Tag Archives: geranium

Durer’s Solid and Platonics

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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.

  • Durer’s Solid
    Durer’s Solid
    Durer's Solid I made this model of Durer's Solid from the etching Melancolia 1  and ...
    See photo »

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

  • Draw Every Day – March 23
    Draw Every Day – March 23
    Draw Every Day - March 23 Continuing to draw every day, in a new sketchbook using sketching ...
    See photo »

…and the February images here

  • Draw Every Day – February 23
    Draw Every Day – February 23
    Draw Every Day - February 23 Continuing to draw every day, in a new sketchbook using ...
    See photo »

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…)

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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

  • Draw Every Day – October 22
    Draw Every Day – October 22
    Draw Every Day - October 22 Continuing to draw every day, in a new sketchbook using ...
    See photo »

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

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

Gardens Project 13: The Tale of the Hapless Amateur

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Gardens Project 13: The Tale of the Hapless Amateur

Gardens

This is the kind of back where I was six months ago post, although inevitably I’m in a slightly different place. Work has meant that I was restricted to only a few hours a week and had begun by the end of March to resent it. As I write I have one more day to do before I am retired again.

I’ve got the start of the project to a workable state – there will be a lot of tweaking and tinkering before I declare ‘finished’ – and I think there is something of a story there. I’ve been moving, scaling, positioning, testing and retracting every aspect of the environment over the past couple of months. I’m trying to break the process down into a series of things I’m happy with and things I’m unsure of. The things I absolutely hate (for the moment) I just consign to an unused scene.

The combination of dilettanteism and lack of knowledge is the big drawback to making any project, every step I take with the head set on I see more errors.

My notes for this latest iteration read

‘hands not controllers. Fire out of sync on the torch. Stone texture unconvincing. Leaves too thick generally and difficult to navigate without instruction. Needs an indicator for the portals. There is a long wait for chapter one to load – needs a cut scene. Unsure about the news, not great when falling but OK when fallen? The roads aren’t smooth enough. Lots of the buildings don’t meet the ground very well.

There is too much empty space and aimless movement in the scene – I cut fourminutes out of the video moving between scenes over empty terrain. The main road is a disaster. The water in the boating lake needs to be moving and it needs to appear to be besides the sea. Savick scene is too empty and needs colour removing. Greenway was better in the previous iteration.’

At the moment I’ve decided that what’s missing overall, barring the glaring omissions, is the sense of confinement in each scene so I’m splitting chapter one back into three or four parts and making sure each section is clear and easily navigable. The trick is to limit the possible movements but make it appear as if there are places to go, if only you could get there. I think the aesthetic is going to change as well – it needs to look much more like its been drawn.

The Gardens project posts start here 

Drawing

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

  • Draw Every Day – April 22
    Draw Every Day – April 22
    Draw Every Day - April 22 Continuing to draw every day, in a new sketchbook using a set of ...
    See photo »

On May 5th I completed two years of drawing every day.

Gardens Project 13 The Tale of the Hapless Amateur

Coffee cup, drawn on 5th May 2022 two years after starting the daily drawings.

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

Other Stuff

I’ve updated my Yorkshire Artists website, https://yorkshire.art/directory/artist/ian-latham/

and made a 360 video of the garden. The first part of it I inadvertently inserted the wrong clip so from about 25 seconds in for abour 90 seconds you can manipulate a flat image in space with your mouse button.