An Outpouring of Energy

A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of seeing the Oregon Symphony play at the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall. This concert featured a guest violinist, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. I’m not exactly a cultural cretin, but I wasn’t exactly leaping for joy at the opportunity to go. I went because my girlfriend (who obviously has much better taste than I do) got tickets and asked me to go. I knew I’d enjoy it. But I didn’t realize I would enjoy it so much.

The concert was a blast. It was full of energy, emotional twists and turns, and such excellent artistry, such exquisite noise, that I left the concert hall physically exhausted and emotionally exalted.

For those of you in the know, you probably aren’t surprised by this. But, as someone who’s grown up on blockbuster movies and intense action games, the fact that a bunch of musicians, in particular one musician, could move me so powerfully was a real eye opener.

You’d probably like to see what I’m talking about. Well, I couldn’t take any photos or video of the event, but I did find a video that’s similar, featuring the soloist that was so impressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTU8Q0paSzk – Nadja’s the one on the left. She’s such a proficient artist, she makes it seem simple. She’s almost nonchalant, dancing with her instrument, just whipping out whirling highs and lows, tugging at the strings of the listener’s soul. The rest of the Oregon Symphony were extremely impressive, and I plan to see lots more of them, but Nadja really shone.

Nadja in Action: Click to Watch the Video

In fact, I would say that that concert was more significant, more emotionally satisfying, than any movie I can remember seeing. Even the blockiest of blockbusters, with millions of dollars and years of production time, are reduced to “meh” when compared to one woman and one violin.

The truth is, entertainment and meaning don’t have to come from expensive production values or mind-boggling visuals. A great performance by one player can be so impressive that it will bring the audience to their feet time and again, even move them to tears. That’s the kind of performance we strive for in the work we do. Our team is relatively small, but when we’re really in our stride and we’re making the very most of the resources we have, even a small team can produce work that’s chock full of the flavorful emotions we so enjoy: surprise, humor, nostalgia, camaraderie, even exaltation.

Thank you Nadja, for reminding me of the kind of beauty each individual is capable of.

She chides her parents, as only a precocious child actor can, about their prioritization of a business-related app over preserving this precious memory. “I don’t even know what [a micro-strategy app] is,” she despairs.

The ad got me thinking about the app market in general and my own proclivities among the apps I download and most frequently use.

Full Disclosure: I am a big fan of apps. I barely ever use them on my phone. I’ll explain that in a minute.

At work, we’re increasingly working and bidding on app related projects. And presently they seem to be pretty equally divided between training tools for business or business consumers–usually with some gamification element–versus straight-up games.

But which is more popular at large? Are most people like me and use their apps primarily for games and entertainment?

A quick jaunt to the App Store (or Google Play, if you’re so inclined) provides some interesting fodder for quantitative analysis. Both markets list their top apps in the Paid, Free and Grossing categories. Apple delineates between iPhone and iPad apps, while Google Play lumps them all in one. So, by aggregating these categories by app type, we find that  11 of the top 15 iPhone apps are “games,” two come under the “Photo + Video” type (both from the Free category), and one each from the “Entertainment” and “Sports” types. For iPads, not surprisingly, the top apps are more commonly business or productivity related. Five of the top iPad apps are identified as “games,”  3 come from the “Productivity” type, two from the “Book” type and one each from the “Photo + Video”, “Social Networking,” “Education,” “Finance,” and “Business” types. Interestingly, none of the Top Grossing Apps are games, which suggests users place a premium on the services that iPad apps provide and enable, rather than casual entertainment.

Conversely, none of the top free apps in Google Play are games, but four out of the top five grossing apps are. This may say more about the fact that Android does not delineate tablet from phone in its tallies than it does comparatively about Apple versus Android Users. Though Google Play doesn’t provide “type” information I would divide its tops sellers thusly: Seven are games; four are Google specific (like Street View, etc–all free); three are what I would call “device optimizing”  (Beautiful Widget, Titanium Backup Pro, Flash) and one is Sports. [Be forewarned, the above links will not be consistent with the snapshot of titles I've provided here, as the top apps are recalculated regularly.]

