Monday, November 28, 2011
The 2011 Building Virtual Worlds Show Dec 7, 2011
Pittsburgh Art + Technology: On Wendesday, December 7, 2011, the students of the Entertainment Technology Center will present our annual Fall Building Virtual Worlds Show at the Carnegie Library Music Hall. From virtual reality to audience interaction and everything imaginable in between, this interactive experience of the final student creations is truly a must-see event!
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9 comments:
Although I've read about this class in the Last Lecture book, I've never actually seen a product of what they've been able to do. If you follow the links you can read the syllabus of the class and it sounds really interesting and, obviously, all about collaborative innovation (and a lot like the work that goes into a theatrical production). It says that everyone gets an assigned role in their group, either programmer, texture artist, sound designer, or modeler/animator, and that you also get a chance to test out how other people's roles work so you're not just stuck to what might be your forte. After learning how the class is put together, I'm even more curious to see what kinds of things come out of such an encouraging and different process. This is a really important legacy that Randy Pausch has left this school, and I can't wait to see what has been created.
I wish that this article provided more information. Although I have heard of this class before I do not know much about it and I am very curious as to what they do and how they do it but unfortunately this article did not answer any of my questions. So after finding the syllabus feel that this article really missed an opportunity to provide more information to people and get them excited and interested about this event because what they do in this class sounds really awesome
Interesting that BVW found its way over to the Music Hall! The show was held in the Chosky last year, and thoroughly overpacked the theatre for both performances. The class definitely has ties across to theatre as Reilly suggested - every two weeks, the students are shuffled into new teams with defined roles and a challenge to solve using their knowledge of entertainment technology software. It's a process of instant teambuilding in situations that require collaboration on the fly to produce the project in time. It's a supercharged version of My Favorite Class!
One issue though - I was looking at the possibility of taking BVW, but the requirements to get into the class are such that they pigeonhole people into the assignments (students must have skill in "3D modeling, high quality 2D art skills, programming in C++ or Python, or the ability to compose and record original music and/or sound effects"). The intention is that everyone must be able to participate in the "mechanical building of the worlds", but these skills are somewhat specialized to the point that crossover may not be easy (especially from a music composer to programming or 3D modeling).
I've always wanted to take this class it sounds so fascinating and fun. I love that it's a collaborative experience that let's you interact with other majors. Especially coming from the Drama Department where we seem to get so insulated in our own work we forget that Carnegie Mellon has other major sometimes. I do wish this article provided more information about the class though. I want to learn more about it and I hope to one day take it in the future.
Ever since I read about this class in The Last Lecture, I have found it fascinating. Hopefully I'll have the chance to see this show. It's interesting, the parallels that we can draw between opposing fields. Each of us puts months of work into a project that will only be exhibited for a short while, each of us deals heavily with visual research and imagery, and as media design becomes more integral to theatre the arts and sciences merge even more. It will be nice to see what the future holds.
This is truly a really special experience to see the Building Virtual Worlds presentations. It is "sold out" every year- the show used to take place in McConomy, and they were always filled to the brim, with people in the aisles- and there is usually a line of a hundred people left waiting to squeeze in. Part of it's magic is that it so exemplary of the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration that Carnegie Mellon boasts about. I like that the point of the class is not to "teach artists to program, or engineers to paint." Each team member can put forward a unique perspective and skill to the project.
I saw this show last year. I would say it was very interesting but not very enjoyable. The technology was cool and fun but I thought they could have done a lot more cool stuff with computer and human interaction. The best world that was created was one that was like 127 hours where a man was forced to cut off his own arm. This world got a true emotional response out of an audience. But even this world was just gory but not really entertaining. It got an emotional response because it was someone sawing off their hand. I think virtual worlds are an interesting idea but I think that they need to be developed much more thoroughly and the technology needs to catch up to our ideas.
Okay, last year when the guy cut off his hand I wanted to vomit. It was really graphic. I guess I should have gone outside to make a balloon animal when they said the next one would not be good for kids...
Although the class sounds neat and I am sure is a lot of work, as Zoe said, the final product is not that impressive to an outside eye. I am sure if you understood the process of putting together these virtual worlds and their complexities then the exhibition would mean a lot to you. One of the most entertaining "worlds" at last year's BVW was a game you played with your phone against all the other people on their phones. I did not play but I could appreciate the syncing of technology so I think that element made it fun though it was a simple game. Really this is a neat show to see in order to know where technology goes in a semester, but without understanding of what is involved in building a virual world, the complexities fall on deaf ears.
Last year the show was really nice. Planning to attend the Virtual Worlds show this year as well.
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