Moving Image Proposal

For this project i intend to graphically represent the eternally accelerating speed and ease that humanity shares and spreads information through its self. It will start with the dawn of man then move through the ages through to present day and on to the technological singularity as predicted by Moore's Law. I will do this by representing various differnt people and technologies using icon like sprites with lines connecting them like nodes in a system. It will feature both 2D and 3D elements aswell as flashing images of the technology being used in the time represented.The content will then be video mapped onto a cane and lycra sculpture of a butterfly to represent man's metamorphosis into a kind of one world consciousness connected by technology.

Research

Study 1. ISAM

ISAM is a video mapped sculpture created by V-squared labs for Amon Tobins 2011 tour to celebrate the release of his new album of the same name. Its a cross between a audio visual journey through a techno-fantasy world and a technological show case of what is currently possible. At times it features high quality renders of futuristic scenes flowing seamlessly from one to the next and others its an almost gimmicky audio reactive glitch system.I really like the visual style of ISAM, the futuristic style combined with the 3D element of the stage gives it a stunning almost disorientating feel. The 3D renders where done by Leviathan animation studio then passed on to V-squared labs to be performed using Derivative's Touch Designer where they can be wired up to various live input and timeline based values, this means the performance will stay unique as it travels through different venues as well as giving the programmers some space to have fun with the performance. I particularly like the use of wire frame/node based elements of the renders that morph from being part of the stage structure to free floating, this really helps to break the stage apart for the viewer.

Study 2. GOLEM

GOLEM is an animated short film by Patrick Mccue and Tobias Wiesner made in their spare time over 3 and a half years based on Stanislaw Lem's 1973 short story 'GOLEM XIV' it tells the story of a military AI computer that becomes self aware, rebels against its creators and triggers the start of the technological singularity . The film itself is a series of hyper real 3D renders showing the interconnectedness of the different conceptual elements as they are narrated.

The real strength of GOLEM is in the story told in the narration and the sheer quality of the animation, it manages to break down some pretty serious existential issues and visualise them in a conceptually simple yet visually stunning way. I like the use of camera moves around the spline objects that connect things, it really gives the piece a unobservable scale leading you to wonder if the elements are impossibly big or small. GOLEM was made using mostly Nuke and Aftereffects with a few third party plugins like Trapcode, with the amount of time I have it wont be possible to make renders of the same quality but I can try and capture the smooth transitional pace of the film (especially the camera usage) that gives it such a surreal feel.

Study 3. Datsik Firepower Tour

The Firepower tour is an audio visual show produced for Dubstep musician Datsik, it is a large video mapping sculpture based around Datsik's theory of the 'vortex of life'. Its is a mixture of pre rendered and audio/midi reactive elements.While not as visually sharp or complex as ISAM the Firepower tour is a great example of how projected visuals can be adapted to custom made sculptures. The sculpture is a long trumpet like tube made from fibreglass resin with the visuals being projected from both the front and sides, the shape of the tube allows the VJ's to easily map depth into otherwise flat looking visuals whilst keeping the live rendering fairly light so it can be controlled using industry standard software like Modul8. I like the way the visuals really excentuate the contours of the sculpture with particular emphasis on the beveled edge.

DevelopmentThis project is essentually about accelerated change and exponential growth (see below), I will be representing this with the speed at which the transition from paradigm to paradigm increases as the peice progresses.Moore's LawMoore's Law dictates that computing power doubles about once every 18 months, this means that technology grows exponentially getting faster and faster and cheaper and cheaper as time goes on. It is theorised that at a curtain point (technological singularity) a peice of AI would be able to improve its self better than any human could creating a run away effect dubbed 'the intelegence explosion' meaning it could be the last thing humanity need ever invent. Although Moore's law is used to describe growth in computer processing power the exponential growth of information sharing stems back to the dawn of man.

I have looked through history for the main inventions that have shaped the way we share information, devided them into 6 sections (Paradigms) and compiled them into a time line:Paradigm 1: Launguage and fire. Pre historyParadigm 2: Pictures and cuneiform. 3800 BCParadigm 3: Writing and Alphabet. 2500 BCParadigm 4: Books and printing press. 100 BC 1440 ADParadigm 5: Telegraph and telephone. 1844 ADParadigm 6: Internet, space comunications and singularity. 1990 AD

Script/Story boardParadigm 1

Language/Fire

The film starts with simple connections joining nodes, (no more than 3 at a time)

Camera zooms to a node which is seen bashing rocks together.

