Virtual Reality / Week 8

We attended a VR Meetup, The Future of Virtual Reality- A Panel Discussion lead by Elizabeth Scallon of CoMotion Labs that was at the newly-rebranded MoPop (Museum of Pop Culture, formerly the Experience Music Project & Science Fiction Museum). The possibilities of using VR to generate empathy was discussed and it's fascinating.

https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_milk_how_virtual_reality_can_create_the_ultimate_empathy_machine

We also got the names of some local key-players and companies in the VR Space and hope to set up more informationals to hear what they're up to...

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This afternoon we're meeting with Visual Vocal, a VR Collaboration Startup. We're fortunate enough to be meeting with the co-owners: Sean House, CTO, John SanGiovanni, CEO.

We've done our research and developed questions for them:

How many employees do you have? What departments / disciplines / separate functions live within Visual Vocal?

Please share the process for one specific client from start to finish.

Do you make 3D renderings or do your clients provide them?

What software do you use?

How does the cloud communication work? Is it realtime? How is it different from Slack or MS Project?

Is your platform exclusively for viewing information, or can it be used as a design environment?

What is the nature of the collaboration model? Can multiple people, each in their own VR environment, see what the other is doing in real time?

How open-ended versus closed are the experiences? That is, can people freely navigate and interact with elements, or is the intention to present highly constrained, scripted interactions?

How does Augment fit in to what you’re doing?

What percentages do you work in: Architecture Engineering Healthcare Urban Planning Aerospace Biotech Product Design

What’s your favorite area to work in and why? What’s are your biggest challenges?

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This cloud-based collaboration sounded similar to a project that my friend at AutoDesk in SF is working on... the video here is dry, but well worth it.

PROJECT QUANTUM

Ironically, he and I had a meeting scheduled that I'd accidentally double-booked with Visual Vocal. We've rescheduled for Wednesday so that he can ask about my use of 3D Modeling software for cinema and architecture (go figure) and wanted to interview me about collaborative functionality.

More soon!

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I'll leave you with Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood's finest cinematic moment (AND THE FUTURE OF VR...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNiZP2G-nEM

Virtual Reality / Week Four :: Reading & Experimentation

We're playing with Cinema4D’s ability to render 3D objects with 2D cell shading: 

https://vimeo.com/201621714

Building cozy off-world colonies: 

Now reading: 

*don't judge these books by their covers. no, really.

We were also lucky enough to meet Stephanie, a VR Developer for HBO and alumna (thanks be to Jill Vartenigian, again) and are reaching out to set up time for a blitz-tour of her office.

Virtual Reality / Week Four :: C♯, Physics, Fun

Our first foray into Unity was a simple roller-ball game. We were able to keep up with the C♯ required to apply physics, and even took it a level further by researching materials & textures to make it on-brand for Hanneld/Herrin Corp. We then packaged it and were able to experience/play it via the Vive in 360 VR; totally insane. Here's a somewhat less impressive video of how that looked first person: https://vimeo.com/200871005

Excitingly enough, there's a GitHub-like repository that banks C♯ code that you can apply to your own creations: enter VR Tool Kit. The VR Test went very well:

https://vimeo.com/200729628

We finally got back to Northgate to check out Facebook's Occulus Rift. (After making appointments and trekking out only to have nobody there to offer the demo and then later, having one of our appointments lately cancelled...) 

Double not-cool, Facebook!

https://vimeo.com/200780085

Our estimation: In short, the hardware UX is outstanding. Far superior to the HTC Vive. The headset is lighter, more easily adjustable, and more comfortable.

There's a single cable coming from it rather than a bundle of three. The headphones are integrated into the goggles eliminating the awkwardness of dangling earbuds (and the hygienic/ear-hole size differential issues that come with earbuds).

The highlight of the whole experience is the hand controlers. Within seconds, you accept the fitted controllers as real hands – you can touch, point, and grab – all with haptics that immerse you in the experience. 

Meanwhile, the HTC Vive controllers feel like cartoon ham hocks: 

Lastly, Occulus has the ability to design and experience sound ––there's a microphone and you can speak, be heard, and understood. Let that sink in for a second compared to the one-way street of sound in the Vive. Right?? The jury is out on the game design / interface – there are many studios that are producing works of varied quality (both in polygon count, resolution, and storytelling) and we had limited exposure to multiple applications and no exposure to the onboarding process.

Up next: continuing Unity & C4D tutorials and we have coffee scheduled with two gentlemen from a local VR/AR startup Visual Vocal. Stoked to see the practical application of these emerging technologies.

Virtual Reality / Week Three :: Research, Troubleshooting, & Tutorials

Hanneld/Herrin made appointments at Best Buy Northgate to checkout Facebook’s Oculus (you can too: https://live.oculus.com/) 

BUT... WE WERE THWARTED! The demo dude had gone home for the day. 

These were our faces: 

But we are not easily defeated and have rescheduled for next weekend (and will call ahead day-of before making the trek):

We’ve finally got the Vive/MSI running smoothly (albeit tethering through our phones to connect to Steam) and have had some time to get to know the capabilities, feel, UX/UI, of the VR world. 

Gabriel just started in on a tutorial for UNITY that uses C♯

 (if he plays the wrong note, we’ll all B♭)

And… I’ve fallen in love with this Portal robot dog that loves my belly scritches: 

Next up: A little Unity3D Tutorial :D

Marc, Erik, we're gonna need the Jamiroquai floor ASAP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9b7LWfnxQ

Virtual Reality / Week Two :: Experimentation & Installation

We have the location and equipment all set up. Steam VR (portal to VR Applications & HTC Vive Software – this is where Google Tilt lives) runs everything that we've experimented with so far.

