This Exquisite Forest: Join this massive online, creative, interactive, participatory, collaborative narrative animation project, by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin

"Right here, in your web browser, you may contribute to anyone's creation and steer it in any direction you choose, or start a story of your own, by creating a seed animation for a new tree. Our hope is through the collective creativity of the web, an ever-expanding forest of narrative paths will grow." -Chris Milk/Aaron Koblin

This Exquisite Forest is a collaborative art project by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, creators of the online Johnny Cash collaborative project. The Johnny Cash Project was a crowd-sourced music video for Johnny Cash's final album (see below).

What I like about this project is that it provides viewers with the opportunity to create animations that link with those of other people, online.  All of the tools to create animations and music are on the website, along with  clear instructions and FAQs.  You can even curate your own tree.

For those who take a less participatory approach to art, the project's website offers something called "The Endless Theater", where viewers can watch the most popular branches of This Exquisite Forest.



The project makes use of Google's App Engine. Google's Cloud Storage handles the accounts and data storage.   To access the project, you need Google's Chrome browser, as the project takes advantage of JavaScript and HTML5.

RELATED 

This Exquisite Forest Project

The Making of This Exquisite Forest

Video: Overview of Multimedia Learning Principles, Importance of Visual Learning, Richard Mayer

Richard Mayer has devoted his career to the study of multimedia learning. He is a professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at UC Santa Barbara, and the author of Multimedia Learning, 2nd Edition. Although the book was published in 2009, years ago, it is a must-read for anyone interested in this topic.

With the popularity of interactive whiteboards and tablets/iPads in education, it is important for educators, designers and developers to become familiar with the basic principles of multimedia learning. It is also important subject for researchers.

A Few Awesome RSA Animate Videos

The RSA is the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, a charity organization founded in the 1800's, and located in the UK:

"At the heart of the RSA's contemporary mission and public debates about the future prospects for the human race is the question: 'Can we go on like this?' Will the ideas and values which transformed our world in the last two centuries be sufficient to find solutions to the challenges we now face or do we need new ways of thinking?"


One of the ways the RSA shares information is through events that feature renown speakers. Some of the presentations are transformed into animations, known as RSA Animates, and are some of the most popular videos uploaded by RSA to YouTube, spreading the word to hundreds of thousands across the globe.  

Here are a few:
RSA Animate: The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, Dan Ariely 


RSA Animate: The Power of Networks, Manuel Lima
Manuel Lima is the senior UX design lead at Microsoft Bing. For more information, see The Power of Networks: Knowledge in an age of infinite interconnections. and the presentation slides.

RSA Animate:  Changing Education Paradigms, Sir Ken Robinson



RSA Animate- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink


RELATED
The RSA YouTube Channel
The RSA Animate Playlist
RSA Events

SAP's new Mobility Design Center: Services Described in a Cute Animated Infographic Video

The following video was released by SAP to introduce its new Mobility Design Center. The video uses animated infographics to outline the key features of the SAP mobility design process.



RELATED
SAP's new Mobility Design Center uses user-centered design approach
Putting People First,  9/23/12
Develop User-Centric Mobile Apps: SAP Mobility Design Center
Mobile Consulting & Development
Designing for Mobile, Part 1: Information Architecture
Elaine McVicar, UXBooth, 9/25/12  (also see related posts, listed at the end of Elaine's article.)
Mobile Design Best Practices: Joshua Mauldin's UX Charlotte Talk- Photo, Sketchnote, and Slides 

FYI: TED-Education Beta Website and YouTube Channel

TED-Ed aims share the wisdom and knowledge of great teachers by providing educators with the opportunity to have their lessons transformed into videos enhanced by creative animators. The videos and lessons are available for learners all around the world, online.  I'll share more about the TED-Ed concept in a future post.


