PROJECT 1Bv2

Since I wasn't impressed with my first attempt at doing an animation focused on framing, I decided to take a second attempt. I believe this second iteration is more successful than the first. This version uses an entirely different model from the first, and introducing a new trace point for the model (at the navel, in bright green below).
The new model takes a different approach from all of the previous versions. Instead of generating one form there are five forms generated. Each represents sections of Yuval's body. The green represents the section between his head and navel, the red his right arm, the yellow his left arm, the cyan his right leg, and the magenta his left leg.
This isometric has the control lines shown as tubes along the long-side edges of the forms.
This a an axo of the forms, without the control lines (all subsequent images will be free of the control lines).
Front View
Top View
Right View



Color

White

I have included a version of the animation with the form in white to better present the shade and shadow. The color is the only difference. At the start of the animation, the object as a whole is framed. The next sequence brings up a framing of the left side of the form. From there, ones frame is adjusted to only include the lower two forms, represented Yuval's legs. The perspective is taken along a path representing a rough version of the path Yuval's legs took in his performance. At the end, the right side of the object is framed. What follows is a framing of the top 3 three forms, representing Yuval's mid section and arms. The path follows the reverse of Yuval's upper body. Notice how this path is more straight than that of the legs. The final segment once again frames the left side of the form, suggesting the sequence is about to start again.

PROJECT 1B: ANIMATION

This is the animation generated for this phase of project 1. It uses the first model shown in the previous post.

This first scene of the animation is meant to from the entire object. The following segment follows up the "mouth" of the object. Before entry, the object is framed up. The animation goes in the same direction as Yuval did in the action sequence that generated the model. The during the trip through the inside serves two purposes. The first is a rough imitation of the spinning Yuval does. The second reason is this rotation is meant to serve as a critique of the form; within the interior, the concept of gravity is left open; there is no reference point, no clear up or down. This spin is meant to make a point of this. The final sequence frames the object once again, as if the viewer is about to be brought into the object once again.

Neil Spiller: Towards an Animated Architecture - Against Architectural Animation

In his article "Against Architectural Animation," Neil Spiller discusses the consequence of using animation in the field of architecture. As a person who has looked through many student portfolios in his time, he becomes worried when a student presents him with digital material, as opposed to drawings. Though Spiller himself is a technology enthusiast, stating the many benefits technology has for architecture, he is worried about the use of animation in architecture. He fears that architects are becoming more concerned with making a good animation, rather than creating good spaces.

Architects in today's world are limited by how new applications of animation are in architecture. The typical animation software was meant for film and graphics industries, not architecture. In a sense, by using this software, and architect is asking an apple to be an orange. This leads to a tendency for those using the software to play around more with the features of the software, as opposed to the architectural forms they are attempting to represent. These users "push all the buttons at once" to see what happens, and labels it as a final product. Such representations do nothing to give another insight into architectural form. They may be pretty to look at, but they say nothing; they are mindless eye candy, rotting away the mind as sweets do one's teeth.

The graphics in these animations also lead towards a representation of ideals, made possible by the less restrictive rules of cyberspace. Clients presented with these pristine models are seduced by the graphic aesthetics, and assume the built version will be the same. In the end, built form can only approximate these animated forms, often ending up as deformations of a digital ideal, as real world influences, such as gravity and context disturb these idealistic bodies.

Another shortcoming of architectural in the virtual world relates to the approach on must take in order to represent architecture virtually. A high level of detail must be known; dimensions must be known down to small features, such as bathroom stall width. Such a level of detail is not necessary for the creative proportions brought about through relatively simply mathematics to create an aesthetic that architecture has held since the time of the ancients. Such picky details detract one from such grand simplicity to the point where one loses sight of the big picture in favor of the small. This over-attention to detail removes the ability for others to speculate and reinterpret; there is no room for the imagination when all the details are given.

For animation in architecture to work, one must "dumb it down." Architects employing this technology must focus more on the whole. Attention to overall form, not the width of an armrest, should take priority. Animations should not seek to answer all questions about architectural form, but, rather, should answer some questions, while raising others, allowing for speculation, allowing the minds of others to attempt to reach their own conclusions. Architectural animation should be nothing more than a trailer, as opposed to the whole film. The architecture and films industries are two separate, inherently different entities; their representations and re-presentations should be different on the basis of the fundamentals these industries hold.

