Overview

• NM is a center for art, culture, and technology– but NM has second highest poverty rate in US

• Computer graphics/animation/digital arts can build on these three strengths– Digital Pueblo Project

• State Economic Development Initiative

– Film Incentives

– Digital Media Industries Initiative

• What is UNM’s role?

UNM

• UNM has research and teaching strengths in graphics– Much of graphics/visualization groups at LANL

and SNL are UNM graduates (CS and EECE)– Other grads at Pixar, Dreamworks,

Disney,Autodesk– Starting ~1995 animation efforts

• Jointly listed classes between CS and Media Arts

– Graduates would rather be in NM

What I do: Scientific Visualization

More Scientific Visualization

Interdisciplinary Efforts

Dawg Stars

• For about 10 years, NM had the a large active SIGGRAPH chapter that combined industry, academia, and the arts

• DAWG (Digital Artists, Wizards, and Gurus) Stars Formed to focus on economic development

• Working with Senator Domenici’s office

• Participation– UNM (CS, Media, ATC, Lodestar)– Aquila, Autumn Light, Muse Tech

Dawg Stars Video

All of the Following Was Done in NM

Our Mission

• The Digital Pueblo Project is building an art and technology environment in New Mexico that includes animation and computer graphics in film, television, arts, music and dance. The goal of the project is to create an atmosphere that will foster innovation and economic opportunity in New Mexico and reverse the drain of talented and innovative people.

NSF PFI Program

• Partnerships for Innovation• “The PFI Program is focused on connections between new

knowledge created in the discovery process to learning and innovation. The goals of the program are– to catalyze Partnerships for Innovation that will enable the

transformation of knowledge created by the national research and education enterprise into innovations that create new wealth, build strong local, regional and national economies and improve the national well-being;

– broaden the participation of all types of academic institutions and all citizens in NSF activities to more fully meet the broad workforce needs of the national innovation enterprise; and catalyze enabling infrastructure necessary to foster and sustain innovation in the long-term.

– To develop a set of ideas for pursuing these goals, this competition will support promising partnerships among academe, government and the private sector; partnerships that will explore new approaches to support and sustain innovation. “

Partners at UNM

• Arts Technology Center, College of Fine Arts

• High Performance Computing Center

• Lodestar Astronomy Center

• Computer Science Department

Partners in NM

• National Hispanic Cultural Center of NM• Poeh Arts Center, Pojoaque• Pueblo of Zuni• Bandelier EFX• Aquila Group• Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute• Connect NM• NM Trains• Sandia National Laboratories• Drumfire• Conti Films• Vizeon• Big Byte

National Partners

• IBM

• Intel

• National Indian Telecommunications Institute

• PIXAR Animation Studios

Key Features

• Project-based learning– Locally-generated projects– External projects

• Distributed participants– Technology Pods (T-pods)– Centralized Storage

• Communication via Access Grid

Connections via AccessGrid

• High-bandwidth videoconferencing system.

• All sites are seen and react simultaneously.

• Used for meetings, workshops, seminars, distance education, and digital arts.

Large-Format Visualizations

LodeStar Astronomy CenterLodeStar Astronomy Center

The SkyVision System

Courtesy: Sky-Skan, Inc

• Created by Sky-Skan, Inc. (www.skyskan.com)

• Tiled projection system with 6 digital RGB projectors

that are feathered to produce a seamless immersive display

• Contains a 5.1 Dolby sound system

Arts Technology Center

• Housed in College of Fine Arts

• Fosters efforts in new media

• Artist projects

• Interdisciplinary projects with Computer Science, Engineering, High Performance Xomputing Center

• Sponsored by McCune, Ford, Rockefeller

Dome Projects

• DPP Projects– Athens– Troka– Class projects– Mars– Visiting Artist Programs

• Presentations– Planetarium Society– Astrophysical Association– SIGGRAPH 2003

• Recognition as leaders in development of nonastronomical content for domes– Donation of Digital Sky System

DPP AVI

Dome Masters from DPP Projects

The Dome

5-Camera Rig

• Rigging Five Virtual Cameras (Top Half of a Cube)

• 360-degree view

• Targa/JPEG image sequences for each view/camera

• Each panel’s resolution is 1200 to 1800 pixels square

The Panels

• Each camera produces one of five “panels”

• Five panels create an environment cube

Dome Masters

• ‘Stitching’ the panels uses proprietary software

• Five panels are distorted, masked, and merged

• The result is called a ‘Dome Master’

• 2400 to 3600 pixels squared

• Single Targa Image Sequence

Slicing

• Dome Master sequence is sliced, feathered, and gamma corrected for 6 projector system

DPP AVI