Project 1: Virtual Projection [ANIMATION] and in retrospect

This is a study of contours of the object in sequence.




Animation: manipulation or change of the objects natural state
Rendering: making your model look good via fly through shots of the model.
(3/12/2007)

So, sadly, this is the only part of my final movie that comes close to animation. I actually think it is borderline animation-rendering too. It is a rendering because it is only a re-interpretation of the original model. I haven't changed the existing model. Yet, it could be considered an animation . . . You only see the vertical contours of the model, but only a segment at a time.

In essence, I animated TIME in the model--the temporal state of the objects.
Each segment is given five seconds of existence. Rather than existing in the
same five seconds their existence is staggered and it becomes a sequence of
on/off movement through the object.

Tant pis!

I think I'm frustrated at the lack of progress I'm making with the digital medium. I don't know a single program in it's entirety and I am forced to switch back and forth. And I still can't do what I envision.


(more of a physical animation: cut the maya model into sections for study)

I'm almost there.
(3/27/2007)

Project 1: Virtual Projection Revisiting the [DIaGRaM] and MODEL

diagram of side view

diagram of front view


Because the diagrams are two dimensional representations f a three dimensional action, the third dimension needed to be extrapolated from a third element. For this model, I was about to use two diagrams of different views rediscovering the third dimension. The movement was also elongated each frame of movement was dragged out over the space. The front view was pulled to the left. Thus,the model is more diagonal in profile than a straight on front view. As seen below this allowed for more dynamic vertical contours cuts with out losing the original profile of the curves.




The above model, which consisted of irregular and cut pieces, was connected and smoothed out so that the surface was a continuous form. This new model will be used for the next steps in this study of virtual projection.

Project 1: Virtual Projection New [MOVEMENT]

[Click on photo above] or click here

I choose a new movement to study. My original movement was random and not planned, which meant that reproducing the movement was difficult. This new movement can be repeated and studied from different angles, which gives me more flexibility for study and the analysis. Click the photo above. Enjoy.

Shuhei Endo: Springtecture H and other LINES (Zaha Hadid's Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art)

Shuhei Endo

Springtecture H
Singu-cho, Hyogo, Japon, 1998
http://www.archilab.org/public/2000/catalog/shuhei/shuheien.htm

I still think that there is a separation created by the linear plane. Here the separation is exposed and refuges spaces. However, where Diller + Scofidio building fails in creating a connection and becomes two separate comb shaped pieces, the linear folding plane in Springtecture H connects three separate building pieces. They are two very different parti diagrams that both employ the linear form. Diller + Scofidio building is inherently a datum of stacked spaces where the linear planes create a figural condition that breaks up the datum. The each layer turns into a positive-negative, right-left sided condition. Springtecture without the linear plane would be three separate buildings. The linear plane connects the three parts and holds the building together, thus becomes the parti and connection of the building. The "separation" mentioned earlier less evident in Springtecture H. Perhaps, it is in the separation of interior and exterior spaces . . .


The best part of this building is when the plane dips down and holds the path. The interaction of the corrugated plane and the ground plane seamlessly connects the building to the landscape. The "separation" is between the exposed to the sky and the enclosed landscape/refuge spaces.





Zaha Hadid and her Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati was also brought up during the last discussion.


Zaha Hadid
Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, 2003
Design: Zaha Hadid
© Zaha Hadid Architects
http://80.87.131.158/design/zaha-hadid

The linear fold is figural gesture that unites the seemingly haphazardly placed forms in her building. The forms act as a datum of similar building language: the material, the rectangular forms, the manner which these forms recess and project in the facade. However, without the linear plane, each parts of the building would seem completely haphazard. It is the tension and contrast of the linear plane to the rectangular forms which allows the datum to be realized.
The fold also holds the building within its context. Unlike Frank Gehry's EMP or his "Ginger and Fred" which use the existing context as a datum and connect to the block as figural pieces, the rectangular forms of Zaha Hadid's building are not dissimilar enough from the forms of the existing block. The plane maintains much of the language of the rest of Zaha Hadid's building: its similar in material. However, it speaks the language of planes and bend rather then the three dimensional language of forms. It is a figure within the building itself and adds that extra push which separates it from the language of the existing block. Thus, through tension and juxtaposition, the plane becomes the figural piece that bridges the gap between Hadid's building and the existing buildings on the block.

