pp2 Story telling
Posted: September 27, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »In this pressure project 2, we have 5 hours to work with how do we tell a story with cultural significance.
Thinking about the cultural significance, I decided to tell an ancient Chinese story. I decided to tell the love story between Xuanzong, who is the seventh emperor of Tang dynasty, and Yang Guifei. Their love story has already been recorded a lot through the history and I was really drawn into one movie which also re-investigates the love between them. How much a man can do when he hold the extreme power and what a woman can do by the side of such man.
I found the poetry and a lot of documentation which talk about their love story and the death of Yang online and I summarized and translated by my self in english.
By thinking about tell a story through mass media, I tried to investigate what can be achieved by media editing which would never be done by human voice. So, I decided to record my story sentence by sentence so that I can overlap them, repeat them and manipulate them.
I used Isadora to finish this audio editing. I use the timed trigger to count times so that each sentence can be played at certain timing. This could also be done by a lot of audio programer, but I just want to try with Isadora.
During that presentation, I felt really satisfied by everyone’s feedback and I think they get all the points I want to express. Something about the female cannot hold power in ancient China, some thing about a man can not do everything he want when he hold the extreme power. I felt great that I can express those only through the audio files with my manipulation. And I realize that the sound can really contain, express or even change a lot of informations.
A Cinderella Revealing
Posted: September 26, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »For our class’ pressure project 2, I created an audial retelling of the fairy tale Cinderella. I used the program Isadora to create an interactive experience for the audience. I split the screen and assorted buttons/sliders with a prompt to follow them chronologically.
I wanted to avoid overlapping different groupings of buttons/sliders or for an audience member to randomly click buttons because of a technical issue I had. My issue was that I could not figure out how to trigger an mp3 movie file to replay a sound more than once. Because of this, after the audience member pressed a button, the sound could only play once. Therefore, I worried that if sounds overlapped then the story line would be unrecognizable. Below are a few of my patches for this project (because many of them look identical):
The audience gave me positive feedback, saying that it was fun to piece together the story line through limited sounds clips from the Disney movie versions. They were interested in what the story would sound like if I had included more audio from more versions of Cinderella. Potentially this would bring in more cultural perspectives thus serving a larger audience’s understanding of this story.
PP2 Documentation
Posted: September 26, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Entering Pressure Project 2, I definitely felt much more confident. I decided for myself that my work would have merit because I was fulfilling the parameters of the project even if it felt as if it were too simple or I hadn’t spent enough time working on it. Sometimes, open-endedness can leave you feeling that you’re not doing enough because you don’t have an extremely clear and concise image of what the final outcome should be. I really worked actively to resist my desire to know if I was “doing it right,” and present something of which I was really proud of, regardless of what expectations I imagined Alex may have had. In the end, watching and engaging with everyone’s projects was really exciting. I loved the way that the diversity and breadth of our work explores questions about how we define culture, individually and societally, with input from each of our different identities, perspectives, and lived experiences.
As for my specific cultural story, I wanted to honor my late Grandma and the spirit of her hats that she left behind. I grew up understanding and admiring hats as a societal marker for Southern Black women. I crafted an original text score that I recorded to accompany some images that reflected aspects of my relationship with the story I am telling. I initially attempted to use Isadora for this project, but as part of my work included visual elements, I realized that I did not know how to make the program projects different images to one stage without layering them one over the other. With that being the case, I turned to Final Cut Pro X to put together the video linked below. (Link expires May 20, 2020)
https://osu.box.com/s/19h57e55oy83e9tn0a1v10y92zzka4n4
The Tortoise and Hare
Posted: September 26, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Requirements:
- Using sound/music tell a 1-minute story that has culture meaning
- we have 5 hours for this assignment
Ideation:
Before I started this project, I was thinking about what story has cultural meaning? After a while, I figured out that maybe the bedside story. Not only for myself but all the children, the bedside story accompanied us to grow up. Then, I asked my mother, “what story did you tell me when I was a kid”? She said 龟兔赛跑, which is The Tortoise and Hare.
Process:
I started to search for an English 1-minute audio source of this story. I found a video (link below) was excellent. It also inspired me to make some animation things by Isadora for this story. So, I recorded its sound and searched some pictures of tortoise and hare (Pictures are from Shutterstock, https://www.shutterstock.com/ , and Google image). I used the Photoshop image tool to cut out all the animals, tortoise and hare and then changed their white background to transparent. Then, put them to Isadora with 3D project. I made the raceway by using shape actors connecting to the 3D projector. I also wrote some lines that come from the story and some from myself.
