In William Gibson’s novel Spook Country released last year, artists create a new generation of “locative art.” Peer through goggles at a real-world scene, and see something that isn’t literally there. Few would say it was Gibson’s best novel – perhaps partly because the plotline didn’t live up to how compelling the locative art ideas were. But the art has already moved from science fiction into reality.
Artists and visualists often want to work in 3D, as our world increasingly becomes saturated with 3D technology. But we may want to get their feet wet before making an investment in a massive program. Fortunately, we’re now blessed with free 3D tools — partly because industry heavyweights Google and Microsoft are so desperate for the Average Joe to populate their virtual worlds with 3D models.
First, Google acquired SketchUp, the fantastic, user-friendly 3D sketching tool. They made the basic version of SketchUp completely free. Unfortunately for visualists wanting to use videos in a VJ app or OBJ models in a Processing sketch, exporting requires the full version of the software. (On the other hand, it’s $500, a tiny fraction of that for academic users, and it is user friendly.)
Well, now you have yet another choice, courtesy your friends at Microsoft. Microsoft snapped up a 3D app of their own for their competing Virtual Earth product when they bought Caligari, creator of trueSpace back in February. Sure enough, like Google they’re making the tool free.
Now, I expect Microsoft is hoping you’ll spend countless hours making models of houses for Virtual Earth, not just using this as a cheapskate way of making 3D models for your visualist projects. But they’ll survive.
trueSpace itself could be a strong choice even if you had to pay for it. It has a rather lovely interface, and some powerful tools for modeling organic-looking shapes. You can also script complex generative, interactive procedural models. There’s even a real-time DirectX9 renderer, which I believe, with effort, could even make trueSpace your live tool. There are powerful export tools — something SketchUp tends to lack — and scripting options, so this could fit well into another workflow. And unlike SketchUp, trueSpace is a "real" 3D tool that does everything. Microsoft also gives you the full-blown tool for free, minus just a few add-ons like ray tracing. The only catch is that trueSpace is Windows-only.
trueSpace even stacks up nicely against some of the 3D heavyweights, with tools like a node editor, real-time 3D collaboration, and lots of rendering options that set it apart.
Of course, SketchUp and trueSpace are both proprietary, so the open source Blender is another option. Those with more 3D experience than me, I’d be curious to hear how you think trueSpace stacks up against Blender.
When you’re ready to learn the tool, the video tutorials are now completely free, too.
But the bottom line: 3D tools are becoming more accessible, in cost, power, and ease of use alike. And as more people dive into 3D interactive tools like vvvv or Processing, and VJ-focused apps like 3L add 3D object import, I think the third dimension may increasingly infect visualist work.
Going mobile with video is looking sexier all the time. So far, we’ve been watching:
Apple’s lovely new iPods, all with component video out
An HP gaming device from the future (which may never show up, but could also be implemented on the proliferating embedded Linux mobile boxes around)
Now, Microsoft has given the Zune a badly-needed upgrade. The best part: real video support. I’m waiting on my contacts at Apple for more details, but Paul Thurrott beat me to the video specs, so here they are from him:
About Zune 2.0 video compatibility
Here’s the story: Like the iPod classic, the new Zune 4, 8, and 80 support H.264, MPEG-4, and WMV formats up to 640 x 480 natively. This means you can load a 640 x 480 (or whatever) H.264 movie on to the Zune and it won’t have to transcode it to a 320 x [whatever] format, as was (and is) the case with the Zune 30. This is great news. On the device’s screen, video will be scaled down to QVGA (320 x 240) as you’d expect, and if you use TV Out, you get full fidelity. Excellent.
There’s something beautiful about making art with mundane tools, making something creative with something because, not simply in spite of, its limitations. And there’s likewise something surreal about Microsoft’s latest ad campaign for Office for the Mac: get artists to make subversive art with its old version of Office for Mac, which still (cough, cough) isn’t Intel-native. But that’s exactly how the Office:mac team is promoting their software, and to be perfectly honest, I fully expect the new Mac version of Office to yet again trump the version for Windows.
Just what will you find on the Art of Office site?
I’m not sure this is inspiring me to get excited about Office 2008, but it is getting me excited about making office art. (Hmmm, OpenOffice fans want to strike back?) And it coincides roughly with the release of Helvetica: the Movie.
I love boring things.
