Friday, March 26, 2010

Alternative stereo photogrammetry app: Arc3D

Pretty good looking results from this application - it seems very similar to 3Dsee.
It seems unsupported at the moment as the installed application crashed when I attempted to run some test data through it. Bah  a  pity  as some of the earlier results look very good.

3D model of the statue of Mercator at the city hall in Leuven, based on a 3D photography system www.arc3d.be


Sunday, March 14, 2010

Whale Cairn

Progress update:
A new piece based on photogrammetry data shot of a (dead) beached whale on Frasier which I photographed last year- I am now working on putting together the real-time scene together in Unity engine.

I am looking at how I want to explore and develop the space - thinking of a large virtual open environment for this piece. I have finished reworking the base data and have created optimised engine ready version of the piece- the above screen shots are from 3DCoat showing my progression.

PRIX ARS SUBMISSION -DIGITAL MEMENTO MORI: BIRDSKULL_GALLERY.EXE

A HYBRID SCULPTING PRACTICE THAT REFIGURES THE ORIGINAL SOURCE MATERIAL, TRANSPORTING THE THEME OF “MEMENTO MORI” INTO THE DIGITAL.

I finally submitted all the information required for Ars Electronica - PRIX ARS under the hybrid art category.

The submission consisted of a video documenting the processes used to create and display my interpretation of sculptural momento mori into the digital. Involving my processes of transposing physical pieces from the actual through into the virtual, re-interpreted the pieces in the virtual medium resulting in the BirdSkull_Gallery.exe for final display of the sculpts.
BirdSkull_Gallery.exe is one of a series of digital sculptural pieces that explores the interchange between the analogue (actual) and the digital.
The work appropriates scientific and engineering technologies of stereo photogrammetry to reinterpret the physical object, adapting it into the new context of digital sculpture.
I use a photogrammetric capturing method to capture the pieces rather than create observation driven hand sculpted models relying on my artist’s eye to representation of the subject matter.
The photogrammetry process captures the inherent natural errors of the original sometimes missed by observation. It is notable that in the photogrammetry translation process that I use, there can be errors in translation from the 2D into the 3D. I use that “erroneous data “as an abstraction process in the conversion of the piece into the virtual medium.
As most of the sculptural work takes place in this virtual medium it seems natural that the pieces should be displayed and distributed in a digital medium very similar to their medium of adaptation, the virtual space. With the BirdSkull_Gallery.exe I have reinterpreted two aspects a crow skull (based on the same data set), namely Crowskull _Scrimshaw and Birdskull Redux v1.1.
These pieces have been integrated into a virtual 'cave' which is created from erroneous photogrammetry data of a stuffed crow captured from the Brisbane Natural History Museum collection.

The exploration of bones and nature stems from my early childhood in post colonial Africa - I have always seen bones as beautiful sculptures as well as reminders of life’s fragility. I remember visiting friends ranch as 5 or 6 year old and seeing an elephant skull on the front lawn and thinking how amazing it was and wanting one for my own room. My work reminisces on memories of bones being commonly used as ornamentation and have always been a part of my physical environment. Today as a practicing digital sculptor I can capture elements of this childhood obsession - creating virtual homage's to creatures that I once collected and performed taxidermy on.
My practice reflects my desire to pay homage to nature.
The ability to create a virtual sculpture garden is part of this process of reflection where technology enables one to collect and create these types of spaces, resulting in virtual galleries such as BirdSkull_Gallery. exe.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Prix Ars working:

I have started reconstruction of a whale beached off of Frasier island, which I photographed last year. I rebuilt the mesh data in 3D voxel space - made up of components of the original stranded whale converted into 3D from the photogrametry.


GoatsSkull Conversion : A verysuccesfull conversion of photogrammetry data into mesh - I will be looking at this element in the next few months.