 


Information from the TED-Ed website:
"TED-Ed's videos aim to capture and amplify the voices of the world's greatest educators. To achieve this, we pair extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of exceptional educational videos. This website, similar to TED.com, is ever-evolving and we depend on you, the TED community, to nominate inspiring teachers that have touched your life or clever animators who have the skills to bring a gifted teacher's lesson to life." -TED-Ed


Below is the TED-Ed Website Tour introductory video:


RELATED
TED-Ed|Lessons Worth Sharing (website)
Flipped Learning Network
"Flipped learning happens when the teacher’s lecture is delivered outside of the traditional class time, via a video students view on their own as homework. Class time is used for active problem solving by students and one-to-one or small group tutoring with the teacher. Students can watch the short lectures as many times as they wish to grasp the content and then come to class ready to jump into the lesson, answer questions, work on collaborative projects, and explore the content further.  Teachers are embracing Flipped Learning in elementary and secondary schools for all disciplines"  -Flipped Learning.

Fun, weird, and a little scary: "Baaa" and "Cows&Cows&Cows" - video clips by Cyriak Harris for a quick smile!

Cyriak Harris is a freelance animator, illustrator, and graphic designer who lives near Brighton, UK. He uses Adobe software to create his unique animations.


Baaa "Experiments in ovine geometry",  featuring self-replicating sheep:



"surreal bovine choreography. No cows were harmed during the making of this video, though their future prospects probably aren't as optimistic. Software used: adobe after effects"

I liked the fractal hand experiment:

Here is an interesting music video experiment:

RELATED
Cyriak's Blog
Cyriak's Website
Cyriak's Wikipedia Page

Interesting animation made with Google Docs presentation app. (Google Demo Slam), via Flowing Data

The video below was an entry in the Google Demo Slam,  an effort started by Google to share the word with the world about their innovative technologies.  By the time I learned of Epic Docs Animation, the video had over 800,000 views.  I plan to view a few more Google Demo Slam videos over the holiday break!


-Tu+, Namroc, and Metcalf 

For more information and Demo Slam videos, visit Google's Demo Slam website: "Welcome to Demo Slam, Where Amazing Tech Demos Battle for Your Enjoyment"

RELATED
Epic animation in Google Docs
Nathan Yau, Flowing Data, 12/22/10
Google's rationale for creating Demo Slam:
"We spend our time making a whole bunch of technologies that are free for the world, but a lot of people dont even know about them. And that kind of sucks. So, we thought organizing the world's most creative tech demo battle would be a great way to help spread the word and teach people about tech. Not to mention, it is a lot of fun."
About Demo Slam
Hall of Demo Champs

Beautiful Nature by Numbers by Cristobal Vila & Eterea Studios (via Infosthetics and Flowing Data)

Here is a video from Cristobal Vila, of Eterea Studios inspired by "numbers, geometry and nature":


Nature by Numbers from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.


RELATED
Images of the process of making Nature by Numbers

"Five Rules" for Engaging and Meaningful PowerPoint Presentations, Featuring PPT 2010 Beta

I came across the video of the following "5 Rules" presentation on Long Zheng's "I Started Something" blog. This presentation created by Duarte, a company that focuses on visual stories and corporate branding.  The presentation can be found embedded in the public beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 Microsoft Office 2010.  The new version of PowerPoint features a DirectX-powered graphics engine, which supports smooth animations.

The concepts shared in the presentation are useful for students, teachers, and anyone else who has the challenge of creating an engaging and meaningful presentation. At the end of the video, the last slides provide more specific "how-to" information regarding the nuts and bolts of putting together a quality presentation.   You'll probably need to view the presentation Office 2010 Beta in the PowerPoint format if you have the urge to dig deeper. You can find it in the Sample Templates section.

Duarte's Five Rules for Creating World-Changing Presentations

Office Powerpoint 2010 "Five Rules" sample presentation from Long Zheng on Vimeo.

RELATED
Duarte Blog

Ben 10 Alien Force Game Creator from Cartoon Network: Social Game Creation Online for Kids!

I meant to post something about Cartoon Networks on-line Ben 10 Alien Force Game Creator. For many children, it is the middle of summer, and on rainy days, wouldn't it be fun to create a game? To create a game, a sign-up is required, but the application is free.

