The SEMAPHORE

ACCAD Alumni Newsletter
Winter , 2004
The Ohio State University

 

CSURI DVD:
An American Dream


On November 6th, at the downtown Arena Grand Theater, "An American Dream" premiered to a full-house audience, including members of the OSU 1942 National Championship football team.

Head coach, Jim Tressel and Chuck Csuri each spoke to the audience. The event was sponsored by the College of the Arts to honor Chuck for his six decades of leadership, teaching, and vision. The edited DVD provides exerpts from a 5 volume set produced by Robert Butche and William Moore of "Image Stream Studios".

Note: After 62 years, the 1942 National Championship football team, of which Chuck is a member, now have personalized championship rings. Jim Tressel had the rings made when he heard they were never awarded.


ACCAD STAFF

We are pleased to announce that Vita Berezina-Blackburn has joined ACCAD's full time staff as 'Animation Specialist'. Many of you know Vita, who recently graduated with her second Masters degree, this time an MFA in Art and Technology via the Art Department (Summer 2003).

Vita will teach, work on selected research projects, and oversee the development of professional training. This fall she worked closely with the Bebe Miller Dance Co. on the dance performance "Landing Place".

"Landing/Place"
Bebe Miller and Company

in Vita's words ~

Meeting regularly with Bebe and the dancers, sharing the insights into each others' creative process, we began to develop a pallette of movement and visuals. Bebe's choreography is based on improvisation. This means that once the Theme of a piece emerges, the various issues relevant to the Theme become a source of inspiration.They become ideas "thought" through dancers' bodies and developed in movement. To find these points of choreographic and visual departure all collaborators participate in ongoing live and on-line discussions. After the elements of the piece and ways to convey them are found they become a vocabulary or a pallette of the more formal storyboard.

Based on motion captured dance improvisation, animation seeks to discover visual form in the dance itself, rather than represent a captured character. This is a foundation of the final piece, scheduled to show in 2005. A series of work-in- progress performances will take place along the way. In late November, the work-in-progress showing of "Landing/Place" was performed in Sullivant Theater with great success. Two more WIP shows will be performed in Danspace and the Kitchen in New York City in January and June .

More info and animation clips are available at:
www.accad.ohio-state.edu/~vberezin/bm

Special Notice: Vita also collaborated a year ago with Dance MFA graduate Kareen Balsam on the piece, "When I am Little Again", which was referenced in the spring 2003 semaphore. Their work will be shown at the Dance & Film Association's annual Dance on Camera Festival at the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center, NYC. The screening will be Friday, January 16th at 8:30 p.m.


Native American Dance Project

Christine Ballengee-Morris from the Ohio State University Multicultural Center, co-wrote a BETHA grant with Maria Palazzi to analyze and archive Native American Dance via motion capture. The data can be used for archival, research and educational purposes. This fall, 4 Native American dancers in MoCap attire, performed dances from their respective tribal cultures. Brian Windsor (ACCAD Staff) and Ryan English (GRA) supervised the captures. The dancers included Rene Navarro (Apache), Heidi Starwalker (Muscogee Creek), Craig Marvin (Mohawk) and Kelly Keemer (Seneca).

The OSU Multicultural Center with the American Indian Student Services sponsored the "21st Annual Moon When the Ponies Shed Traditional Pow Wow" in May 2003. In Autumn 2003, the Pow Wow 101 (Comparative Studies 698) involved their students in the motion capture residency through observation, discussion and documentation.

The data will be repatriated to the Native American Nations who will use it for preserving their social dances and teaching the techniques to their communities.


Alumni Updates


Miho Aoki sends Happy Holiday wishes from Alaska.


John Berton has been working in Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and New Zealand on the visual effects for "I Robot". This is a Fox studio picture based on the writings of Isaac Asimov. It stars Will Smith and will be released on July 4, 2004.


Paula DiMarco wrote, "Well hello from sunny Los Angeles. I was married in June 2003 to my 13 year sweetheart, Louis. And we have 2 fun loving kids (dogs) Dude and Buddy. Here is the wedding site: http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/wedding/

I have been Assistant Professor for the last 3 years, in the Department of Art at California State University, Northridge. I teach graphic design and web design courses. I have been receiving a variety of grants to focus my research on the teaching and learning of community and social issue based design and service learning. I am very proud of my students who have done projects for the National Office of Jumpstart, for the International Child Abuse Network, and other local non-profit organizations. I will be presenting parts of my research at the 2004 National Art Education Conference in April. (my students call me Dr. D. Isn't that a hoot!)"


