USC IMD:

Sonar

Eric Spoerner & I recently submitted our game, Sonar, to the Indie Game Challenge. Sonar is about the visualization of sound to create a unique and engaging experience. We made Sonar in 2006 as a student project at USC Interactive Media (specifically, for CTIN 489: Intermediate Game Design Workshop). Grand prize is $100K and the 6 finalists in our category (Non-Professional) get to pitch their game to a publisher. Wish us luck!

Watch the Trailer for Sonar

Download Sonar

Virtual Sphere

I was just catching up on my Reuters Tech News, and found this video, while I'm sure I'm behind the curve compared to our VR researchers, and innovators, I thought it worthy of a post nonetheless. I'm wondering what people like Mark, Scott, and Michael might think about the viability of a such a system. I found it also interesting that they tried to claim in the Reuters story that there are no VR simulators for ground troops; having seen some of what goes on at ICT I found it a seeming unfounded statement. You can learn more about Vitrusphere @ http://www.virtusphere.com/

IMD Forum for 11/18/09: Tamiko Thiel

Speaker: Tamiko Thiel, Artist

Time: Wednesday, November 18, 6-8 pm
Location: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
5750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036

NOTE: The off-campus location for this seminar. If you a an IMD student who needs a ride to the Goethe-Institut, contact Professor Anne Balsamo.

Tamiko Thiel will discuss the creation of Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall that she created with collaborator Teresa Reuter. This interactive 3D virtual reality art work investigates the impact of the Berlin Wall, which divided West and East Berlin during the Cold War from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989. A digital reconstruction of a segment of the dismantled Berlin Wall and its surrounding neighborhoods creates a place of rememberance that users can explore in order to to experience and reflect on this historical time.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles is staging the installation from November 20-December 3, 2009.

Official Opening: Thursday November 19, 6-9pm
Exhibit: November 20 - December 3, 2009

Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
5750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/los/kue/en4872732v.htm

For images from this interactive 3D installation on the Berlin Wall see:
http://www.virtuelle-mauer-berlin.de/english/devFiles/screenshots.htm

Eyez: Lingering Images trailer

"Eyez: Lingering Images" is a top-down action/puzzle game where you explore D's twisted soul. Use your right eye to traverse the borders of his shattered reality, and open your left eye to expel his nightmares. Eyez present spatial logic in gameplay like you've never seen before.

Mobile media week at UCLA

UCLA's mobile media series continues tomorrow and through the weekend with some very cool speakers, symposia and workshops. On Thursday 11/12 Area/Code's Kevin Slavin will be speaking at 6:00PM, followed by a day-long symposium on Friday 11/13 organized by Casey Reas featuring luminaries including Slavin, Julian Bleecker, Mark Hansen, Ian Bogost, Robin Hunicke, John Underkoffler, Erkki Huhtamo, Machiko Kusahara and many more! Saturday 11/14 is devoted to a series of low-cost workshops on using Python, Arduino, and the iPhone SDK.

Spring 2010: Experiments in Stereoscopic Imaging

CTAN/CTIN 502a Experiments in Stereoscopic Imaging (Monday 7-9:50pm)

Stereo 3D is happening NOW, and this 2-unit class is designed bring you up to speed quickly with everything you need to know to produce breathtaking stereo 3D images, games, movies and animations.

Like earlier innovations like sound and color, stereo 3D opens up new possibilities for the structuring of cinematic space and time. New aesthetic and formal strategies and new forms of storytelling need to explored and developed, and there is a growing need for artists, filmmakers, animators and designers with experience and training in this new medium. This course will cover the basic principles of binocular vision, the history and development of stereoscopic systems and practices and the various available methods for creating and displaying stereoscopic images, as well as perceptual, aesthetic and cognitive issues.

The class is a co-sponsored by IMD and DADA, and is listed on the Animation Division's Schedule of Classes. Here's the Syllabus.

S.M.U.G.6

Sixth monthly meeting of the SoCal Max/MSP/Jitter Users Group (S.M.U.G.).
Sunday, November 15th, 2009 • 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Machine Project • 1200 D North Alvarado • Los Angeles, CA

This month, we will have a special presentation from Cycling '74's Andrew Pask about the new Javascript LiveAPI object in Max for Live.

All welcome. Bring ideas, questions, problems, solutions, projects, patchers, abstractions, externals, whatever. Please get in touch with Perry Hoberman if you'd like to schedule a presentation.

Machine Project • Max/MSP/Jitter
Facebook Event Listing • Join the S.M.U.G. Facebook Group

Doritos Crash the Superbowl Competition Entry

Andy Uehara and I have entered the Doritos Crash the Superbowl contest with this video ad:

When you go to this site, please clip skip intro on the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
Click Here.

Original Storyboarding & Ideation by: Andy Uehara & Juliana Griffo

Animation by: Andy Uehara

Video & Sound Editing by: Juli Griffo

IMD Forum for 11/11/09: Sha Xin Wei

Speaker: Sha Xin Wei, Topological Media Lab, Concordia University

Time: Wednesday, November 11, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Professor Sha Xin Wei holds a Canadian Research Chair in Media Arts and Sciences; He is also an Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Computer Science At Concordia University in Montreal. The Topological Media Lab (TML) is a studio-laboratory for the study of gesture and materiality from computational and phenomenological perspectives. His talk will present examples of research/art projects that have been developed at the TML over the past decade. These projects include the TGarden responsive environment, Hubbub speech-sensitive urban surfaces, Membrane calligraphic video, and softwear gestural sound instruments.

Animated stereoviews of old Japan

Hand-colored stereoscopic image of Sumo wrestlers c.1898

Lovely stereoscopic images by T. Enami are "animated" for viewing without glasses.
Cheap trick but effective.
See them here.