Pansperma

The simulation created by by Carl Simms in 1990.



Its somewhat relevant to my tree growing animations.

The technological requirements for the installation

I require 2 projectors and possibly 2 computers, depending whether both projectors can be connected to one computer. I'll need material to project on and at this stage its looking like a rear projection so the material will have to be best suited for that.

I'll probably need a reasonable amount of space since I want the projected images to be as large as possible, plus an area where all external light sources can be eliminated would be ideal.

And finally some form of sensor to allow interaction between the observer and the installation.

Diagram of the electrical set up

Bill has kindly lent me his sensor so here's a diagram of how it should be set up.


Bascially, the sensor needs to be connected to a 12 volt battery (although 6 volts seems to work fine) then it needs to be connected via USB to a computer, although I'm going to need a USB extension cord.

Some more thoughts toward the installation

Using a video camera and motion dection program is a lot more elaborate than what I envisioned. Something like that censor you demonstrated in class the other week would probably do if it were positioned appropriately.

I attempted to rebuild the tree in Flash but the result wasn't as good as in After Effects. So imported the existing tree video in Flash, then with some action scripting I made it play when the mouse is down and rewinds when the button is released. But it requires Flash Player 8 or higher to work - do the computers have that?

As for the interaction... Another idea the class responded well to was just having the tree grow when someone approached the megalith and as soon as they begin to leave it would begin "ungrowing" - kinda like it feeds of presence to maintain itself, or as Fiona put it "It wants you to be there". This would be less clunky than the other idea.

So I what I need to do is get a sensor hooked up and begin playing around so I can determine what interaction(s) will work best.

An attempt at the tree growing in Flash

I thought that designing the tree growing sequence in Flash would give me greater flexibility. Unfortunately Flash doesn't do the job as well as After Effects so it looks like I'll have to import the animation into Flash as a video rather than design it entirely in Flash.

Some thoughts...

I set up the projection as planned on Friday morning. The projector you recommended was horrible but Aaron tells me the library better projectors for loan.

The megalith didn't look so good because I couldn't get the scale I wanted in the space available and the room wasn't dark enough. So I'll an over head or rear projection to get the desired scale while allowing someone to get close to it.

I designed the tree growing animation in After Affects but I thought it looked a bit slapped together, however the class responded well to it. You can see it on my blog megalithproject.blogspot.com but the YouTube compression makes it look really bad.

After I finished designing the tree grow I realised I could easily create it in Flash would give me greater control and interactivity right down to each leaf - something I wouldn't get if I imported it into Flash as a normal video.

Now I need to get the interface sorted. To be consistent with the story the person interacting needs to reach towards the moon, so I need some kind of sensor to detect when the person is reaching in the right place.

To prompt them to reach for the moon I was thinking about writing a very short story to put the idea into their head, rather than writing literal instructions. The story would be written on tattered paper or simulated parchment or something that fits with the theme.

On Friday I want to get the mouse and censor hooked up so I can begin experimenting with the positioning. So I need to know what I need to get or whether everything I need is already at university.

The Assembled Tree

Now I Take the three "growing" animations and position them over the branch (I.e. the cane from the story) to make it appear as though new growth is sprouting from it.



I originally envisioned the growth to be denser but perhaps it works better the way it is. So the next step is to get this happening in Flash. Should be a lot quicker and easier now I know what I'm doing.