The DAHRC Attic series features materials which may not necessary be chronologically new, but nevertheless are deemed relevant to what Pratt DAHRC believes to have value.  Curated from submissions and nominations, noting significant works of researchers, students, faculty, alumni and friends of Pratt, and possibly others, efforts which are educational and notable achievements and recognitions will be the focus of the series.

 

For the From the Attic 001, we feature the explorations and achievements of the research efforts under the name DAL (Digital Arts Lab), previous to the receiving of Center status within Pratt as DAHRC.

There will be more visuals to the post added soon.  Meanwhile, enjoy the results of Pratt talent of DAHRC when it was DAL.

 

Research & Production

After Katrina by Justin Kray, Pratt School of Urban Planning alumnus

  • Web-based mapping and communication tool that lets displaced family members of Hurricane Katrina reconnect with each other online within context of rebuilding New Orleans, by using text and image tagging technology.
  • United Nations and FEMA has since been using such technology on a regular basis
  • Justin Kray later moved onto become the Senior GIS(Geographic Information System)  manager of the city of New Orleans

 

Divers by Paris Mavroidis, MFA, Pratt DDA, Graduate Assistant of DAL 2008

  • Digital animation production and proprietary software development
  • Awarded, nominated, and officially selected by over 50 film festivals around the world, including the Student Academy Award
  • Designcollector Top 2012: Animation list
  • In addition to the artistic recognition received worldwide, the proprietary software tool which made the animation production possible was also developed at the DAL
  • This piece is an excellent example of an artist inventing the tool to create the art
  • http://www.parismav.com/
  • http://www.parismav.com/divers.php

 

Choreography-Based Animation Toolset

Paris Mavroidis developed the choreography-based animation toolset during his thesis at DAL.  It was subsequently used during the animation process for Divers.  The development of the thesis and the choreography-based animation toolset was inspired by the work by the great Busby Berkeley, the Hollywood movie director and choreographer of the 1920s and 30s.

This tool makes it possible for a user to select any song, and have the song control the digital characters directly, so that the character dances to the song.

  • Another excellent example of an artist inventing the tool to create the art
  • Students and Faculty of Pratt frequently create the necessary tools to aid creative exploration
  • This research results has SIGNIFICANT CONNECTION to ROBOTICS development at Pratt – with this work, all of the difficult part of the work is already done, which can make connection to the robotics.  Simple, generic robot kit can be used to connect to the already produced software by the lab, in order to have the robot start dancing to the song of any choice

 

Scrimshander by George Smaragdis, produced at the DAL 2007

George Smaragdis Demo Reel 2013 from George Smaragdis on Vimeo.

 

Meros: Remapping Light in the Urban Journey by Dylan Moore 2007

  • Meros is a computer input device that captures travel information as a user rides a bicycle, recording the rider’s speed, angle of motion, and acceleration.  The captured information generates 3D environment and geometry, which has real connection to the real world.  With this applied technology, virtually any physical travel experience can be used to generate virtual worlds, eventually to be used for functional and survival needs of people as well as for virtual-reality based games and entertainment.  People will no longer be lost in the woods, as they will always have with them the virtual 3D record of where they had been.
  • Presented at Siggraph 2008
  • http://binarytree.org/
  • Dylan Moore works at Apple Inc.

 

Data Projections by Rob O’Neill, Director of Digital Arts Lab

  • Custom Software tool which takes anthropometric data and creates 3D geometry of the skulls
  • Collaboration with the AmericanMuseum of Natural History

 

Maya STL Export Tool by Rob O’Neill, Director of Digital Arts Lab

  • Maya is the one of the world’s best 3D animation tool used by all major Hollywood film studios such as Pixar, Dreamworks, and ILM.
  • Previously, there were no software available which enabled users to print 3D objects directly from Maya
  • MayaSTLExport is a custom software created at the Digital Arts Lab which lets users 3D-print directly from Maya software.  In the world of animation industry, this is equivalent to invention and availability of 24-hour ATM cash machines, where a person can have physical access to money in the bank at any time instead of only at specified times of the day.

 

OpenPipelne software by Rob O’Neill, Former Director of Digital Arts Lab

  • Practical tool for the industry which speeds up workflow by 20% at major animation studios, which directly translates to bottom-line profit increase of the companies by the cost savings
  • OpenPipeline software was demonstrates the capability of the Digital Research Lab if it were it to take on consulting projects on contract terms for particular clients who have the need for such tool development

Lectures by Researchers:

Public Lecture, “The Future of Animation”, November 15, 2008, The Picturehouse,
Singapore

Invited Talk, “Innovation + Animation”, November 13, 2008, Lucasfilm Animation
Singapore

Invited Talk, Kansas City Art Institute, February 28, 2008, Kansas City,
Missouri

92nd Street Y, “Animation: State of the Art”, November 28, 2006, June 5, 2007,
October 25, 2007, April 10, 2008, November 20, 2008, April 2, 2009

Mutamorphosis 2007: Challenging Arts and Sciences, November 8-10, 2007, Prague,
Czech Republic Presenter: ”The Morphology Project: Art-Science Explorations of
Biological Shape Analysis and Evolution”

Intersculpt 2007, October 10-17, 2007, Nancy, France. Presenter: ”The Art and
Science of Morphometrics”
Conflux 2007, September 13-16, 2007, Brooklyn, New York. Presenter:
“Ghostbustour” (with Jamie Allen, Melissa Barrett, Michael Horan, and Tali
Padan)

Siggraph 2007, August 5-9, 2007, San Diego, California. Presenter: Educators
Program: “openPipeline: Teaching Animation Production Pipelines in the Arts
Context”

Artist Talk, Stevens Institute of Technology: Art, Music, and Technology, April
19, 2007, Hoboken, New Jersey

Artist Talk, NYU: ITP, March 21, 2007, New York, New York

Siggraph 2006, July 30-August 3, 2006, Boston, Massachusetts. Guerilla Studio:
“OGLE: Hacking 3D”

Games for Change Conference, June 27-28, 2006, New York, New York Panelist:
“Museums & Games: from Collaboration to Funding”

 

Publications

Rob O’Neill, Paris Mavroidis, and Meng-Han Ho. openpipeline: Teaching animation
production pipelines in the arts context. In SIGGRAPH 2007: ACM SIGGRAPH 2007
Educators Program, page 38,

New York, NY, USA, 2007. ACM Press.

Rob O’Neill. Emerging congruence between animation and anatomy. Leonardo,
40:2:169–173, 2007.

Rob O’Neill. Digital Character Development: Theory and Practice. The Morgan
Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology. Morgan Kaufmann (Elsevier), 2008.

Rob O’Neill. Building the perfect production pipeline. Computer Graphics World,
August:36–37, 2009.

Chris Robinson, Michelle Singleton, Alfred Rosenberger, and Rob O’Neill.
Hominine mandibular molar identification using 3d geometric morphometrics.
American Journal Physical

Anthropology, 135:S46:181, 2008.
Other Projects:
Evolutionary Morphing Tool for Fossil Records:

http://www.idav.ucdavis.edu/research/EvoMorph

Allometric and Metametric Shape Variation in Pan Mandibular Molars: Digital Morphometric Analysis

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.21315/abstract

Cuneiform Forensics Project:

http://cuneiform.vgurgov.com/?view=about