Category Archives: Digital
Recreating glass effects in Notch.
I set myself a little task the other week. I realised I’ve not been very good at making materials that look like glass or transparent plastic, basically any material that is transparent.
I’m still not particularly strong in blender in fact I still really consider myself as a basic user, so I decided notch was the best place to start with this. and then I realised something really obvious to make something look like glass it isn’t about the materials that you put onto the object in 3D it’s more to do with the environment around it. now to some this might be painstakingly obvious and I guess it is obvious but it’s only when you come to make these things do you realise why it’s very difficult to make in software.
So I found myself the last few days looking at an empty milk bottle in the kitchen, I have there been studying thr champagne glass on the side of the dining table at dinner time, then I’ve been looking at vases full of flowers and realising that everything you see in these objects is actually the environment around it reflected on the outside object. It also made me realise that the reflections are in the front and back of the object and not just the front (the front is the surface that is closest to your eyes. But in 3D land this is the camera instead)
Luckily not have some amazing tutorials and sample projects that I’ve downloaded and understood very well. No to not cold environment map environment image glass materials RT glass and others are very powerful.
So far I have managed to recreate or at least basterise some of the projects that Notch provided. It has given me a really good insight into how to create these reflective and transparent materials. Below shows my work in progress.
Kinect One (v2) into Isadora via NI-mate
Isadora ‘DataMashed’ visuals
Rutt Etra & Isadora
Leap Motion, Isadora and OSC Motion
Inspiring Videos 2015
Hi All,
Not blogged as much as usual. Work has been busy and so has my personal life. Been enjoying the great outdoors a litlte more; hiking, riding, camping, etc and preparing to be a dad early next year. I have still collected a few videos over the last few months that I knew I wanted to share. So here they are in no particular order:
XYZ tracking, before the kinect.
Shameless I know but this is one of my early experiments I had forgotten about. I remember wanting to track something in a 3D space; I could do the X and Y in Isadora and basically used scale to control the Z. The bigger something is t the camera the closer it is right? And vice-versa. Watching this made me think that often the basics are the best.
Interactive timeline/projection mapping for Education.
I love this. Simple playful and fun.
Listening to colour – Neil Harbisson.
I love this type of stuff. I am secret futurist at heart. I’d love to become a cyborg actually. This guy, in my eyes, is almost a cyborg because of his experiments. If you want to freak yourself out, check this out. If that’s not crazy enough then google Stelarc and Kevin Warwick
Watch all the videos at the end of this link. Amazing VFX!Â
David Gumbs – artist.
I have known of, but never me, David for a long time now. A polite, talented and friendly guy who is doing some incredible things with Isadora, motion tracking and more. He has inspire me recently in the video below. Working with children and interactive paintings. What is more rewarding than that? You should defiantly check out his work here:
https://www.facebook.com/DavidGumbsArtist
I re-edited some of the dead links (sorry about that!) David also sent me to some more links on vimeo, etc.(see above).
Joe Hunt – projection using isadora for a piece called:’The Only Jealousy of Emer’
Great work here Joe. The video speaks for itself. Give it a watch.
Old and New.Â
One of my favourite songs is Energy 52 – Cafe Del Mar. It’s an ibiza dance/trance classic. You will probably have heard it. I have always known that many classic trance/dance (and more) music takes chords, progressions and melodies from older classic music and the like. But this one really struck a chord when I hard the ‘original’ by Wim Mertnes. I just wanted to share this with you. Listen to the original and then the ‘remix’
One for the DJ’s! STEMS.
“This morning Native Instruments is launching the Traktor 2.9 update, which is the first software on the market to use their new Stems audio file format.”
I am very excited about this!
Modulations. A full feature film about the evolution of Electronica music as one of the most profound artistic developments of the 20th century!
That’s it for now. Comments welcome below.
Enjoy.
The VJ is the new DJ: Introducing Z Vector
Isadora 2.0 – My thoughts.
So I have waited a while before I blogged about Isadora 2.0. I did do a short blog not so long ago talking about the mapper and my work at Glastonbury.
But this post isn’t about me. It’s about Isadora 2, a new breed of Isadora. A stronger, more powerful Isadora. So much though, discussion and time has gone into it. Hundreds of emails, screenshots, skype sessions and more.
Isadora isn’t just an upgrade. It’s a radical new platform.
I am not going to just copy and paste all the new specs, you can read them [here]Â instead I wanted to talk openly about why I love it so much. I love it because Isadora 2 still is the Isadora we all know and have supported for many years. It still has the same workflow, sense of direction and module approach. Isadora still does everything you’d expect. In fact, apart from the new blue splash screen and the modern dark grey theme, it looks just about the same. But I like that. Why fix something that isn’t broke? There is no need too – so Mark didn’t.
But what was broke, or breaking (dying?) is Apples quicktime support for video playback. It was clear that it was becoming increasingly unstable and just not fit for purpose. I know that Mark spent lots of time playing around with old and newer Quicktime libraries but it was inevitable that a change was needed. It’s no secret that other similar softwares are now running on AV foundation or other libraries. Not Quicktime. So it wasn’t Isadora’s fault crashes and movie playback was starting to show a weakness. She was doing her best to play the files but the Quicktime *stuff* was failing and there was nothing she (Mark) could do. But now that has changed. She has a new pair of shoes and is ready to run! But it isn’t *that* simple.
Mark decided to keep some of the Quicktime coding that was useful, useful for specific codecs. So a movie player in Isadora now switches its coding depending on the file type you load in. You will see this in the “PB Engine” (Play Back Engine) output of the movie player for reference. It switches between Quicktime and Av Foundation, it does this seamlessly so you never have to worry about it. It’s a big step forwarded and results should become clear, especially with the added bonus of being able to play multiple HD videos…. I won’t spoil the fun. I will let you try it 🙂
I also really like the IzzyMap. I’ve been using this for quote a long time, but each time it has evolved more and more. It’s now at an amazing standard and it’s superb. I am not going to ramble on about it, it does EVERYTHING! and more… the more but I will talk about. You can basically do all your mapping and then publish the mapping points. These then show as inputs in your projector actor. This means everything you do is editable – live. So if you have a moving stage, scenery or some crazy animatronic DJ booth ( – do they even exist?) then you can automate, or move it in real time and have the mapping follow it. It’s a pretty crazy tool to have. Obviously stage automation is not new. But to do it in a <$500 software and have such flexibility is new!
What else; javascript actor, Spout for Windows and other interface tools, a few updated actors and of course the lovely new interface. What else could you want right now?
A few pics…
Mind The Gap. Free VJ Loops
Two free VJ Loops made from still images.
Download is via Vimeo.
Enjoy.
Graham Thorne 