Art and Technology
Let’s Hear It For Women Working In 3D!
As woman that is working in a male dominated area such as 3D, I am thrilled that this press release crossed my desk, and I am happy to repost it.
SIGGRAPH 2012 Selects Jane McGonigal as Keynote Speaker
(Chicago, IL) – ACM SIGGRAPH announces the selection of Jane McGonigal, director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future (IFTF), as keynote speaker atSIGGRAPH 2012, the 39th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 5-9 August 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. McGonigal’s research at IFTF focuses on how games are transforming the way we lead our real lives, and how they can be used to increase our resilience and well-being.
“Jane McGonigal is an ideal keynote for SIGGRAPH 2012 as the perfect illustration of this year’s conference theme,” said Rebecca Strzelec, SIGGRAPH 2012 Conference Chair from Penn State Altoona. “Her vision, vocation, and world-renowned accomplishments truly embody the collision, juxtaposition, and interaction of art and science.”
McGonigal is a visionary game designer and futurist, using alternate reality games to conduct research, build communities, connect with markets, and solve real-world problems from curing disease to addressing issues of poverty, hunger, and a world without petroleum. She has created and deployed award-winning games in more than 30 countries on six continents and directed the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game, Superstruct, which brought together more than 7,000 future forecasters from 90 countries. She currently serves as Chief Creative Officer for SuperBetter Labs.
McGonigal’s New York Times bestselling book, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, explores the power and future of gaming and reveals how its collaborative aspects are being used to solve some of the most difficult challenges facing humanity. Her personal goal is to see a game designer nominated for the Nobel Prize by 2023.
The New York Times featured McGonigal as one of 10 scientists with the best vision for what’s coming next; she earned Harvard Business Review honors for one of the Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas of 2008; BusinessWeek called her one of the Top 10 Innovators to Watch; and Fast Company named her one of the 100 Most Creative People in business.
About SIGGRAPH 2012
SIGGRAPH 2012 will bring thousands of computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to Los Angeles, California for the industry’s most respected technical and creative programs focusing on research, science, art, animation, music, gaming, interactivity, education, and the web from Sunday, 5 August through Thursday, 9 August 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. SIGGRAPH 2012 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 7-9 August 2012. More details are available on the SIGGRAPH 2012 Facebook and Twitter.
About ACM SIGGRAPH
The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques is an interdisciplinary community interested in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Members include researchers, developers and users from the technical, academic, business, and art communities. ACM SIGGRAPH enriches the computer graphics and interactive techniques community year-round through its conferences, global network of professional and student chapters, publications, and educational activities.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for lifelong learning, career development, and professional networking.
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation PodcastClick on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
MakerBot Collaboration with Met Museum Puts Historic Artwork In Your Hands
Brooklyn, NY – June 11 2012 – In an historic move, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and creation technology pioneer MakerBot have joined forces to make statues, sculptures, and other three dimensional artworks from the museum’s collection available for anyone in the world to access virtually on Thingiverse.com and physically recreate with The Replicator™ – MakerBot’s third-generation 3D Printer for the home.
A select group of artists, hackers, and educators from the vast MakerBot Community traveled thousands of miles to attend the inaugural two-day ‘hackathon’ on June 1st, 2012. The group toured the galleries of New York’s landmark museum to “3D Capture” works of art using basic cameras and the latest 3D software, creating the foundation for a wholly new kind of public archive.
From Helsinki to Tokyo to Fort Worth, ‘citizens’ of Thingiverse are getting their hands on historic works of art by downloading them from Thingiverse, a MakerBot community website where anyone can share and discover things that can be materialized – as if by magic – using a household 3D Printer like The Replicator™.
In the spirit of the Museum’s commitment to share its collection with the public, those who have not yet visited the galleries will now be able to examine artwork digitally or ‘in person’ by reproducing the artwork on a MakerBot. Teachers can bring history straight into the classroom. Artists can modify, remix and re-imagine classics once set in stone.
