http://www.ddnetworkofartists.net The Digital Double Network of Artists Blog exposing you to experts in the 2D and 3D digital industries en-us Nucleus CMS v3.24 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.ddnetworkofartists.net/nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.ddnetworkofartists.net http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=91
The dream was about the future, a future that was magical and positive in every way. But what was most exciting about this vision was that in this dream I realized that the digital arts and animation were going to be crucial to solving some of the world’s most difficult problems (global warming, depleting natural resources, etc). Who would have thought!! You're probably wondering: So how is it that animation and digital arts are going to fix the world? Read on:

In one of my conversations with my good friend and mentor Abbott Smith, he brought up this great point: The success of human survival on this planet has not been due to our ability to adapt to our environment (clearly) but to our ability to adapt our environment to us. Try stripping the world of all of its man-made infrastructure, clothes, and appliances. Or simply imagine yourself dropped naked in the middle of nowhere. How long would YOU last?

Certainly, human ingenuity is at the core of our survival, but unfortunately it has come at the expense of our environment. And the only way we can continue surviving on this planet is if we free the earth from the burden of satisfying our wants and simply be content with it satisfying our needs. I can summarize the answer into two words: Augmented Reality. That's right; kiss your computer monitor, TV and handheld devises good bye because they won't be around much longer. The future of all media, entertainment, accessorization, the need for travel, and consumerism will be digitally generated and will cost the earth virtually nothing. How is this so? Well, I believe in the future our cities & bodies will be "Augmented" virtually. Imagine you're walking through a city like Vegas but instead of the buildings being covered with neon lights, they are simple flat gray boxes with reference grid marks (augment-ready) or even no building at all! You put on a special pair of glasses (or retinal implant) and all the lights, signage, advertisements, restaurant menus all appear overlaid over the building, costing the earth virtually nothing to power and maintain. People will be walking down the street and you'll see GUI's floating over their bodies that you can click on and interact with. Invite them to be your friend or learn more about them. They might have virtual pets walking by their side, or even a suit of fantastical armor floating over their body. And then if you want to return to a peaceful world with no visual or audial contamination, you can turn the display off and simply enjoy the world as it is naturally.

This is the future I saw and it was then that I realized that the digital arts and animation will be a fundamental ingredient to the betterment of the world and a source of healing for the earth. It is at the core of why I decided to found Digital Double and to invest in Organic Motion's markerless motion capture technology because I believe gesture-based motion will be foundational to this future.
]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=91 Sat, 8 May 2010 02:28:03 -0600 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=89 here:

Come in and dance, hang from the ceiling, run on the treadmill, or be as silly or serious as you like. The new upgrades to our system will capture clean mocap data for you to take home and play with. You may even get inspired to do your own short film or video game. (In which case you can now purchase mocap minutes directly from our site): buy mocap minutes

Wednesday, May 5 from 4-6pm at Digital Double. Directions here: Please call so we know how many to expect!]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=89 Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:14:00 -0600 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=88
And as always, if you have ideas, send them my way. Haven't gotten into virtual worlds myself (this world is quite enough for me!), so it's interesting to me what people are looking for as far as content. There are things that could be done better, and things that have yet to be done- we're hoping to focus on the second of these. Our imaginations are the limit...]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=88 Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:17:00 -0600 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=90 watch video.

The other even more exciting news is a long-awaited upgrade to our markerless motion capture system. Now movement is even more lifelike- I can even tell as a non-animator. I haven't been in yet to capture myself, but am looking forward to trying some old playground ring tricks. Hope I don't injure myself- it's been a while!

]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=90 Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:44:00 -0600 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=84
At this point, session dates have not been decided on, but may be the last week in June. If you would like to sign your child up, please call us to reserve a spot and give your input on session dates.

This younger age group will be doing essentially the same thing as the older teens, but more of the preparatory work will be done by instructors so that the participants can do the actual character animation. Please call our office if you would like to speak to an instructor.

This session is not listed in the City of Redmond recreation guide, because it was just added. To read the FAQs and to register, visit:
www.summeranimation.com. We hope to see you there!]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=84 Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:22:00 -0600 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=87 here:

I admit, it's not so impressive YET, but if you knew all the work that has gone into making this happen you might appreciate it more. The thing that is even more cool than the opening of our store is the chance that you have now to request content. We have TONS of content that is in the works, much of it completed, just waiting to be formatted and polished up for public viewing. But where to start?? Let us know, and we'll start with your requests. We're currently working on posting (by request) a realistic model of the male figure.

Some of the content we plan to provide in the near future includes:
- customizable human characters, fully rigged and animation-ready
- many different faces- all will fit seamlessly with our body model
- game-ready motion capture sequences
- reference photo library
- texture photo library, complete with tags for easy searching

What would you like to see first??]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=87 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:47:33 -0600 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=86 (Please excuse the spelling error- apparently our lead animator forgot to run it by me in his excitement). :)

To celebrate our one year anniversary in Redmond as well as the recent mocap upgrade, we plan to have an anniversary party at the studio in the next few weeks. If you're dying to come, shoot us an email- space is limited, and we need to know how much yummy stuff to have on hand. Plan to meet some new folks, see the newest upgrades, and see what new things we've been up to in the last year- it's pretty exciting to be a part of it!]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=86 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:54:00 -0600 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=83
While motion capture is cost-effective in its application, it can be expensive in its execution: Costs such as hiring the technical expertise needed to operate the equipment and manipulate the data, performers needed to enact the movement and the premium associated with it being such a niche market; all these increase costs which can often detract smaller studios; leaving them no choice but to resort to hand-keyed animation. But it is important to draw a clear distinction between motion capture and animation. Digital Double's philosophy is that motion capture is a form of performance capture and not animation. Much like a photograph is a means of capturing light but is not a painted illustration or drawing. They are both works of art but are each best suited for different applications. The former is best for capturing existing data while the latter is a distillation that takes place through the hands and observation of an artist.

All that said, Digital Double's markerless motion capture system allows us to provide mocap services at a significant lower rate than most studios. The lack of setup costs such as suits, markers or special callibrations needed to get the system up and running all contribute to Digital Double's remarkable affordable rates. We provide a one-size-fits-all solution that makes it even affordable to animation students whom might want to walk into the space at a moment's notice and capture themselves for anything from research and reference to usable animation data.

In terms of hand-keyed animation, Digital Double is especially rare as a motion capture studio because the artists that work here all have a background in traditional (hand-keyed) animation. This gives us significant leverage over other studios because we are able to pool from both sets of experience and find ways in which combining the two provides the kind of quality seen in the latest blockbuster hit movie "Avatar" by James Cameron where extensive motion capture was used and placed in the hands of animators. Gollum, from Lord of the Rings is another great example of this hybrid approach. Otherwise, motion capture by itself can be rather lifeless and disturbing (e.g. Tom Hanks in Polar Express).

In sum, motion capture is unrivaled in its ability to capture uncanny photo-realistic movement but only when that data is placed in the hands of an artist, do the characters come to life. One of our goals at Digital Double is to work toward the duplication and simulation of life through digital technologies and we believe motion capture is integral to that goal. In the coming months, stay tuned for us announcing our customized services in custom avatar creation enabling even "you" to get your very own avatar (a.k.a digital double).]]> Publications http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=83 Sat, 6 Mar 2010 12:10:53 -0700 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=81
Rob comes from a background in finance and education/administration, so he'll be helping scout out grants and partnerships for our AnaTom project as well as getting things in motion for this summer's animation sessions. In true small business fashion, he's also pretty handy so his breaks from staring at the screen will be spent with hammer and nails or a measuring tape in hand. Welcome, Rob!
]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=81 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:14:00 -0700 http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=80
I can't believe we've been in the Redmond/ Bear Creek Parkway Studio for almost a year! We've been feeling growing pains and
juggling locations of workstations and staff for a while now, so when space downstairs became available we jumped on it. I'll
post soon about the great new people that will be occupying a couple of the offices, but for now the update is once again about
Home Depot shopping trips, paint and furniture shopping. And hopefully a ping pong table!! The space downstairs has natural
light in all the offices, which is something I really like about the building in general- it's abundance of natural light.
(Except the mocap room, where we had to black out all the windows!)

Besides new people, one of the offices downstairs will be a permanent home for our 3D scanner. Because of the scanner, the room
is going to be very bright (white) as far as color choices go. The whole area should be looking pretty spiffed up in time for our
next open house on March 3. Come on over and take a look!]]> Inside Digital Double http://www.ddnetworkofartists.netindex.php?itemid=80 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:22:00 -0700