DANIELS: Dogboarding

DANIELS: Dogboarding:re-blog from Motionographer

Dogboarding from DANIELS on Vimeo.


The Daniels continue down their path as one of my favorite innovators of the past year with their latest film, “Dogboarding.”

We can wait to share what they’ve got in store for F5!

Matthias Hoegg: Thursday

Matthias Hoegg: Thursday:re-blog from Motionographer

Thursday from Matthias Hoegg on Vimeo.

Matthias Hoegg recently joined us to answer some questions about his short film, Thursday. It’s an everyday love story in the not so distant future, where ubiquitous e-access doesn’t necessarily guarantee a connection (and some blackbirds battling technology thrown in too).

Made as his final project at the Royal College of Art, it was recently honored with a BAFTA nomination in the Short Animation category. After a successful festival run, it’s making its full-length online debut here. Huzzah!

Our interview with Matthias after the jump.

The Story

I started out wanting to make a film about everyday life in the future. I thought that a lot of sci-fi and forecasts for the next decades tend to portrait humans as rather cold and anonymous. They always seem to be completely in tune with their super-efficient high tech environment. I wanted to portray a futuristic world and add some friction, some everyday frustration that we experience when we interact with technology today, but also moments that make our mundane lives worthwhile.

With this rather loose idea of the narrative I started doing some experiments for the film’s visual style. In retrospect I also seem to have stumbled upon a lot of the inspiration for the film in one afternoon on my summer holiday visiting my sister in Calgary, Canada. I went up onto a viewing platform in the television tower in the town center and looking through the glass floor, I was struck by the systematic, grid like arrangement of the relatively new North American city. Right after that I went to a museum of the local history and discovered traditional American quilts, which became a big influence on the style as well.

The Look

A lot of these bold graphic quilt patterns seem to suggest three-dimensional geometry. Back home in London I started experimenting with a 3 dimensional interpretation of these patterns using the grid structure that is inherent in 3D. I ended up with these modular designs of the cityscapes that became the setting for Thursday.

I also explored other kinds of patterns that seemed to evoke a sense of everyday environments, like Eduardo Paolozzi’s mosaics on the walls of Tottenham Court Road Underground Station. Paolozzi collaged various patterns and technical plans into what looks like big cross sections of our futuristic lives.

I was also interested in the corporate designs of Transport for London, patterns of tube seats and early adverts for public transport that present the underground as a brave new invention, which just blends into our everyday routines nowadays.

What was the production timeline like? How much time was spent in planning vs. animation? How fluid vs. locked was the edit?

I had all of my final year, from September 2009 to June 2010, at the RCA to work on Thursday. I spent the first three months coming up with designs and experimenting with 3D patterns before putting together an animatic. I did a lot of “test screenings” to get first responses, and probably did five different animatics before I arrived at something that I was happy to lock down. A lot of shots were changed, all the way through to the last minute.

How early on did sound factor into the project?

Sound was a big part of the project and I worked closely with Berlin-based Sound Designer Marian Mentrup, who I had met at the Leipzig Documentary and Animation Festival in 2009 when Thursday was in its early stages.

After seeing my grid-like designs for the cityscape Marian suggested that the soundscape could follow an equally regimented structure. He suggested that we edit the film to a metronome, so that all the shots fit into a sort of time-grid. We wanted to create the impression that the lives of the people in Thursday are organized in a very stubborn way, that they’re going through a strict routine. A lot of people have mentioned that we’ve created a perfect stereotype of a German-German collaboration, but I hope you can take it with a pinch of salt.

Working with this fixed timing reference made it possible to exchange blocks of sound and animation in the process. Often Marian would give me the sound effects for, say, the cleaning vehicle, the alarm clock or the traffic in the city, and I would do the animation based on this time reference.

What were your biggest challenges? Any happy accidents?

One of the biggest challenges was to convince people that the characters were going to work, although they’re pretty sterile and graphic and I think a lot of characterization came through the movement. I also spent a lot of the last few weeks of the project changing the shots at the very end until I came up with something that I was pleased with. I wanted some the narrative to tie up at the end without forcing a conclusion.

