Cher, Julie, Laura and met with the Johnson City Public Art Committee this morning to talk about the expansion of the concepts for the interactive public art project. Laura’s 3D renderings of the kinetic wind-driven sculpture turned out beautifully.(fig. 1) She tied in the regional fly fishing as well as the indigenous brook trout colors (fig. 2) into her design. Julie’s interactive topographic map of the regional mountains (fig. 3, video 1) impressed the board and made them question whether the project could be scaled to be incorporated into another regional park. The LED component illustrations (fig. 4), the led grid calculation and logistics (fig. 5) and LED light animation (fig. 6, video 2) were my contributions. The board was so enthusiastic about the 3D visualizations that they want to commission our design team to help them with the visuals for the park on Commerce street, translating the CAD plans into a textured and fully realized model. Overall, the board felt that the kinetic sculpture was a better fit for the space and chose this project to expand and develop a full-scale feasibility study and proposal.

video 1

video 2

Full Presentation 2

Progress Update: the Video Effects for the White House Project are now drafted. The background features a sound particle that reacts to the voiceover audio. (see EXPORT 1 Below.)  The layered white house vector file was broken into sections, with layers for each of the president puppet clips behind the windows in the main timeline composition. (fig. 1 & 2)

fig. 1 – Timeline With Window Layers

fig. 2 – Masked Out White House Windows

EXPORT 1 – Audio + Audio Particle Effects, No Kinetic Type

The next draft includes the Kinetic type animations, which are synced with the audio, the coloration of the foreground and background are also shifted toward the end, becoming more ominous as the timeline progresses.

EXPORT 2 – Kinetic Typography + Color VFX

The Puppets for the windows have been created, audio syncs drafted. (fig. 3)

fig. 3 – Cruz Puppet face by Julie Woodburn

After an in-class discussion on March 16th, a consensus was reached that the voice of our projection project needed to be addressed. Is it a satire? Is it a more serious statement? Is it an immersive animation with a storyline or a more passive, atmospheric piece? These were the topics of discussion during our group meeting session a few days after class.

Vanessa Mayoraz mentioned Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin sketch on NBC’s Saturday Night Live during our last class period. She noted that Tina Fey did not change any of the verbiage from Palin’s address, but the mere reenacting of the original speech using similar mannerisms was enough to be humorous. This sparked an idea!

Regardless of political views and ideologies, what has appalled us collectively is the complete lack of respect and diplomacy of our presidential candidates. The language they have used impugning the reputation of each other has been a disgrace to our country, and it offends the social acceptance and freedoms our country was founded upon.

The decision was reached that the use of real sound clips gathered from various online media that depict the degrading and insulting language of our candidates will be edited together, to create a loop that builds  tension with layering. The candidates themselves will be yelling out the White House windows at each other (fig. 1.)

We hope to create a reaction of repulsion, as the sound layers build into what becomes simply noise.

Below, we have some examples of sound clips we are sampling, we are working on a master list.

Taking the political satire angle, a consensus of animating the white house with different presidential outcomes was reached. Each group member chose a candidate and has begun the creative process of their projection animation, (Fig. 1 – 3)

Step 1 of constructing the stage is well under weigh, the vectors meticulously constructed in layers. (Fig 4) A prototype of this will be produced via lazer cutter out of inexpensive material, such as cardboard, for animation testing and troubleshooting.