Of course, this gets me thinking along visualist lines: PowerPoint, for one, can export to QuickTime files, and has for a long time. This means it’s a perfect time to create some surreal business-y motion graphics for your next set. Heck, you could even do some video of the screen in Word or Excel to get really adventurous. If you do make something like that, whether or not you upload them to the MS promo site, let us know.
Related — art in Microsoft Office is nothing new. David Byrne infamously made art with PowerPoint, of a very abstract nature (and I’d still love to see more of this as motion graphics, not just stills):
Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information (David does have a way with words, with tongue in cheek)
But the greatest PowerPoint art of all time has to be PowerPoint as social criticism, as in the case of Edward Tufte’s essays, presentations (ahem) and book:
The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
(Hint: he doesn’t think PowerPoint is entirely good for society.)
Well worth mentioning Tufte here, as well, as his work was a big influence on Ben Fry and the creation of Processing, one of our favorite tools. And, in turn, Processing expresses the desire to help users get beyond the rigidity of pre-baked tools like, well, Microsoft Office. (No offense, Microsoft.) On the other hand, if you can’t eliminate the presence of Office for your life, you can abuse and subvert it.
I’m plenty jealous of all the folks in the Flash community who got to hit Flash on the Beach — it sounds like a truly historic event for digital artists, and a sign of the health of Flash that it returned to the coolness of Flashforwards from years ago. bit-101 has a nice flickr set to give you an idea of the vibe. Is it just me, or do people in the UK have more fun?
I’ll get to catch up with Adobe and Flash at Macworld next month, but in the meantime, Flashmagazine.com has some interesting scoops.
First, sneak preview info from the Adobe camp:
You’ll be able to integrate Illustrator and Flash. So much of what we’ve seen so far of Flash 9 has been on the code side, as that’s what is currently available. But Flash will also finally integrate the way it should with Adobe’s other products. You’ll be able to import Illustrator vectors more seamlessly, you’ll have better, more Illustrator-like vector tools in Flash, and (while not mentioned in the Flashmagazine story) more layer-by-layer compatibility with Photoshop. As much as I love code, no amount of code makes up for Adobe’s fine design tools, so I think this is good news indeed — and gives you a reason to own the Flash app, the code editing capabilities not being a terribly good reason. Speaking of which:
Adobe hearts FlashDevelop. Apparently, Adobe is letting tools like FlashDevelop flourish rather than try to remake the Flash IDE as a coding tool. Whaaa … okay! While it’s a little unusual as a marketing strategy, I think it says very good things about the future of coding environments. And I’ve never seen anything as simple, elegant, or open as FlashDevelop in commercial form. I’m finishing my first art project in FD, so I’ll be sharing how to use it. (I’d like a direct quote, which Flashmagazine doesn’t provide, but then again, the fact that most of the major Flash gurus are now using open source coding tools says a lot. Viva Adobe + open source.) You certainly wouldn’t get this kind of open source embrace for Microsoft. No, I’m betting they’d try to feed you a lot of beer, let you play some Xbox games, and try to bribe you to use their proprietary software. More on that in a moment …
Adobe hearts Linux. No more months’ delay between shipping Flash Player for Mac/Windows and Linux. In other news, though, Adobe thinks it may not ship the full Flex Builder for Linux. That may be okay, though; I think Adobe is probably onto something when it suspects Linux users would rather use the open source Eclipse and free SDK. And while Flashmagazine doesn’t mention it here, I’ve also seen some open source visual development tools showing up. Adobe gets to avoid costly (possibly unprofitable) development work, the open source community gets its Flash Player on time but gets to use open source dev tools for free, the Flash platform is healthy, and we can all build cheap Linux boxes for art installations and such. Everyone wins.
Better video in Flash. Flash is already a great video tool, but it’s not perfect. De-interlacing, cue-point support? Sign me up. I expect there are some additional improvements not mentioned here; video is likely to be a big area of focus for Flash 9. Stay tuned.
More details from Flashmagazine:
Sneaks from the Beach
And what about Microsoft? Well, evidently Microsoft was giving away free software, free beer, big parties, and playing Xbox 360 games. That’s my kind of marketing — and frankly, I wonder why the world’s richest software company doesn’t behave this way more often. They’re like your super-wealthy friend, whose house you’re always squatting at because they’ve got the cool toys. As for the actual tools, well, there’s something about 3D in a browser with just a couple of clicks (awesome!) and the ability to make vector squares … uh … move around (huh?) and crash the software (uh….). More beer, please?
My take on Expression, the new design tools from Microsoft: possibly a decent addition to your toolkit, especially if the Firefox and Mac browser plug-ins pan out nicely for cross-platform compatibility. And these days, it seems to be more about small, slick tools than planet-crushing platforms … even with Flash. Think the right tool for the right job. I expect Microsoft may give me some of these tools (though, sadly without the beer), so I’ll do what I do with all my toys … try to make something neat with them.
Also: once it’s mature, the Windows Presentation Foundation could help build one kick-a** VJ tool on Windows, mixing Flash, 3D, vector, and video.
But in the meantime, between Flash, Processing, and Jitter, the last thing I need at this point is another tool. Beer? Xbox games? Parties? For that, I have a high tolerance. Better keep my schedule open for Microsoft’s creative conference, Mix. See you there — I’ll be the one VJing in Internet Explorer.
[tags]Microsoft, Adobe, alcohol, VJing, programming, Flash, video, development, upgrades, events[/tags]
Photosynth is one of the coolest pieces of software of any kind to emerge this year. And despite the fact that the name begins with the word “Photo” from a major software developer’s “Labs”, this time it’s Microsoft Live Labs giving us love instead of Adobe Labs.
Photosynth takes hundreds — or thousands — of conventional digital photos, analyzes them, and then through clever image analysis and comparison constructs an entire 3D geometry, mapping them onto the result. It sounds like complete voodoo, but somehow it works. When the project is done, you’ll be able to create your own 3D photoscapes without any special equipment. That’s a really appealing idea, given that past 2D/3D hybrid photo technologies like QuickTime VR required lots of special gear and manual stitching and labor. And even with those restrictions, QTVR created a loyal community that continues to thrive today; imagine what Photosynth could do.
Now, the really good news: instead of reading about Photosynth on blogs, you can actually try it out.
Legendary game developer Jeff Minter, the Llamasoft founder behind vintage classics like Tempest 2k, has had musical visualizers on the brain for some time. Now, he wants to take “retina-searing” visuals with music to the next left with Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 console. His latest light synth, Neon, will even be bundled with the machine. If you’re impressed by the low-res, basic visualizer in iTunes (hey, Apple, when you going to update that), wait until you see Neon. More coverage has emerged since we last covered this story:
Screenshots, hard drive-eating movies, and info on the Neon platform [Llamasoft]
Interview with Jeff Minter, Neon creator [Guardian Unlimited]
In the meantime, I’m focused on creating new visuals with Apple’s Quartz Composer (still learning that) and Jitter 1.5. Because really, what is music without something to trip out to?
While we’re on the subject of visualizers, Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360 console will be preloaded with a trippy music visualizer game. Unlike the iTunes visualizer, it’ll be completely interactive, too. Inspired by the 1984 game Psychedelia, Neon is a visualizer for the year 2005. Check out the interview with creator Jeff Minter of UK developer LlamaSoft. (Betcha they’re Python fans.) Via Joystiq. This fits with Microsoft’s strategy of making the Xbox 360 a music hub, as reported here previously (see that link for what composers think of the new console).
New visualizers won’t just be trippier: they’ll be able to take advantage of new physics models. Joystiq also has the scoop on a new SDK for developing real-world physics, and Chris points out some slick PlayStation 3 demos involving water. 3D music creation interfaces? Wild new music games and visualizers? You bet.
October 3-5 Tampa will play host to a massive Computer DJing Summit, complete with training for DJs, VJs, and KJs. (KJ = karaoke; thanks, jachee. Too bad; I hoped it meant spinning Kraft Mac-and-Cheese.) There’s even certified credit for would-be computer DJs.
This isn’t an entirely new event; a Summit was held in my hometown Louisville, Kentucky in 2003. Here’s where things get a little strange, though — it sounds like Microsoft is trying to break into DJing: “Microsoft took a serious look into computer DJing during a Summit held at Microsoft’s Redmond-Seattle main compound attended by Grandmaster Flash, Roger Sanchez, Sandra Collins, Tony Touch, Dj Krush, Dj Cheb, I Sabbah, and others on February 9-11 2004.”
Microsoft and Grandmaster Flash? Strange. In the meantime, MS’ whole DJ “strategy” seems to center on their crossfader site, which hasn’t gotten any updates since it was launched. I think we’re safe. And for its part, this even caters to Mac and PC alike; there’s even a Mac-centric seminar.
Anyway, while the Microsoft connection is vague, computer DJing is hot as ever. Training for DJs and VJs and “water balloon volleyball”? Any chance these guys want to buy me a plane ticket out there?
2