A lot of the sound effects were developed by Marian, playing around on his newly bought analog synthesizer. I was a bit skeptical about his improvisations at first, but it turned out to be a really handy way of blocking out the atmosphere for each shot in real time.

What are you personal feelings on cities?

I’d be scared not to live in a big city. If your neighbors don’t know you they’re not going to judge you for staying in your bedroom for two months to finish your graduation film.

In lieu of a celestial viewing room, where would you take someone on a date?

My most recent date with my girlfriend was a long walk through the docklands in East London, past the Thames Flood Barrier, the Tate and Lyle Sugar Factory and a big rusty Recycling Plant, all the places that are normally hidden from view. The biggest benefits was that it looked nothing like the London we see every day. Anywhere to get a bit of perspective, even if it’s not up in space…

Where I didn’t take my girlfriend was the BAFTAs, something I’ll probably be made to regret for a long time. Apparently I have a particular sort of blindness when it comes to spotting celebs, which is no help in a situation like that at all, and she would have been pretty happy to help out. I took Marian instead, which seemed fair, seeing as he made one half of the film.

Why Thursday?

I called it Thursday because I wanted a title that evokes a very mundane, familiar setting. Thursday is approaching the weekend, so you might treat yourself to a little escape from your everyday life, knowing you’ll still have to come back to it the next day. I also considered calling it “Lovebirds”. My last film was called August. The titles seemed to work for the films, although I should really try to snap out of the pattern of using time descriptions next time.

What are you up to next?

At the moment I’m directing two spring-themed sequences for Cbeebies, the Pre-School Kids’ branch of the BBC. It’s character based, 2D and quite snappy, cutesy and colorful stuff and very fun and refreshing to work on.

I’ve also been experimenting with Raster or Picket Fence Animation, the process where you merge several frames of animation into a single still image which animates by dragging a grid across it. I’d like to develop this into a sort of Animation/Graphic Novel hybrid.

I’d definitely like to make another Short Film a little further down the line, which will be a lot more open in terms of technique and will probably involve camera and object tracking and more loose, graphic imagery.

Right now my emphasis is more on commissioned work though and when I’m not directing at Beakus I’m freelancing at different places in London, from more traditional animation studios through to branding and motion graphics. I’m really happy to live in London, where it’s possible to jump between companies and keep developing your work in different contexts.

If you’re lucky enough to be in one of the following cities, Thursday (and some other great shorts) will be on the big screen at these upcoming festivals:

April 12 – 17: Filmfest Dresden, Germany

April 26 – May 1: AniFest 2011, Prague, Czech Republic, in competition

May 3 – 8: 18 Internationales Trickfilm Festival Stuttgart (ITFS), Stuttgart, Germany, in Student Film Competition

May 3 – 8: Animayo, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

June 6 – 11: Annecy International Animation Festival, Annecy, France

Credits

Sound Design and Music by Marian Mentrup

“Thursday’s Space Waltz” written and performed by Marian Mentrup

Published by Kobrow Musikverlag

Additional Animation by Aaron Lampert

Additional Modeling by Mattias Bjurström

Foley Artist Günther Röhn

Mixed at Talking Animals Studio Berlin

Thank You:

RCA Animation 2010, Lauri Warsta, Kristian Andrews, Sylvie Bringas, Sergio Cameira, Tony Fish, Tim Webb, Deborah Levy, Jenny Bull, Steve Smith, Rotor Film Berlin, Passion Pictures, Anette Jung

© Royal College of Art and Matthias Hoegg

2010

Genki Sudo「WORLD ORDER」の”MACHINE CIVILIZATION”フル

須藤元気（Genki Sudo)「WORLD ORDER」の”MACHINE CIVILIZATION”フル:re-blog from Motionographer

Imagine and OK GO video, but with a Japanese spin. Okay now stop imagining and click play!

Free Handheld VJ: pikilipita’s SUPER PIKIX comes to Caanoo Mobile Game Console

Free Handheld VJ: pikilipita’s SUPER PIKIX comes to Caanoo Mobile Game Console:re-blog from Create Digital Motion


There’s a special kind of genius that makes you transform any game system into a live visual tool. Whatever that force is, it’s strong with pikilipita. He’s build VJ software for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Game Park GP2X as well as the PlayStation 2, all released free. Now, he adopts the Korean game console Caanoo for a new title, Super Pikix. Here, we get a first look and talk to its talented creator.

