News
Mapping software update | Joanie Lemercier | AntiVJWe've been very busy developping the mapping software, and we've made a lot of progress in the technical approach. Here are a few details of the latest updates:
- Vectors: To get the best possible mapping, the best way is to work with vectors. It's gives you the ability to to very precise fine tuning, and and can select and moves individual objects, lines or points (up to a sub-pixel level, thanks to antialiasing).
- XML format: once the visual mapping is done, we'll be able to export the data as XML files, and reuse a perfect mapping into different softwares, like vvvv, cinema 4D, flash baseds engines etc..
- Client / server: We have built the engine with local or remote connection system, so this will give us the ability to stream content or play visuals from any computer, not only from the computer connected to the projector. This will be very convenient when mapping big volumes (buildings, architecture), as we'll be ables to map form any laptop with a wireless connection !
- Live mode: Originnaly we planned to create an mapping editor, but then we realised that they were amazing things to do with a simple "LIVE" mode, to create and generate mapping content (live from rss feeds, perspective distortion etc..)
- Automatic 3D mapping, realtime mapping..We also worked more on different engines to map objects instantly, we'll post more details about this very soon !We're also working on an physics engine, particles system and a few more eyes candies..
Reflection mapping, a new approach to 3D mapping 
Everything is built on libraries and classes system, so it will be easy to add functionnalities.The engine is now almost ready, and we hope to post some footage of the first experiments very soon !
Introduction to visual mapping. | Nicolas Boritch | AntiVJVisual mapping became very popular in the VJing / Video Art domain in the past 2 years, but this technique is still quite unknown by the general public.
The idea of visual mapping is quite simple: forget about usual rectangular projections on screen, point a video projector at ANY object/surface, and turn it into a custom display !
As a visual artist, I have been experimenting a lot around the mapping technique, on various surfaces (2D and 3D) and on different scales, from small origamis to 160m wide building facades.Here are a few examples of recent projects, based on the mapping technique:
Since I started doing mapping (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L64-nqZsgjo)
I tried many different techniques and I've been playing around with dozens of softwares to find out which would be the best for mapping projects. As none of these softwares would have all the functionnalities, I still use a combination of them: Flash, After effects, cinema4D, photoshop, Arkaos.
The idea of the media sandbox project is to create a software dedicated to mapping, to make the mapping process easy and quick, and provide artists a simple and effective tool to express themself in a new way, using projections on 2D or 3D space.I will post some more details about visual mapping quite regularly on this page, and also updates and pre-versions of the software.
Just The Beginning | Tarim | Altern8Exhibiting at a showcase event means don't get to see a lot of what other people are doing. (Could the other teams run the event again so I can wander round, please?) We finally settled on Instant Graffiti as the demonstration of PTTP. Instant Graffiti allows the audience to draw in light, etch-a-sketch style, on a building. Richard (who did a great job producing code at short notice and without complaining that I'd just changed the spec … again) even managed to fit a two point perspective scheme in so the lines of light follow the lines of the building. We couldn't find a small building inside the Watershed to project on - so we had to use a back projection to convey the idea.
The PTTP tribute to Friedrich Hundertwasser. I think the idea fits well with his concept of "window rights" - although he might not have been so keen on all the straight lines.
Although this is the end of the Sandbox project - for PTTP it's just the beginning. The next stage is to look at running some Instant Graffiti Parties to encourage people to play and write some interesting games for it. Keep an eye on the Sandbox lists for dates and on www.mediaplaygrounds.co.uk
Many thanks go to all the Media Sandboxers: Clare, Emma, the panels, the other projects and the many people I've talked to - for seeing the potential in PTTP. Without you, it would still just be an idea knocking around in my head that, although clear to me, seemed too difficult to explain. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement. Publicly controllable fountains, and a whole lot more, are now one step closer
What do you do with the protocol that does everything? | Tarim | Altern8What do you do with the protocol that does everything? The answer, "anything you want", is decidedly unhelpful. PTTP is a tool - but how do you present that tool to people? Having been immersed in the design and programming side of things - the temptation is to try to show off all the technical features. But most people aren't really interested in the, "how do I do this with it", especially when they don't know what it is yet. What they want to know is, "what's it for" and, more importantly, "is it any use to me?". (Many thanks to Clare for some useful steering here. And also Dan Efergan, who said something similar to me many months ago - only I'd forgotten.)
In practice, this means we're concentrating on a simple playground, inspired by Etch-a-Sketch, which allows people to draw all over a building. That's drawing in light, with a projector, so it rubs off easily. There are also still many interesting things to look at with Joanie's VJ mapping and Richard is looking at some games that can be played on a projection system.
We're in the fortunate position of having far more ideas than we have time to implement (see http://wiki.mediaplaygrounds.co.uk - so a lot of those will have to wait until after the showcase. We also need a good name for drawing on buildings in light - I bet "digital graffiti" has already been overused.
Projections | Tarim | Altern8Just a quick update. There's so much going on in the PTTP world at the moment - it's hard to find time to blog about it.
Jon has been really busy on other projects (which I really wish I had time to play!) So, although we have every hope of having a 3D cube to play with in the final showcase, we are going to make our primary demonstration a projection playground.
Richard has joined the team and is writing the drivers for the projection and also working on a controllable "video identikit" playground. This allows people to mix different gurning faces on a projection. More on this later…
The advantage of a projection playground is that, time permitting, we can easily drop in other things to play with. Currently under investigation we have an animated collage, a visual consequences game and the possibility for you to play with some of Joanie's VJ mapping.
We have a test harness for the projection playground up and running. So, if you fancy writing a quick playground then get in touch. (Technically, the projection playground is driven by Flash through its XML socket interface which are controlled from HTML forms.)
