Post 31: A New Toy: the Leap Motion Sensor

  I just got a new toy to play with, a Leap Motion Sensor. It is kind off a mini Kinect that works at a distance of about 8 to 24",and is capable of seeing each fingertip:

  Unlike the Kinect, it works right out of the box, and developers have already written a bunch of apps, that are available either free of for a few bucks on the Airspace Leap Store.  I downloaded a bunch of them, and have been playing with the few that have potential for our project.There are a couple of Music apps, particularly Chordion Conductor, which offers many synthesiser sounds and controls, AirHarp:

 and Syntheremin. The drumming apps don't work very well, and would require practice.
   There are also a couple of Particle Generation apps that work very well, like Flocking:






Midnight:

Beautiful Chaos:

Airbow:

VIZ.it

as well as a plugin for Photoshop called Ethereal:

  A search on the internet turned up a lot of tests, demos and reviews, but surprisingly few serious used.
  I am considering mounting the Leap Sensor on the front wall so Mary can control the projected image or the music, at least till we get the Kinect working.

Post 30: Finally building the set

   I have been working for a while now building elements of the set as time permitted, and we are finally able to put it together and test it this AEA vacation week. The Children Dance Foundation , where Mary works, was kind enough to let us use their large studio for a whole week, and we started transporting the parts and putting things together on Sunday. We have done most of the construction and assembly now, and will finish putting up the 10ft x 12 ft fabric panels and setting up the projectors to morrow. Four 12 ft poles on concrete bases with rubber feet hold up a frame made of three 2x4x12ft boards. A 2x4x16ft laying across and a perpendicular 2x4x8ft hold the lights, background projector, and and the live cam. Three 3/4" plywood panel free standing on flat steel brackets make up  the front wall(which will be completed with three 1ft hinged flaps and hinged doors and windows to make up a solid wall when needed:

Post 29: Brainstorming Away!

    That set design that started life a few weeks ago as the "Marrakesh Set" has turned into a "Coyoacan Blue House Set" to stage a Frida Kahlo inspired show. I made Mary watch the movie with me last week to try and fire her up… So much color, so much drama, so much visual candy, and such strong characters. There are certainly already been several plays based on her persona, but I think we can bring it something new and exciting with the use of multiple virtual "reversible" projected sets and multiple angles live camera feeds.
  We basically work on a stage made of three spaces: the virtual space behind the projected backdrop, the actual space between the backdrop and the front set(boxed with two black side panels, and the space in front of the front set. These spaces can be virtually changed ad infinitum, and as I explained in a previous post, switched around 180 degrees. For example, we are in the street in front of the Casa Azul:

 The façade is projected on the front set with real doors, the front space is the street in front of the house, the center space is the patio seen projected on the backdrop. Behind this backdrop is Frida's bedroom, barely visible through the door. The spaces can move forward: the street disappears, the front stage becomes the patio (the image projected on the backdrop moves to the front set), and the patio turns into Frida's bedroom with Frida in her four poster bed. We could even go one step deeper into the kitchen if we wanted to, somehow bringing the bed in front of the front set(wheels?).  
   Now, if we had two more short throw projectors and used white side panels, we could actually create a four sided patio or bedroom. Pushing it further, if the side panels were also plywood and had functional doors like the front set, we could also virtually move sideways to another room in the house… 
   Any of those combinations of spaces could be flipped 180 degrees, and the front stage could become the patio, with doors looking out to the street and the houses across the street virtually visible through those doors:

   Brainstorming some more, we could conceive of using plywood panels with real doors for the backdrop, through which we could see another backdrop 10 feet behind on which the patio of the house across the street is projected, adding a third actual space. 
  If you flipped that back, you would find yourself in the house across the street looking out to the street, to Frida's patio through the open doors of the front set, and further to Frida in her bed into the bedroom though the open doors of the backdrop… I am getting all worked up! But that would of course require yet another projector… It IS possible though.
   Now, we could take Frida in her bed forward from her bedroom to the patio, to a truck in the street:

 that takes her to the show opening with houses moving by projected on the front set with all doors and window closed(making it a solid screen. We stop in front of the gallery, which can be seen projected on the backdrop through the doors that have been re opened, and manually move Frida in her bed into the gallery space behind the facade. We can then enter the gallery by moving the projected images forward, and spin around looking out to the street outside. Did I lose you? Well you get the jest I hope…
    We can the same way take Frida anywhere, in bed with Diego or Trotsky, at the club getting drunk with Chavela Vargas singing, in New York City at the Rockefeller Building, in Paris at a cafe, etc… The possibilities are endless.

Post 28: Building a Portable Set

    I have been very busy with Light Dreams, but since we are going to do a "Virtual Clones" mini impro show and interactive display with Mary at Light Dreams, I am working on that too. Time is limited, so we will not try to come up with a real show, but rather keep things loose with demonstrations, explanations, and interactivity. Anybody will be welcome to crawl on the floor under the overhead camera.
  As usual, I am taking on more than I could reasonably chew, by also moving "The Gate" to the entrance of the parking lot, and creating several totally new animated sequences to play on it. I may rename it "Palladian Dreams"
  So I have been working on a set we can erect in the parking lot as the "Virtual Clones" Point of light, and looking for a rehearsal space. I have ordered 120" wide ivory and black polyester poplin to box our internal "stage", made 12 ft stands to hold them up, made sturdy steel brackets to hold the plywood sheets up. I have ordered a Mitsubishi WD380U Ultra Short Throw Projector:

  But I am already moving ahead thinking of our Scaena Luminaria Project, and designing the set so it can be expanded and modified later to become our basic adaptable free standing self sufficient set:

   I want to be able to take it to small theaters, clubs, school gymnasiums, outdoors, requiring nothing but a plug.