PROJECT 1Av2: DIGITAL MODEL

These are the stills of the new digital models, using the lines from both the old drawings and the new drawings in an attempt to create a more graceful form.

The first set of models corresponds the video where Yuval goes across the screen.

Axonometric viewFront view
Top view
Right view
Isometric view showing the control lines; the darker lines are those used in the first version; all lines correspond to the drawings in the previous post.

The next set of renderings corresponds to the movie where Yuval is going into the background.
Axonometric view
Front view
Top viewRight view
Isometric view with the control lines.

Upon creation of these models, the newer models appear to be more compact and rounded than the previous versions. However, in terms of re-presenting the original animation it came from, the first model is more successful than the second model. The first model has a flowing feel to it, like a ribbon floating in space, while the second looks like a twisted up ball of fabric.

PROJECT 1Av2: BASE DRAWINGS

This is the second version of project 1A. What separates this version from the previous is that I have increased the number of trace points from five to nine. The purpose being to see if increasing the number of trace points would result in a more graceful form in the digital model.

These are the two views showing the new control lines. The red corresponds to the right shoulder, the yellow corresponds to the left shoulder, the magenta corresponds to the left knee, and the cyan corresponds to the right knee.
These drawings show all of the control lines. The older lines are darkened to help separate them from the new lines. Colors are the same as before with the dark red being the right hand, the dark yellow being the left hand, the dark green being the head, the dark magenta being the left foot, and the dark cyan being the right foot.

PROJECT 1A: DIGITAL MODELS

These are a series of images created from three dimensional models created and rendered in FormZ.
This model is based off the drawings for the viewpoint where Yuval goes across the screen. It is a nurbs surface generated off of the lines connecting Yuval's extremities. Note it is a relatively tube-like form up to the point where Yuval's jump is recorded.
This is the same model, same view, but with the control lines shown as cylinders to show how the form was derived. As from before, green is the head, red is the right hand, yellow is the left hand, magenta is the left foot, and cyan is the right foot.

This is a set of orthagonal views of the model in the order of top, right side-end, and front. Note the front view. This is the view from which the lines from the drawings were extracted.This is the model created from the second set of drawings based off the view point where Yuval is moving away from the camera. This twisted form is the result of control lines that were drawn in a three dimensional manner, whereas the first model's lines were created two dimensionally.
The control lines are shown from the same view.

These two orthagonal views show the model from the front and top.
This is the view from the right. I kept it separate to make a point of how this view of this model corresponds to the view the first model was made in (front view).

PROJECT 1A: BASE DRAWINGS

These are the base drawings which will be used to generate the models that will be shown in the next post.
This first image is a series of stills combined to show Yuval in different positions at a set interval.

This image takes Yuval's forms, and shows how they overlap during his movement.
This image shows the connections between each of Yuval's extremities; green is the head, red is the right hand, yellow is the left hand, magenta is the left foot, cyan is the right foot.

These images do the same as the previous three for the second camera angle.

PROJECT 1A: BASE VIDEO

This is the footage I will be analyzing for the first part of the project 1. This video shows the both of the angles taken.

Yuval showing off his martial arts moves.

Vidler: Warped Space - Death Cube "K"

In warped space, Anthony Vidler discusses the warping in space that is becoming a part of the world of present day architecture. He prescribes that there are two forms of spatial warping. There is the spatial warping brought on by the psychological ideals from modernism. There is the spatial warping brought on by the interweaving of the various forms of media. The connection between these versions of warped space is represented in architecture via the various symbolism permeating the urban realm.

One of the examples Vidler discusses is called Death Cube "K." Described by William Gibson, this death cube is based off of the ideas of Franz Kafka. It is a postapocalyptic bar, a nightmare made of corroded and etched steel, with elements very much resembling part of insects, from translucent walls evoking insect wings, to the brown "roach-light." Off of the main room, there is a stair leading to a disco room called "The Penal Colony." This room is lit with pulses of red light, coming from a ceiling decorated with sharp objects reminiscent of old dental equipment. Another stair leads to a space called the "Trial" room. This room features low ceilings and walls the color of anthracite. This bar is metamorphosis of Kafka into an insect and then into a space. Death Cube "K" could be considered to be an extreme version of warped space, where the fears of a devastated future world form the psychological basis of this nightmarish bar, representing a piece of a world that is beyond hope of restoration.