As we move into development, we'll be using:

• Cinema 4D / 3D Studio Max
• Unity (Game Design)
• 360 VR / Stitch

The hardware consists of:

• 2 Controllers + 2 Chargers
• Link box (connects VR Headset to the computer)
• 3 link box cables (Audio, HDMI, & USB)
• VR Headset (wired)
• Earbuds connected to VR Headset
• MSI Laptop (y'know, the Dragon Edition) + Charger
• Sync cable for the Base Stations (mounted at 6.5')

https://vimeo.com/198945119

Virtual Reality / Week One :: VR Research & Planning

We spent a lot of time reading and researching. VR is a squishy space where a lot hasn't been figured out yet – the practical applications, the software and hardware and how they interact with preexisting design resources. Can you model something with Google Tilt and then use the 3D Printer to see it in real life?

Can two people be in the same VR world at the same time and interact with each other?

Can something created in Cinema 4D live in the VR world and be rendered as a video that can be shared?

Can you take a 360 video, map it to a sphere and populate it as a world with 3D-rendered objects?

Beats the fuck outta me, but I'll let you know in a couple weeks.

So far the reading list is:

Neuromancer – William Gibson

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline (we're already calling the VR world "The Oasis" and have a Joust Lich as our desktop wallpaper. NERD ALERT.)

We're suggesting reading or watching YouTube videos about Ivan Sutherland, Bob Sproull, & Jaron Lanier.

We're also researching the physiological functionality / effects that VR has on the human body to share back.

Stay tuned...

Video+Website :: Seattle Central Foundation Scholarship Fund

https://vimeo.com/167643548

HEX :: Cereal Development / Branding & Identity

long ago, in a galaxy far far away :: the SENTIENT GARDEN

What would Ridley Scott do? He'd use theatrical lighting and fill the air with gossamer glitter...

Very long ago, I made a thing that should have been the catalyst for the rest of my life. It's the best thing I've made to date, regrettably it was about 15 years ago.

This thing has become legendary in my mind, a multi-media art installation at the Lyndon House Museum. The project made the first line of this review (which shockingly still lives online):

"There is a certain, unsettling sense of human feeling to the pieces in ''Eclectic Electric: An Exhibit of Electronic and Digital Art." The glittery, synthetic plants of Amanda Hanneld and Coby Cranman's ''Sentient Garden'' whimper and squirm like attentive puppies." -- Mary JESSICA Hames

Forgive me if I don't say "we" -- Coby was a stoner with other priorities and although I was gracious at the time, I don't mind taking full credit for the idea and execution at this point.*

So I'll have to ask you to imagine that it's 2001. We'd recently survived Y2K and 9/11 was still three months in the future...

As part of a class called Interactive Performance Multi-Media taught by mad-scientist Dr. David Zucker Saltz, I began using technology that was considered to be old then, a thing called MIDI, short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is a technical standard that describes a protocol, digital interface and connectors and allows a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers and other related devices to connect and communicate with one another.^[1] A single MIDI link can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device.)

But MIDI is (was?) more than audio...

From Wikipedia:

Other applications

MIDI has been adopted as a control protocol in a number of non-musical applications. MIDI Show Control uses MIDI commands to direct stage lighting systems and to trigger cued events in theatrical productions. VJs and turntablists use it to cue clips, and to synchronize equipment, and recording systems use it for synchronization andautomation. Apple Motion allows control of animation parameters through MIDI. The 1987 first-person shooter game MIDI Maze and the 1990 Atari ST computer puzzle game Oxyd used MIDI to network computers together, and kits are available that allow MIDI control over home lighting and appliances.^[55]

Despite its association with music devices, MIDI can control any device that can read and process a MIDI command. It is therefore possible to send a spacecraft from earth to another destination in space, control home lighting, heating and air conditioning and even sequence traffic light signals all through MIDI commands. The receiving device or object would require a General MIDI processor, however in this instance, the program changes would trigger a function on that device rather than notes from MIDI instrument. Each function can be set to a timer (also controlled by MIDI) or other condition determined by the device's creator.

Which brings us to the Sentient Garden.

Using artificial plants (sprinkled subtly with extra-fine glitter, duh), and a light-controlled environment (ahem, a GIANT cylinder made of black trash bags that had been quilted together with packing tape, kind of like a teepee suspended from the museum ceiling -- large enough to hold 4 adults at one time), I used stage lighting with orange and blue gels to to cast shadows on photo-sensors hidden in the plants, and used MIDI to command servo motors to respond when the photo sensors were activated by a human casting a shadow. I wish I could remember the software used to program the sensors and motors, it'd be good for a laugh if nothing else.

As a human approached the "garden", ferns would tremble, leaves would curl away, stamens would pull inside flowers.

It was a really cool thing that was really difficult to photograph because it was in the dark. But dad, bless him, did his best.

New goal: one-up 20-year-old me and make something really great. It's interesting to watch patterns emerge -- apparently I like interactive/responsive work and 3D environmental design. See also: stage lighting and glitter. Shudder to think of all the time wasted being an admin or project manager.

No spoilers, but some of the work we're doing for New Media might be able to measure up to the Sentient Garden...

Stay tuned. :D

*Coby Cranman DID supply sausage pizza with red onions to feed me while "we" worked -- an ingenious flavor combo that I'd never considered and an ingredient list that would probably kill me now. 

Experimentation :: I made a GIF!

Insipred by Erik Fadiman & Brad Frost:

Learning HTML & CSS :: The Voyage to 1994

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