Source Code is available here
Recently I had been wanting to do some more interactive 3D type of projects. I wanted to create something beyond just a pre-rendered sequence that simulated camera movement. I have previously been using papervision3D but wanted to expand my knowledge and check out the competition. Papervision X has been long expected but with Ralph Hauwert Unit Zero One leaving the team I thought it was time to move on. Away3D was very highly recommended by my colleague Kyle Beikirch for it’s more frequent updates to SVN and ease of interactivity. Since I was exactly sure what would be interactive when I started: I gave it a shot.
I was reading Lee Brimelow’s Blog ( http://gotoandlearn.com/play?id=63 ) and was having some fun playing with effects. While I was trying out a few different solutions to see what the effect would be. The problem was having to continuously recompile my flash movie to see the changed effect. A few numeric steppers later I was able to make a this little applications that spits out the colorMatrix Filter code.
Infinite Puddle:
I was in the lab yesterday and saw my friend animating text and 3D and it did not seem very appetizing. I really regret having to do tedious time-consuming things by hand. If there is ever a procedural way to generate or simulate something I’m willing to try. So I put together this little example.
*UPDATE*
I was able to get the zDepth working by applying simple blur filters to the bitmaps of the BitmapMaterials inside papervision3D. I also added in an input text field so that users could change the text without having to recompile. I have some bigger ideas for this down the road, like sequencing camera tweens between each letter. And exploding a whole paragraph word for word. I had some trouble with making the letter interactive, but it’s always been a bit of a pain to get events working with papervision3D. But for now: I’m happy where it is. The code is extremely well documented and if you have any questions just shoot me a line at : ben.mcchesney@gmail.com
The update source code is located here
Recently I was creating abstract shapes using Mograph in Cinema 4D, I was able to create some really interesting shapes using loft NURBS with assorted splines and Cloner objects. I toyed around with subsurface scattering and layer effects with color and transparency .
This first one is part of animation that is giving me a little trouble rendering but I think once I iron a few things out and add sound it’ll be a solid abstract piece.
Plant Inspired abstraction
Last quarter I had the opportinuty to work on a side project providing media assets to a team of developers creating a physics based puzzle game. Our art team consisted of less than 5 members and we only had six weeks to develop a style and create polished assets. My job was to design the user built contraptions that were essentially tools to complete puzzles (ladders, ropes, explosives, etc). The style we setteled on was a mix between fantasy/toon, we modeled all assets in cinema4D, and stylized them with sketch and toon and photoshop.
For the piece I really wanted to utilize dynamic information to power a flash application. After researching I came across several API’s for actiosncript 3.o and after polling a number of people found that last.fm’s API would appeal to the largest target audience.
So my squid started out as “Design Tag”, something us RIT kids do when we have free time. I had always wanted to do something underwater with squids so in about 2 hours I quickly came up with this:
design tag squid
The goal of this piece was to create a timeline. After venturing on the internets for a while I noticed a trend: most timelines are really boring. Most timelines consisted of poorly designed shells that have a simple side scrolling bar with dates and events. I wanted to create a more engaging user experience and was heavily influenced by the Halo 3 Believe website. Instead of conveying a series of events, I wanted to recreate a moment in time and allow the user to explore the environment.