Blog 1

As the capstone project should encompass 50% of my grade and workload in the CAR 530 class, I am intending, pending approval, to produce my capstone project as project 1 and half of project 2.  I would complete a smaller project to fulfill the other half of project 2.  This is the best way I can think to satisfy the standard of 50% focus on the capstone project, while not entirely disrupting the format of the CAR 530 course, which is broken up into thirds.

            Assuming that this is the path I will be taking, I feel the most logical thing to do, given the way in which the deadlines for CAR 530 match up with those for the honors program, it to first focus on the parts of the project that involve constructing the environment, including building a frame/screen, video taping (a rough copy of) an outdoor scene, completing a program that manipulates the video properly, and solidifying and implementing a projection plan.  This portion will be project 1.  Adding in the character, setting any parameters for her, perfecting her role, and developing a final copy of the outdoors scene that includes her will count as the first half of project 2.

 

Blog 2

Currently I am looking at panoramas.  Is it possible to make a successful video panorama?  I need the environment of my installation to be seamless.  I thought perhaps I might have more success with a spiral configuration than with the maze configuration I had originally proposed.  However, the idea of a spiral installation presents its own problems.  For example, if I do manage  to make a successfully “seamless” video environment, how can I keep the image in the proper perspective for the viewer?  I want the viewer to feel like he is in the space the video presents, not in a tent of projections.  But I cannot begin to imagine the way imagery distorts in our perception as we move (change points of view) and I am struggling with whom to ask for help on this question.  Someone in the math department, perhaps?  I never could visualize the relationships between the dimensions.  Essentially that is the challenge of this piece, to fabricate the sense of 3D in two dimensions.

            I think I must develop an equation describing the relationship of each point’s position to its…….

 

Well, before I bothered to finish that thought, I scurried away and came up with some notes (not before some failures, of course.  It was all made possible by an index card, haha, on which I was writing on one side to analyze the change in perceived distance between points as a plane is rotated.  My crude drawing was rather unsuccessful, but the lines on the back of the card showed me that perceived distance changes by angle, but NOT PROXIMITY.  Good thing I used one of my lined index cards!  That was all I needed to realize to get started.).  It took me a long time, but I did manage to crank out some equations to get me started on application.  I think they will operate successfully provided that the programs (and the programmer…) are capable of doing what I have planned.  I think the spiral, or perhaps just a large curve, will work much better than the maze formation I had originally visualized, provided I can manage a video panorama.  I think that makes my next step obvious.  Notes are attached.