Computer Arts

PROJECT diaRy spring 2017

computerarts.creativebloq.com

on it in an emotional way. We wanted to be

true to sir simon’s movements but also reflect

the quality of the music – when it’s a vigorous

intense piece that’s how his movements feel.

tobias created six studies with different

moods. one conveys the notion that it’s the

entire orchestra that creates the sound –

it’s an abstract interpretation of the different

materials from the instruments such as wood

brass strings. another is based solely on the

strings – it’s a string sculpture where the

strings that are playing glow in real time.

We chose three studies to create a short

40-second film. We wanted it to almost tell a

little story: there’s an explosive cacophony that

then rolls gently into the movement of the next

elgar variation the smouldering smoke builds

and then it gets so hot that wires come out of

the heat and almost melt into a sculpture.

From the visualisations we created an

identity that will be used on posters online

on the season guide for campaigns and we’re

looking at creating backdrops to use at the

barbican and at lso st luke’s.

We developed new type – it’s a technique

that’s applied to a typeface as opposed to a

font that we’ve created. the technique has two

executions that capture the movements of sir

simon – a fluid movement that almost carves

the air and an angular more aggressive slice.

the treatment makes the type feel like a serif

font with the thin and thick parts of the cut

throughs. it gives it a nice contrast between

05 - 06 the look and feel of

these visualisations of sir

simon rattle’s movements

are inspired by the qualities

of the music.

07 the partners developed

a typeface treatment that

echoed the sweeping

movements of the conductor.

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06

muSic in motion

Artist tobias Gremmler explains how he worked with the motion

caption data collected by the university of portsmouth

to capture his movement sir simon

rattle wore reflective pads stuck to a

suit. the pads reflect infrared light which

the camera can extract very quickly

from the rest of the image. using footage

from different perspectives you can

reconstruct the 3D position of every joint

of the hands elbows and shoulders. once

i had the data first i looked at the footage

to get a feel for the movement and to see

where i could amplify interesting bits.

using a 3D package – the sort you’d use for

3D animations or 3D modelling – i created

a skeleton of the conductor that defines

all his joints first in a hexagon shape

and then for later visualisations a more

rounded version. i wanted to translate

the outline like an audio wave travelling

into space. i created a flat surface and

that starts to propagate up and down like

waves and then evaporates into waves.

university of portsmouth and vicon motion systems

help capture data from sir simon rattle.

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