Kevin Geiger and Moon Seun's "Henry's Garden" DVD is nearing completion. The disk features a high-quality telecine transfer from the "Henry's Garden" master film print. Among the DVD extras will be the "Henry's Garden" storybook, narrated by Kate Savage. http://www.simplisticpictures.com/home_video_T.html

"Henry's Garden" was recently reviewed by Greg Singer of the Animation World Network (http://mag.awn.com/?ltype=pageone&article_no=1897). December screenings have included The International Festival of Cinema and Technology in New York City, The Australian Effects and Animation Festival in Sydney, and the Taiwan International Digital Animation and Game Design Conference in Taipei. Kevin spoke at the conference both on the making of "Henry's Garden" and the workings of the digital animation and effects industry. Moon is currently developing a feature treatment entitled "A Green Winter".


Tim Glenn, Assistant Professor of Dance Technology at Florida State University, recently became a member of the Internet2 Performing Arts Advisory Board and continues to be active in technology-related research in the field of dance. As a member of the Dance Films Association, he is coordinating the autumn 2004 Dance on Camera Festival - Tallahassee. Additionally, Tim received funding from the FSU Council on Research and Creative Activity to complete the Nikolais and Murray Louis Costume Collection CD-ROM and will be traveling to New York City in the spring in order to work with Mr. Louis on the project.


Jean Ippolito, is now at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She will be presenting a paper at the International Conference for the Arts and Humanities in Honolulu in January. The paper will update her dissertation from ACCAD (1994). It is entitled, "Japan's Pioneering Contributions to Today's International Art and Technology Movement".


Muqueem Khan wanted to note that his University is looking for talented new staff. He is at the American University of Sharjah. See: http://www.aus.ac.ae. And also see: http://www.aus.ac.ae/employment/employment_faculty_arcdes.htm


Wobbe Koning sends a New Year greeting! Pixelberg is now two shops (still good friends) and Wobbe now operates under the name "ideePIX". Wobbe continues to teach at filmschool and hopes to make a film for a dance performance that will open in September.


Congratulations to Heesung Koo and her husband on healthy baby girl, Hanara. She was born October 19, 2003 at 4:42pm. and weighed 7.1 lbs. You can write Heesung at heesung@hotmail.com


Rick Lucas, opened a one person exhibition of new art works on December 12 at 'Gallery 334 on Stafford', South Canterbury, New Zealand. This is Rick's third solo exhibition in two years. The sixteen pieces (mixed media), are based on his 12 years living in New Zealand and his encounters with immigrants from around the world. The exhibition is entitled, "Strangers in a Strange Land". It's central themes are tolerance and acceptance.

Rick is the coordinator for the graduate programme in 3D modeling and animation with Christchurch Polytechnic.

(arrow points to Rick's
personal holiday wishes for all
ACCAD alumni)


Steve May will visit ACCAD on January 15th, to present new opportunities at PIXAR. ACCAD students are quickly lining up to meet with him. Steve sent a recent family photo and added, "We had a baby girl on May 1st -- Elizabeth Torrey May ("Ellie" for short). Alex is 3 now. I'm still at Pixar working on "Cars" as the Effects Supervisor. Gwen is a full-time house-mom."


Dr. J. Dawn Mercedes was awarded tenure in 2003 at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, IL where she is an Assistant Professor of Art and Graphic Design. She was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award also in 2003 and was a finalist in the 2003 International Juried Online Symbolist Art Show http://www.dracoblu.com/mercedes.html. Read her feature article for Digital Web Magazine, "Flashes of Brilliance and Use-Centered Design", at http://www.digital-web.com/features/feature_2003-04b.shtml


Congratulations to Saty Raghavachary and his wife Sharon on the birth of TWINS, Josh and Becky! www.smartcg.com/fun/photos/TwinsBirth/Dec1103_Page1.html


Clarke Stallworth is now "Acting Chair" of Computer Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design. The department is also comprised of 'Visual Effects', 'Animation', 'Broadcast', 'Gaming' and 'Interactive' studies. See: http://www.scad.edu/academic/majors/index.html.


Marla Schweppe's son Devin (born when Marla was at OSU, and known by many of you) is a freshman at Williams College in Massachusetts this year. He's studying anything but computers and graphics. Some sounds of him as a baby, recorded at CCP, are still floating around out on the web.


Nathania Vishnevsky wrote: "My news is after working for 2.5 years as the Training Specialist at PDI and teaching everything from "drawing for programmers" to lighting specialty classes; designing curriculum for various departments; and doing lighting training at Dreamworks in Glendale, I'm now back in production as a Lighter on Shrek 2 (it's been 6 months actually)! and over 6 years at PDI! Even bigger news I just got engaged!"