Inspired by (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSdqyHDDHc
Reflection:
This project makes me think more about how powerful the audio and video could have. The sound and animation can exist independently and work well. But when they combine, the audience will have both visual and auditory senses. So, there are multiple perspectives for the audience. By bringing this bedside story into the adult audience (my classmates), I saw the reaction of them. Some of them laughed a lot while watching this story, and some of them felt thoughtful. I thought that the truth reflected in this simple bedside story is the most worth remembering in our lifetime.
Isadora users, don’t upgrade to Catalina just yet.
Posted: September 16, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Please don’t upgrade to Catalina just yet.
Dear Isadora User,
Apple will release macOS 10.15 Catalina soon. Like many other companies, we suggest that you wait to install this new version of macOS.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Upgrading your operating system or your Isadora version during the run of a show is never a good idea: don’t do it!!!
- We are aware that Isadora 3.0.2 crashes on startup under Catalina.
- We are testing Isadora 3.0.3 with Catalina right now, and it is running well. We plan to release this version within a week of Apple’s release.
- Catalina will not run any 32 bit application, which includes Isadora 2 or earlier, because Catalina is a 64-bit only operating system.
So, we strongly suggest that you wait a few a few months before installing macOS Catalina. We on the TroikaTronix team usually wait at least six months before upgrading our show computers to ensure reliable performance. We hope our example will inspire you to do the same.
Sincerely,
The TroikaTronix Team
PP 1 – Chillin’ with Planty
Posted: September 13, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »I had a lot of fun with pressure project one! I really didn’t know what to make until one morning I was watering one of my many plants (i.e. my children) when it struck me: a plant watering game.
“Planty” is a little plant sprite that moves left and right on the screen when you press ‘a’ and ‘d.’ Below is Planty’s user actor.
Planty wants to collect droplets, which make a little “boop” noise when he catches them. Below is the user actor for one of the droplets.
The time constraint of the pressure project posed a bit of a challenge. This wasn’t because I didn’t have enough time, but rather I had trouble tracking my time. I typically work on things through multitasking, so it was hard to track exactly how much time I was spending on the project (e.g. sometimes I would work on it while holding office hours for a class I TA, often pausing my work with students and then returning to it once they left). I estimated that I worked a little less than four hours, but perhaps a better method of time-keeping is needed for the next project. Overall I think the project was a success and I’m very happy with what I was able to produce.
Aaron Cochran – PP1 2019
Posted: September 13, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Initial Goals
For Pressure Project 1, my initial first priority was to meet the objectives in a timely, efficient manner. The objectives for our assignment were:
- Make someone laugh
- Keep the audience surprised for 10 seconds.
- Keep the audience surprised for 30 seconds.
- Make the program listen for and respond to numbers 1-5.
Planning
Starting with the first objective–make someone laugh–I saw this project as an opportunity to work on something from my list of side projects: learn how to efficiently create animations in a style similar to the sequences in the British film comedy series, Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
My first half hour I spent planning and dreaming. I initially wanted to have three sets of assets: images, animations, and sounds. These three sets would be shuffled and randomly paired together each cycle, creating a cacophony of random, ridiculous sequences.
The time constraint made me contentious that I might not be able to flesh out all the layers of what I wanted to do. So I broke my goals down into three levels:
- A single animation with user interaction.
- One sequence with multiple animations triggered by listening for the numerical values from the network.
- A full mixture of multiple animations that worked with multiple sets of images and could be randomized to different positions around the screen to generate animations that I had little to no control over.
My planning steps were:
- Research (watch Monty Python 🙂 and take notes)
- Gather imagery (make PNG files)
- Design animations
- Randomize animations
- Trigger with numbers 1-5
- User-designed animations using sliders.
Research
My next half hour was dedicated to research. I watched a few Monty Python animations and my eye was caught by still images where body parts were cut out of pictures and collaged to give the impression of a mouth moving, an arm waving, clothes being removed, etc.
Gather Imagery
I then decided to make a prototype of my first animation using Photoshop. I showed one of my friends the sequence I was planning on emulating and they reminded me to be conscious of my audience if I want a laugh. So after looking through some Ohio State imagery, I settled on the bust of William Oxley Thompson as my subject for my first animation.
Design Animations
I entered Photoshop and had to play around with a few different methods to make Oxley’s bust’s mouth open. I initially tried to repeat the top line of pixels defining his lip, but it turned out that those pixels were not all true black. Eventually I settled on 3 images: a black background (the inside of the mouth), the main image (a PNG with an empty hole over the mouth), and a cutout PNG of Oxley’s mouth and chin.
I then built a prototype in Photoshop where I could move the mouth up and down and showed it to a peer that was in ACCAD. They laughed instantly. SUCCESS! Objective 1, CHECK!
