Color Blind: A 360 Experience

https://app.viar360.com/media?leaf=LAAu14bsyzUv I saw a reaction video on Facebook about a year ago, of people with a specific type of color deficiency putting on glasses which correct that to normal vision. The reactions were incredible, powerful, tear-filled moments for the people involved, and it got me thinking about what it would be like to live with color deficiency. Of course you can never really know what it's like to see through someone else's eyes, or maybe that's not true any more.  V.R. has opened a Pandora's box of experiential content, so...

Beyond Color Correction – Messing With Perception

For my final project, I wanted to give viewers an experience of what it’s like to have color blindness.  After some research, I found that there are several types, which are observed differently and act on different color ranges (I will elaborate on this concept in my final project post.). My challenge was to accurately represent various types of color blindness to the viewer, by manipulating my 360 footage in post-production. I have a good grasp of primary color correction, which is the process of “normalizing” video footage to accurately...

There’s so Much I Took for Granted

I finally got some animation to work in Unity (sort of): It's clunky, but it's functional and it got the job done this time.  If anything, this experience has taught me about how much I to0k for granted in every single digital experience I had in life.  From my first time playing Super Mario in 2D on N.E.S., right through to the insane complexity of a complete 3D world like Skyrim, there was so much I took for granted: Every movement a character makes needs a different animation - it...

Sweating the Small Stuff

  Oh to be back where I was a couple of weeks ago - constructing little scenes in Unity and thinking that I was breaking new ground with my amazing skills.  Oh how wrong I was; animation is a completely different beast. This might be the most labor intensive part of Unity I've found so far, and when you really think about it, that does make sense.  Static objects don't need any real logic as  they just sit pretty wherever you decide to place them with your digital hand of...

The Aral Sea

My scene transports you to the the Aral Sea: a once huge lake which has became a dry, sandy desert due to human intervention. Knowing my skills would be limited at first, I set out to build a simple scene which would have impact due to its starkness.  I'm a big fan of documentaries, and the images from the Aral Sea, where huge fishing boats are now beached and rusting in the middle of a vast desert, have stuck with me.  I thought it would be eerie to walk among...

Making it Better: Crouse Belltower 360.1

https://youtu.be/YjQcdx01LfA Our group was working on a project to immerse viewers in the Crouse Bell tower and experience the bell ringing up close, revealing the hidden world of the Chime Masters (yes, that really is their title).  Our initial shoot was a simple outdoor scene, which showed the outer bell tower structure, while we waited to get clearance to enter the bell tower.  This was a straight-forward shoot, and an easy stitch. Our next shoot was a lot more challenging for the videographers: the spaces inside the tower were narrow,...

Assignment 2 – Stephen Armstrong

Stephen Armstrong Brewing in the Middle Ages I want to see beer brewing happen from the perspective of the Rubenstein family who own the Middle Ages Brewing Company in Syracuse. Home brew and craft brew beer have become trendy, and are a subject of interest to many people.  I would like to highlight the hard work, the challenges and the complexity of the process which goes into making a craft beer.   I believe it will be impactful to experience the brewing process from the perspective of someone who is passionate...

Were we absorbed by the VR experience, or just struggling to make it work the way we wanted?

You never think you're that person - the one who walks around using their smart-phone, bumping into people.  Or maybe you're convinced you pay attention every time someone speaks to you, even when you're staring at a screen.  Those are the kind of people who we ridicule, the ones we berate for being too "sucked-in" by technology.  There's still a stigma attached to devoting yourself completely to the virtual world. I started VR class today as an observer, watching other people have virtual reality or augmented reality experiences.  It was completely...