Ludic Spaces

Playing catchup on fundamental skills in Augmented Reality. This test was done using the vuforia plugin for Unity - to export as an Android App. Using tutorials from here as a starting point - https://developer.vuforia.com/downloads/samples  , it was quick to get up and running..  ( More time was spent trying to get the Nexus 7 to play ball with Windows 10, grrr! ) The tracking target was a postcard, which you need to upload an image of to the Vuforia database to create tracking information. Vuforia is free, if you are happy for watermarking on the app. You also have to create an app license that you copy and paste into the Unity project to register it. Having a dabble also gave an opportunity to utilise Mixamo  to generate a 3D animated character to test with. Mixamo has now been added to the Adobe Cloud services - so there's pre-made animations for Adobe Fuse Characters - that can be exported as .fbx. As a conceptual idea - I added particle trails to the da...

Finally got round to getting something affordable to do 360 video and photospheres, without the crazyness of putting multiple Go-Pros together or something similar. Inside the Stop Frame Animation set.. @lcabaan @leedscofart #theta360uk - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA The camera is a Ricoh Theta S , it retails around £299 -  which is just in my price range for experimental play and research.  Quality wise, its never going to be great - you are getting what you are paying for, - video is 1920x960px - which is low and soft for a 360youtube - but more than adaqute for prototyping ideas for storytelling. Picture wise though - images are 5376 x 2688px, which enables 4k quality timelapse and stopmotion projects. Here's a youtube test below... In an educational context, the Theta S is a good accessible 360 camera. Photos are exported as equirectangular projection - so easy to to import into Photosphere apps, or use as Skyboxes in Unity. Video needs to ...

Further exploration of investigating Isadora for incorporating into visual projects, I and Devika Rao experimented at The Stage, Leeds University with the trial version. Most of this was to test the robustness of the technology, and trying out the Kinect/Isadora Tutorial - http://troikatronix.com/support/kb/kinect-tutorial-part1/ It was fun to explore the software with some one unfamilar with the technology, so seeing the playful interaction and discovery through someone else is encouraging. Particularly mirroring effects, which was good for Devika to interact with live. Certain things flagged up quickly - skirts and dresses effect the quality of the kinect tracking - which might be an issue for costumes for Indian Classical Dance work. Also the area of the kinect's sensor pick up - reduces the space for dancing in. For quickly prototyping and discussing ideas for future visuals, it is obvious that Isadora can be an excellent addition - previously - I would have to shoot foota...

Finally, after many years - sitting down and trying to get my head around Isadora by Troikatronix. What drew me back to the software was the addition of projection mapping tool called IzzyMap and the slightly updated node based interface. Here is a test I put together using the trial version of Isadora - I had to make Kaleidoscopes, just had to. I'm checking out the midi input to trigger video clip switching, and a midi controller to play with values, the rest is audio reactive - pulling sound input from Youtube, using Stereo Mix switched on the sound card ( so no need to use a virtual audio cable ). Isadora Patch Video playback would benefit from using an SSD in my laptop, Isadora claims I can support 8 HD files at once with that Configuration. FreeframeGL gives me access to bringing in material with  Spout  - the windows equivalent of  Syphon . Hopefully this will allow me to bring in Processing Sketches, and in the longrun - Unity based screen content. N...