animated forms

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animated forms

• 24.05.06

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announcement

• Rick Prelinger
• Thursday may 25 4pm 136C
• c8240

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ecosystm2

• John Klima (2001)
• create and control flocks of birds based on stock
  market performance
• goal create an entire ecosystem whose overall
  performance is positive

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cory arcangel

• 8-bit landscape studies combining digital
  photography and Nintendo cartriges (2004)

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cory arcangel

• nintendo clouds (2004)

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3-D Cartesian space

• 
  Y
• Z
  X
• convention for giving the illusion of realistic
  space

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creating objects in Cartesian space

• CAD (computer-aided design)
• Modeling
• wire frames
• polygons (polys) creating an outer shape 3-D
  volume
• more polys, more complex shape
• Decorating
• color
• texture mapping
• skins

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creating objects in Cartesian space

• Lighting
• shadows
• reflections
• Animating
• making objects move or behave
• Rendering
• translation of information (modeling, decorating,
  lighting) into an actual image
• time consuming for high-quality images

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Turner Whitted, ray-traced ball

• reflection of light off curved surface now a
  standard exercise

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The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs

• BBC, 1999

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screening

• why this?
• not just state of the art animation
• rather, it engages, directly and indirectly, with
  important issues about visual representation in
  the digital or post-medium age
• postmodern ideas about simulation/simulacra
  copies w/o originals
• dinosaurs as an example of this

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screening

• animation in action
• illustration of the animation elements mentioned
  earlier as well as
• laser scanning
• motion capture
• compositing
• which we will address next time. . .

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screening

• the documentarys assumption/argument
• science, animation technology, and creativity
  work together to develop a truer understanding
  and realistic representation of dinosaurs
• its strategy
• as if a camera crew were there to capture the
  truth and reality of dinosaurs indexical conceit

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screening

• formal tension between
• indexical/cinematic elements locations,
  background shots
• digital/animated elements dinosaurs
• compounded by demands of scientific realism
• resolved in jokes indexical gags
• becomes a fact/fiction hybrid

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screening

• production v. revelation (or depiction) of
  knowledge
• collaboration between animators and scientists
  points to a process in which knowledge is
  produced rather than simply revealed