Viewed from the air, the world of Death Cube "K" is formed by a landscape of twisted, fragmented ruin and desolate, scorched plains, telling the narrative of past cultures. This is a world with endless corridors where one's perceptions for an endless loop of decay. This warped space is formed through the forces of the population via changes in perception from stability to a type of controlled chaos. This world has its basis in modern architectural prototypes. These prototypes are metamorphosized through the mentalities of the late 20th century. This landscape and its associated landscapes attempt to describe the differences between the ideals of modernity and modernism.

A version of this world is populated by people as plain and faceless as the virtual representations of the human form. These people are also a product of the metamorphosis that has altered the landscape of this world. The spaces these people inhabit share their appearance; they are faceless, repeating double loaded corridors carved into the steel-built urban landscape. This space is formed by an ultimate, pure version of rationalism, where everything is bound by a strict rule set based in function rather than form. This world has its basis in Kafka's nightmare of a world that is "merely schematic." This world is a product of the neuroses plaguing the minds of the fearful individual of the 20th century.

This world is not the only vision of the future. In contrast, there are those who hypothesize there will be a utopian world of perfection. These two worlds form the basis of an ellipse described by Walter Benjamin. Each world is a foci in this ellipse, the one based in tradition and its revival, the other based in the experience of the modern urban dweller. Benjamin considered himself trapped between these two foci. It could be said the tension between these two foci warp space in a way characterizing the struggle between opposing perceptions of the modern world the paths it could take. Physical space is not warped, but a person's perceptions make it appear to be warped. One could see how the modern world is rooted in its traditions, while one could also see the world being corrupted into the realm of Death Cube "K."

It is these morphoses which form the base of "neoformations." Neoformations created a world of deterritorialization. This is a world free from the nostalgia associated with tradition, but likewise free from the false promises that lead to world of the death cube. These promises allow a kind of primitive freedom allowing a set of universal rules which don't force a landscape of repeated adaptations.

It would seem Vidler attempts to explain warped space as being the result of perceptions, based in one's own mindset. This part is based on a negative mindset. These perceptions, in turn, are the basis for change in architecture through the beliefs one has of architecture's path. Those with the utopian view envision, and in turn follow, an architectural mindset based in tradition, while those with the "death cube view" see a corrupted world, and follow an architecture that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Greg Lynn: Animate Form

In this article, Lynn discusses animation and it's applications in architecture. The first point to be made is the difference between animation and motion. While the two are often confused, motion pertains to actual movement and action, while animation shows the evolution of a form through a series of still images that give the illusion of motion. (One could say animation can be a re-presentation of motion.) The problem architects have with animation lies in the fact that architects deal in statics; buildings are designed with the intent of lasting forever, though it is rare for a building to be preserved for anything grand duration of time. While animation is different from the fundamentals of architecture, it can inform architecture in a way that could help advance the discipline.

An architect typically works in an environment based off of a Cartesian coordinate system, while other design fields deal with space as an environment with forces and motion. While physical forms are often conceived of in terms of statics, the forces of the environment can help inform how these forms take shape. An example would be the design of airplanes. The form of airplanes are meant to adjust air pressure in a way that allows the vehicle to lift off the ground. The forces themselves do not change the form of the plane, but an understanding of these forces helped influence the design. As the airplane was designed, so may architectural form, though this would still leave the forms themselves static.

Stasis and architecture are linked through the ideas of permanence, usefulness, typology, procession, and verticality. However, these ideals are often more theory than practice. Permanence is one example. Buildings are built with an intent to last forever, but more often than not, they are built to last for a relatively short time, through techniques that foster obsolescence, dismantling, ruination, recycling, and abandonment. Another problem related to statics in architecture is fixed functionality. Buildings are often designed for a specific set of functions, making it difficult to adapt a building through time. A potential solution to this problem would be the implementation of controlled multi-type buildings with enough flexibility to provide for many potentials within a building.

