Circles Films

Circles Films

(Another New Studio)

Over the last fortnight I set up the installation area, for the moment a projection room, and played around with using both projectors each throwing to a different wall.

While I was playing with the projections I also produced the first piece of work I’ve made in the studio. A drawing of the birds nest I found when the neighbours trimmed the hedge.

circles films

first drawing in the new studio

A simple charcoal drawing on heavy paper. I made a polycam model of the nest itself

Then later made an AR test with the downloaded obj file. The obj, or format of your choice, can be downloaded here.

I wanted to break up the projected images in the installation and decided to make some large circles to to hang in front of the screens. The images below use a projection of the geranium project film and a new red film made from camera trap captures that came out in shades of red, played in sequence and on a loop.

Circles Films

Red Circles from the right

Circles Films

The geranium film projected onto the large circles

Doing so meant I emptied my portfolio so I displayed the Durer’s solid drawings that are in progress.

Circles Films

The Durer’s Solid drawings displayed in the studio

The video felt too small in the space and I wanted to complicate the surface so I used both projectors and set them with the films overlapping by about two thirds of their width. I added in a line of smaller circles cutting across the space.

Circles Films

Both projectors in the installation overlapping

I have a Vimeo Showcase of film snatches and a longer, 15 min film

There is a gallery page of stills from the  videos

And that’s as far as I’ve got

Durer’s Solid and Platonics

Durer’s Solid and Platonics

Durer's Solid and Platonics

Dodecahedron

In my last post Be a Bit Pirate AR I spoke about working on a small app using platonic solids and I have continued to develop that alongside other things since then. I made models of the solids to act as targets for the app and also used photographs to develop the apps using vuforia .

The models have been scanned using Polycam and can be viewed using this link

When I reached this stage I realised the project needed something else to make it hang together so I found my dialogues and took the appropriate quotations from Timaeus 

and made this version of the app.

I’m in the process of setting up a Google Play developer account so that it can be easily downloaded when it’s complete.

I made a model of Durer’s solid when I was building the other models, and a set of drawings.

Alongside this I applied for a couple of grants, the one I got is effectively a purchase award from the DGLAM Culture Fund, this was my accepted proposal.

The work would consist of a set of five black and white drawings of the platonic solids. Each of these would be linked to an augmented reality application allowing further illustration, animation and colour to be seen on screen when the drawing was viewed through the app. The platonic solids were named for the philosopher who proposed that the classical elements, earth, air, fire and water were associated with them. The enhanced virtual content, displayed through the app, would reflect Doncaster through the lens of these qualities; A virtual representation of the cube from the drawing in the bandstand at Hexthorpe Park for instance to reflect Earth. The application would show AR content from different areas of the city for each drawing.”

Most of the work I do can be seen on my website

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day; I filled sketchbook 9 on 13th April and have begun No. 10. The March drawings can be seen here

and the February images here

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

Being Sidetracked (continued…)

Being Sidetracked (continued…)

This is the first post since the end of August and I’m still off track. Pottering I think. About six weeks ago I saw a competiton for VR work that matched the geranium project

In preparing for entry I reconfigured parts of the project and added some effects in the rain garden and the painted garden, storm effects and shadows, and also did a lot of work preparing the piece for Quest 2 as well as The Index and Vive.

Although you can easily build for both platforms you have to switch the platform in Unity to do so. I now know that while it switches without a problem it won’t switch back without causing all sorts of glitches.  I’ve spent far too long building two versions of a very big Unity file. The advantage is that I’ve now got the file updated to a more recent Unity and I can use some better effects in the new work.

The submission got no traction at all, nothing after the acknowledgement, but my own analysis and discussions with colleagues led to the idea that I need to develop a narrative that guides you through the VR world. So that’s where I am now, trying to write a story that I can take through the process.

I’ve not been entirely idle alongside this, a few months ago I started a drawing of a fox

I’ve done some more work on that and it looks like this now

Being Sidetracked (continued...)

Dark Fox

I’ve also been working on some found or accidental images, the first is from a piece of plastic acquired from my last workplace, that I thought suggested an interior.

Found Interior Chesterfield

Found Interior Chesterfield

Drawing

I’ve carried on drawing every day and you can see the October images  here

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.