Tuesday, April 29, 2014

EP Dome video

Here is the video I developed for Exploration Place's Boeing Dome Theater. This work was rejected based on a change of direction at Exploration Place.
I would note the issues, banding, arising from the use of 256 color depth(8 bit). This file was sent to the Boonshoft museum, only as an example for them to check their final renders.
The master that the Boonshoft  rendered from was a series of .png files with a color Bit Depth of 48.
They converted the master using Evans and Sutherland proprietary software to a "dome master".
I have worked on this project for just over two years with most of the time spent on file formats and CODECs as Evans and Sutherland formats are not well defined. They want you to use their software. Blender software provided the animation and all rendering.

Reminder

We will have John Harrison visiting today to further introduce PD. Thanks-

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Combining Audio and Images


There are methods of converting an image to audio and representing audio as an image. With these techniques, I wanted to marry an audio track with its artwork, so that the two take on a sonic and visual unity, both aesthetically and literally.

The original track with artwork:




This is an audio track I made by sampling Daria by Cake and appropriating an alphabet flashcard from the 1970's. First, the audio is represented as an image, the frequencies being plotted out over time (as a square, so it fits the album art format.)



Compare the waveform to the multi-track playlist in my digital audio workspace. Notice the louder parts in each and the climax at the end.













Now, I take the album artwork and convert it to sound. This is what it sounds like:



Here's a better view of the image represented as sound waves. The lowest portions of the image start at 1000 Hz, ending with the highest parts of the image at 8000 Hz.

























Finally, I take the two files and combine them with the respective original file. Now, we get an album cover that looks like this:





















And sounds like this.





This exact process isn't purely mechanical. Because I made specific aesthetic choices pertaining to the combination of each media, the process still relies heavily on the human element. 

If I were to combine them truly equally, it would result in increasingly less palatable noise and unrecognizable artwork. I believe that if I were to strictly adhere to this 50/50 principle, the artwork would lose aesthetic value and gain conceptual value. 

The dichotomy that emerges here represents right brain/ left brain interaction. The right brain, creative and adventurous, will create something aesthetically pleasing. However, the logical left brain will favor something conceptually consistent and rigid. For this project, I will create both right and left brained versions of this track utilizing the process demonstrated above. The final results will be presented alongside each other for comparison.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Unedited footage of handshakes. experiment of touch and relationships

2d tracking example


Here is a 2d plane track and croma key matte of a training plate produced by
I used the first plate Painting
Here is the finished work

The first step is to establish a planar track by tracking the blue targets on the green plane.
The tracks are used to lock a plane to the key space. the Cute Camel image is then surfaced to the plane.
The next step is to matte and overlay of the arm and daub over Cute Camel.
 A green keyer  is  composited and set to key out green with special attention to edges.
This leaves the arm and daub overlaying the image with the blue targets still visible.
Next a blue keyer is added and set, as for the green keyer.
There is a remaining issue with the camel moving in the plane, that is caused from the background plate being 1.33 to 1 pixel ratio while camel is 1 to 1.
Note all work done in Blender 2.7. Here is a blender screen shot.


Demonstration


Saturday, April 5, 2014

Comments on The Creative Commons


The Creative Commons:

The Creative Commons is a place where creative works will be presented to a public audience. At the time of the publication of the work referenced(class reading assignment published 1980s), this presentation of work had a limited audience based on the media and distribution system in use at that time.

Physical works, as an example, painting, and sculpture were shown, as now, in spaces set aside for the their viewing. To reach those individuals that decided what works were to be displayed, involved creating slides and mailing those slides along with appropriate supporting materials. This process was both slow an expensive. The time based works, as an example, films were distributed to theaters for viewing. To create a film involved, as now, creating an idea and a production road map. From there filming using formats from 8 mm to 70 mm  limited; by the unavoidable cost of the media, production facilities, and limited distribution, those able to work in the media. Simply getting creative works to a public was both time consuming and expensive, and the distribution system was archaic and centrally organized.

I will assume that the Creative Commons has been subsumed into the Digital Domain.
What this means is that almost anyone can publish almost anything, and it will have a potential distribution of millions of viewers. Slides, as we are seeing, are literally being thrown away, The perspective that is being put forward is that it is now more important to limit what is in the digital domain than to encourage the entrance of more information into it. With the entrance of Government into this area with the enactment of COPA
HIPAA
While HIPAA is not specifically an online limiting act, it works to establish a basis for government intervention.
With the governments national and state enacting laws to make it a crime to post, for example, child pornography, or terrorists related material such as bomb making. The trend is escalating with California and other laws concerning "revenge porn".
As an aside I would note that the United States outlawed Alcohol, and that ensued from a campaign in many ways similar to what is being waged against freedom of expression in the digital domain.
What to do, lean back and enjoy the show. The first to go, is Net Neutrality.
 Next most likely, will be porn as it is a "low hanging fruit". The major copyright holders have, and will continue to, set limits on "fair use". Our government and other governments will, as has already begun, limit that digital domain content that does not agree with their agendas.  


Remember: You do not have a freedom if you choose not to use it.

Dean