The Met MakerBot Hackathon is only the first chapter in MakerBot’s effort to bring art back to life. The company has issued a challenge to its community: Capture Your Town! In the coming months, regular people all around the world will use the same simple process and freely available tools to ‘capture’ artwork, buildings, people, and things in 3D and share them in the Thingiverse.
Bre Pettis, CEO and Co-Founder at MakerBot as well as Hackathon participant, will discuss this ‘epic’ movement during an upcoming MakerBot community meeting at the Met.
Participants included Tom Burtonwood, Tony Buser, Colette Robbins, Michael Curry, Tom Cushwa, Noah Feehan, Ana Marva Fernandez, Adam Fontenault, Anney Fresh, Micah Ganske, Jason Schapiro, Rebecca Hillegass, Jackie Terrassa, Matthew Griffin, Erol Gunduz, Kacie Hultgren, Sean Justice, Miles Lightwood, Liz Arum, Jason Bakutis, Mike Battaglia, John Briscella, Svetlana Blum-Briscella, Jonathan Monaghan, Daniel James Moore, David Neff, Keith Ozar, Marius Watz, Catarina Mota, Todd Blatt, Dustyn Roberts, Jonathan Dehan, Don Undeen, and Bre Pettis.
https://sketchfab.com/tags/metropolitan-museum-of-art
- Bridgette Mongeon-Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Presentation For a Park
I have been working on this pitch for a life-size bronze sculpture scene that individuals can interact with. This is a quick sketch of a possible design. Do you want to join the Mad Hatter at his tea party? The idea is that you could go to the park and sit at this bench. Each character is created to interact with a real person. My next part of the pitch is to see if I can pose children with this piece.
MY WORK FLOW
The project has been created using a variety of materials and software. Daz 3D models were very helpful, though often not enough. I had to sculpt quite a few things using ZBrush such as the rabbits clothes, his watch, the benches the table and the table clothes, along with the head of the Mad Hatter. Everything else is pretty much Daz 3D. My work flow is to bring Daz 3D characters into Poser and then once posed bring them into ZBrush. I can change the mesh to be able to sculpt on the figures and it gives me a way to expedite the presentation. As in the past, the actual sculptures don’t really look like the people in the scene once it is physically sculpted. For example, if I can convince my client I would like Alice to resemble my daughter when she was that age. Though it is not an exact replica of the planned life-size sculpture it sure helps my client to visualize my presentation.
Exporting ZBrush File For Milling
I have been on the phone with Synappsys Digital Services trying to figure out the best file, size and format that my digital sculpture of Evelyn needs to be in for them to work. This sculpture was created in the computer, will be milled out in foam and then created as a life size bronze. Synappsys Digital Services will be milling this out for me, but first I need to get them the file.
I have already decimated the individual files, with Decimation Master in ZBrush and I talk about this in a previous post. An important thing to remember is that ZBrush can create some very large files. Many companies that create output, for either milling or digital printing may not have the capability to handle such high resolution meshes. I have spoken to Synappsys Digital Services and they can handle 5 million or less.
To upload the file I have called Synappsys Digital Services and asked them to provide server information to upload my files. I must be able to upload them via Ftp. I use Fetch on my mac, which works just fine. With my FTP information ready, now all I need is the proper type of files.
Synappsys Digital Services can work with many different types of files. They can work with obj’s but their file of preference is STL Binary.
of all of my
subtools I can
merge them
down to create
one tool that
has all of its parts.
Obtaining OBJ’s are simple. While your Z tool or sub tool is selected go to Export and several file formats are available in the drop down menu. I need to export this sculpture in 4 pieces-both arms, the body , and the base. I will also want to combine the pieces and send it as one file. This way Synappsys Digital Services can see how each piece goes together. The reason why I want to separate the pieces is that if I combined all of them I will lose part of her hand as I realize that as it is placed on the digital sculpture the thumb is inside her body. I want to work with these hands more closely once I have them enlarged and sculpted. I need them separate and I need a thumb. They may also be milled at a different percentage to the rest of the body. They are more defined and so the hand/arm will probably only receive a minimum of clay on top.
