3D Perception in Animation

Recent Seminar Postcard Responses

2008-12-01T23:47:00.000-08:00

Mike Patterson & Candace Reckinger
- A-ha video, "Take on Me" re-interpretted

XSI Face Robot & Ice tools
- inspired me to look up XSI Mod tools

Hanson Robotics
- inspired me to search for other robotic applications

Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger Postcard

2008-11-12T01:38:00.000-08:00

I figured this time around I'd submit a true example of my thought process during seminars. I often draw abstract art like this during seminar (more examples can be found on my deviantart page, almost all of them from seminar: http://suddenly537.deviantart.com/gallery/ ). I usually tend to draw these images between films to occupy my hand. I draw abstract textures like this because it takes minimal concentration, and I can listen to the speaker while I work (as compared to doing something complex, which would distract me too much). There are examples I've labeled as "Therapy", which basically feature sentences written over and over again in a random order on the page, which I draw in the darkness, not looking at what I'm doing, while watching the films.

I'm submitting this abstract piece as my postcard this week because I've been doing postcards that represent emotional responses to the films we've seen, but I haven't yet touched upon my thought process -between- the films, or what's happening in my mind during the films. That, and I rather like this piece, so I may as well use this as my breaking out postcard for the abstract pieces I draw during class : )

Science & the Five Senses

2008-11-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

The New York Academy of Sciences is hosting a 5 part lecture series this week called "Science and the City Science of the Five Senses".

Here is an excerpt:
In this stimulating series, scientists at the cutting edge of sense research team up with cultural icons—including a chef, an illusionist, a filmmaker, an author, and a songstress—to excite each of our senses and explain the science behind your responses.

Jonah Lehrer's blog

Interactive Flash Animation Head

2008-10-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Here's some inspiration for our final Flash Animation project.
Feed The Head. Willie & Laura are going to work on the design.

Jake's Final Project Topic

2008-10-29T02:12:00.000-07:00

Paul Ekman has been studying the human face for a number of years and has compiled quite a reputation (and papers) on the subject. He is especially interested in human expression and the perception of human expression. Earlier he has published, along with his partner, a 500 page FACS manual, which allows certification in the study of this topic. While that sounds fascinating, I plan to read his slightly smaller book, Emotions Revealed, and create a final project from this. I will also try to include the blog from last year's seminar on the human face, hopefully without copying. This is the (rather long, but interesting!) article that fascinated me about this topic, other than the usual fascination I've held about the human face from before.

Jake

Postcard Response to Hanson, Zeno and all future androids

2008-10-28T23:31:00.001-07:00

David Hanson said in 60 years Zeno and all future prototypes of robots will have brains equivalent to or greater than the human mind. We may one day walk among them, talk among them.... And go to rock concerts with them and scream in the front row....

Visual Music 2 -- Interactive Mirror!

2008-10-26T18:19:00.001-07:00

Visual Music postcard 2

2008-10-22T17:23:00.001-07:00

I was ill last Wednesday, and was unable to make it to seminar. However, I heard that Oskar Fischinger was presented in seminar, so I watched a few of his films to make up for my absence. This postcard is inspired by his work, and incorporating music visually into the inspired work.

Visual Music postcard 1

2008-10-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

Wow! Blogger did something truly strange to my drawing. It's meant to be blue, but it uploaded as red. Strange.

I took a screenshot of one of the Electric Sheep screensaver .avi files and drew a sheep wearing headphones on top of it via tablet. This postcard was meant to be posted last week. I took slight offense to the Electric Sheep visual music presentation. I've used the Electric Sheep screensaver for 15 months now, and I've actively participated in the creation and voting for new "bred" fractal formulas. I found the idea very intriguing, and I had discussed with a friend that it'd be cool if someone actually went ahead and made fractal patterns to display as film, but to actually use the ELECTRIC SHEEP program to generate video is quite controversial. The formula no longer belonged to the creator. It became open source the minute he released it for the public to contribute to, so when I see that he's been submitting this to film festivals and making money from it, I find it ethically wrong. It's forever marred my impression of my screen saver. I try not to think of him.

chia-chi's topic about sound

2008-10-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

I am going to do some research about the sound relation between real life and dream world. Sometimes, we heard the sound from real life but the image is different from the dream world. For example, we might hear a monster screaming in the dream, but it actually is an alarm ringing in the real life. the sound in the dream is very interesting to me.

Yin's idea for the final project

2008-10-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do something about the Synethesia in my final project.
The idea is about how those synesthetes feel about the world through their extrodinary perception.

Visual Music Presentation I - Contemporary Works

2008-10-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

The simple light design behind this summer's Radiohead Tour, allowed for morphing transformations in mood, temperature, and even weather (it sometimes resembled rain), based on subtle color and animation changes. Here, I was inspired to kaleidoscope an anonymous's snapshot of the stage.

Postcard Response to Sofian/Panushka

2008-10-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

Sheila's presentation inspired me to browse for contemporary paint-on-glass works. However, upon discovering this, I need search no further.

Gordon Matta-Clark

2008-10-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

Postcard inspired by Dennis Tupicoff's most recent film, "Chainsaw".

Quote taken from this Artnet Article on artist Gordon Matta-Clark. He used to cut slits in existent buildings and structures. By (literally) altering our expected framing of architectural spaces, he adjusted our view of the environment.

chia-chi's postcard in response to Dennis Tupicoff

2008-10-08T17:44:00.000-07:00

The story was told in a very interesting way. People can feel it.

