Artist-Driven Software Development Framework for Visual Effects Studios

The development of software to produce Visual Effects is based on a unique model. The majority of large companies across the film industry have taken a distinctive approach for three decades, which might explain their ongoing business success, despite the same tough conditions that other technology companies have to face in light of shrinking margins and several financial crises. This chapter examines the model and proposes an Artist-Driven Software Development Framework for visual effects studios. A brief insight into the recent history of successful applications of this model is discussed and suggestions on how to employ this framework and improve on it are given.

Triggering the Flotsam of Behavior

As computer artists, we might ask: can the computer serve as the artist or a proxy thereof? There seems no possible conclusive answer to this. Rather, we approach this question from a different angle: Why do humans make artifacts/praxis, which might be experienced by conspecifics as art (e.g. visual art, music, dance)? To investigate this subtle issue, computer technology provides an important tool for artist-engineers, namely allowing programmatic integration of audio analysis and visual graphic animation. We initially discuss the history and problems of the role of an intuitive model of cognition, in the pursuit of an automated means of the synthesis of intelligence, versus what has been learned about organic brains. This comparison, while somewhat critical of empiricism, is meant to zero in on the cognitive function of art for humans, as an evolutionary adaptation. We are thus lead to an alternative programming paradigm regarding art's very particular but crucial role for our species.

The Scholar's Ludo-Narrative Game and Multimodal Graphic Novel

Current discussions within videogames focus on the ways in which gameplay or narrative can be analysed by themselves, and rarely as a collaborative effort to explore a text. Although there have been a number of alternative approaches to this debate, none have succeeded in becoming prevalent within the field. This contrasts greatly with the study of graphic novels in relation to the application of multimodal analysis. In this field, discussion about the interplay between the mode of the image and the mode of the written text are more frequent. This textual analysis takes into account the two modes to focus on their collaborative effects in how the graphic novel can be understood. This chapter suggests that current videogame scholarship can benefit from pre-existing multimodal discussion that exists within graphic novels.

Machinima

This chapter presents an overview of machinima, an important socio-cultural movement that originated in the 1990s gameplay movement known as demoscene. The chapter presents a review of literature and key issues related to its evolution. Modes of its production (perfect capture, screen capture, asset compositing, bespoke machinimation) are described, along with the range of different genres that have emerged, including fan vid, parody, documentary, music video, advertising, reportage, reenactment, activist, pre-visualization and artistic forms. Thereafter, the chapter identifies channels of distribution and growth trajectories for each. The chapter then presents four key phases of the emergence of machinima, identifying the key actors and roles of organizations within each phase. As a movement that continues to evolve, the discussion presented is by no means a final analysis, thus the aim of the chapter is to present a ‘state of the art' overview of its emergence and development.

Discovering Art using Technology

The Selfie project was not only inspired by the long history of the self-portrait, but also intended to create a genealogy between the self-portraits of masters from the Modern art era and the selfie. The project, designed as a walkthrough experience, consisted of three major engagement areas. On entering the space, children were directed into a ‘transformation' area – a typical theatrical wardrobe, where they could dress up in a variety of costumes, including hats and wigs. Once garbed, children were given smart phones and led to the area where they could take a selfie with a celebrity such as Gauguin, Cézanne, Monet, Van Gogh, Modigliani and Munch. Finally, they could manipulate the selfie using gesture-based technology and post it online. The attraction proved to be extremely popular and the children who participated were extremely satisfied with the experience.

Exposing Core Competencies for Future Creative Technologists

This chapter suggests that in terms of preparing creative technologies graduates it is better to define what skill sets will be in the future rather than attempting to define either what creative technologies is now or what a current creative technologist should be capable of. The chapter is a collaborative attempt to explore the future definition of a creative technologist through a form of creative expression. The chapter utilizes a combination of self-reflective narrative and performative writing to develop position descriptions for jobs that may exist in the future, where each job is an extension of an author's life trajectory. A cluster analysis is undertaken to identify common themes that define the possible characteristics and attributes of future graduates that can be used to design the curricula for creative technologies programmes to meet the needs of the changing world.

Pure Land UNWIRED

The Mogao Grottoes located in Gansu Province of north-western China consist of 492 cells and cave sanctuaries carved into the cliffs above the Dachuan River in Mogao. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, they comprise the largest, most richly endowed, and oldest treasure house of Buddhist art in the world. However, for preservation and conservation reasons most of the caves are now closed to the public. This chapter discusses the range of technologies currently available for the virtual representation of Cave 220, just one of the many caves located at this site. In particular, the chapter focuses on the latest prototype, developed by the authors called Pure Land UNWIRED which uses a virtual reality platform specifically designed for a unique single user full-body immersive virtual reality experience. The discussion includes technical and evaluative analysis of this prototype.

Clash of Cultures

In 2012, a Belgian company called Materialise hosted a fashion show featuring designs from a worldwide millinery competition. The featured pieces were paraded down a catwalk by professional models, and an overall winner chosen. What made this fashion show unusual was that the attendees were predominantly clinical and industrial engineers, and the host was a specialist engineering and software development company that emerged in 1990 from a research facility based at Leuven University. Engineers and product designers rather than fashion designers created the millinery and the works were all realized through additive manufacturing technology. This chapter provides an example of how fashion design has become a creative stimulus for the development of the technology. It illustrates how disruptive creativity has the potential to advance scientific research, with the two worlds of engineering and fashion coming together through a collaboration with industrial design. The chapter highlights the challenges and possible implications for preparing trans-disciplinary research teams.

The Holon/Parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme)

A universal problem in the disciplines of communication, creativity, philosophy, biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, information science, cultural studies, literature, media and other domains of knowledge in both the arts and sciences has been the definition of ‘culture' (see Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952; Baldwin et al., 2006), including the specification of ‘the unit of culture', and, mechanisms of culture. This chapter proposes a theory of the unit of culture, or, the ‘meme' (Dawkins, 1976; Dennett, 1995; Blackmore, 1999), a unit which is also the narreme (Barthes, 1966), or ‘unit of story', or ‘unit of narrative'. The holon/parton theory of the unit of culture (Velikovsky, 2014) is a consilient (Wilson, 1998) synthesis of (Koestler, 1964, 1967, 1978) and Feynman (1975, 2005) and also the Evolutionary Systems Theory model of creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988-2014; Simonton, 1984-2014). This theory of the unit of culture potentially has applications across all creative cultural domains and disciplines in the sciences, arts and communication media.

Between Games and Simulation

The chapter focuses on convergence in creative computing between simulation and gaming. It examines the collapse of categorical differences between games, play and simulation, categories that were rarely used concurrently. The chapter uses a media archaeology – the study of historical conditions enabling emerging technology – to explore gamification, or the design practice of embedding game mechanics into everyday applications and activities. Gamification is employed as a prominent design tactic for motivating users to perform contextual tasks based on strategically deployed game dynamics. This analysis highlights convergence and creative technologies as a historical process.