In comparison to the two previous examples, Zaha Hadid's building is perhaps the most successful in using the plane to connect the building. Diller + Scofidio use the plane as a figure, but to break the datum. The plane is a figure sitting in the datum of the fleshy part of the building. It doesn't actually connect the building visually or in any other way. Shuhei Endo's Springtecture H uses the plane to connect each part of the building. It is a figure, but is so integrated within the landscape that it becomes part of the landscape. It is no longer a two dimensional plane, but the surface of the landscape. Thus the building becomes part of the landscape which has simply unrolled itself. In Zaha Hadid's building, the figure retains its figural essence and connects both the building itself and the building within the block.

PROJECT 1C: cOMPoSiTionAL DisPlaceMent: Full ANIMATION

This is animation for Project 1c. I'm not sure that the Form-z animation turned out after all the compression. I was trying to study the relationship between surface and skin. There is an overlap wireframe and rendered surface in the transition between the two. It would be interesting if i could have integrated the studied from the Form-z model and those from Electric Imager more.

Click here:

or visit http://www.archive.org/details/proj1c_finalanimation

PROJECT 1C: cOMPoSiTionAL DisPlaceMent: Animation Part 1

This is part of a study animation of build contours done is form-z. This was more of an exploratory step. Ii was trying out form-z aniamtion. (I still can't get the camera to move properly. I was trying to understand my model as a series of contours. Section cuts were taken at mesured distances. Each cut line was recorded. And the model is defines by cuts rather than actual surfaces.


Click Here:



or visit http://www.archive.org/details/formz_animation_proj1c

PROJECT 1B: re-visiting the [frame]

I revisited the previous assignment again. This time, I focused creating a continuity of movement. My previous animations were not as consciously fluid or connected. I rendered the animation five times using: wireframe, phong, gouraud, flat, and raytracing. I actually found the wireframe, flat and raytracing renderings to be the most informative.



The wireframe gives shows the mesh of the objects skin, suggesting movement alown the coutours. The flat rndering renders each sectionas a flat panel. This is a less detailed rendering from the full "raytrace", and becomes a transitional study of coutours becoming form. The ray trace is the final result, showing lighting, developed forms, shade and shadow.



The idea of the previous assignment was the frame. How do you frame the object within a view and how does that inform you about the object and the spaces it creates. So in this re-visit, I tried to frame the object in an approach sequence to a certain point. As the view reached the point and rotate around it, you realize that is actually a plane. A plane that leads you back along the top then into object. The becomes a sequence of surface study.

Click Here:


or visit: http://www.archive.org/details/proj1brevisit_feartheanimation

"Potential Performance Effects". Ali Rahim

I must be loosing it(due to lack of sleep) or have too much time waiting for my flight in Detroit, because Rahim's article actually makes sense.(Must be the three hour delay in Detroit. In other words, sorry for the late post, Prof.)