Chia-chi's postcard in response to Tom Sito

2008-10-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

Tom mentioned about attraction of a character. The appeal of a character is also very important principle. The viewer could feel the character is interesting or not by the appeal. I decided to make a character which people can make a guess at the personality.

Postcard response to Dennis Tupicoff

2008-10-08T15:34:00.001-07:00

Dennis Tupicoff has painful memories of the dogs of his past, and they are a recurring theme in his works, very often associated with death. From his work "The Darra Dog", I felt desolation and grief, and can only imagine the inner turmoil that still must plague Tupicoff to the point of making an entire film dedicated to his pained memories, as a response to his daughter's request to adopt a dog into the family. I wanted my postcard to reflect grief, to visually represent someone's emotions and heart crushed at the loss and/or death of one's dog / "man's best friend".

Yin's Postcard in Response to Kathy's Presentation

2008-10-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

Kathy said she is deeply influenced by the Renaissance. And her art work used different creative technologies while relects the influence of Renaissance.

Max Msp, Video art, & Perception

2008-10-03T14:27:00.001-07:00

"Our eyes are not cameras. Everybody thinks of the eye as a camera, and it sends images to your brain and then the images are interpreted by the brain...There is another way to see that it is tied to motion. Perception is this movement from one point to another, not necessarily the image you get from one vantage point. It's the difference in images that you get from 2 vantage points" - Video artist, David Tinapple, paraphrased from his video interview here

Featured on the Cycling '74 website, David used MAX msp to have final cut pro analyze Bush and Kerry's presidential debates, and then edit together all their moments of silence. He was interested in the breaths, gaps, and tiny sounds that the men made. He wanted to condense the debate into pure gesture.

Jake's Postcard in Response to Mar and Lisa

2008-10-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

Lisa kept saying that Mar's and her work were oddly linked, so I decided to combine two themes from their works as the subject for this postcard. I used handguns because Lisa had a particularly fascinating installation playground formed around the idea that guns and children do not mix. Also, Mar had created a collaborative film that focused around the patterns of paint splatters made by a collective. I think that this postcard nicely enfolds the two ideas while generating new content based upon their juxapostion.

Robert Wilson

2008-10-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

Robert Wilson recently spoke/performed at USC. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend. However, Melissa Bouwman relayed the experience to me. Robert Wilson creates immersive theatrical environments in which the audiences inner world merges with the external landscape to such a degree that audience members often would have hallucinations. Time is completely slowed down in these performances which would last from 5 hours to 10 days. Robert worked with extensive systems for designing and configuring his performances and worked with both a deaf person and autistic person. He was interested in integrating and communicating their perceptions of reality.

Gwen Stefani in Stereo!

2008-10-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

Article excerpts copied from here:

Interscope Records and director James Cameron have partnered to produce a series of 3-D presentations that will include commercials to be shown before concert films in theaters and 3-D concerts.

A little past the two-minute mark, the music video for Gwen Stefani’s recent single, Wind It Up, finds her chained to a fence while a flurry of bubbles and snowflakes float by. Filmed in 3-D, it is a dreamlike moment in which the flurry seems close enough to touch.

As part of a newly created venture, Cameron is working with Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of the Interscope Geffen A&M record label, to produce music films, concerts and other content in 3-D to show in specially equipped theaters. Iovine and Cameron hope to deliver their first production by summer.

The venture, led by the film producer Gene Kirkwood, also represents a distinctive take on what both the music-video and the concert can be. If it works, the partners said, fans could experience a concert as if they were on stage next to U2’s guitarist, the Edge, or see the members of Kiss in full makeup perform a pyrotechnic show seemingly right in front of them, all for a fraction of the price of seeing a headline act on tour.

Iovine and Cameron have discussed with executives at Harrah’s Entertainment setting up a night club in Las Vegas where visitors would be surrounded by 3-D images and watch 3-D performances, though no deal has been struck.

Iovine also said that 3-D performances could become a new way for artists to build ties to their fans and generate much-needed revenue for the ailing music business.

Laura's Postcard Response to Sheila's Presentation

2008-10-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's hard to find an escape from abuse. There's a thick cloud of emotional and family trauma that hinders people from seeing the light, and to the victim, trying to leave may be or seem more dangerous or even more traumatizing than staying in the abusive relationship.

Postcard respnse to Shiela Sofian's presentation

2008-10-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

I feel Shiela's presentation was a very powerful and touching film. Her subject matter and content was clear. I feel its something we all can relate to when someone is in an abusive relationship.

Aesthetics & The Brain

2008-09-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

(video installation, Laurent Grasso)

In conjunction with the Phantasmagoria show @ USC Fisher Museum of Art, Irving Biederman, a neuroscientist at USC, gave a lecture on Aesthetics and the Brain.

His main point was that human beings are info-vores. Once our basic survival needs are met, it is our capacity for intelligence that improves our success in sexual and natural selection. Instinctively, we constantly scan our environment for new information and novel experiences. We're drawn to color, shape, clarity, & depth, & prefer scenes that exhibit:

Mystery (likelihood of something new)
Vista (good reconnaissance)
Refuge (to be able to see and not be seen)
Nature (as opposed to artificial, barren situations)