David Cotterrell, an installation artist has launched a new exhibition entitled 'Monsters of the Id.' Derived from Cotterrell's journeys to Afghanistan, this new work interprets his experiences through image manipulation, staging, CGI and new projection techniques.
The exhibition immerses the visitor in a landscape that crosses the physical and the virtual. For Searchlight 2, a desert landscape scene, Inition’s 3D scanning team worked with Cotterrell to help capture the uneven terrain using a Mephisto EX 3D scanning system. The Mephisto EX was mounted to a custom rig to record an aerial view of the installation on its wide angle lens.
The 3D data was used by the artist to instruct the 3D projection mapping. The content is projected-down from an edge-blended array of projectors mounted above the false ceiling onto the abstracted dune landscape. The content is generated at runtime by one of a number of networked Unity applications which populates this landscape with a large number of avatars whose path-finding activity is affected by the shape of the landscape mesh.
The final effect reveals illusory human shadows traversing a low platform terrain, suggestive of the desert landscape as seen by an aerial drone. The unnerving movements of this unidentified, disembodied population are computer-generated and directly mirror the actions seen in Observer Effect in Gallery Room 1.
David Cotterrell commented: “Our challenge was to generate a reasonably accurate mesh to use within Unity so that the projected images appear to behave correctly when navigating the physical contoured surface within the gallery. We worked with Inition’s 3D scanning team to capture the varied terrain and import this into Unity. So the engine is calculating path-finding elevations and behaviour based on the unique surface contours of the gallery powder-based 'landscape'.”
The collection of experimental installations is being staged at the John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton (www.hansardgallery.org.uk), from the 11th Feb - 31st Mar 2012. For more information about the artist visit: www.davidcotterrell.com.
3D Scanning Service
From 360 degree scans of a human head to detailed scans of a delicate sculpture, assets for game
Mephisto 3D Scanning Engine
INITION says...
Future of 3D: #1 - Scan, Print, Explode!
For our first 'Future of 3D' project we decided to have some 3D fun with Shannon's head to celebrate our 10th Birthday and the launch of our 'Future of 3D' series.
This project combined a wide range of our skills and 3D technologies. But mainly we enjoyed it because it involved blowing stuff up! If you're interested in finding out more, make sure you watch the video above.
Some of the kit we used: ZPrinter 450, Mephisto EX Scanner, Phantom/Quasar 3D Stereoscopic Filming Rig
We'd like to point out that no Shannons were harmed in this project, although strangely enough he had a slight headache afterwards. Check out our Future of 3D blog at fo3d.posterous.com for our latest experiments.
About our 'Future of 3D' series
The 'Future of 3D' series is about exploring the boundaries of future 3D technology through non-commercial creative projects. Supporting this type of work is core to Inition's core values of developing new uses of 3D technology, supporting creativity and nurturing the passion of it's staff and collaborators. If you have an idea for a 'Future of 3D' project, we'd love to hear from you.
Keane 'Spiralling' Promo: Moving 3D Scan of Tom Chaplin
Inition provided rock band Keane with depth information of front man Tom Chaplin singing to add a new dimension to their new music video, Spiralling.
The Brief
We were approached by Andras Ketzer, the video's director, with a request to record a singing head, extract Z-depth and colour information and provide 3D data giving him the ability to manipulate the head in a 3D modelling program.
Solution and Results
Keane's lead singer Tom Chaplin was filmed using our 2K stereoscopic filming system, based on Silicon Imaging cameras (3DVidRig-SI), with a pattern projected on the singer to help with the depth-extraction algorithms. We then used Inition's 3D conversion facility, to generate a Z-depth image at 25 frames per second and After smoothing, the z-depth images were used as a displacement map to create 3D geometry.
We provided 3D data as a sequence of greyscale heightmap images (z-depth). This gave the director the ability to render his animated head from any angle at any point in time making a very unique memorable music video.
Check out the render of the depth map video that we delivered to the post-production house.