Tap the analog controls (ah, tactile feedback) or touch the screen, and video clips respond with slick effects. The interface is stunningly elegant, with minimal layers atop the output. It’s definitely a software achievement, but pikilipita’s own aesthetic shines, too, from the interface design to the content, as you can see in the video.


Powered by a fully open source, Linux-based handheld video game console – the latest from hacker-friendly Game Park of South Korea – the hardware and software fuse for some impressive functionality. Features:

• Pocketable VJing with a rechargeable battery
• Touch screen and analog control input
• PAL and NTSC composite video out
• SD card storage for your clips and content
• 320×240 video output (yep, VJ like it’s 1999!)
• Two video layers with blending, special effects
• Playlists

You need a special video format called kouky, but he’s got all the info you need on this site to make this a entirely viable VJ solution. With Android, while powerful, presenting some limitations for hackers – and no analog video output on many devices – the Super Pikix is a nice alternative for people who want mobile open source visuals and still love their analog game controls.

The creator explains his thinking.

CDM: Why did you choose this particular console?

The Caanoo, is the latest device from the manufacturer Gamepark Holdings as the successor of the GP2X console. The GP2X had two main issues: short battery life & low quality PAL/NTSC video-out. Since the Caanoo had adressed those, it seemed natural to move the portable VJ software Pikix to this new platform.

Have you considered any others platforms?

I still wish to port Super Pikix to the Nokia N900 phone, it might be come very soon. I’m regularly challenged by friends and other live performers to develop a VJ sowftare for the iPhone platform… Looks like I have to do something for it

How do you personally use this live? What’s your rig / performance approach?

I make the most of the “mobile” possibilities of the console… Will have a video report soon of my latest show as part of a duo of performers.

I’ll get back to you again about this! It could be a topic for another article

Utter brilliance:

http://www.pikilipita.com/superpikix/

Augmented Dancing: Kinect Maps Video Onto a Moving Body

Augmented Dancing: Kinect Maps Video Onto a Moving Body:re-blog from Create digital motion

Make the Line Dance from 1024 on Vimeo.


As input device, Microsoft’s Kinect has its shortcomings – largely summed up by saying that you don’t always want to be waving your arms around through space just to accomplish a task.

But one place Kinect really shows the potential of mainstream computer vision is in its ability to track the body. And that means some serious possibilities for making human beings into dynamic projection surfaces, augmenting their bodies with projected imagery. I remember some frustrating experiments with this on my own, working in a residency a few years ago at Dance Theater Workshop.

Francois Wunschel writes in with an early test session of the technology, and it’s already looking compelling. Latency remains a bit of a challenge – fast movements mean your body gets ahead of the projection. But there are moments of the minimal, sketch-like visuals that are simply sublime.

In order to prove the concept, they’re hacking together a lot of tools – Kinect with OSCeleton with Apple’s Quartz Composer with Cycling ’74′s Max for Live running in Ableton Live with projection-mapping tool MadMapper. But that can be a good way to get a prototype going quickly, and it should certainly be possible to do something with just one tool.







More info on their blog:

http://1024d.wordpress.com/

They’ve also posted lovely long-exposures of the effect:



This isn’t becoming Create Kinect Motion, don’t worry, but it is fascinating to watch this evolve. And if you’re in New York this weekend, there’s a hacklab going on. I can’t make it – visiting my father in Florida – so if you can, take some photos and video and notes and report back!

VoxelHack – Sunday, March 27th – NYC (1pm – 5pm)

And if you’re not in NYC, which of course the vast majority of you aren’t, you’ll be pleased to know this:

We will also be working on two new resources for the community:

http://openvoxel.org and http://wiki.openvoxel.org which we hope will

come to address some of the needs of people and organizations working

with this technology.

