Weekly Entry 5: Post-modern Light Painting by David Gilliver

It was a few days ago when I went to Shaheir's house then he showed me some of his light paintings. I was near clueless about light painting. What is it? Well gentlemen, this is light painting.





I was amazed by his so called "light-paintings" and started to look up the web. What I found was a website by David Gilliver, a professional photographer who dwells in the realm of light painting. Camera is his hammer, lights are his burning coal, and landscape is his anvil. He is a master crafter of light paintings. How did he do this? He stocked up on a lot of light sources such as LEDs and such. Then find a landscape or anything, to shoot to, set a very slow shutter speed to his camera and starts 'filming'. He usually do this for about 15- to 20 minutes for a single photo, and to 'hide' himself from the camera, he wears black.

To my opinion, this talented artist has a great sense of depth and imagination in his mind, making it a lot easier for him to calculate and estimate the flow of each light and how they look in the camera 10 minutes later. Would you like to see the rest of his work? Click here.

Images from: davidgilliverphotography.com

Weekly Entry 4: Transformer: Dark of the Moon in 3D (personal review)

Last 2 weeks I went to the cinema to watch the Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie in 3D. The cinema was in Midvalley Megamall. Though I was expecting a bigger screen, the overall comfort is decent and adequate to not be distracted by it. I was really anxious about the movie because the last Michael Bay film I watched was quite disappointing. The storyline was too shallow and I can’t really enjoy it. Now for the third instalment of his Transformers franchise, he decided to make something out of the lunar landing during the 60’s and put biological machines in it. Well, who could’ve guessed that?

Since I watched the movie in 3D, there are certain things that I would like to point out.

• There was too much machinery and electrical sparks/flashes going on in the Transformers universe for you to focus on movements of the characters and such.

• The sound effects was mind blowing and beautiful. You can really listen to the connection of organic life form and metal elements embedded in the sound.

• The F-22 Raptor (Starscream) that came flying out of the screen startled me on my seat for a moment. It was fast, pointy and swift, and I suppose that’s what the director wants the audience to feel. Astounded.

I gave the movie 6 out of 10. Why?

I can’t really focus on what’s going on when there’s too much too see. And in 3D, the burden of focusing multiplied. As for the use of screen space in the movie, I think the director did a great job in not cutting most of the 3d object displayed in the footage, such as the American satellite and rocket. That was a great shot. The depth in the film was standard and realistic, not too much and not too less. It was just right.

As far as I can remember, the last 3D movie I watched was Piranhas and it was in red/cyan anaglyph. The 3D was inferior compared to Transformers and, I honestly don’t favour that movie because it was stupid and too casual. For me, everything in Transformers: Dark of the Moon was better than Piranhas. Be computer generated graphics or recorded footages.

Image from moviescut.com

Weekly Entry 3: Frostbite 2

Destruction, scale, rendering and audio. Those are the 4 words that pop out of the short clip when I stumbled upon it in YouTube. The upcoming release of Battlefield 3, the first-person-shooter game franchise will be utilizing the extensive powers of the Frostbite 2 engine. I was so amazed by the technology put into this particular game that watched the video several times.

The immensity was so deep and the real-time rendering was like a real life camera footage like I saw in TVs. Destruction was in every corner. And not to mention the audio atmosphere which captivated me in their previous game, Battlefield Bad Company 2. A set of headphones will get you ringing for more. I don't mean to be viral or anything, but this thing just gave me chills. Don't get me started on the AI's in the game, they're lifelike and so believable. Games nowadays are a multi-million dollar business and it is serious business. If there's anybody that can pull this off its going to be DICE and their new engine, Frostbite 2.

Weekly Entry 2: 4D films and cinema.

At first glance, I thought that 4D is an upgrade to 3D which allows multi-projection of footages around the cinema hall, truly I was wrong. 4D is a marketing term that combines 3D-films with physical experience that allows us to immerse ourselves in the portrayed environment. It works by stimulating our physical senses to create the presence of the viewer actually being in the story, which in other words, a great portrayal of virtual reality. Rain, wind blow, sun shafts, strobe lights and camera/character motion can be implemented in physical form. Motions are generated by the audience theatre seating, whilst synchronizing with the camera action in the film. The basic 3D-glasses is still needed however.

This photo here is an example of how 4D cinemas are.

I myself had never been in a 4D theatre, though I hope one day I'll be experiencing one. In years to come, I'm pretty sure 4D will be a thing of hype amongst us. Even better, they may come with holograms.

*Image source

Weekly Entry 1: 'The mind's eye'

Cyberspace, virtual reality, and imagination are simply inexhaustible. While being fluid and evergrowing, the mental image and our spatial recognition of the surrounding space is being interpreted by one's brain. The eyes are merely seeing monochromaticly upside down, and in this case then the brain interprets and thus giving it color, form and space.

Cyberspace can be occupied by projecting our our presence into it, said Ludvigsen. It contains a form of environment and unseen interconnection to make up the space.

Space can also be perceived by the brain while the eyes are just seeing 2D images. Each eye has it's 2D corresponding view from a tilted angle which then the brain merges it together to form depth. As a matter of fact, there is this stereoscopic double image which can make the brain sees depth in still photography.

This particular picture is a stereoscopic image. Each eye has to see the opposite image. Right to left, left to right. This can be accomplished either by practicing your eyesight or using a stereoscope(a viewing device with mirrors in it). Instructions to view the following image in 3D. Good luck.
Image taken from: http://gallery.neochroma.com/