Here is a screenshot of the on-line Game Creator tutorial:


There is an easy-to-understand "help" section that accompanies Game Creator.

RELATED

Cartoon Network Asia, HP Team for Toon Creator Awards
“HP’s collaboration with Cartoon Network on the Toon Creator Awards is a joint effort to leverage each other’s strengths—HP’s leadership in personal computing and Cartoon Network’s expertise with kids’ entertainment,” commented Ajay Mohan, the VP of marketing for the Personal Systems Group at Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific. “We aim to enhance the experience for young kids and their families by inspiring creativity, promoting self-expression and evoking imagination through technology in a fun and exciting way.” (WorldScreen.com, 7/2/09, Kristin Brzoznoski)

Link:
Cartoon Network - Measure your animation skills against other animators


I played some of the on-line games on the Cartoon Network website, and the first thing I thought was that the games should be optimized for touch-screen interaction. If Hewlett-Packard has partnered with the Cartoon Network, perhaps they might facilitate this process sometime in the future.

Jonathan Jarvis: Crisis of Credit Animated Short; Interactive Oracles

Jonathan Jarvis created a series of animated shorts as a project for his work as a graduate student in the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design. He started exploring the concept of system diagrams and integrated them into motion interactions.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

(Note: Someone commented about the negative way the family who represents sub-prime mortgage holders was depicted in the short.)

Related Economic Sounds:
The short was influenced by information from the following "This American Life" radio broadcasts.

Click on the following links to listen to the broadcasts:
Another Frightening Show About the Economy
Transcript (pdf)
The Giant Pool of Money
Transcript (pdf)


More about Jonathan Jarvis:
Crisis of Credit Project Page
The back story behind Jonathan's work on the Crisis of Credit Project, with story board scenes and his research sketch of the Crisis of Credit system diagram.
Jonathan's Website
Jonathan's Global Storytelling Project (pdf)

Jonathan worked on concept development, interface design & content development with a team for a multi-touch project, Interactive Oracles, for Acura:


(Some of the information is cross-posted on the Economic Sounds and Sights blog.)

The Hidden Geometry of Hair: Computer Generated "Hollywood Hair" Unveiled at SIGGRAPH 2008

I came across a link to an article in the UCSD School of Engineering News today and just had to post it.

"HOLLYWOOD HAIR IS CAPTURED AT LAST: DETAILS IN SIGGRAPH 2008 PAPER"

Technology now exists that will enable animators, video-game makers, and film-makers the opportunity to capture images of real hairstyles that look and behave realistically. Below is a series of side-by-side comparisons of computer generated heads of hair and the real thing.

From the article:

"By determining the orientations of individual hairs, the researchers can realistically estimate how the hairstyle will shine no matter what angle the light is coming from. “You can’t just blend the highlights from two different angles to get a realistic highlight for a point in between,” said Chang.
“Instead of blending existing highlights, we create new ones.”


....One possible extension of this work: making an animated character’s hair realistically blow in the wind. This is possible because the researchers also developed a way to calculate what individual hair fibers are doing between the hairstyle surface and the scalp. They call this finding the “hidden geometry” of hair.

“Our method produces strands attached to the scalp that enable animation. In contrast, existing approaches retrieve only the visible hair layer,” the authors write in their SIGGRAPH 2008 paper. An animation of a hairstyle is available as a download from the “hair photobooth” Web site created by Sylvain Paris: http://people.csail.mit.edu/sparis/publi/2008/siggraphHair/

What we need is a real-life hair photobooth. Have a bad hair day? No problem. Walk in, "zap!", and walk out with real Hollywood hair. Maybe the hair scientists are working on it....


SIGGRAPH 2008 Paper citation: “Hair Photobooth: Geometric and Photometric Acquisition of Real Hairstyles,” by Sylvain Paris and Wojciech Matusik from Adobe Systems, Inc., Will Chang, Wojciech Jarosz and Matthias Zwicker from University of California, San Diego; and Oleg I. Kozhushnyan and Frédo Durand from Massachusetts Institute of Technology