Bodoni Bedlam, pop-up book

Bodoni Bedlam, pop-up book:re-blog from Polkadot

Bodoni Bedlam, a pop-up book written, illustrated and constructed by Victoria Macey, talented graphic designer from California. Take a look…


Bodoni Bedlam from Victoria Macey on Vimeo.

Lexus 3D Projection

Lexus 3D Projection:re-blog from Computerlove

8 minutes of show created for the launch of the Lexus CT 200h in France.

The Panini Projection

Art + Computational Aesthetics Call, and a Delicious Panoramic Projection Nerd-Out: re-blog from Create digital motion


As the level of knowledge and expertise in visual expression and science continues to explode, so, too, do gatherings on these topics grow in importance. Allen Bevans writes to bring readers’ attention to a call for works for a seriously sophisticated conference in Vancouver:

I’m a long-time reader of both CDMs, and I also happen to be co-chairing the Art track of the Computational Aesthetics 2011 conference, which takes places August 5-7 in Vancouver this year (just before SIGGRAPH). The conference goal is to build bridges between the Arts and Technology communities, with a special focus on visual art and related computational tools. Specifically, we are soliciting artworks and papers that emphasize the role of software creation as an aesthetic cultural activity. The call for participation is here:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/conference/cae-sbim-npar-2011/CAe/CallForArtworks

The theme is broad – “the role of software creation as an aesthetic cultural activity” – and the larger categories are relevant to Motion readers and the work many of you are doing:

artworks that employ real-time visual processing;

artworks that employ computer graphics on the web;

2D or 3D artworks that run on stand-alone consoles;

virtual worlds created for the web;

Artist presentations, posters or screenings that explore topics related to computer graphics, modeling, and/or real-time visuals; and

Prints, pictures or artifacts produced through custom-built software-tools.

That’s a profound question, what cultural and aesthetic impact software making has. If you’re wondering what kinds of topics have been covered in past, you can find backlogs at:

http://www.computational-aesthetics.org/

Last year’s program leads down a topic that spans photography, lenses, the science of perspective, and the history of art. If you’re ready to jump down the rabbit hole – or fly off toward the vanishing point – there’s a fantastic set of resources along with the paper last year on the topic of the Pannini Projection. (Mmmmm… pannini.)

http://vedutismo.net/Pannini/

The video at top explains how the clever use of projection – and lessons from the techniques of painting – could facilitate “ultra wide video.”

ALS1-demo presents a 30 second HD video clip, taken with a Canon EOS 7D, in 3 different projections. First, as shot with a 10mm fish-eye lens, horizontal field of view about 125 degrees. Next, reformatted to Panini projection with Panini-Video, same field of view. Third, reformatted to rectilinear projection, cropped to about 110 degrees wide. Finally, the Panini clip again.

The Panini version is the most natural looking of the three. In the fish-eye view, the curvature of straight lines is obvious, and things at the edges of the image seem to ‘writhe’ as the camera moves. The rectilinear view shows nice straight lines, but the edges are noticeably stretched and seem to ‘stream’ with camera motion. This would be even more obvious in the full width image (which would not fill the frame vertically). The Panini view keeps verticals straight, and is relatively free of both ‘writhing’ and ‘streaming’ effects. It looks more like an ordinary moderate wide angle view, than the hyper-wide-angle view it actually is.

See also an image of software, below, from the same article.

Now, this sort of heavy math may not be the cup of tea of everyone here on this site – at least not in terms of what you might present – but I can imagine the conference could have lots to offer presenters and audience members alike, and getting the call here on CDM might even expand the breadth of their programming. Have at it!

And, in the meantime, now I want to explore the possibilities of perspective.

SebastiAn – Embody

SebastiAn – Embody:

It’s happening. SebastiAn is finally coming out with his next album called Total later this year and he’s just released the music video for his first single Embody. As always the video is directed by Ed Banger artist extraordinaire So-Me who does an outstanding job with it. I knew he’d be doing good things this year after I heard his Uffie 2006 Parties Remix last year. 2007 is officially back in full swing people! New Justice, SebastiAn, MSTRKRFT.. I haven’t been this happy about electronic music in a long time and things can only get better from here. Everything changed in 2007, and now everything is about to change again.

COPY!!!!

COPY!!!!: