I struggled for a long time to visualise imagery for the installation I'm building. I finally came up with an idea to convey how the hologram is being "edited". I came up with the idea of a kind of reference grid that overlays or even slices through the image and I added a cursor. This allied with a fade effect on the subject hopefully makes it clearer what the ad is for. See below:
Following on from my experiments with importing textures I have had some success with partial transparency which you should be able to see in the snapshots below. I also tried animating the title which seems to have worked pretty well. It was handy that i found a revolve script in the library of my inventory although I would have been able to find it in the LSL resources provided by Linden Labs (who own and run SL). I still had to figure out how to make it run the right way, in the right axis and at the right speed. It helped a lot to find out that if you mouse-over the parts of the script in the editor it gives you loads of info about what variables you need in what part of the instruction (very useful!) Hope that makes sense!
On Friday we took some photos with 80mm cameras using tungsten lighting to see what effects we could achieve with our own lighting and scenery. We then developed the film in the processing labs ourselves. It was a lot of fun watching the photos we'd taken materialise before our eyes! Kewl!
This is a shot of me that I thought might look good for a film noir poster or something. It's got a realy short depth of field unfortunately, so it isn't ideal but I like the mood...
Working towards my final piece in SL today I imported a texture I created in Photoshop. This I then applied to the logo I've been building that will sit in the middle of the 3D ad. Yay!! I had to figure out where to find special characters in the character palette so I could include the registered trade mark symbol. Hopefully my plan to import a texture with transparency will prove as easy as today's task *crosses fingers*.
Ok ok! So I started building on the Collective Island and some (helpful) fellow student pointed out to me I was building in the wrong place. You can see on the pics in the previous post that I used a part of the island that looks like graph paper which is strictly forbidden. Ooops!
I have now got something that looks like what I am aiming to create (see below). I want my piece to look like a holographic representation of text. However, I also want to perform further transformations on the whole object (which is made up of linked parts). Second Life won't let me do that (as far as I know) so I need to find a way round this. I could either create the object from a single prim (difficult) or import a prim created in another application (eg Maya). Or possibly I will be able to use the inworld scripting to make the transformation I want (unlikely). OMG! What am I gonna do?
This is my favourite tutorial EVER! Its not that ground breaking. It's just that he sounds like he really can't be bothered explaining any of this. He even gets a bit sweary at the end! Reminds me of Marvin the Paranoid Android. [oo] Woo!
Anyway, here is what I managed to make using this and other resources:
My final piece will be a 3D model created in SL that represents an ad campaign for the design software package of the future. I want this to appear to be a holographic projection and I want the software to enable the designer of the future to edit in 3D. Below are some initial visualisations of my ideas:
This is my idea of what the virtual worlds of the future could look like. I anticipate they will be technologically far more advanced than they are now with a more intuitive interface and more realistic/intense visually. By 2020 I predict there will be more corporate involvement and a marketplace of worlds offering a variety of branded experiences ranging from recreation to education.
Current marketing is directed towards building up brand identity for various kinds of client - commercial and even now educational/charitable. Could the designers of the future be developing integrated identity for individuals? An avatar for the metaverse, a wardrobe for real life, a profile for social networking sites... Could people sell their identity or part of it in return for commercial advertising? Already individuals from reality tv shows are famous for being famous. They are developing a brand which can be valued and even sold. In the same way a PR firm might manage a celebrity's reputation the designer of the future could be used to build up the identity of the client in the digital media of the future.
This inventor is using old junk to produce affordable technology. Is this the future of tech? Recycling could become the most economic way to produce goods sooner than we think...
Ha ha! The gullibility of manipulators! Raises questions about the originality of the creative process though?
This is how I am visualising my animation plot. It revolves around the idea of a jug that is "drunk" and a glass that is "sober" and how they might interact. This is what I have ended up with after editing down a much longer storyboard that I came up with originally. I anticipate making this as a stop motion piece although I am reserving judgement until I have seen how the 3D software we will be introduced to works out.
I've been working with a rostrum camera and a shareware app called framethief to generate this piece of animation. I'm trying out the idea of liquid in a stop motion format to see what sort of effect I should be aiming for. I'm pleased with how this has turned out as I was expecting it to look a lot jerkier and more amateurish than it's ended up. Still lots of work to do on the timing and spacing I reckon, but this is promising. The volume issue could be a thorny problem to resolve. I didn't really pay any attention to whether the amount of liquid looked convincing as it passes between the vessels. Lets see.
I thought this looked like an interesting idea. Its a font building application that allows you to create handwritten type from scans. The possibilities for creating new and unique typefaces are amazing and there's even a handy automatic ligature feature which could turn out to be dead handy. There's no release date yet so we'll have to wait and see about price etc. After setting type the traditional way in my printmaking induction (and finding out how infuriatingly time consuming it is!) I appreciate just how much of a revolution computing brought to the world of typesetters. I also have a greater appreciation of the craft and skill it entails even now to bring text to life on page and screen.
My experiments with the concept of timing led me to create a newtons cradle animation. I'm attempting to illustrate the idea of "easing" in and out of the key frames on this clip. Admittedly I began to lose patience with the fiddly aspect of producing this. Hopefully I will be able to engage more easily when my skills with the software improve and I am able to increase the complexity of the stuff I'm making.
I really like this advert cause it emulates the effect of a flipper book very effectively. Nice.
Here is a little piece of animation I am impressed with as they have clearly seen my own attempts and DELIBERATELY copied the style! Imitation is the sincerest.. blah blah. Seriously, I think it's been really well put together if a little gloomy. Reminds me of a short that David Shrigley and Chris Shepherd directed called Who I Am and What I Want. Don't listen to the music though, it's a bit droney and liable to make you weep.
Following on from my idea of moving body art I found some guys who offer this service already! When quizzed about safety concerns over implanting lcd screens under people's skin, one reassuringly replied, "Hey dude, we're here for a good time, not for a long time!"
Clearly there's room for refinements (currently the procedure is illegal!) which will surely come about if there turns out to be a market for it. One issue that needs to be addressed is the power supply. These guys have come up with a rechargeable battery pack but they don't say what happens when it fails! Ouch!
Below is what I think such a device or techniqe would look like. The type I created in the print workshop at Vernon St by setting the traditional way and printing by hand.
This is the work of Alberto Seveso, an Italian graphic designer I discovered on the pages of a magazine. I love the way he combines the human form with illustration in Photoshop to create this haunting effect. See the sidebar for link to home page.
It's given me the idea for a kind of animated body art which would use nanotechnology to create a moving tattoo.
The combination of photography and illustration reminds me of the sort of look found in Dad's Dead which mixes up cartoons with live action. Great look.
Is this the future of clubbing? Software currently exists that can take songs bought from the internet and, using algorithms, blend them together with a result that can be compared to that of a professional dj. It is marketed as an alternative to the mix tape which could be played anywhere from your mp3 player to a party. Millions of cds are bought every year that give a professional dj's choice of music in this format and it allows the consumer to become the prosumer and put their choice of tracks together in this way without the time consuming acquisition of the necessary skills. Go to MixAlbum.com to find out more, link bar. If we look forward 10 years we see that a technological replacement for the live DJ is quite possible using the principles in this application. A robotic DJ would be able to perform every task that a DJ does now. What does this mean exactly? What does a robot need to be able to do? (Apart from turn up late/pissed wearing a yellow polyester shirt and proceed to insult the host by propositioning his girlfriend) Are DJs just glorified jukeboxes? The answer is no. Even the lowliest wedding DJ needs to tailor his choice of music to the event he is playing. A superstar jock is paid good money to encourage an audience of (largely) well informed and critical music lovers to shake their booties on the dancefloor. Whether this counts as skill or talent is one thing, replicating it in a mechanical device is quite another.
My first ever animation! Yay! Investigating the concept of weight. This is going to be a crucial issue in any work of my own as without believable (not necessarily accurate!) weighting viewers will find it difficult to get involved in the story.
Been picking up a couple of techniques on Photoshop. Look at these:
I found out how to change the colours of the dots I've been using for About Me the easiest way after spending hours looking for a colour replacement function. Of course, it's much better to fill a new layer with the colour I want and pick the blending mode that changes the colour of the dots! Thank you Mike (Flower)!
And yes, obviously, there is no quick way to create a line art or comic book effect from a photo with a filter. So you have to trace with the pen tool and use a brush that makes it look like a pen and ink was used! Easy enough, but time consuming! Melissa Clifton explains the technique in her tutorial linked to in the side bar.
As usual the creative team promoting Guinness have produced another stunning visual for the Rugby World Cup campaign! Drink it in... It's got a kind of Tim Burtonesque gothic feel to it, which seems a little incongruous for a sporting subject but somehow works brilliantly.
Benday dots are a technique Lichtenstein used to create a kind of half tone effect in his work. I aim to emulate this pattern in my About Me piece so I have been looking at ways to achieve this effect. I had some difficulty, ironically, producing this in Photoshop but had some success with a program called GIMP, an open source version of the Adobe package. I should be able to emulate this in PS but here is a sample of what I did in GIMP:
This would be the basis for a colour halftone which I will layer into the piece to give that comic book feel. I noticed that Lichtenstein normally uses it in his comic book works without giving it any kind of gradient as he is interested in the abstract composition of the space more than creating any kind of perspective or depth to the image. I will aim for the same feel to my work.
This is my idea for the composition of a piece about me. It will be a self portrait with the thought bubble filled with an interest of mine. I plan to process the image in Photoshop to make it resemble a fav artist of mine, Roy Lichtenstein, who used the comic book style to express abstract notions of form and composition. I am using a close up shot of myself as this is one of the techniques Lichtenstein appropriated from comic book artists.
See the example I have picked out below of how Lichtenstein tackled this idea:
This is a virtual reality game in which the collective will be presenting an exhibition of our work on emerging technologies. You are able to make changes to your character's appearance in the game and this is the result:
This piece, Pet Carrier No 2 by David Shrigley was on display at the Cult Fiction Exhibition I saw this week. It captured my imagination, partly because of the novel use of polyurethane foam which gives a quite alien look to an everyday object. At the same time it makes me wonder what exactly happened to the inhabitant of the carrier!
See the sidebar for linkage to more of his work.
Was invited to attend the opening of a new exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery last night. Cult Fiction: Art and Comics is an exploration of the art of the comic book, featuring the work of 16 contemporary artists and 12 leading comics and graphic novel artists.
It was good to see so much painting and sculpture influenced by this underrated art form. Particularly in this country (the UK) I think there is a view, held by both the art establishment and the general public, that comic books are for children. One lady I met at the show told me she always assumed it was "trivial", which is not an uncommon assumption, I think. I pointed out that there was more than one way to express oneself visually and that some artists clearly prefer to illustrate their literature with pictures rather than the written word. If we weren't open to the persuasion of images we wouldn't appreciate oil painting or photography, and that is clearly not the case!
I really liked the sculpture on display, especially the Jon Pylypchuk piece So then we will burn you when you are dead, sketch below:
It's a whimsical interpretation of a gathering of stuffed toys apparently debating how to dispose of their prone friend. See the side bar for a link to more of this artist's work. And a photo of what this one really looks like!
This exhibition is here in Leeds till 11th November with talks by two of the contributors, David Shrigley and Paul Gravett, taking place in that time. Tickets to both are free from the Gallery shop 0113 247 8256.
I'll leave you with a drawing of one more sculpture from the exhibition. Hairy Guy (Ballerina) Liz Craft. As you can see, I thought it was Captain Caveman, a character from a kid's tv cartoon of the eighties. So, through cultural conditioning, we all fall into the trap of thinking comics and cartoons are "for kids"!
Can't believe the irony of the father of orthodox animation (Walt Disney) collaborating with the ultimate dreamweaver (Dali)! I think this will be useful in considering what look to give an animation project of my own.
I thought if I got in to college early today I would find it easier to find a parking space. But no. I reckoned without all the uni students returning this week. I think I will have to get here about 4 am to find a space so I don't know if it's even worth driving in at all! Of course, I could park a million miles away and walk the rest of the way but then WHAT IS THE POINT OF HAVING A CAR!