Translation - final piece

So here is my final piece for translation.  After rendering out both 3dsmax files as jpeg images, I imported them into After Effects and rendered them out as videos.  As I had over 1000 images in both files, it got a little confusing knowing what I had or had not rendered out.  I found myself re - rendering a few times because the lighting wasn't quite right or it had cut of half way through the scene.  So really, it was just the rendering that took time, all in all the making of it probably took about 3 days.  The sound was also simple to put in.  I downloaded a marble bounce sound and cut parts out that were appropriate for my piece and placed it each time a ball fell.  Overall, I feel I have definately achieved what I set out to do.  The look is how I imagined, even though there is only one ball falling at each stage and the sound is also right.  Originally my aim was to not be obvious to the viewer what the animation was about and I feel I have also managed to achieve this, as I have replaced the sound I used as a reference to animate to, with the sound of falling marbles.  So, to me it doesn't look or sound like any of the trapcode experiments I had done in order to make an effect react to audio, which I am happy with.

Translation - final piece development

After the previous experiment, I began making my final piece using the particle system in 3dsmax.  Below are screen shots of the particle view in 3dsmax along with the particle flow source in the viewport. As I wanted more than one ball to fall at each part, I realised I had to copy the pf source and all its attributes every time for how ever many I wanted to fall at each part.  I could change the amount I wanted to fall in the particle view, however, they fell and hit the ground in a cluster rather than spread out, which I didn't want. So, the only way to achieve the desired outcome was to copy a pf source for ever single ball. This became very tedious. As you can see from the screen shots below, I had over 30 particle flow sources which slowed the whole process down considerably, to the point where I couldn't even scrub the timeline.  When I did my previous experiment, everything seemed to work fine, but this was probably because it was only an experiment and therefore not as long as a final piece.  So, after my computer died on me many times, I decided it would be much simpler to just have one ball fall at each stage to speed the process up and limit the amount of pf sources.  It would also be easier in terms of putting sound effects of falling marbles in, as I would only have to concentrate on one ball at each stage.  I also decided to make my final piece in 2 files to help limit the chance of it crashing again.

Translation Experiments - final piece development - 3dsmax particle system test

This is the first test using the particle system in 3dsmax.  It is exactly the kind of look I wish to achieve, with random amounts of balls falling and rolling away at each stage, using the sound I imported as a reference so that I know which frames they need to fall on.  I found the process in creating this very complicated at first but having repeated certain steps numerous times, it soon became quite simple.  After this test I am happy to use the particle system in 3dsmax to create my final piece.

In The Blink Of An Eye - National Media Museum

On Monday 30th April I visited the National Media Museum. I found the piece below particularly inspiring as the idea behind it is similar to my thaughts in relation to my current studio project 'translation'. Forms, by Quayola and Memo Akten is a digital artwork that responds to the human body in motion. It focuses exclusively on the mechanics of movement, using footage of world-class athletes to illustrate human movement at the extremes of perfection. Videos of athletes were processed through custom software to create evolving abstract forms that explore the relationships between the human body and its movements through time and space. This artwork was especially commissioned for In the Blink of an Eye by the National Media Museum, with the support of imove.