Nature In Augmented Reality

There are a few augmented reality Apps out there, but navigating something that’s intuitive from a creative perspective leaves much to be desired. You may have heard of Google’s TILT brush that let’s you paint and draw in 3D, or seen that the majority of what’s available on the App store is aimed towards guys who want to play golf in their office.

I did I little research on artists that had experience with this as a medium and found a Forbes article about the work of Nancy Baker Cahill and her 4th wall app http://www.4thwallapp.org/  which is great because it brings her work to right to you and your environment. 

This is the end result, so far..

Admittedly, there’s some errors to be fixed and I’ve spent some time recently trying to refine and better define the more organic, fluid shapes that I want to use. 

Just working out how to construct one singular leaf or petal is quite a challenge but I’m making some progress and will post up when I’m at a place where I know I can diversify the results. I’m also working out how to export the finished result so that you can have a look for yourself in real time! In the mean time here is where I’m currently at with the lotus flower I’m working on.

Scale, position and rotation can all be modified for the space in which you want to see the Terrarium which is great for having a closer look at the rendering on plants. 

I’m enthusiastic about the potential for Augmented Reality in teaching with scientific diagrams. This is really my goal. Being able to see inside of a Pollen grain by blowing it up to the size of your lounge, or understanding various systems in a living body or a planet on your lunch break in the park, anything really. Beyond just staring at the screen while you mess with your posture you can walk around it and interact with from any angle. 

Here is another progress clip from my next project. I’m building a Lotus flower from scratch. This is the closed position. 

All posts are my own and I do not have any sponsorship or affiliation with uMake. 

Umake can be downloaded from the App Store or from www.umake.xyz

Video Projection Mapping on Orchids

I've always lusted over the look of video projection. It was something I didn't really take up at my time in art school. The vibrant colours are and movements speak poetically to my interest for bioluminescence in deep sea creatures such as the comb jellyfish

National Geographic http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/12/comb-jelly.jpg

I tried a number of different programs for the projection mapping. I started with Madmapper, which I found really confusing and unfriendly, then I found HeavyM which works really well as it lets you use a tool to draw out your shapes live in front of you. The tool works just like the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator which made the process really familiar and enjoyable. 

I used a combination of outlines, animated fills and imported animations and effects for the overlays.  

Here is a short clip of the drawing process with the "pen" tool that works much like the one in Adobe Illustrator. 

Pen tool in action  

Here is short collection of all the clips I made.  Enjoy

Music credit- Jefferson Handkerchief - Allergic to flowers  

Dye Part 2

Bottle Brush flower pink, Ghost gum green, berry purple hues, blue rosemary and berry, resin bark orange, gum nut cream and gum flower yellow are just some of the new colours we got to add to the spectrum of dyes that grow in the Brunswick area this month. Jessie and I are starting to build up a library of extraction techniques; brush painting the dye on, wrapping the dye mediums in the fabric and putting the medium flat on top in one layer.

We realised that using soy milk mordant and then the vinegar really helps the intensity and vibrancy of the colour the dye produces as opposed to just the soy. Although we have to try and find a solution to how we keep the sheen and the delicacy of silk after it loses its luminosity from being in the soy milk for s few days.

We're really impressed with the kind of gradient that we were able to achieve by placing the dye mediums straight onto the fabric in one even layer. In our gleeful anticipation of the results we uncovered what could immediately be likened with Mark Rothko's paintings. The pink was so luscious, intense and worthy of envy. 
We have also tried berries on cotton which worked beautifully for really vibrant purples.

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