In his article "Potential Performance Effects", Ali Rahim discusses methods of rationalizing the evolutionary process of an continuously changing object. The continuous feedback of the object in relationship with time (given) allows us to measure and study the each stage of the evolving form. The author also suggests that the change occurs in both the object and the surrounding environment. The object has a gradient and porous nature which allows the dialogue of space flowing or interrupting between the object and its environment to develop. Therefore changes in he environment affect change in the object. (vice versa)
For example, my frustrating trip home from Detroit:



Event:
1. Calm, good weather, 2 hours early for flight
2. Change in flight time, 1 hour delay
3. Change in gate number, sitting at the wrong gate, 2 hour delay
4. Added stress due to lack of efficiency 100 plus people boarding all at once.
5. Further delay due to de-freeze process
6. Noise-y flight attendants shoving past my aisle seat.
7. Irritated at flight attendants shoving garbage bag in my face.
8. Pilot going super fast announces final descent after 30 minutes
9. Super fast, super turbulent descent
10. Landing, 1.5 hour flight takes only 45 minutes
11. Supershuttle cancels my reservation, no cars
12. Have to take taxi, +25% for driving in bad weather
13. Police officer tells taxis that's illegal, still get home with $75 taxi fee




So how does this inform me about my process. Every curve and change in the model has a measured cause and an equally measured resultant effect. These changes influence spaces in both the model and environment. Therefore, it would be impossible to study the model without understanding the environment.
From these further studies on the environment, we start to understand a sort of unconscious molding between the environment and the model through the forces brought on by each event. If we removes the object from the picture, a negative space would remain: a mold of spaces that the model once contained (both interior and exterior). The study of this mold describes more about the object than the object itself. Space, porosity, force, connectivity, containment would all be visible in this mold. The next step really should be the study of the surrounding and enclosed environments.

Toyota Commercial

about [animation] frames and projections:

PROJECT 1B: [ANIMATION!!] 2

I braved the snow today actually more like slush. [ANIMATION!!] 2 is here!!
Below is the camera path:



The movement through the model is less haphazard this time. It's still really hard to get into my model because of all the intract parts. I may have to rebuild the surface again for [ANIMATION!!] 3.


Click Photo below to begin animation:



or visit
www.archive.org/details/proj1b_animation_2

PROJECT 1B: [ANIMATION!!] 1

The [ANIMATION!!] 1 is here!!! Finally got the lighting and camera and rendering to work.
The movement of the camera is below.

The first animation is more of a"first-time" using the camera deal. Basically everytime I saw a cool shot I took it. Thuse the movement through the model is a little more haphazard than I had intended. Also, my model look broken up in the animation. But after three days of grief. I'm happy to submit this as a first attempt movie.

http://www.archive.org/details/proj1b_animation1

Click on the "256 Quicktime". It works on the MACs at school. Unfortunately slower computers will not be about to see the animation.


P.S. A really good non-profit site for archiving/posting movies, images, text, and audio is:
www.archive.org
They also do copyrighting when you post.
I was having trouble posting with the ftp on MACs, but it works really easily off the PCs with Internet Explorer.

PROJECT 1B: NEW MODEL (more process)

So in order to do this animation, I had to simplify all the lines and forms in my model.

The differences between the earlier Model 1B and this one are subtle. The three pieces had to become a single form. I did this by attaching the surfaces of the three. The "attach surface" function attached each part with a curve. This creates a nicer ribbon form, which allow for a better exploration of interior and exterior space.

PROJECT 1B: NEW MODEL

My new hot model with only two images (and colors that match the diagram and not the website). This time I am only exploring the idea of visual space. Whether or not lines in the diagram are visually closer or further away determine the third dimension of my model. The lines were redrawn as curves then "lofted" together. (Lofted being a cool MAYA tool that allows you to link two curves with a long ribbon.)


The red is relatively static in the diagram and only move back and forth along the picture plane. The green and violet forms are relatively more active. The proximity and visual contrast of the two central green forms pull those forms in the model forward. The violet in the diagram remains mostly hidden and mixed with the red, except at the very right of the diagram where the violet and red separate and we start to understand the two as separate entities.

