For my first project, the task is to create an artist work inspired by the pre-lingual imagination described by Jaques Lacan. In this space, nothing can be recognizable, because once we recognize an object, we immediately start making mental associations with it, or converting it into the realm of language and symbols.

I like to think of this stage as the first stage of perception, when the world outside us is merely electrical signals in our neurons, and has not been connected with the parts of our brain that makes meaning of what we percieve. Any observer of an artistic work, however, is constantly trying to make mental connections, trying to make sense of what they are experiencing. For this reason, I would like to create an artistic work that challenges the viewer's sense of perception by playing with combinations of out-of-focus forms, foreground-background reversal, cryptic soundscapes. and complicated particle effects. Additionally, the piece itself will loop so that it has no end and cannot be siloed into a discreet experience in the viewer's mind.

Visual References

I love the constant forward movement in this piece and the way that sometimes forms almost appear amidst the wisps of color. I wonder how he made this in 1974!?

In this video, I like the way that the discreet spheres are gracefully able to imply many different dynamic forms, almost like an array of 3 dimensional pixels. Their speed of movement is relatively slow, but also varies to add energy to the piece.

For the background, I've been toying width the idea of using audio renderings of EEG recordings made during REM sleep to drive parameters in a non-physical fluid simulation.

Links

• http://www.experimentalanimation.co.uk/
• http://spacecollective.org/fredjc/3081/The-Sound-of-Cosmic-Background-Radiation
• http://www.psfk.com/2010/08/the-sound-of-brainwaves.html

Here's how the final project turned out! Everyone was asked to model and rig a head and then animate it with dialog that answered the question, "What happened to your body?" Here's my "dude" answering this question.

For my final project in Rendering and Shading, I plan to create a RenderMan shader that will simulate finite particles of dust in a light. Traditionally, representing this effect in 3D has required the setup of a particle system, which may also involve the effects department in what is, intuitively a lighting choice. Ideally this project will create a system that allows a renderman volume shader to be assigned to a light in Maya that will create instant ambient dust particles at rendertime.

typically in bright light sources, we don't see dust particles unless the particle reflects the light back at us, like a tiny mirror. In order to get this effect to work properly,  I propose creating 1x1 polygonal planes within the volume.

The first step will be determining if this effect is possible using the RenderMan framework.

Phases

• Phase 1: Determine if it is possible to create geometry in RSL, or determine a way to create geometry using a renderman DSO.
• Phase 2: Create the effect using Renderman for Maya and Maya nParticles. Research behavior and qualities needed to produce realistic dust.
• Phase 3: Dust particle positioning using RenderMan. Use a 3D Voronoi perturbed by 4D noise. Shade only the corners
• Phase 4: Combine particle creation and positioning.

Final output will be a still image demonstrating the dust effect in action.

Additional optional phases

• Phase 5: Add animatable noise parameters to allow for ambient floating motion.

Parameter Ideas

• Particle Frequency
• Time (t)
• Particle Speed (ambient motion)
• Particle Size
• Size Variation

Optional Requirements

• Particles should be created so that they can accept transmission attributes, so that stained glass effects will appear correctly.