Learning this program is definitely a challenge for me. The more I explore, the more I realise how much maths is involved in much of the deeper programming and effects generation. For now, I'm happy to explore and play and just see what I can create to familiarise myself with this (I'm not entirely sure whether this will even become a part of the year's work to a great extent or not), and the knocks to the ego along the way are probably a pretty good thing.
In The Proteus Paradox, author Nick Yee describes that during an experiment in which a mirror reflection of a user's avatar was visible to them in VR, the subjects found the scene too unbelievable, too perfect a replica, for the experiment to function well. It was only when a layer of low poly, artificial-looking condensation was added to the mirror environment in VR that the experiment began generating meaningful data. Sometimes the flaw of the digital is in its perfection, being too polished and too clean, and it is the conscious addition of visible flaws and cracks in the illusion that allow it to become more than simply an ideal. I'm trying to maintain that idea in my head going forward - perfectionism isn't what I'm going to be after in using these programs, both in the process of learning how to navigate them, but also in creating work within them. They need to maintain some of the messiness of the world to make them accessible.
Tutorials and experiments
Kaleidoscope tutorial followed here
- why: to experiment with creating abstracted perspectives and videos
- what next: see if this video can be used to create an image shader for an object in blender (to add a dynamic element to an otherwise static form), play with different view points, video assemblage and editing taking inspiration from artist models
Image shader
- learned how to generate both a fly through effect by setting the camera to follow a path, and to utilise images as shaders for objects. - I really want to see if I can use videos as shaders, next as that could allow me to make some pretty odd combinations and bring more dynamic movement into compositions
Nodes
- still a very unfamiliar tool to me, but am learning slowly; today's test was about creating the illusion of metal, high shine plastic, and reflection
- following a basic tutorial on shading currently, will use it to experiment with my own drawings soon
- since then have figured out how to use videos as shaders for objects
Video as image shading
- short test using some footage shot of a mustard plant in my garden (initially taken to explore the weird and wonderful colours, textures and shapes of the plant itself). I wanted to see what I could capture up close, and if the video could be applied to a three-dimensional object. Here is it applied to the inside of a sphere that the (digital) camera occupies...
- concept idea: creating a "digital forest" made of objects that have been sculpted in 3D and coloured using this technique via either personally sourced or found footage/images/etc, to explore the idea of a perpetually shifting landscape of digital information and mediation
(I wish the clip was longer, but unfortunately my computer was having a hard time rendering it already so I kept it short...)
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