September 24, 2003

Scene poetry in 64K

.the .product is more than a couple of 64K real-time 3D graphics demos. This is one talented mob of german coders and designers making "scene poetry". The demo use somel very impressive techniques but require a PC with a fat graphics card and recent DirectX. Hard disk space is not a problem.

Introduction to the Demo Scene

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September 21, 2003

The Making of South Park

The joys simulating cardboard cut-outs with CG. The Making of South Park

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September 18, 2003

Face Transforming

The University of St. Andrews has a Face Transforming web site where you change the age, race and sex of a facial image in a photograph.

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Creative Commons

Need a legal framework to allow 3rd parties to straightforwardly and creatively re-interpret your work without relinquishing other rights? Check out Creative Commons, inspired by the GNU GPL, and aimed not only at increasing "the sum of raw source material online, but also to make access to that material cheaper and easier."

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XBox update shuts out Linux

ZDNet UK - News - Xbox update shuts out Linux. Software vendor auto-update behavior is going under the civil liberties microscope. It's one thing for Apple to "update" iTunes to remove certain audio streaming server capabilitiesfrom the software. Another thing for Microsoft to deleted content on the XBox harddrive created via Linux. A (dis)trust network is at work again.

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September 17, 2003

fm01

"fm01 will offer a total software environment for the semi-automated production, scripting and editing of endless cinema.

cliki: http://fm01.druh.co.uk

ap background: http://www.1010.co.uk

http://www.druh.co.uk/residencies.html

ap production fm01 transposes non-metaphoric systems and grammar theory (of computer languages, abstraction and data containers) to the realm of expanded cinema. a relational, nodal and active language of connection will be formulated to descend through levels of scene, shot and frame (stored and to be shot). visual and syntactical analysis software will form a large part of the fm01 engine.

fm01 is not totally automated and in parallel with ap03 (apOS) forms a mechanism of personal insertion into systematics. fm01 is not conceived as an engine for the manipulation of generic clips (an expanding database of all possible scenes categorised according to a huge number of elements and relations) but rather offers an enmeshing within script, data streams and environment. fm01 is a large-scale project which builds on previous ap research and process to push the envelope of what can be achieved in terms of computer languages and data visualisation; a re-thinking of hard-wired notions of input and output.





call for papers for symposium uk to follow
[ http://mynetworks.com/node/view/79 ]

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Ars Electronica

Julie Freeman sends in this write-up on this year's Ars Electronica.

"I've just returned from Ars Electronica in Linz. It was very good - met some interesting people and once the networking b*llox was out of the way some really nice people.

On the whole it was pretty inspiring - a lot of work was kinda yeah, yeah, seen it, done it, but some really stood out. Also it was good to see that a lot of work is being developed in Max which bodes well for my project.

These guys: http://www.maywadenki.com were one of the stars of the show - very funny, very clever, very nonsensical. This work was a stunner - Protrude, Flow (Ars review) a liquid sculpture, always changing and reacting to the sound around and about the exhibit. I'd have loved to see the original dining table piece. the liquid looked like black oil, it was some mad iron powder dissolved in water or oil or something. amazingly nice. otherwise - lots of projected stuff, lots of video analysis. and an _excellent_ interactive performance called Messa di Voce by Tmema which i think you would love.

Also found out about this - kind of a Max look-alike... it's not Mac based, it's a beta, it's a bit buggy but interesting nonetheless. They seem to be addressing some Max weaknesses - real time issues etc.

It also started me thinking about the acceptability levels of using technology in conferences - Linz was chock full of early adopters and yet still phones rang in presentations (and yes even vibrations are audible on a wooden floor). The laptop posse were surfing the wireless network (checking references as soon as they were spoken, take heed presenters - check your facts) or coding their projects while speakers were talking. Keeping your audience engaged is hard enough at the end of a day of pontificating but with the added competition of the Internet and personal email boxes it just got harder."

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September 04, 2003

This is not a love song

This is not a love story, released tomorrow (20030905) is being billed as "the world's first online film release" simultaneously online and in cinemas. The production is sponsored by the UK Film Council.

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Eyetoy review

First touch of the Eyetoy and its clear that this is a whole new experience. No setup time, 12 sample games ranging from the annoying to the exhilerating and a clean vision of how we finally get to integrate gamers and non-gamers.

"It was wicked"

"Best thing I've seen for a long time"

"You get to move!"

"All the dealers are getting it."

Coach potatoes will never be the same. OK that's a lie but there is definitely something to this latest peripheral that hasn't been obvious before on a PS2, or any console. The ability to step back completely. The next stage has to be the removal of the screen altogether. Give my eyes a chance to recover.

Even at low light levels, the EyeToy performs reasonably. With stronger light and clear contrast around the player the system responds noticeably more accurately to movement.

In by far the best minigame, Kung Fu, the player swipes at oncoming attackers from a number of directions. The game rewards the fastest possible movement of the player, never seeming to lose tracking capability, resulting in a rather powerful sense of having complete control over the virtual interface. To cap it all off, the player's image strobes and fades away towards the end of levels so that all is left onscreen are the attackers facing an invisible opponent. "A Matrix moment" as someone put it. The future of interactive media as I like it. Truly degradable controls that recede into the background as the user's skill increases.

Another review concentrating on the mini-games themselves
http://www.game-revolution.com/games/ps2/sim/eyetoy.htm

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IndyJunior Flash Mapping

It's probably not a bad idea to base your Flash experiment on one of the most successful movies of all time. In the tradition of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the IndyJunior Flash Mapping Module provides web publishers with the quick and easy means to point to a location on a map of the world.

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