Translation of Motion Graphic Sequence to Immersive TV set

starting with a motion graphic sequence

I have also created several set designs for Television with a process that grew out of ‘Phenomenology to Photoshop’ (previous post) In this example I show a design for a TV set that grows out of an animation piece. The end result is a dynamic TV set that affords several camera angles, and is capable of constant change. Again the artwork on the set is arranged in a compositional hierarchy that emulates the original 2D version.

motion graphics create a motion set

A process begins where I derive the design from the inspiration, below we can see how all the elements inspire an kind of hierarchy that preserves the original compositional qualities in the set. The red rectangle refers to what the cameras would potentially frame.

And then finally a set design begins to emerge, again, not so much as a set design as a composition of screens and membranes that can accommodate projected media and displays. This arrangement creates a space on screen; it has an inferred structure and form that then presents the graphics in a hierarchy that emulates the original 2D piece.

Below is an off-camera shot of the final result, this set was designed to convey stories about several of MTV’s reality shows at once; it allowed for several set or topic changes in one session. We shot 18 segments in 3 hours, something a conventional TV set could never accommodate. What I found very interesting about this design process was that the original 2D compositional framework (hierarchy) is still there and available to be modified and augmented with new material.

There is most definitely a relationship between the structure of the set, and the media that it hosts… the two are inter- dependent.

Phenomenology to Photoshop

Here is a quick outline of a design process I developed in the late 90′s a VJ, a time when I was constantly creating motion graphic environments. With this process I take a basic graphic design composition and translate it to a three dimensional space. Most often I worked from posters and created temporary walk through experiences using projectors, displays and lighting. There were some basic ideas that ignited this process for me, primarily from my studies in the Phenomenology of Perception, inspiration from personal cinematic experiences, and a notion that grew out of descriptions about the London Arts Collective ‘exploded cinema’.

Outline: 2D graphics – 3D walk through environment

- Collect/ choose/ create the 2D artwork, usually a poster or a piece of graphic design that includes images, colour, line, and form, composed together in a traditional way.

- Spend some time looking at it and thinking about the impression it makes on you; think about where your eye starts, travels and ends up. What kind of aesthetic impression do you get? Visually is there a message? Does it cue other collective memory, or signify anything in our (our audience’s) collective imaginary? … Make mental notes.

- Look at the space where you will manifest the 3D version, where you will stage what I call the ‘translation’ of the 2D piece.

- Equate the entry point of the eye on the poster to the main entry and exit point in the space, think about where the audience will travel in the space and where your eye travels on the poster. This will give you a hierarchy of the visuals and information, especially important when it comes to allocating your scarce resources, (equipment, practical factors, and time).

- Think again about how the poster ‘unfolds’ to your eye, how it delineates information, and the aesthetic impression it makes. Take a mental snap-shot of this.

- In Phenomenology of perception we study a ‘threshold’ point. A threshold is where something strikes us, the entry or beginning of a phenomenon. Often a point of entry to a space provides such an opportunity, where the ‘atmosphere’ of the exhibit has a chance to make an impression.

- In this process, you should try to equate the impression the two dimensional poster makes (the mental snapshot above) to the impression that happens at the threshold point of the exhibit.

walk through visuals installation at shine nightclub

With Urbanvisuals I designed literally hundreds of  walk through moving graphic environments in this way. 90% of the time they were staged for electronica events and performances. These environments we created would also transform over a period of hours and incorporate several 2D  - 3D translations. It was inspiring and a lot of fun: the environments were actually still a presentation of 2D artwork in two dimensions, but the composition was within a three dimensional space.

walk through graphic environment

There is a whole process to actually remixing and preparing all the graphics for display on projectors and lighting; the cannibalistic ways of the VJ made all this possible. I may elaborate on this later. As well, after perfecting this approach in clubs and other spaces, I took the very same approach to Television set design (2000-2006), and now to architectural spaces and collaborations with architects.

Immersive is…

I recently asked my students to define the word ‘immersive’; what I heard back was  ’surrounded’, ‘engaged’,  ’underwater’, ‘enveloping’…

Back in 2008 (September) I attended a conference called “5D immersive design ” put on by someone who had hired me years ago to help design a rave scene in a film. The premise of this conference is that many current design disciplines are in fact working in very parallel ways with almost identical goals. The goal; to create a sense of immersion in the end result, a way for the user/ audience to feel surrounded and engaged with whatever experience or environment is created.

At the conference artists, researchers, video game designers, architects, advertising executives all professed a desire to make their work more and more immersive.

see http://www.5dconference.com/main/

You me and the tree..

I know what I see, or see what I know? …what in our perception is innate?, what is learned? In the Cornell University experiment known as the ” Visual Cliff”,

infants from the age of six months to 14 months of age were beckoned by their mothers to cross a glass covered chasm, and with astounding consistency over 75% did not. The infants that did cross, would approach the ‘cliff”, pat the glass and cross. Can we ever come back to a ‘primacy of perception’ ? the results of the ‘Visual Cliff’ raise a question about instinct, memory and perception.

Blinkpoint is…

The goal of this blog is to explore the use of animated light in the built environment. We have used light as a means of communication for centuries, and as the ability to control light continues to evolve, so does its expressive potential.

I will be featuring other current projects in the ‘blgosphere’ that are either directly relevant, or become relevant in this context. The next entries, however, will focus on details of my past projects as a window to a kind of future potential that I see in the combination of lighting, media and architecture with time, connectivity, and event.