"DEATH CUBE 'K'"

San Francisco Federal Building. Morphosis. http://www.pritzkerprize.com/164/pritzker2005/hires/sanfranciscofederalbuilding03.jpg

I'm feeling particularly old today. We had a discussion in lab class about "what books and theory articles do they assign in college TODAY". I'm starting to realize that the architecture theory readings that I read oh I won't say how long ago when I was 21 are no longer assigned as readings today: Alvar Aalto's "The Trout and the Mountain Stream" or his article "The Humanizing of Architecture" and Roland Barthes book Mythologies. What's even worse is my studio prof hasn't hear of Alvar Aalto's Mt. Angel Library or Alvaro Siza'a Leca Swimming Pools. Must be a "West Coast" thing.

At any rate, I hope that the above picture of Morphosis's San Francisco Federal Building and the mesh book back that fell in the middle of downtown Seattle are not indications of the type of architecture we do in the Pacific Northwest. We have a long proud tradition of tectonic architecture that comes from both Asian and Scandinavian influences, which should be separated from what THOSE Californians do.

(moving on . . . )

In the essay "Death of Cube 'K'", Anthony Vidler categorizes modern architecture into two poles: "archaisms with contemporary function and neoformations." Architecture is either copying classical building and giving them a new function, or it falls under the category of "neoformations": the result of a sort of backlash of psychologically oppressed society. According to Vidler neoformationsare Kafka buildings that represent the ideas and psychology of the modern age.

This is not a new idea. Architecture reflects the ideas of its society. Look at the early 1900's and the movie Metropolis (The probably don't show that film in architecture theory courses anymore either.) The idea that machines would someday run our cities. Machines would become dominant forms of architecture and eventually control the social structure of a society.

What was that great Japanese anime done by Osamu Tezuka . . . Metropolis.

http://www.sonypictures.com/cthv/metropolis/flash/main.html

Wonderful film about psychology and society. And as long as we are on the topic of animation:



Vidler discusses about the new language of Morphosis architecture as a forced "perspective of the paranoid". Spaces that are sloped, canted, fractures and broken rather than the traditional vertical and horizontal. I really don't see how that is any different from Russian Constructivism (or Deconstructivism in depending on the language); a movement that started in 1917.

Model of the Tatlin Tower, monument for the Communist International.

I think the only difference is the public acceptance of ugliness as architecture and the gave it a name: "neoformations". Honestly, the growing ego of architects to place "their" built form with no considerations to site or the people who have to use the building daily. Is disphoria something YOU want to experience daily? Do you live in the apartment across the street with your curtains draw due to the glare coming off some titanium piece of crap? Are you going to be here 100 years later when the materials from your building are causing some toxic reaction and have to be removed?

I think its great to have diagrams and form generators, but . . .

There is a another step that should be taken before you built what you see on the computer screen. That is the consideration of the client, no their needs, their egos or what they want, but their livelihood, the livability of your building, the impact (on the street-level) of the city, and the impact the building (and all its materials) have on the world.

So forgive me, if I missed the point of the reading assignment. There is nothing new about "Neoformations". It's just Russian Constructivism on egocentric steroids.

PROJECT 1A: MODEL (part 3: farewell oh model of mine)

Yes. Farewell to my model. Unfortunately, my model will not help me through the second part of this process. Tossed aside for something newer, shinier, younger and better looking.
So farewell . . . with some hot photos.
Finally got the lighting to work. (THANK YOU CARL!!!!!)


"i'm too sexy for this blog

too sexy for this blog


i'm . . . too . . . sexy . . . "

(and please don't ask for royalties)

PROJECT 1A: MODEL (part 2: process makes perfect)

"PROCESS"!!!
I suppose I had forgotten about that particular concept. I could flash a gazillion cool images and none of it would matter if you didn't understand the process.

