“Imprints of Ephemeral Motion” is a work about our symbiotic relationship with the built environment. It stems from the idea that architects and urban planners shape human movement through the process of designing the space around them and in turn, human activities influence their surroundings overtime. A pattern will be used to metaphorically represent the built environment. As people walk past the screen, the strands that form the pattern move in response to the viewer. The imprint of the person’s movement is captured in the pattern and the elements stay in their altered state – till another viewer walks by to create a new imprint. The eventual positions of the elements reflect the many imprints of the people that walk past the outdoor installation over time.
Month: January 2017
Kinect
The skeletal tracking information from the Kinect was mapped onto the invisible collider. Due to the scale of the artwork, the upper body of the player was chosen as the tracking reference. This allowed for the best capture of viewers movements as they walked through the space.
Unity3D
The strand as well as the textures were imported as assets into the Unity3D game engine. Unity is an ideal platform for the artwork due to it’s in-built physics engine, rigid-body calculations and software extensibility. Strands were duplicated and arranged randomly to fit the screen resolution of 3840 x 480 pixels.
The strand as well as the textures were imported as assets into the Unity3D game engine. Unity was an ideal platform for the artwork due to it’s in-built physics engine, rigid-body calculations and software extensibility. Each strand was given a simple capsule collider on the upper-half to serve as it’s hit-box. An invisible box collider was then created to perform hit detections on the strands as it ‘combed’ through the strands. The box collider will be the 1:1 equivalent of a person when it is mapped using the Kinect in the later stages.
3d Modelling
An integrated system will be used to create aesthetically pleasing visuals and an immersive experience for the audience. This is achieved through effectively stringing together elements like aesthetics, software and hardware components and sound to create an impactful public art experience.
Visuals are modelled and rigged in Cinema 4d and run using Unity3D in the form of a game. Surround sound is added in LogicProX to complement the work. Lastly, Microsoft’s Kinect SDK is imported into Unity3D to integrate the game with the Kinect hardware, enabling both systems to function as a complete interactive artwork.
The use of three-dimensional models lends a sense of tangibility and manipulability which allows for a more immersive experience. As such,the visual elements were created in 3D using Cinema4D as the modeling tool.
The model is rigged with bones to allow the strand to bend. The armature was constructed in Blender. Different permutations of the armature were applied to determine the ideal number, position and size of bones that will allow the strand to bend in a natural manner.