So back to that commercial…seems its logic is a bit spurious. The numbers indicate that people shoot video on their phones and do business/home office-type-stuff on their tablets. Not only are her parents callous; they’re using the wrong tool for the job.

As for me, I have a limited data plan on my Android phone and embrace it! I can check my email or surf  when I want to but keep the background data disabled otherwise. Who can afford an $85 dollar cell bill? For fun, I run apps on my iPad. Mostly, I do my business on the desktop and have almost completely foresaken the laptop. What about you?

As the twitterverse lit up with tweets from fans and celebs alike, you might be wondering, “So how exactly did they do that?”

Well, you start with a vision from Dr. Dre, add an Oscar winning CGI company called Digital Domain, and a 19^th Century trick called “Pepper’s Ghost”. And, by the way, it’s technically not a hologram. Here is a diagram that explains the technique. The real art comes in creating the CGI Tupac who was 100% computer generated and created from reference photos and video. According to MTV News, the Tupac hologram required several months of planning and four months to create in the studio. The exact cost was not revealed, however Nick Smith of AV Concepts (who staged the performance) said that a comparable version could cost anywhere between $100,000 to over $400,000.

Tupac’s appearance raises a lot of questions for me besides “how did they do that?” (That’s actually the easiest one)

Is this the future of touring for music acts? Why go on the road when you could record the show once and convince people you are giving a real performance?  Do artists need to worry about protecting their image and likeness in this form after they die? When is it ok to “ressurect” a performer? What about historical figures? Could you bring back George Washington or Albert Einstein? Don’t get me wrong, as 3D animators, we are completely  stoked about the prospect of holograms. We just need to consider the right and wrong ways they could be used.

Game Balance

Recently I have been working on some game design for a two player fighting game.  The first rule of these sorts of games is to maintain a proper balance.  In games, balance is a term used to encompass a handful of ideas, such as fairness and difficulty.  Balance in games is not strictly for video games, but card games, table top role playing games, board games and even sports.  When one is challenged with designing a game of some sort, balance must be in the front of the designers thoughts at all times.

When working on the balance of the game, first think of whether each player will have a fair chance at success.  Think of Street Fighter 2, a popular and well known fighting game.  The heroes name is Ryu, a martial arts master who can throw fire balls from his hands.  Other characters in the game can also shoot fire balls from their hands in various shapes and at various speeds.  If Ryu was the only one who had the ability to throw fireballs, it would grant him an unfair advantage and everyone would play Ryu over all other characters. 

Another issue that comes up in balancing games is something called level disparity.  A good example of this is in the game World of Warcraft.  At the beginning of play you start at level 1, fighting an endless string of monsters to earn experience points and become stronger.  The problem of level disparity comes into play when you try and join up with a player who is 10 or more levels higher than you are.  A level 15 character has no chance against a level 25 character, and neither of them can participate in any adventure the other is partaking in.  A well balanced level system allows high level players to enjoy the fruits of their labor while maintaining fair competition with lower level players.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a great example of a well balanced level system as no matter how many levels a character earns or how many new guns he unlocks, he can still be caught off guard by a low level character and be shot in the head. 

Balance does not only show its face in multiplayer games however.  It can also show up in single player games like Mario Brothers or Sonic.  For instance, lets say you are playing Mario Brothers and you make it half way through the game.  The challenge has increased every level, more enemies and more difficult jumps, but now you’re suddenly facing off against a flying creature that follows you wherever you go, is immune to all your attacks and can fly through walls.  The difficulty has just gone through the roof and the games balance is off.  In this case, the balance has shifted in the games favor, as opposed to shifting from one player to the other, but the problem is still the same.  Every player of this incarnation of Mario Brothers would forever decry the level with the invincible flying heads, and most people would point out that level as the farthest they ever got.

Game Balance is certainly one of the top 5 factors for determining a games success in the market.  People do not want to play a game they have no chance of winning or succeeding at.  Getting into the game first should not be the deciding factor in who is going to win.  The difficulty of a game should rise and fall the same way that a successful story raises and lowers the tension.  If you’re going to reach the coveted station of being able to “Print Your Own Money” as Nintendo does, you have got to learn to balance your games.