Jeff Wolverton, most recently worked on 'lightning' effects for 'Cat in the Hat'. He is now working at Dreamworks Feature Animation on the upcoming (October 2004) flick, "Shark Tale".


CALL FOR POSTERS

ACCAD Alumni.... we would very much like to have a personally signed POSTER that depicts an art show, a movie, or a research project you worked on. We have posters of the following signed by Alumni: "Ice Age", "Reign of Fire", "Shrek", and "ANTZ". These will grace the walls of ACCAD.

If you worked on a project with several other ACCAD alumni, please include all alumni signatures. Send in attention to: Maria Palazzi, ACCAD, 1224 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohio 43212.


Student Work ~ SIGGRAPH


Several students are submitting animations to SIGGRAPH this year.

Four animations premiered at the Arena Grand Theater, in downtown Columbus this past September. The title of the show was "Fourseen" and featured creative work from Vita Berezina-Blackburn, Matt Derksen, Kyoung Lee, and Jun Oh, Art and Technology (Art Department) MFA students.

Vita, Kyoung and Jun are submitting their animations to SIGGRAPH.

Memory of Hope
Vita Berezina-Blackburn's animation is about a woman's perception of war, her imagination, fear and love to those whom she loses.


Enclosure #2
Kyoung Lee's piece explores the polarized concept of exiting and entering two different cultures - East and West. She depicts this intersection, as a way of understanding how
two different cultures are basically adjoined, inseparable, and non-linearly connected.

Limited
Jun Oh's animation 'Limited' serves as a metaphor to how the media restricts and limits our thoughts and actions. By using cutting-edge computer animation,
'Limited' is an ironic testimony to
modern media.



Lady Shaves
"ACCAD gets in touch with its feminine side with "Lady Shaves", a short animation by Mike Altman and Steve Galgas. Our heroine tries and tries to rid herself of an unsightly handlebar mustache but finds herself in a hairy situation when it begins to fight her back."
Mike Altman is a 2nd year MFA candidate in Design.



Canal Street

Video works by Matt Lewis and Carrie Wilson (Design MFA candidate) were presented on buildings as part of the Canal Street Projection Project during the New Orleans Media Experience October 26-Novemeber 1st. Several images and a movie clip can be found here.


Recent Guest Speakers


Below are picture highlights of guest speakers who visited ACCAD this fall.

October 7 - Dr. Irfan Essa, Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing, "Analysis and Synthesis of Video for Special Effects and Animation".

October 14 & 15 - Ed Hooks, actor, author, teacher, director and coach. "Acting for Animators".

November 7 - Luc Vanier, University of Illinois, Dance. "Bob's Palace: Motion Capture and Live Animation for Dance Theatre".

November 14 - Dr. Zoran Popovic, University of Washington, Computer Science. "Rapid Design of Realistic and Expressive Animations".

November 17 - Dr. Stuart Sumida, California State University, Biology. "How Anatomy Drives Movement and Design Features in Animated Characters".
 
 
Irfan Essa
  
Ed Hooks
  
Luc Vanier
         
 

 
Zoran Popovic
      
Stuart Sumida


Upcoming Speakers/Guests


January - Steve May, from PIXAR (and of course OSU/CIS/ACCAD Alum)

February - Scott Meador, Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue University

April - Roger Copeland, Theatre & Dance Department, Oberlin College

April - Chris Bregler, Media Research Lab, Courant Institute, New York University.


The "JANE Project"
~ by Jeff Ostergaard

The JANE project is a collaboration between ACCAD, Brave New Pictures, Inc., and The Burpee Museum. Using live action video and CG visualizations, the team is creating a 60 minute documentary on a newly discovered dinosaur, the Burpee Dinosaur. The project began in December of 2002 and is scheduled for completion summer of 2004.
In progress Tyrannosaurus Rex
Textures by MFA candidate Jenny Macy


Comprised of 45 effects shots covering 10 minutes of the documentary, the project involves over 40 individuals consisting of over 20 faculty and graduate students from the departments of Design and Computer Science and Engineering at the Ohio State University.

The dynamic nature of the project has driven the students, faculty, and administration at ACCAD to new levels.
Dr. Stuart Sumida consults with the JANE
team at ACCAD on dinosaur locomotion.

The project has exposed students to the Burpee Museum in Rockford, IL, live action video shoots in the Florida Everglades, and long hours in the labs at ACCAD. In November, the team had the pleasure of consulting with Dr. Stuart Sumida. Dr. Sumida is a Professor of Biology at California State University, San Bernardino. His specialization is in vertebrate paleontology and morphology. Dr. Sumida has been a consultant for numerous studios throughout the film industry teaching animators about anatomy and locomotion of animals and humans for film.

