Action Refraction

The Holographic Stage

Ian Garrett, York Theatre's newest Production/Design faculty member, is "involved in an experimental mixed-realty theatre project that's playing with everything from Holograms to Second Life." In this video, his co-producer Patty Rangel talks about holographic systems for avatars:

Here's a demonstration of Second Life avatars and a live guitarist sharing the AV Concepts Holographic Stage in San Diego, California (concept development and integration by Patty Rangel):

And here's AV Concepts' Nick Smith explaining how their Musion Eyeliner holographic stage works:

Fun with Particles

Memo Atken created visuals for My Secret Heart, a music and film installation & performance commissioned by Streetwise Opera with music composed by Mira Calix, and sound design by David Sheppard. Memo says,

"The sensation of performing and recording the visuals was that of actually directing a film with thousands of virtual actors, commanding an army, digital puppetry – an approach I’m sure I will be revisiting in the very near future."

Here are some "initial AI/flocking and behaviour controlling tests with Processing":

Excerpts from the final film:

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And here's a different application of similar visuals, driven by live motion tracked by the Microsoft Kinect:

Kinect Graffiti is a digital graffiti tool created by Jean-Christophe Naour. "The idea behind this project is to use the kinect to track the motion behind graffiti. Visualizing the body and drawing trough different angles in realtime, understanding surrounding space, pausing time..."

Pepper's Ghost

If you're going to use the illusion Pepper's Ghost, you will, of course, get the highest impact by resurrecting an actual dead person.

If you don't have one of those handy, then sure, you can use it for teleconferencing:

How to Train Your Dragon - Live Projections

Interesting use of projected CG set on wall and floor, by Matt Lock, Motion Designer at Spinifex Group in Australia. (Hat tip to Tony Walsh at Phantom Compass)

"In March 2012, Global Creatures teamed with Dreamworks to launch a live theatrical show based on the film "How To Train Your Dragon." Spinifex Group was contracted to develop the graphic content for the entire show. The brief was to take the movie from its original look and portray it in a more illustrative style.

The challenges focused around timing the animation to match the choreography of the actors and dragons, while also maintaining a sense of scale and balance between the animatronic creatures and the projected content. In addition, the animation needed to move as one seamless scene across both the wall and floor, serving as a complete theatre set--a first of its kind.

I designed and animated the sections showcased in this video.

Additional Credits:

3D - Nick Hunter and Pepin Portingale
Matte painting and Illustration elements - Dan Potra and David Woodland"

Shortlisted!

The Canadian Film Centre's ideaBOOST shortlist has been announced - and we're on it!

Thank you to all the fabulous people who Boosted, Tweeted and Liked us over the past month. It's been a wild ride so far, and we're thrilled to be taking it with you!

Here's this morning's official announcement:

"After an overwhelming month of boosts/likes/tweets, ideaboost.ca would like to present the shortlist that the public and wildcard jury have selected. The following fifteen projects have proceeded to the next round of the selection process for ideaBOOST.

"Top Ten Public Voted Selections:
1) Nanakitty Unleashed
2) The Matt & Leda Canada Wide Tour
3) ASAPScience
4) Rollers of the Realm
5) No Dead Ends
6) The Path
7) The Tale of a Town
8) VotePad
9) The Buffer Film Festival
10) The Ghost Town Project

"Wildcard Jury Selections:
1) Lucid Dreaming LiveFX
2) Ten Trees That Can Save The World
3) Loud on Planet X
4) Your Task: Shoot Things
5) Ramen Party

"We would like to thank our special celebrity wildcard jury that consisted of Christopher Dorr of Digital Dorr Consulting, Christopher Sandberg of Company P, and Andra Sheffer of the Independent Production Fund.

"An ideaBOOST jury will select the final eight projects from the shortlist that will participate in the program. Please note that all fifteen participating companies and teams are on an even playing field and have an equal chance at being admitted into ideaBOOST.

"Stay tuned for the announcement of the final eight projects!"

Give the Dream a BOOST!

Our production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at York University, March 23-28, 2013 will use motion capture technology to mix digital effects and character animation with live theatre.

Over the next six months, a team of gifted artists and technophiles will be collaborating to weave cutting-edge videogame magic into Shakespeare's fairy-filled comedy romp.

But high-tech isn't always low-cost, so we're applying to ideaBOOST, the Canadian Film Centre's new digital entertainment development lab, for financial, technological and strategic support. If you'd like to help vote us into the program, check out the web page below:

http://ideaboost.ca/#project/lucid-dreaming-livefx

If you like what you see, please Tweet, Like and/or "Boost" our project by clicking the Boost button at the top of that page! Boosts give us the most points, and put you on a mailing list (easily unsubscribed) for inside intel. Plus, Boosting automatically enters you to win an iPad!

Please spread the word: we've got just two weeks to collect enough votes to make it into the ideaBOOST semifinals!

Thanks so much for your support, and happy Dreaming!

Artwork: Laurel Dalgleish.