Virtual Reality Filmmaking: techniques & Best Practices for VR Filmmakers
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Virtual Reality Filmmaking presents a comprehensive guide to the use of virtual reality in filmmaking, including narrative, documentary, live event production, and more. Written by Celine Tricart, a filmmaker and an expert in new technologies, the book provides a hands-on guide to creative filmmaking in this exciting new medium, and includes coverage on how to make a film in VR from start to finish. Topics covered include: The history of VR; VR cameras; Game engines and interactive VR; The foundations of VR storytelling; Techniques for shooting in live action VR; VR postproduction and visual effects; VR distribution; Interviews with experts in the field including the Emmy-winning studios Felix & Paul and Oculus Story Studio, Wevr, Viacom, Fox Sports, Sundance's New Frontier, and more.
A History of Three-Dimensional Cinema
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In human binocular vision, the lenses of our eyes project two slightly different images onto the retinas and our brain calculates the difference between them as actual depth. Stereoscopy replicates this process by providing left-eye views and right-eye views (stereo pairs) of the same picture at slightly different angles which, when viewed simultaneously, create the illusion of depth (stereopsis). In 1844 Sir David Brewster invented a handheld apparatus for viewing stereoscopic photographs through a system of prismatic lenses, with the stereo pairs mounted on a single card. During the 1870s, a popular theatrical entertainment involved the projection of duo-color coded slides onto a large screen to be viewed through glasses with corresponding left and right colored cells to produce a stereoscopic illusion, known as "anaglyphic" 3-D. With the development of motion pictures, it was natural that pioneers like William Friese-Green and the Lumiere brothers would experiment with anaglyphic systems, since the photographic principle was the same. But commercial exploitation of the process awaited 1952, when independent producer Arch Oboler released Bwana Devil, a low-budget Anscocolor feature whose phenomenal box-office success catalyzed a short, industry-wide conversion to 3-D. Between 1953 and 1954, Hollywood produced 69 features in 3-D, mostly action films that could exploit the depth illusion, such as Westerns, science fiction, and horror films--all of them shot in some version of Oboler's Natural Vision. With some modification, such as the introduction of twin-lens cameras and projectors, this was the process used for nearly all the 3-D films made between 1953 and 2009, when James Cameron's Avatar became the highest-grossing feature of all time and the studios once again stampeded into 3-D production, this time in the more perceptually satisfying (and, ultimately, cost-effective) digital form. While all 3-D systems fool our brains into believing that something is either closer or farther away than it actually is, older systems tended to represent depth as a series of dimensionally flat planes like an eighteenth-century peep show, whereas digital systems add the effect of volumetric figures occupying real space, creating a kind of "aesthetics of immersion." Yet the ultimate technology for seeing things in three dimensions is Virtual Reality (VR), which uses a hybrid of advanced modern technology--Lidar scanners, hyper-accelerated graphic cards, etc.--and the stereoscopic illusion first quantified in the nineteenth century to create a state of sensory immersion that borders on otherness. Finding a way to mass-market the VR experience as a form of popular cinema, rather than as an enhanced form of video game, has become the new grail of the film industry.
Past and Future Presence: Approaches for Implementing XR Technology in Humanities and Art Education
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While uses and studies of XR technology within STEM-based education have been plentiful in recent years, there has been lesser or even, at times, a lack of coverage for this novel learning tool in the arts and humanities.Past and Future Presence aims to bridge some of that gap by presenting research-based theory and case studies of successful application and implementation of XR technology into postsecondary educational settings, ranging in topics from ancient to modern languages, classical and contemporary art, and reenvisioned historical scenes and events presented in ways never seen before. The studies also contemplate how this novel medium can enhance and supplement learning in classrooms and other formal or informal learning environments. The volume as a whole is intended to demonstrate to educators, scholars, and researchers in higher education the potential value of integrating XR technology into their classrooms and to provide a strong argument for college and university administrators to invest in training and development of new research and content for classrooms inside and outside of STEM. The authors of these chapters come from a diverse range of backgrounds at different stages of their careers, providing a broad crosssection of scholastic work within the humanities and arts. Each chapter offers a different angle or approach to incorporating XR technology into teaching or research within different subject areas. As the volume suggests, this technology also places additional emphasis on the humanity within the humanities, by focusing on increasing connection between users and different cultures, time periods, and perspectives.
Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles for Crafting Immersive Narratives
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Storytelling for Virtual Reality serves as a bridge between students of new media and professionals working between the emerging world of VR technology and the art form of classical storytelling. Rather than examining purely the technical, the text focuses on the narrative and how stories can best be structured, created, and then told in virtual immersive spaces. Author John Bucher examines the timeless principles of storytelling and how they are being applied, transformed, and transcended in Virtual Reality. Interviews, conversations, and case studies with both pioneers and innovators in VR storytelling are featured, including industry leaders at LucasFilm, 20th Century Fox, Oculus, Insomniac Games, and Google. For more information about story, Virtual Reality, this book, and its author, please visit StorytellingforVR.com
Moving Image
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An examination of the expanded field of moving image-based art that has emerged alongside digital media. This anthology examines the expanded field of the moving image in recent art, tracing the genealogies of contemporary moving image work in performance, body art, experimental film, installation, and site-specific art from the 1960s to the present day. Contextualizing new developments made possible by advances in digital and networked technology, it locates contemporary practice within a global framework. Among the issues it examines are how new technologies, forms of apparatus, and modes of editing or framing affect innovations in artistic practice and strategy; how work is defined by local contexts, and the tensions that can arise when the local is represented globally; how we define a 'third space' for the filmic image and whether an installation area can be abstracted from geography; how performance-based work in this field explores bodies as borders or territories; the ways in which political, pedagogical, and collective forms of practice have affected the moving image; and the new platforms and modes of viewing that are evolving in response to the globally distributed condition of contemporary media. Artists surveyed include Jananne al-Ani, Francis Alÿs, Yuri Ancarani, Oreet Ashery, Ed Atkins, Judith Barry, Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, Black Audio Film Collective, Brad Butler, Olga Chernysheva, James Coleman, Minerva Cuevas, Stan Douglas, Olafur Eliasson, VALIE EXPORT, Harun Farocki, Omer Fast, Morgan Fisher, Hollis Frampton, Melanie Gilligan, Joana Hadjithomas, Gary Hill, Susan Hiller, William Kentridge, Anja Kirschner, Steve McQueen, Jumana Manna, Karen Mirza, Rabih Mroué, Otolith Group, Nam June Paik, Luther Price, Yvonne Rainer, R.V. Ramani, Pipilotti Rist, Ben Rivers, Ryan Trecartin, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Bill Viola Writers include Robert Bird, Claire Bishop, Christa Blümlinger, Jonathan Crary, T.J. Demos, Jean Fisher, Tim Griffin, Andrew Grossman, Félix Guattari, Shanay Jhaveri, Sven Lütticken, Francesco Manacorda, H.G. Masters, Andrew V. Uroskie, Ian White, Maxa Zoller, Thomas Zummer
Demystifying AI for the Enterprise: A Playbook for Business Value and Digital Transformation
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Artificial intelligence (AI) in its various forms -- machine learning, chatbots, robots, agents, etc. -- is increasingly being seen as a core component of enterprise business workflow and information management systems. The current promise and hype around AI are being driven by software vendors, academic research projects, and startups. However, we posit that the greatest promise and potential for AI lies in the enterprise with its applications touching all organizational facets. With increasing business process and workflow maturity, coupled with recent trends in cloud computing, datafication, IoT, cybersecurity, and advanced analytics, there is an understanding that the challenges of tomorrow cannot be solely addressed by today's people, processes, and products. There is still considerable mystery, hype, and fear about AI in today's world. A considerable amount of current discourse focuses on a dystopian future that could adversely affect humanity. Such opinions, with understandable fear of the unknown, don't consider the history of human innovation, the current state of business and technology, or the primarily augmentative nature of tomorrow's AI. This book demystifies AI for the enterprise. It takes readers from the basics (definitions, state-of-the-art, etc.) to a multi-industry journey, and concludes with expert advice on everything an organization must do to succeed. Along the way, we debunk myths, provide practical pointers, and include best practices with applicable vignettes. AI brings to enterprise the capabilities that promise new ways by which professionals can address both mundane and interesting challenges more efficiently, effectively, and collaboratively (with humans). The opportunity for tomorrow's enterprise is to augment existing teams and resources with the power of AI in order to gain competitive advantage, discover new business models, establish or optimize new revenues, and achieve better customer and user satisfaction.
