Adobe AfterEffects – Time Elapse Video April 24, 2009

Time Elapse in AfterEffects

For my Coolest Effect project, I’ve chosen to create a time lapse video. Although a simple effect, it’s a powerful one because of its ability to effectively condense long stretches of time into short, concise and detailed scenes. The most common and effective applications that come to mind are to document the capture of early growth stages of plants, hatching little critters and the transition between day and. That said, my favourite use of time elapsed film is to capture the bustle and pace of urban life and the energy that is conveyed.

To incorporate an urban feel into my scene, I’ve use wooden miniatures of famous buildings in Berlin. To show motion, the little wooden cars and streetcars pass in front of the buildings to look as though they are whizzing by. To create the time elapse effect, I made sure I had a sturdy tripod and took a series of photos as I incrementally moved the vehicles forward. Once you’ve done that you import the image series into After Effects making sure you have the “jpg sequence” checked. Then apply the Timewarp effect to manipulate motion blurs and correct any luminance issues. In terms of frame rates, generally a good rule of thumb is to go with between 24-30 frames per second. Once you got everything adjusted and to your liking, go to the Composition tab and choose Make Movie. This will add it to the Render Queue where you can specify what type of format you would like to create and voila! You have a Time Elapsed movie.

Take a look at my screen capture which illustrates in more detail the settings that can be manipulated in the applied Timewarp effect.

Spatial View April 24, 2009

James Hurley gave today’s Multimedia pioneering talk. James works at Spatial View, one of the leading companies in 3D viewing. Thankfully, the new line of products have left behind those hoakie glasses in exchange for slick screen overlays. Their most recent development is the 3DeeShell, a removable screen that fits on your iPhone to deliver the most portable 3D experience ever.

Once you get the 3D skin onto your iPhone, you can slide the overlay in and out with ease to switch from 3D to 2D views. This new product is also supported by the 3D content available at the App Store, specifically the Wazabee 3DeeFriends. This app let’s you turn your 2D photos into 3D. There are also games that you can now download, specifically developed for 3D viewing like 3D Brick Breaker, Crash Bandikoot and iHunt.

The 3DeeShell uses autostereoscopy as opposed to anaglyph or polarized methods of viewing 3D content. The lenticular overlay supports more than two views to be seen from multiple viewing angles, so let your friend’s crowd in to see images jump off the screen.

Now if you’re a developer and want to create 3D content, Spatial View’s SVI software has you covered. It can handle a range of 3D movie formats for autostereoscopic viewing. Plug-ins are available for Flash, AE, Max & Maya.

For advertisers, Spatial View also carries a line of Multiple Viewer Displays. Your product can jump off the screen in hopes that you’ll sell more of whatever product your pushing. Kind of gimmicky, but if it sells more stuff, than I guess it’s worth it.

Wayne MacPhail – Technology And The Future April 14, 2009

It only takes a few moments of listening to Wayne MacPhail speak to realize he is a modern day renaissance man. With a successful career that spans across a large area of the media industry, it’s easy to see why.  He started his career as a reporter for the Hamilton Spectator and was also the Managing Editor of Hamilton Magazine. He then went on to be the founder of Southam Inc.’s InfoLab, where his studio produced groundbreaking work in the area of information technology. Wayne is also a published author and playwright and clearly has a passion for the written word (or in this case typed) and using technology to distribute great content.

Unlike many of the previous speakers that have come by the class to talk about a specific technology emerging in the multimedia industry, Wayne’s presentation is much more philosophical and reflective – where we’ve come from and where we are heading in terms of technology. To start things off he quotes Alan Kay, “ The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Just looking at something simple like how much memory we consume now vs 40 years ago is astounding. Wayne points out that in 1970, Intel publicly released the 1103, the first DRAM with a whopping 1k of memory, since then our memory and storage use is more than 4 million times greater.

From memory and storage capacity, we move onto home computers. I was one when Apple released the first home computer in 1977 – the Apple II. As I look at the photo of this large and clunky hard-drive plugged into a tv, it dawns on me that we have now come full circle…we have gone back to plugging our computers into our TVs. Thank god this time around it’s to store our favourite shows, access movies whenever we like and even view our digital photos, as opposed to looking at poorly illuminated green type!

When asked what he thinks the next big technologies will be, Wayne mentions that flexible plastic will be the new paper. When that might happen is up for debate, but there are a few companies out there right now perfecting this technology for mass use. One company in particular, Plastic Logic, is making a splash with their new reader. The great thing about this particular model vs other eReaders, is the ability to more reliably show image based content.

Wayne’s talk certainly gets you thinking, and to close things off he uses his own words to echo Mr. Kay, by saying that if we focus on the future we can invent interesting and engaging technology – the trick is, don’t mimic the past.

Jam 3 Media on the move… April 8, 2009

Adrian Belina,  Creative Director from the award winning shop, Jam 3 recently stopped by the IMM class to talk to us about some of the key elements that go into making great Flash sites. The main focus of his presentation…motion. When used properly, it can add value to a site and enhance the user’s experience.

First things first, how do you create great animation? Forget about the timeline and get familiar with TweenLite, TweenMax & TweenFilterLite, they are your new best friends. If you haven’t heard of these custom classes created by Jack Doyle, go immediately to GreenSock. You can experiment with these custom tweens right on the site, but more importantly, you can download the classes for free and start using them in your own creations.