(above) The diagrams are taken into MAYA (modeling software). Then a choice has to be made: how do you turn a two dimensional drawing/lines and turn it into a three dimensional computer model?
Somehow the third dimension needs to be represented. Things like time, sequence, visual proximity can spawn that third dimension in to reality. One can imagine how time can be extrapolated from the diagram by the amount spent in a certain position. Or how sequence can represent movement after movement elongated and chronological to the diagram. (see Project 1A: Diagrams)

Here I chose visual proximity and focal points of movement. More lines in one area create a stronger visual presence, which pulled parts of the model to the foreground. The opposite for fewer lines, which were pushed toward the background.
I also wanted to examine the focal points of movement. What was the crucial/apex/resultant point of all this foreground-background movement.
The result seen below:

GREG LYNN

bODY mATTERS and [ANIMAT]ion

One of my favorite projects is the Leca Swimming Pools in Leca da Palmeira, Portugal. The project was done by Alvaro Siza in 1966, (years before the Greg Lynn essays).

http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/leca/index.htm
(a web article with photos written by Tatiana Berger in 2003)

The project is located at the sea-wall at Leca and involves changing rooms, a cafe and a series of man-made tide pools which are naturally fed by the sea. Siza uses much of the original topography in his project, minimizing the intrusion of man made forms. (And why did I bring this up??!! )

In his essay, "Body Matters", Lynn discusses dissimilar objects connecting in nature as parasites, wasps, or viscous fluids. The ability for one form to evolve and flow in to the next.
In the same way, Siza's sea-wall connects two different entities. The sea-wall stand uninterrupted separating the city and the sea for miles. Siza's project becomes a seamless transition between the man-made sea-wall and the sea. Two entities which are naturally dissimilar connect thorough Siza's project.

The idea of forms that evolve and change over time is presented in both "Body Matters" and "Animation". In "Body Matters", evolution can happen within a second to over centuries: from before the two entities (as the wasp and the orchid) meet to how they affect the next entity (how the wasp affects the next orchid). In Lynn's essay "Animation", time is the controlling variable that slowed down allows us to understand movement and if sped up affords an understanding or evolution.

In Alvaro Siza's Leca Swimming Pools, there is a constant evolution of the sea eroding the wall and it's surroundings away. There is sort of futility of human labor to build forms to obstruct and oppose nature. By acknowledging nature, Siza's project becomes the a point of symbiosis between the civilization's sea-wall and the nature's eroding sea.


(All done without blobs or computers, but with a very exact measurement of site conditions. Siza measures every rock on the site. And it connects better to the site and the city then a stack of books covered in mesh or a smashed guitar. Do form generators really generate better cities and better buildings?)

PROJECT 1A: MODEL

Model of diagram 1 done completely in MAYA . I examined the most heavily concentrated areas and focal points of motion. The size of model area was determines by relative concentration of lines in the diagram. Whether the line in the diagram was in the foreground and background became a determinate of how far off the central axis a concentration was placed. Then I created several layers of connection from one point to the next.
I was trying to take some ideas from the Greg Lynn reading. The model tries to examine the natural topology of the movement and the diagram. The transition over distance from one form to the next.

(this is so dry. i had fun . . . really . . . after riping out my hair for 8 hours, I got 4 hours or productive work done. )

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to fix the lighting, and keep my colors from bleeding . The above rendering was the only good shot I was able to get. It is however looking at the diagram right-to left verses left-to-right. (Not that the model retains any of the directional qualities of the original movement or the diagram.
Below, you can tell that I wasn't able to get the object back lit, and was force to do black and white, because the colors made me sick.

In retrospect, I think I would like to connect the three parts of the model more next time.

PROJ 1A: DIAGRAMS

Smriti and I did a trace study of the forms created by these three parts. The red becomes a rhythm that starts to bend and bleed in to the violet and green.

This is an extended version of the previous diagram. Each move was pulled out at equal lengths, stretching and extending the figure through space.

PROJ 1A: the KUNG-FU Chick

how do these things start??

some chick doing kung-fu in the architecture building.
i know . . . those crazy architecture students.

Some of the things that attracted Smriti and I to this particular sequence was the cross-over in timing and space between the movement of the upper body and legs, matching the subtlety of the torso connecting the two. The relationship and interaction of the three created a basis for our study.