(I believe the ideals of permanence and flexible building programs would greatly benefit from animation. Animations could be used in conjunction with physics to test a buildings ability to stand through time and survive a set of factors known to degrade a building over time. With respect to flexible program design, animations could be used to test a building's ability to support multiple functions within, and potentially provide for functions well beyond the building's primary functions. Both ideals work with each other, with flexible design fostering permanence, and permanence providing for the introduction of new functions compatible with the building design.)

Architecture survived as the last refuge for the flat earth society with respect to the general understanding of gravity as a straightforward, unchanging vertical force. While structure to force and gravity relationships are numerous and interrelated, architects continue to cling to the ideal of buildings standing as vertical structures. This truth leaves buildings open to being about down by wind and other lateral loads that have the potential to be much greater than the forces gravity exerts. These forces have the potential to generate uplift in lighter buildings. While architects and engineers do not ignore these facts, they are still bound by the base assumption that buildings are vertical structures.

Animation can provide a set of parameters and statistics to generate architectural form. While many architects would not be so bold as to allow an animation based in mathematics to design a building for them, these forms can provide the groundwork for new forms in architecture. The forms generated may be abstract, or may create a symbol for a culture. These processes could yield what can be described as an abstract machine, and a concrete assemblage. As an abstract machine, these structures are both a technological statement and a symbol, but not as either one or the other. As a concrete assemblage, these structures represent the movements and organization of elements based in reality. A computer keyboard is an example of that which is a concrete assemblage and abstract machine. It is a concrete assemblage in that it is a physical piece of technology, and an abstract machine in that the key placements were determined via an open algorithm determining efficiency in typing out the words of the past, present, and future versions of the English language. The potential of using these algorithms in informing architectural design can lead to buildings that can be described as animate rather than static.

Greg Lynn: Folds, Bodies, & Blobs - Body Matters

In Lynn's article, architecture is described as being dependent on the concept of the whole, as opposed to focusing more on the parts that make up a whole. Within architecture, there is a search for a universal model; a model that is static, and can readily be described in terms of whole numbers. The intricate functions that make up the whole in architecture are ignored under this premise in favor of a more generalized approach. Bodies stem from interactions amongst several component parts, and cannot be reduced to a more general system. A body could be described as anexact, a term coined by Edmund Husserl to describe which is neither exact nor inexact. In architecture, the parts of the body are both more and less than the whole.

One alternative for the description of architectural organization pertains to the behavior of elements on the local level and how they contribute to the formations of bodies in architecture. This idea of the body stemming from local interactions conflicts with the ideal versions of the body and the whole. This idea lends itself to focus on stable, though not necessarily static, bodies. Bodies are able to grow over time through forces of differentiation. These forces build up the body; bodies are constantly giving additions over time.

The idea of the parasite has been used to describe that which cause instability within an existing form. One version of the parasite is described as the necessary component in the deconstruction of the whole. Another version of the parasite is described as that which much adjust its environment to support its continued existence; the parasite creates a new entity. Another variation of the parasite is described as being necessary for the formation of the whole; the whole presents and exterior, and the parasite builds its interior. Other parasites are described as being vehicles for providing a necessary interaction between bodies dependent upon one another for survival (e.g. bees and flowers).

(This concept of the parasite stands out to me. I can see a possible interpretation to describe the forces that evolve architectural form. Form would be the body and function would be the parasite. As functions evolve, and become more sophisticated, they must adapt the form of the environments they inhabit, resulting in the development of new buildings. i.e., the functions of industry brought on by the innovations of the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the construction of factories.)

Monstrosities are bodies that are different from those typically found in nature. One way these bodies can be formed is through the combination of different parts, forming a new whole that can not be understood through its component parts alone. This brings on the idea that whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Sphinx of Egypt is an example of such a body; the body of the lion and the body of the human can not readily be envisioned as the form they create when united.

Gestures can be used to describe forces related to the body. Electrocardiogram readings can be read to interpret the emotional state of a person. Captures of a body and motion can be used to illustrate the forces acting upon the body at specific points in time. These gestures are only useful as is; an "average" of these gestures would be unable to describe a realistic body. This presents the idea that forces interact across intervals while the body remains in stasis.