Digital Visual Art Education: Making, Learning, and Teaching with Digital Media
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This book presents a detailed analysis of digital media as it is currently being used by visual artists. It places these works into a theoretical framework that is useful for research in fields such as Media Studies, Studio Art, and Art and Design Education. The primary goal is to emphasize the multidisciplinary aspects of digital visual art, and to propose a field of study that is unique to this type of art. Digital Visual Art Education combines theories of temporality and multilinearity from media studies, and visual culture studies from art education, into a dialogue with social theories such as feminist new materialism and critical race theory. In doing so, the social and cultural aspects of digital visual art is better understood. This book is for art, design, and media educators interested in surveying digital visual art as it is currently being produced and disseminated, looking to the numerous influences that have brought it into being, and speculating as to where it might lead for future researchers, artists, and designers.
Beyond Virtual Production: Integrating Production Technologiees
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Beyond Virtual Production brings together a range of creative practice research projects that have been undertaken in The Void, an early-adopter university-based virtual production studio at Flinders University in South Australia. From a cross-disciplinary short virtual production film, to a VR simulation of the last 100 seconds of life of earth, to the live performance of the virtual band Big Sands, to augmented and extended reality, to archaeological projects, this collection captures the potential applications of virtual production technology and provides a framework for cross-disciplinary work and industry collaborations both in a university context and beyond. It offers insight into the development of virtual production courses and encompasses research into theories of performance, liveness, methods for co-creation, gender in virtual production careers, and object digitization and its representation while highlighting significant pathways of industry partnerships alongside experimental art practices. Creative technology and interdisciplinary practitioners, researchers, students and teachers will find inspiration and practical guidance in these chapters.
Roadmapping Extended Reality
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ROADMAPPING EXTENDED REALITY This book offers a comprehensive overview of the technological aspects of Extended Realities (XR) and discusses the main challenges and future directions in the field. This book is important and timely - XR technologies have overcome the 3 main aspects that were holding it back from mainstream adoption: cost, cables, and size. However, there are many aspects of XR technologies that are now going to be explored and developed that still need urgent research in terms of security, privacy, health and safety, long-term effects, addiction risks, and age-related developmental concerns, and the aim of the book is to inform all readers of these open issues and challenges. There are currently a great number of interdisciplinary researchers and developers working in the XR R&D field. Recently, XR technologies moved from the Gartner Hype Cycle onto the Plateau of Productivity on the Gartner Hype Cycle signaling that the fundamental XR technologies are now deemed mature technologies and ready for deployment in a wide variety of application areas. Corroborated by the fact that XR technologies are part of the future Metaverse, a concept that went rapidly mainstream during the time of writing of this book. Roadmapping Extended Reality is divided into two parts: (1) fundamentals and (2) applications. The first part covers the main technological aspects of XR. The chapters in this section review and discuss relevant fundamental concepts of XR, the actual state-of-the-art, and future challenges. The second part of the book focuses on covering a wide range of applications of XR including a future roadmap. All in all, the book offers a snapshot of the state-of-the-art in XR and addresses the needs of a multidisciplinary audience working in both academia and the industry, as well as stakeholders at government agencies and non-profit organizations. Audience This book is aimed at academic and industrial developers, exploring and developing applications in the XR, VR, AR, AI, smart IoT, 4th Industrial Revolution space, including those that are solving technology requirements, human factors, evaluation methodology advances, and ROI investigations.
The Extended Reality Blueprint
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Follow a tried-and-tested approach to integrating augmented and virtual reality into your business The Extended Reality Blueprint focuses on design for non-gaming or gaming adjacent applications in extended reality (XR), including augmented and virtual reality. Author Annie Eaton is a leading producer of immersive content in the XR space. Many of Annie's clients come to her with the same questions, often not knowing where to begin as they seek to implement extended reality solutions into their business. This book presents the discovery and product development process through an immersive technology lens. You will walk through the XR production process and learn how to apply this technology directly within your organizations in a meaningful and effective way. Join leading businesses like Delta Air Lines, Mars Wrigley, Georgia-Pacific, and JLG Industries, and learn how top companies are leveraging XR for greater market share, engagement, and profit. Learn about the latest applications of extended reality (XR), including augmented and virtual reality. Discover the steps of the XR product development process, including how to find profitable uses of XR and decide on technology suites. Assemble effective teams of XR developers, designers, artists, and other key members to bring your projects to fruition and success. Learn from the real-world examples and lessons learned of businesses that have taken the leap into extended reality. The Extended Reality Blueprint, delivers a concrete, actionable process for brining extended reality into your organization and embracing this crucial technology to remain current.