Roadblocks
I had my Photoshop prototype completed and my assets were ready to move to Isadora. I am using the computers in ACCAD for my work for this course this semester. Unfortunately our license was down and I lost a half hour of time. Additionally, I couldn’t just stop my stopwatch on the project because I had allotted my time to butt up directly against the beginning of classtime. Fortunately, we were able to get the licenses up and running again with a little over a half hour to spare. I quickly aligned my images, turned on the transparency blend setting for my PNGs, and tried to hook up Oxley’s mouth to respond to an audio sequence of Buckeye Battle Cry on a circus-y sounding MIDI file. Unfortunately (last unfortunate occurrence) no one in the class knew how to make the system react to music played internally. (This turned out be be an issue with other classmates as well.)
Conclusion
My final sequence reacted to mouse input to move Oxley’s mouth. While not ideal, it brought instant laughs to everyone in the class and I think the operator messed with the mouth for at least five seconds.
I enjoyed the experience of having a time constraint as it allowed me to prioritize my life outside of class while still providing successful work in-class. I look forward to fleshing out this fun generator in the future once I find the tools to operate the mouth and can implement my other prototypes such as “Hand entering from right to tickle Oxley’s chin” and “Drum major hat dropping from above with musical accompaniment.”
PP1 Documentation
Posted: September 13, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »This project I found to be very fun because the time constraint took off the feelings of needing to have a well thought out idea. At least for me, I allowed my ideas to come as I developed more of my project.
As for my project, I wanted to focus on practicing using the alpha mask actor, especially in creating a spotlight effect overtop an image. For this I connected the image of my roommate’s dog as the “foreground” and a circle shape to the “mask” and then used the envelop generator ++ actor to move the vertical and horizontal positions of the masked circle. This self-generated movement and restricted sight of the image created the spotlight effect.
I also wanted to practice using the colorizer actor because in the past I’ve struggled understand that to manipulate colors, you must have an input that takes numbers. I connected the a wave generator to a colorizer which then affect the color of my background image. The fast changing colors made it look like a dance rave, especially because I also had fun dance music playing in this scene.
You can also notice the colored shapes and ‘explosions’. I discovered the Color Maker RGBA actor which also allows you to take number inputs and create a color from those numbers. I didn’t need to use this actor in the end because you can set color on the shapes actor, but I still enjoyed discovering what potentials that actor could create.
Pressure Project 1
Posted: September 12, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
In this first pressure project, we have 4 hours to really investigate a self-generating patch. With a deep interesting in the “Shape” actor, I decided to just use shapes to complete my visual design.
When thinking about how to make people laugh and how to maintain audience members’ attention, I try to shape a recognizable image after giving a disorientation. I shape a cat by series different shapes imitating each body parts at the very beginning, and try to make them really disoriented so that audience can not figure out what the moving patterns are doing. The shapes which imitating the cat’s body parts are moving all together with some background patterns. And then I settled those body parts and build them up into a real cat image so that the audience can finally figure out what is happening on the screen. Also, when all the patterns are moving on their on path, I add some mew sound of my cat which can build up the curiosity of the audience.
I separate each body part into a user actor so that I can design each body part’s moving path. In each user actor, I have “Inside Range”-“Count”-“Inside Range” connected together to help me count a mount of time for all the body parts moving. While at the end of this amount of time the “Inside Range” can send out a trigger to the ” Envelope Generator ++” to help the body parts settle down and keep still for several seconds, which is the time when the audience can figure out the cat image.
My purpose is trying to give myself limitation of only using “Shape” actor to design visually and to let audience members actively figure out something from the disorientation. But the surprise cannot maintain after the audience figuring out what it is. And I got feedback about if I try to make the moving patterns keep shaping into other recognizable images. I feel really excited about the feedback I got and want to investigate more with it.
PP1 Documentation – Harmanjit
Posted: September 12, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
For this pressure project I decided to go in a different direction. I had a great idea in mind for how to hit all of the achievements for this project such as making someone laugh, responding to broadcasters, and maintaining surprise. The idea was to have a fairly standard self-generating patch that would incrementally respond to network broadcasters. When it received a value of 3 it would display a Windows blue screen indicating that the program had crashed only for it to be revealed as a joke a few seconds later.
Unfortunately, there was a problem with receiving the values from the network broadcasters and it didn’t go as planned.
I used random number generators for the color generation and the horizontal movement. The blue screen component was a separate scene that was accessed via a listener -> Inside Range –> jump. I also used toggle actors and gates to turn on/off different effects in response to network inputs.