Hello World!

Long time no see, Blogger.
Since the last time I spoke to you, I completed my thesis (took long enough), graduated with an MSc in Interactive Entertainment Technology from Trinity College Dublin and started work in VFX house Framestore.

My position is Assistant Technical Director in the Pipeline Dept. essentially providing tool development and support for every aspect of a feature film VFX pipeline. Using python mainly, but also MEL to interface with Maya.

Anyway, after a long hiatus, I think I"m settled enough to finally start proper blogging again. The links I've posted need a freshening up, so bear with me while I overhaul the blog. Ta.

My Thesis - Week 7

I've gotten to week 7 and this video is what I've to show for it. Please keep up to date with my thesis development here.

EyeStop by MIT's SENSEable Lab

How fantastic looking is this? This is a smart bus stop designed by the SENSEable Lab at MIT. The bus stop and information point provide a touch screen interface to access real-time information on desired routes, bus or public transport whereabout.



The bus stops and info points are going to be tested in Florence, Italy from this October. I'll be eager to see if these devices can combine aesthetic and functionality...and not be vanalised in the process. I really hope it works out because their concept work is gorgeous and their purpose is great.

The article from CNET can be read here.

NuFormer - 3D Urban Mapping

Projection on Buildings from NuFormer Digital Media on Vimeo.

This is some great 3D mapping by Dutch studio NuFormer. I came across this via Smashing Magazine and DivineCaroline. Could this kind of stuff become a permanent architectural component?

My Dissertation Progress!

You can track my dissertation progress here...

Dvein's F5 Teaser

Dvein: F5 Titles from F5 on Vimeo.

This is an incredible animation by Barcelona based DVein for the F5: Refresh, a creative gathering that took place in New York City on the 16th and 17th Arpil. DVein are also responsible for the visuals to Diesel's Liquid Space fashion show back in 2006. This is really amazing stuff.

TWEAK 2009

Hi everyone,
Limerick based interactive art and electronic music festival, TWEAK, is getting its second outting this September. You can follow the event on twitter here, the TWEAK facebook profile is here, the TWEAK blog can be found here and the official website is this one here.

New Muses

Etienne de Crecy live visuals from 2008. I think these are absolutely stunning. They remind of work by architect Pablo Valbuena whose work I also love. His stuff can be seen here...

Here's a video of his work...

AR FOOSBALL 2009

This is my 3rd Augmented Reality assignment for IET. We had to build an AR system that used a vision system with another interaction device. I used the Nintendo Wii controller with Goblin XNA to create an AR version of the classic foosball game. The game uses the accelerometer in the Wii controller to accurately simulate the spinning motion needed to control the players in the traditional game. Directional buttons on the Wii are used to slide the player from side to side.

The game uses Goblin XNA for the AR and graphics. Goblin provides C# wrappers for AR SDK ARTag and Newton Game Dynamics. The game was developed in Visual Studio 2008 using XNA 3.0 with Goblin. The Wii library is written by Brian Peek and can be found here. I'll definitely look to develop this further, I think...

Real-time Rendering #6

This is the final assignment for our real-time rendering class for IET. We were given 3D Studio Max files of Trinity College Dublin's front square which we had to export from 3DS and import into XNA. From there we had to apply the textures, light maps and apply some of our own custom shaders to the model. My video displays various shader including phong, greyscale, dynamic shadows in a addition to the textures and light maps. The project was developed in 3DS MAX and exported using Kw-xport. The code development was done in Visual Studio using the XNA game studio in C#.