The VES Handbook of Virtual Production
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Our handbook on Virtual Production is written in conjunction with the Visual Effects Society, guaranteeing the most expert advice in all areas of Virtual Production. It is a first of its kind handbook on this nascent technology, pooling insights from a vast array of different practitioners, to create a truly comprehensive reference book. It covers not only the software, hardware, and workflows, but also the types of jobs training needed for VP - the book starts from the ground up and provides an overview of what you need to learn before you use this technology.
The VES Handbook of Visual Effects
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Wisdom from the best and the brightest in the industry, this visual effects bible belongs on the shelf of anyone working in or aspiring to work in VFX. The book covers techniques and solutions all VFX artists/producers/supervisors need to know, from breaking down a script and initial bidding, to digital character creation and compositing of both live-action and CG elements. In-depth lessons on stereoscopic moviemaking, color management and digital intermediates are included, as well as chapters on interactive games and full animation authored by artists from EA and Dreamworks respectively. From predproduction to acquisition to postproduction, every aspect of the VFX production workflow is given prominent coverage. VFX legends such as John Knoll, Mike Fink, and John Erland provide you with invaluable insight and lessons from the set, equipping you with everything you need to know about the entire visual effects workflow. Simply a must-have book for anyone working in or wanting to work in the VFX industry.
3D Printing 101: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide
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Meta-Health: Understanding Metaverse for Healthcare
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Metaverse is an emerging trend these days. It reflects in every field, like education, entertainment, business, and even healthcare. As we can experience, the Healthcare industry is constantly transforming due to emerge of new trends and technologies like moving from X-Rays to digital reports and from telehealth to Virtual Reality. It is a vast digital shift from regular practices to innovative techniques for efficient healthcare services. Metaverse plays a significant role in changing healthcare because it connects innovative technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, IoT, Web 3.0, Quantum Computing, Robotics, etc. This book discusses the application area of utilizing Metaverse in Healthcare services. It focuses on various research trends and technologies related to implementing a metaverse in healthcare systems. It also covers challenges, emerging trends and techniques, and future directions for meta-healthcare systems.
See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception
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Did you know that we can see with our tongue? Or that we can plug our nervous system directly into a computer? With cybernetics, prosthetics, robotics, nanotechnology and neuroscience altering the way we perceive and experience space, the body has re-emerged as an important architectural site, revealing its astonishing potential as a creative medium. See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception is an explosive and unique survey that captures the fascinating relationship between design, the body, the senses, and technology. A timely discussion with cutting-edge design, See Yourself Sensing examines work from the last 50 years by artists, architects and designers who have been experimenting with the boundaries of our senses, changing the way we experience the world. The book explores the work of both established and upcoming artists, including internet sensation Daito Manabe, Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee, Lawrence Malstaf and collectives such as realities:united and Viennese-based Gelitin, and figures of worldwide acclaim, such as Ann Hamilton, Ernesto Neto, Carsten Höller, Olafur Eliasson and Rebecca Horn.
Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today
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A richly illustrated and expansive investigation of how the internet has influenced contemporary artistic practice over the past thirty years Featuring essays by leading curators, scholars, and critics, this book provides an in-depth look at how the internet has impacted visual art over the past three decades. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to Black Lives Matter, the internet's promise to foster communication across borders and democratize information has evolved alongside its rapidly developing technologies. While it has introduced radical changes to how art is made, disseminated, and perceived, the internet has also inspired artists to create inventive and powerful work that addresses new conceptions of community and identity, modes of surveillance, and tactics for resistance. Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today traces the relationship between internet culture and artistic practice through the work of contemporary artists such as Ed Atkins, Camille Henrot, and Anicka Yi, and looks back to pre-internet pioneers including Nam June Paik. Conversations between artists reveal how they have tackled similar issues using different technological tools. Touching on a variety of topics that range from emergent ideas of the body and human enhancement to the effects of digital modes of production on traditional media, and featuring more than 200 images of works including painting, performance, photography, sculpture, video, and web-based projects, this volume is packed with insightful revelations about how the internet has affected the trajectory of contemporary art.