Where as, the rest of the sculpture needs work.
To get an obj of all of my pieces I simply duplicated all of my subtools and then merged down these duplicated subtools together as one tool. Now I have both the subtools apart and one piece put together.
I have exported each an uploaded them up to Synappsys Digital Services but let’s see how the 3d Print Exporter plugin works in ZBrush.
Getting to Know Evelyn
This is from a blog I am doing for my client on this project. The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center Sculpture Blog.
Reference
Yesterday, my client was kind enough to take time with me and allow me to thumb through old photo albums. It is interesting… I’m looking for photographs of my subject, but it is seeing the family photographs, hearing the stories, this is what makes me feel bonded to my subject.
I’m trying to not only capture a likeness, I’m trying to find Evelyn. Watching her playful side in photographs, some that I have never even taken as reference, hearing about her parents, my clients and the relationship to them, even talking about death. All of these things add an element to a sculpture that you can’t get by just “doing the work.”
I once heard an artist say, “posthumous sculpture is just another commission.” It is so much more to me. This is a life lived. It is someone’s mother and wife. It is a person whose life made a huge difference and will continue to make a difference. How can I honor that? Who are you Evelyn?
My client also took time for me, and posed in a similar sweater like Evelyn is wearing in the key photograph. I needed to see folds all around. Folds are so important. In a recent sculpture of a young man playing ultimate frisbee I hired a young man of similar size to be my model. He spent an hour jumping up and down in the yard of my studio while I took video. Photographs were impossible as I could never catch the folds I needed when he was at the high point of his jump. So I filmed him, and then took stills to use as reference.
I could have had a friend pose for me, in a sweater like Evelyn’s, but even this little detail of having someone she knew and love pose, this makes a difference. We are cocreating. This is not just “my” artwork it becomes “our” artwork.
I’m becoming intimately familiar with the stature and physical nuances of Evelyn. I study the photographs. There are photograph from many different ages. Some are taken at 20- 50 even 70 year of age. This process is much easier at this age. Once I had to do a sculpture of a little boy who had passed away, the reference photographs I had spanned from ages 1-4 and 7. A child has huge changes in facial and body structure at that age. This is not so much with a grown person.
helps me to see elements without a
lot of visual distraction.
I’m spending time today tracing some of these photographs. I can set them over my digital sculpture image the way I would use them comparing them to shape and form traditionally in the studio. Again this process is giving me the general shape of Evelyn, so that I can have it enlarged for an armature to put on the clay. Tracing these images helps me to see the basic shape without a lot of visual disturbance.
Length of Skirt
My client helped to confirm the length of the skirt. We changed the length and, as mentioned in a previous post, the height of the figure. Much more to do on this model before sending it off. My goal is to have it to the enlarger before I leave town at the end of the month. That way, if I am lucky, the armature will be waiting for me upon my return.
on details for my armature and model.
I can’t wait to get my hands dirty.
All of the digital preparations are nice,
but I long to be with the piece physically.
Thinking
I’m looking at the pearls and wondering, where did she get them? My husband gave me pearls. I don’t wear jewelry, not even my wedding ring. It is hard to wear jewelry when you have your hands in goo most of the time. But pearls are all I wanted, a simple strand to wear when we go out. So, I think about these intimate details as I work on the sculpture.
Some of my thoughts, broad back, slight overbite, questioning her earrings, thinking about how she brushed her hair, who did it for her?
The Completion Of A Project
I have been working on this project for a while now. I really like how it turned out. Some of you may remember I posted about using digital techniques on the creation of this design.
A father commissioned me to creat this for his son as a graduation gift. I love the movement in this piece, there is not a bad side. It is rare that I want to own one of my own pieces, but I really would like to have one of these. Limited edition of 10.
Here are some links to the process.
Working through presentations Daz-Poser-Zbrush- Part 1 and 2
The final results of the presentation using DAz, Poser, Zbrush and Photoshop
Panther Project-The Process of Sculpting
outside keeps the studio dust free. It looks like he wants to go in the doors.