Below are some of Adrian’s tips, tricks and things to watch out for when applying motion to your site.

Animate Everything!
•    Build your site from the background colour up
•    Slice up things and bring things in separately
•    The more the merrier…but don’t take forever
•    Overlapping your animations will make it fluid. This is where delay comes into play

Section & Content transitions
•    Never just cut to a new section. ALWAYS ANIMATE your content in & out
•    Remember to keep it snappy. Don’t make the user wait too long
•    Animate out should always be quicker than in

Get Creative. Be Unique
•    Before you start coding. Think about how it can come together. Try to think outside the box
•    Don’t be lazy. Experiment with your numbers. Create the perfect flow with good succession.
•    Get creative with your text. Rollovers and even scrolling
•    Don’t be afraid to use sounds to describe things

How many different ways can I animate text or a rollover?
•    Moving is always better than fading. Slide it, zoom it, scale it
•    Mask a paragraph in line by line.
•    Create a text effect that jumbles all the letters in.

Adrian also passed along some links to cool sites, great resources and new technologies emerging in the interactive industry. Take a look!

www.84.ufc.com – Great site using Papervision with planes(x, y, z)

blog.zupko.info – A Papervision Guru

www.basecamphq.com – Keep your projects on track and running smoothly

www.mikkoh.com – Augmented Reality

GestureTek February 12, 2009

Last week we students of  Sheridan’s IMM program got the opportunity to check out GestureTek’s showroom highlighting their achievements in the interactive world of “multi-patented video gesture control technology (VGC)”. Vincent John Vincent, Co- founder and President took us on a tour of the technologies the company has developed over their 20 year history.

As we begin the tour, Vincent explains that GestureTek got its start because of his background in physical rehabilitation and a desire to develop engaging solutions that result in quicker  recoveries for patients .  Their Gesture-Based Virtual Reality Systems for Improved Results in Rehabilitation and Therapy are used by hundreds of clinicians across North America. The IREX, which provides multiple interfaces with greenscreen technology, puts users right in the game and  allows them to control it based on specific body movements. Good fun and good for you!

Another sector  of GesturTek’s business is the growing use of interactive advertising and they’ve attracted some of the the most recognizable brands out there, some of which include Starbucks, Godiva Chocolates and Dr.Pepper to name a few. These installations are predominantly camera and projection based, causing a reaction based on walking or swiping movements. 

My favourite part of the tour was seeing and playing with  GesturTek’s line of products from their  Illuminate Series, which focuses on interactive multi-touch displays and surface computing technology for tables, screens, walls and windows. These minimal MI5-ish interfaces allow users to do everything from create artwork, manipulate photo content and play games and can be found in hip bars, restaurant, stores and museums.

The folks at GestureTek are definitely pioneers in their field and continue to push the envelope with their sights moving to mobile technology. All in all an interesting and inspiring tour!

For more info on interactive installations and multi-touch displays, see the links below:

http://www.devicepedia.com/misc-gadgets/diy-interactive-multitouch-display.html

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/video-smart-table-50-inch-multitouch-interactive-display-panel/

 

Tilt Emulator December 3, 2008

Dan Zen, mad inventor, has created the Tilt Emulator using Flash for mobile devices. In his video, he demonstrates the functionality and possibilities this tool offers. To view my annotated version of his video demo, visit Dan’s YaSeeSay site @ http://www.yaseesay.com/file/id/3787362/59frh23c.

…And you can call people with it too! September 25, 2008

We may call them cell phones, but after this afternoon’s presentation by James Eberhardt on mobile technology – specifically QR codes and iPhone applications – I’m not so sure we can continue to refer to them by such a one dimensional name.

 

Quick Response Codes or QR codes as they are commonly referred to have been widely used in Japan for some time now and are just beginning to make their way to North America. Marketing and advertising agencies seem to be benefiting most from this technology by having users scan or snap these codes in order to transfer URL information into their phones for contests and product info. I’m sure the ad agencies are elated to have yet another gimmick to pull in potential customers!

 

Although the ability to store product data for the new fridge I’m interested in buying is somewhat useful, I’m much more jazzed about the tourist applications this technology offers.  How wonderful it would be to rid our backpacks of heavy travel guides and discover new places with a lighter step by simply scanning a QR code to learn the historical relevance of a building, monument or neighbourhood. This is practical. This I would even pay for.

 

Speaking of appealing technology, the second topic of James’s presentation was the very sexy, the very popular iPhone. This area of discussion focused in on the development of applications for our fruity mobile monster and the monetary possibilities for developers and entrepreneurs alike. Although there are standards and licensing requirements to create apps for this phone, Apple has made an open call for those who have the skills to qualify. Not only has James begun to take advantage of the opportunities for mobile pioneering in this area, so have many others with games like Trism. If you are like me and still at the buying-not-making stage of the game and considering purchasing one of these popular apps, check out apprater.com before laying down the plastic.

 

Well I think that just about covers my first ever blog on mobile technology. Like all things with technology, we have barely scratched the surface of what is out there. We’ll get to it though and maybe be able to say we made a dent. A small one but it can hopefully be seen with a large magnifying glass!

Over and out.

The Blotter

 

 

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