The Grip Book (6th Edition)
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Gain the essential skills of a professional grip to become the jack and master of all trades on any movie or television show set. Discover vital insider tips ranging from how to operate cutting-edge rigging and lighting equipment to performing difficult camera mounts on aircraft, boats, trains, and cars. In The Grip Book, seasoned Hollywood grip Michael G. Uva teaches you to install, set up, maintain, and ensure the safety of all equipment on a set, such as C-stands, cameras, and any specialty gear needed for a shoot. Guidelines for on-set etiquette and how to succeed as a technical crew member will jumpstart your career and make you a valuable asset on any film or television crew. This new 6th edition marks the books 30th anniversary and has been fully revised and updated to include expanded coverage of on-set scenarios, such as gripping near water and at heights; a brand-new chapter dedicated to providing insider solutions to various gripping problems that can often appear insurmountable to the uninitiated; and a brand-new companion website featuring a downloadable reference guide on grip equipment, and extensive how-to video demonstrations. Other features include technical expertise on maintaining the latest and greatest filmmaking equipment; an updated self-test section containing over one hundred questions and answers; a comprehensive appendix containing a robust glossary of insider and equipment terms; and guidelines on what a grip has to be physically able to perform in their day-to-day duties.
Special Effects on the Screen: Faking the View From Méliès to Motion Capture
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Since the very first days of cinema, audiences have marveled at the special effects imagery presented on movie screens. While long relegated to the margins of film studies, special effects have recently become the object of a burgeoning field of scholarship. With the emergence of a digital cinema, and the development of computerized visual effects, film theorists and historians have been reconsidering the traditional accounts of cinematic representation, recognising the important role of special effects. Understood as a constituent part of the cinema, special effects are a major technical but also aesthetic component of filmmaking and an important part of the experience for the audience. In this volume, new directions are charted for the exploration of this indispensable aspect of the cinematic experience. Each of the essays in this collection offers new insight into the theoretical and historical study of special effects. The contributors address the many aspects of special effects, from a variety of perspectives, considering them as a conceptual problem, recounting the history of specific special effects techniques, and analysing notable effects films.
Digital Photogrammetry: A Practical Course
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The fourth edition is again an "all-in-one" combination of basic theory and practical exercises with software and data available from the Springer server. Potential readers / users are students of Photogrammetry, Geodesy, Geography and other sciences, but also all who are interested in this topic. No prior knowledge is necessary, except the handling of standard PCs. Theory is presented true to the motto "as little as possible, but as much as necessary". The main part of the book contains several tutorials. In increasing complexity, accompanied by texts explaining further theory, the reader can proceed step by step through the particular working parts. All intermediate as well as the final results are discussed with reference to accuracy and error handling, and included in the data sets to provide controls. Most of the standard work in Digital Photogrammetry is shown and trained, for example scanning, image orientation, stereo plotting, aerial triangulation measurement (manual and automatic), block adjustment, automatic creation of surface models via image matching, creation of ortho images and mosaics, and others. Examples of both aerial and close-range photogrammetry present the power of this kind of measurement techniques. 3-D images can be viewed with the accompanying 3-D glasses. During the time since the last edition, the software development went on, and therefore it was necessary to adopt the text to the actual program versions which were also tested to work properly under MS Windows 10. Few options which are obsolete nowadays were removed, some new options were added, the handling of the software was simplified in several places, and so on. For the use of own images taken with a custom digital camera, a new chapter offers an easy way of lens calibration and explains how to get good results with a minimum of work. The software is not limited to the example data included but may be used for personal projects. Part ofthe book comprises a complete description of the software.
Expanded Animation: Mapping an Unlimited Landscape
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The symposium Expanded Animation was initiated in 2013 and offered a first approach to the expanded field of computer animation. In the meantime, it has become an established part of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival and the international competition Prix Ars Electronica Computer Animation. Every year under an overarching theme, the symposium has researched the field of technology and art, animation and aesthetics, investigated the collapsing boundaries in digital animation and explored positions and future trends. Much like the first conferences on computer animation at Ars Electronica in the 1980s, practice and theory are equally important. The richly illustrated publication Expanded Animation. The Anthology features contributions from speakers and artist positions from the past five years and presents an overview of the prize winners in Computer Animation.