Sarah Merchant

Yay!!.. I seem to be pushing forward with more progress. In this sketch I used Ani Difranco’s spoken word piece, Self Evident. Even if you are not an Ani fan, this still looks pretty cool. I used the Minim audio library in processing to aid in the type placement in 3D space, as well as the color values and opacity. I changed the background to black, which creates this beautiful shadowy effect when the dark type overlays the bright type. I love it, it kind of gives you that underwater type feel, especially while it’s building within processing.

I will upload a video later, once I figure out how to analyze the FFT information and output it as xml to import into Processing to ensure that the movement of the type will sync with the audio more accurately. Unfortunately, once I add in the MovieMaker script, allong with the script I have created to grab the brightest pixel in each frame of a .mov file, the sketch gets all bogged down while rendering and the output doesn’t match up with the audio. Currently I have been bringing the video into AfterEffects and time remapping it to fit, yet it’s kind of a cheat, for it’s not 100% accurate either. However, I will get something up here soon, for the motion while the sketch is rendering to the audio is so fluid and interesting. I hope you find the image enjoyable.

Of course I am bias, for when you’ve been working on something for several weeks, and you get progress that is closer to your end goal… you know… you get really excited. I know that this .jpg might not tickle your fancy, yet it makes me smile, so bare with me and my excitement.

Here is another go at 3D type using P3D. Here I have the color values being generated by random RGB values, instead of video, this enables me to get more vibrant colors, for by taking a random color from every frame of a video I was finding most colors to be the same and very muted. This example is definitely the polar opposite, and maybe too bright, yet it is progress none the less.

[qt:http://cias.rit.edu/~sjm8098/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/forBlog_v1.mov 450 250]

The audio levels is still controlling the size, x, y, and z locations. I do also have the cameras x and z axis being controlled by the users mouse, the biggest difference besides the color is that I no longer have the audio controlling the x, and z rotation properties. This helps with allowing the image to look much smoother/less pixelated. Enjoy…

While chugging away at my processing project I encountered some issues when I tried to make my text 3D. I found that using OPENGL would attach a white plane to each letter, and If I used P3D instead I would not have that issue. However, P3D doesn’t allow smoothing, so it doesn’t look quite as pretty, yet it works.

In this particular sketch, I used a 60 minuets interview of Bob Dylan for the color, along with a track of his for audio. The video controls the colors, where the audio levels control the size, opacity, and z value. The mouseX value controls the z value of the camera. It’s getting there!

[qt:http://cias.rit.edu/~sjm8098/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/3dTxtTest_1.mov 320 240]

At RIT, our senior thesis consists of a two-quarter team project. During these two quarters we are given a client, and are put into groups of nine students. Our teams combined the New Media IT majors with the New Media Design majors. Then we are given 20 weeks to implement, design, research, and promote our clients desired application.

For my team project we were given Effective UI as our client, and they would like us to explore the world of Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin. Our project is unique, for there is not all that much out there in Silverlight, so the bulk of our project is our blog, which contains our research, triumphs, disasters, as well as code examples and widgets we have built.

I apologize if I am a little behind on blog posts lately for I am also working on keeping our team project blog up to speed also. You should check out our Blog, our team name is XamlHouse… (xaml = Microsoft’s coding language for graphics and animation).

Here I have created a sketch in processing that places letters from a string based on color value of a video clip. I am using the video to dictate placement, color, alpha, as well as size of the individual letters. I plan to later use the bitmap data from the video as well as the audio levels to control the letters, for my Typographical Portrait series.

I have decide to do my next and final project for Jason Arena’s Virtual entertainment class in Processing. After being inspired by a sketch that Ben Fry did, I have decided to create a Processing Applet allowing me to create typographical portraits. To accomplish this, I will take video interviews, and use this source video to control my text color, and the audio levels to control the placement and size of the type. I will keep you updated on my progress.

The concept behind my project was to create digital art out of ambient noise. The art was generated in Processing, using the Sonia sound library, which was created by Amit Pitaru. I was able to use the sound levels from the built-in microphone on my laptop to control the size, placement, and opacity of the shapes. The colors are chosen based on the movement of the users mouse. I then outputted prints documenting the mundane everyday occurrences that are normally overlooked and forgotten.

Above is a print of a dinner conversation with my family.

Here is a print of me watching television with my fiance, while we bicker about how he doesn’t like my choice in programs.

This is a print of me doing the dishes, an occurrence I always dread, however it’s my favorite print. Here is a link to the code I used for this project.

This quarter we are able to explore the world of Processing. I have been using Processing for only a little time now, yet I’m loving it. It is so easy to use, and the java-script based language makes it a pretty easy transition from Flash to Processing. It is also great because it’s FREE ad open source. There are quite a bit of resorces out there, which is nice, and I was fortunate to get some really great books from Santa this year, including….. Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art, and Analog In, Digital Out: Brendan Dawes on Interaction Design. I recommend all of these books, if you are interested in dabbling in Processing.

Here is a link the re-design of Visual Retreat.

VISUAL RETREAT