C2 Technology introduces 3D training for military personnel

(This is part 3 of a series. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.)

To wrap up my summary of Unite 11, I thought we could talk about a couple of projects that are being funded through the US military. The Department of Defense tries to stay up to date on technology, and are always on the look out for safer, more cost-effective ways to train their troops. Interactive 3D seems to be a good solution, and I can see a lot of potential in the projects that were being shown at Unite.

Unity 3D in the Military

C2 (C Squared) Tech (c2ti.com) was showing off a suite of apps designed to better prepare soldiers to use equipment like the Patriot Missile system. The Patriot missile system is a large truck, the size of a semi tractor-trailer, with a missile launcher mounted on the trailer. It’s designed to allow the driver to set up and fire the missile, but of course there are a lot of steps involved in making that happen.

C2's application works like a video game so it's easy to get the hang of

Interactive 3D simulations allow low-risk, low-cost training and education, helping the soldiers memorize the tasks required to set up the missile platform. They can run through the procedure as many times as they need to, without running the risks involved with working with real equipment.

The interface is very similar to a video game, and since most soldiers have played video games, they tend to get the hang of it pretty quickly.

The Patriot Missile system seems to be a popular test-bed for new technologies, because the next presenter, Heartwood (hwd3d.com) also showed off a product that featured that platform. Unlike the C2 project, however, this isn’t a training tool that’s trying to replace hands-on training. Heartwood’s tool is more of an equipment browser and configuration tool. They showed off how someone can use their tablet (iPad for example) to zoom in and out to see details of the equipment, open doors, etc.

Heartwood shows off their equipment configurator. The red object in the middle is the part that's being worked on. The orange is the surrounding vehicle, in x-ray form.

They showed how interactive 3D can be used to better understand complex systems like those used in military equipment. They showed how the parts of a troop transport go together, by allowing the user to place the parts on themselves. The user’s also able to focus in on specific parts, to learn about them and how to repair or replace them, without taking the parts out of the vehicle. They make the rest of the vehicle transparent, revealing the part in question, and then the user can spin around and see it from any view, as well as configure it right there on the screen.

These demos really clarify the advantages that 3D interaction has over more traditional training media, like illustrations and lectures. Not only are the users learning the parts of the equipment and the tasks needed to service them, they’re constantly practicing the techniques, making mistakes and correcting them, at their own pace and in their own way. It’s almost as good as hands-on training, but at much lower cost and potential for injury.

Heartwood's flight-control training software uses the Kinect to monitor and guide the users as they learn how to direct ground traffic at the airport terminal.

Gesture Control

Gesture control for computers is a technology that’s been around for years, but it’s only recently that it’s come into its own as a legitimate replacement for mouse, touch, or pen. Part of this success is due to the useful and affordable Microsoft Kinect system, which has not only puts gesture input within financial reach of the general population — it’s legitimized the idea of controlling a game or other interface with the hands and body, and trained thousands of people in using gesture control as they play.

Unity 3D integrates well with gesture controls, so we’re seeing several projects that are making use of Kinect and similar systems. For example, Heartwood demonstrated a system for training air-traffic ground controllers, the people who direct jets and planes on the ground as they arrive and depart the terminal. The controllers use their lighted wands to communicate with pilots, directing them and alerting them of any problems, so it’s important to practice those gestures over and over again so they’re easy to remember in stressful situations. The gesture-based training system is a perfect solution for that.

Candystations shows off their music visualization system that scans the performers and turns them into animated 3D effects

On a lighter note, the design studio Candystations (www.candystations.com) has used Unity and Kinect to create custom effects for music videos and concerts. They scan the singers with the Kinect system, interpret the results with custom software, and output the data into real-time 3D space using Unity. The results are spooky and beautiful.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how the techniques used in projects like these will affect future arts and training. I’m excited to be working in such a healthy, active, and creative community like that surrounding Unity.

A month ago I met Alex McDowell at Trans4m and he told me about his new venture, 5D.  After many years of working in feature filmmaking with a focus on 3D and production design he was now looking to bring the concept of World Building to folks outside of the entertainment field.  I shared with him what we are doing with Ethnographic Animation — and we agreed that there is a connection that we needed to explore more in both our ventures.

