSI 3D program as it relates to our animation and conceptual interests.

Amanda will focus on creating 3D elements that are appropriate for an interactive environment, and on research into fine art uses of interactive media.

Melissa will focus on creating 3D elements that utilize 2D and multi-media textures, and on research into alternative art direction, design, and styles within 3D space.