Two interesting highlights to the project are its non-traditional applications of motion capture and the use of high dynamic range imagery (HDRI) for use in a new illumination module referred to as image-based lighting (IBL).

The initial research, story and character development, and layouts are complete. In it's 14th month, the project has shifted to animating, lighting, and compositing the second part of a hunting sequence. This sequence is one of six sequences in the project, and will be completed by March first. For the most recent updates go to:
http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/Projects/Jane.


Staff News


For the second year in a row, Matt Lewis' office door has been mysteriously and seriously decorated for Christmas (elusive but talented former student elves). This year Matt won, the OSC/ACCAD award for "Most Festively Decorated". See why:

http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/~bwindsor/winterwonderlewis/
http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/~vberezin/matt_door/matt_door.jpg


On a more academic note, Matt Lewis will be presenting the paper, "Aesthetic Video Filter Evolution in an Interactive Real-time Framework" at the EvoMUSART 2004 workshop (evolutionary music and art) which is held in conjunction with EuroGP 2004, the "7th European Conference on Genetic Programming".

Abstract: A data-flow network-based interactive evolutionary design framework is presented which will provide a testbed for the development and exploration of a diverse range of visual artistic design spaces. The domain of real-time layered video filters is focused on as the primary example. The system supports both real-time video streams and prerecorded video. Issues of stylistic signature, GA vs. GP-based approaches, rapid tuning of fitness distributions, and desirable traits of generic evolutionary design systems are discussed.
http://evonet.dcs.napier.ac.uk/eurogp2004/evomusart/



Glen Shere, ACCAD Systems Manager, recently developed and launched a new "render farm" for ACCAD. In Glen's words....."the new render farm allows users to submit their Maya projects to be rendered on all available machines in the building (currently as many as 56 machines) without the need to physically visit each computer and start a command line render. According to Vita Berezina-Blackburn, a project she once spent three weeks rendering can now be completed in about three days." Many thanks Glen for his hard work.



Thesis Database

This past year a searchable database of ACCAD student theses and dissertations was created by graduate students Hemanth Krishnan and Chris Debo. Graduating students are now able to upload PDF copies of their thesis, as well as information about their advisor, committee, and keywords. New students are then able to browse the database, searching by keyword, advisor, and so forth to explore prior work at ACCAD. Aline Davis additionally entered thesis data (title, author, date, etc.) for all past theses in our possession.


RECENT GRADUATES


Vita Berezina-Blackburn, MFA, Art: Art and Technology, Summer 2003.
Thesis Title: "Upon A Time: poetry in animation".


Vita was hired by ACCAD in October as a full time staff member.



Bradd Birmingham, MFA, Design, Autumn 2003.
Thesis Title: "Product Design Previsualization Using A Video Game Engine."


Bradd is currenly looking for employment.



Hanning Chen, MA, Design, Summer 2003.
Thesis Title: "Empower the Designer - Fundamental knowledge of science and technology helping design."


Hanning is employed at Ohio State University in the Language Center as a Systems Developer/Engineer.



Who Jeong Lee , MFA, Theatre, Summer 2003.
Thesis Title: "Art Direction and Scenic Design for a Production of Sleep Deprivation Chamber. "


Jaz Lee is currently working in New York, and has a job offer in Korea starting June 2004.



Jun Oh, MFA, Art: Art and Technology, Summer 2003.
Thesis Show: "Limited"


Jun Oh is working for Samaritan's Purse in North Carolina.



Brock Stearn, MFA, Design, Summer 2003.
Thesis Title: "Designing a pipeline for product designers using image based illumination and high dynamic range imagery to more effectively add computer generated product visualizations into live action photographs."


Brock is now employed by Rhythm and Hues.



Samantha Steele, MFA, Design, Summer 2003.
Thesis Title: "Animation as an Effective Tool for Communication: A Digital Prototype for Midwest Alive."


Samantha is working in Columbus for Shremshock Architects Inc.



Peter Stuart, MS, Computer and Information Science, Summer 2003.
Thesis Title: "Varying BRDF Reflectance Properties".



Jon Woodring, MS, Computer and Information Science, Summer 2003.
Thesis Title: "High Dimensional Direct Rendering of Time-Varying Volumetric Data" Jon is continuing his study in the CIS/PhD program. (thesis pdf).



ACCAD is a teaching and research center in computer visualization,
and digital animation at The Ohio State University