Tonight’s session focuses on Inception, tomorrow is Prototyping, and Thursday is Manufacturing and Finishing.

I feel like this is the beginning of a most fabulous mind-meld!

But it is true that I have chocolate on the brain these days, and that’s owed in no small part to the work we’ve been doing here at the shop on Mark Roush’s short film Persephone. In the free association, free range pathways of my mind, our return trip to the studio for pick up shots last month put me in mind of Goldfinger, the 1964 James Bond film in which the secretary Jill Masterson (played by Shirley Eaton) dies from “skin asphyxiation” (as explained by Sean Connery’s expository dialogue). I had heard in my youth, I’m guessing from my older brother, who as a cusp Boomer claimed knowledge of all things Sixties as his birthright, that the body double for Ms. Eaton had actually died from skin asphyxiation herself and that the famous scene of her dead on the bed was a so-called “snuff” shot. I believe I may have reported this as fact during down time on the set of Persephone. Turns out to be an urban legend.

Alex Lazar as Persephone

Irregardless, as my brother used to say, (which actually IS a word–Urban Myth #2 debunked in this post!), the synthetic chocolate skin that title actor Alex Lazar braved–lovingly applied by Christina Kortum over the course of four hours–did seem to cause a bit of a reaction from our heroine. Late in the day we were attempting to shoot some still photography to make a 3D model of Persephone. This technology requires the actress to stand perfectly still while photographs are taken in three concentric rings of varying heights. The green screen actually is an impediment to this process because the software  interprets background clutter as depth information. That’s why we dressed the set in the manner you see in the photograph to the right. After a costume change and a second series of these photographs, Alex became a little perplexed seemingly beguiled–not by this process but rather the fact that I was giving her incessant accolades for, in her words “just standing [there]“. It seems she thought, from her experience as a professional model, that kind of tireless poise was to be expected!

It wasn’t exactly “Death By Chocolate,” but maybe better described as a case of the Visual Effects Supervisor getting under her skin!

One of the biggest trends I’ve been noticing is not around the execution of digital signage, but around mergers, acquisition and straight up closures of many players in the industry. I think that marks a turning point in maturation for the industry as people figure out how to make this work as a real business model.

I’m also going to look for more “bundled” solutions. By that I mean the bundling of technology, content and audience measurement. To succeed, you need all three and it seems logical that key players will find ways to offer a one stop experience for their customers.

Mobile integration will be a big theme this year. This trend was the number one trend last year and will continue well into the future. The integration of mobile applications and tablets is huge. The good news is digital signage is a key activator for mobile engagement in the market place.

One thing I am hoping to see more focus on is CONTENT. And it’s not just any content, its relevant contextual content that is useful and helpful. Television is what drives the creation of content in the big picture of advertising. In merchandising its print. The problem is the creative is built with a single focus in mind. It is all about TV and then down the road it’s…”oh yes, let’s convert that to a DOOH ad…uh…no that won’t work”. Fundamentally we have 3 types of networks. Point of Wait: all about dwell time, Point of Sale: all about the shopper, Point of Transit: all about people on the go. Each network needs a re-work of the content to meet the needs of the consumer’s frame of mind. This is a big challenge for brands and their ad agencies and I’m very interested to see how folks are dealing with this.

You know I loves me some Augmented Reality. I’m really hoping to see some great execution with AR. The potential to improve user experience in this space is amazing. Plus, agencies love this stuff and it works. Ask LEGO. http://www.digitalsignageconnection.com/augmented-reality-brings-3-d-retail

I’ll be sure to let you know what caught my eye when I get back. Oh and shameless plug: ADi created a very cool installation for PLANAR – its art wall meets interior design, meets signage. Check out a preview here.http://vimeo.com/35977312

I think Chris Noessel from Cooper did an absolutely fab job of sketching one for my Ethnographic Animation preso (and he also wrote up an excellent journal post on his experience drawing sketchnote style at the conference.)

He even got in the part about The Don! :)