Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. Boom. Holy hell. This is not a real eyeball. It’s a completely computer generated eyeball that looks realer than my own eyeball. A CG eyeball. It’s frightening, like they chopped half a human face for the eyeball. Actually, I’m not 100% sure they didn’t do that.
     |
Remember Bot & Dolly’s awesome Kinetisphere from Google I/O 2012? Today the San Francisco-based design and engineering studio released Box, a film of the first ever synchronized live performance featuring projected 3D computer graphics, robots and actors. Imagine two Kuka industrial robots moving walls around and a projector displaying CG onto them in complete sync. Add a second projector aimed at the floor. Now introduce an actor and capture the entire scene with a 4K camera mounted on a third Kuka robot in sync with the other two. The result is a mind-blowing experience that takes CG into the real world. Flat walls transform in to 3D cubes, objects levitate and teleport — it’s magic.
In fact, it’s even more impressive in person. The company believes that “this methodology has tremendous potential to radically transform theatrical presentations”. We briefly talked with Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Creative & Technical Director and Bradley G Munkowitz, Design Director (of Tron fame) about the technology behind the performance. The project uses two IRIS and one SCOUT robotic motion control platforms (based on Kuka robots) plus two powerful high-resolution projectors. Bot & Dolly’s in-house software, which integrates with Autodesk‘s Maya, is used to synchronize and control the performance. As such, the work serves “as both an artistic statement and technical demonstration.” See the video for yourself after the break.
Filed under: Misc, Robots, Alt
Source: Bot & Dolly
At GDC 2013, Intel has revealed some details of its 4th Gen Core Processors, including details about their upcoming graphics processors features (all Intel Core processor comes with a graphics processor or integrated GPU inside). Not surprisingly, DirectX 11.1 is supported, but what was not expected was that Intel actually extended upon the DX11 specifications to include two new features: Instant Access and PixelSync. Instant Access provides a more straightforward, more convenient and faster way to access the GPU memory, PixelSync does provide a more fundamental improvement in how computer graphics work and performs, especially when it comes to handling transparency. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Otoy Cloud Tools: A Vision for Ultra-Realistic Games and Movies, Chromebook Samsung Series 3 Review, 
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken have developed a new type of motion capture system that doesn’t require the live action performers to wear those skintight body suits covered in cumbersome tracking markers. And the typical 360 degree array of infrared sensors capturing their movements can be reduced to just a handful of strategically placed video cameras. More »
AMD just announced its new Radeon HD 7790 graphics processor (GPU) which will go in add-on cards immediately from close to ten partners right away. This new chip uses a new design which was created to improve the performance for the price, and for the power consumption, two key metrics when “absolute performance” (at any cost) is no longer the name of the game.
The Radeon 7790 uses the Graphics Core Next architecture that was unveiled to developers in late 2011, and currently used in high-end AMD cards, it improves performance by increasing the transistor density when compared to previous architectures. This allows for much faster geometry and tessellation engines, which are powering critical DirectX 11 features (it’s a DX11.1 chip by the way). (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Tegra 4 Announced By NVIDIA, Alienware X51 gaming PC is a milestone, 
Audrey Hepburn is probably one of the most iconic women in the film and fashion industry, with many attempting to recreate her beauty and sense of style. In fact it seems that task proved to be quite difficult as production company Framestore found out when attempting to create an advertisement for chocolate company, Galaxy. The original idea was to use an Audrey Hepburn double and that’s what the production company set out to do. They scanned the double’s face and did a live shooting before return back to their studio for further refinement. Unfortunately the facial scan did not prove to be as accurate as they thought and failed to capture certain iconic nuances, such as Hepburn’s eyes and smile.
They ultimately decided that CG was the way to go and the results can be seen in the video above, which we have to admit looks stunning and almost as if Hepburn was still alive and acted in the commercial. If you’d like to find out more about the process in which Framestore went through, you can find a detail description at Galaxy’s website. In the meantime if you have a minute to spare, do check out the video above and let us know what you think!
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BallCam Football Captures Rotating Video To Create Steady Images, PS4 Live Stream Drew 8 Million Viewers On Ustream,
Another innovative application of technology reported by Don Kennedy and Ryo Osuga of DigInfo.TV.
Visual SyncAR, under development by NTT, uses digital watermarking technology to display companion content on a second screen, in sync with the content being viewed on the TV.
“For example, you can show a CG character dancing in sync with an artist like this. Or a CG character can jump into the picture, and things in the picture can jump out. In this way, the system enables new forms of …
It’s almost impossible to pin down when and where the first computer animation was created, given several companies and research facilities were dabbling in the new medium at the same time. But AT&T—formerly Bell Labs—and others believe this simple clip dating back to 1963 could indeed be the world’s first CG animation. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