A pixelated fire starts and the camera zooms out again.

Larger groups of nodes are revealed to be connecting together.

Camera zooms out to reveal more groups of nodes doing the same thing.

Paradigm 2

Pictures/Cuneiform

One of the nodes draws a picture on a box. (See left picture)

This node is then permanently linked to the picture.

As new nodes approach the picture, the perform the left animation in reverse to represent observing, they are also then permanently linked.

(Lower forms of linking still occur)

Paradigm 3

Writing/Alphabet

This age is about over coming the language barriers of the world.

The flow diagram on the left is animated with character offset with each piece growing sequentially.

Whilst the flow diagram is developing the nodes are collecting on the edge of the known map attempting to connect with those on the other side, the more of the diagram is revealed the more connections can be made.

Paradigm 4

Books/Printing press

Books are written in a similar way to the picture drawing in age 2.

At first the books are stored in the 'library area' with permanent connections being formed.

With the birth of the printing press the nodes gain the ability to carry and trade books.

Paradigm 5

Telegraph/Telephone/Internet

The telegraph allows nodes to connect over larger distances, but only one at a time.

Once the telephone is invented more nodes can connect but only on a one on one basis.

The internet lets the nodes use computers to communicate with each other in a web like structure.

Paradigm 6Web 2.0/Satellite

Web 2.0 allows the nodes to connect not only to each other but also become connected through hubs (advanced websites)

As the web of connections becomes more complex the camera zooms back to reveal the entire earth as the first connection to a satellite is made.

Singularity

Mobile computers/Singularity

As the link from the satellite in the previous age returns to earth you see that nearly all the nodes are connected and they no longer need a static computer.

The connection web continues to grow in complexity as the camera again zooms out to the point that the world is represented by one singular node.

This node then goes on to make its first connection symbolising the advance into the unknown future.

JournalI started with the first paradigm and quickly realised that if i animate the nodes manually it will take far too long and not look truly random due to duplicates being used. I solved this by using the wiggle expression.Now the random movement of the nodes is sorted the next problem I encountered was how to link the nodes whilst maintaining the random movement of both of the connection points, I used Aftereffects Beam effect on a solid to give me a dynamic line then used the tether expression to attach the start and end points of the beam to the positions of the two nodes. From there I was able to make sevral groups of nodes to represent language amd tribes.Next was connecting the tribes together to represent the sharing of the pictures information. As the tribes had been pre-composed there were no position points with the movement data in them, so i applied a wiggle with a 'static seed' to one of the nodes inside the comp as well as to the anchor point of the pre-comp giving me an accurate point to connect the Beam to.After creating a simplified alphabet in photoshop I sequenced the symbols into 3 teirs and put them in compositions.The three tier's were combined and sequenced to represent the evolution of alphabets.Animating the creation of books using the alphabet comp and masks.

Using cog primitives previously rendered from Cinema 4D and solids I put together a printing press, however once finished the scene looked far too static so I rebuilt it in 3D and created a few camera shots to keep the feeling of movement going.For the phone lines I used Beam with the one end connected to the center of the comp and the other given a random vector, then adding a phone. I duplicated this 3 times and offset them in the timeline to give them a natural staggered look.

Merging the comps.

For the space scene I first rendered the planet with camera movements in Cinema 4D.

I then used the render as a 2d object and conected it to the satellite in 3D space using a tracking dot to grab the point on the planet.

Sketchbook work

Alphabet.

The Sculpture

I Created the sculpture using bamboo cane, lycra, elastic, cable ties and saftey pins. The diagram above is of the cane skeleton the lycra is streatched around, I experemented with different ways of reducing wrinkles in the fabric and decided that cutting the lycra to the same shape as the peices (body, large wings, small wings) then securing it with eleastic and saftely pins was the best solution.

MappingI imported the footage into Resolume making sure that the resolution is uniform, then load up a test card to map the pieces.I sketch out the basic shape of the piece with the linear cornor points.I then convert the points to bezier and map the basic curves of the piece.

Finally I tidy up the edges by adding more bezier points and masks if necessary, then repeat for the other pieces.