This is the work in progress for the Prairie View A & M Panther. To watch the process from the beginning please click to previous posts.The sculpting of this project is a quick turn around. We need to finish the panther in 18 days. This is day 2,3 and 4 of the sculpting of the panther. The previous posts state that this is a foam armature that was milled and sent to us from Bridgette Mongeon Sculpture Design Studio’s digital design. A great deal of carving is done on this foam, indicating muscles and action before it is covered in clay. The process is messy and requires constant vacuuming and masks, but it is coming along.I loved being able to attach the tail. You will see that the tail is much different from the original design.
More foam is added to thicken areas. Other areas are carved.
when using urethane foam.
How Big Is It?
That is a good question. Here is a sketch. Now, B. Mongeon Sculpture Design is not responsible for the pedestal, that would be the landscapers decision. But I’m for having a short pedestal. I am sure there are many students, visitors and alumni who will want to have their picture taken next to this massive sculpture. Hmmm. I wonder who will be the first? I hope you will all send your pictures to me Bridgette ( the at sign) creativesculpture.com. I would love to put them on the blog.
This is from the Prairie View A&M Blog created for this project.
Crocheting Brings Awareness About the Health of Our Oceans
HYPERBOLIC
Reefs, Rubbish, and Reason
I was introduced to this work a couple years back and was absolutely so intrigued.
Margaret Wertheim, HYPERBOLIC co-curator, science writer and author is also the co-director of IFF, The Institute For Figuring. The Institute For Figurings is an organization dedicated to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics and the technical arts. Wertheim describes the beautiful math in coral in this TED video She explains how this geometry can be demonstrated through knitting and crocheting. Don’t you love it when art helps us to understand science!
Wertheim went on to display works and create a world wide involvement with knitters around the world who are knitting a coral reef to bring awareness to ocean health. What is our social responsibility?
I do hope that IFF and Margaret Wertheim will one day let us interview her for the Art and Technology podcast. I’m looking forward to exploring the future possibilities and encouraging others in their exploration and love of our great earth.
If you are interested in viewing the Hyperbolic reef for yourself and you happen to be in Pasadena, CA check out the exhibit HYPERBOLIC Reefs, Rubbish, and Reason June 7 — August 21, 2011 For more information here is a link to The Williamson Art Gallery, click on the word “now” in the left hand column. Now, If I could just get the show to come to my neck of the woods. We in Houston and the Gulf Coast have a special desire to make others aware of the social responsibilities for the health of our waters!
____________________
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Is It Easy For You To Identify And Judge 3-Dimensional Shapes, Distances And Proportions On a Computer Screen? An Interview Cont.
9. Is it easy for you to identify and judge 3-dimensional shapes,
distances and proportions on a computer screen?
1. The hardest part, and we mention this in the book is the size of the sculpture. If I am working on a maquette in the studio, I know if I enlarge that maquette 500% I will not have as much detail as I need. So what is the actual size of a virtual piece of art? What happens with the translation from digital work a the size I have created, to the physical size I need output?
2. I would love to see calipers in the digital programs. Something that resembled more traditional calipers in a digital environment.
3. I also was very confused when I first worked in mudbox with perspective view and orthographic view.
4. There is also a cliche with Macs that if you hit the some keys in a certain order your sculpture flips. This is not just a problem with Mudbox or Zbrush but many graphics programs. This freaked me out, and I wish someone could solve this.
5. It is easier for me to judge 3d space now than in the beginning. Though when symmetry begins to act funky, and I know It is some sort of driver error, I get a bit frustrated. I love being able to spin around a sculpture.
6. I do wish that I had more access to my photographs. The one solution I have found for this is Macs Photstickies.
By the way, question number 8 was
8. Which medium is more comofortable for you to use?
( see other posts)
This is an interview of 10 questions by Mathias Herbster of FH Vorarlberg University in Austria directed to Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon about the comparison of digital and traditional sculpture.
______________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast