e-Dance project

SIGGRAPPH (ACM Special Interest Group in Graphics, http://www.siggraph.org/) has been a long running and very large conference aimed mostly at the technical aspects of Computer Graphics: Games industry, Hollywood, animation productions are all beneficiaries of the outcomes from these research topics. The University of Manchester runs a Professional Chapter of the organisation and was at the meeting (LA August 2008) to promote activities (http://manchester.siggraph.org/).

This year there was an arts orientated keynote Catherine Owens (Artist/Director CO-DIRECTOR, “U2 3D”) Giving Technology Emotion: From the Artist’s Mind to “U2 3D”. She discussed the aspects of creating a 3D movie from U2’s tour of South America. Catherine has been working with U2 for many years, and the move to 3D was adventurous – using multiple 3D camera setups from famous sources. Time and development were key – the post editing took 18 months and new 3D blends were specially developed to allow different 3D scenes to blend together; as well as the use of a multiple sets of expensive 3D cameras.

A quote was 3D should be “easy on the mind”. So there were very few “obvious” 3D effects and more story telling: although quiet a few 3D overlay and blending effects; compare with transparency and overlay requirements.  Link to the official site: http://www.u23dmovie.com/

“Irish artist/director Catherine Owens creates installations that evolve through painting, sculpture, photography, sound, and video. She is well known for her collaboration with the Irish band U2 on their last four world tours. She co-directed “U2 3D,” a documentary of the band’s live performance in South America on their 2006 Vertigo tour. “U2 3D” is the first live-action feature-length 3D digital theatrical release…”

Throughout the meeting projected 3D presentation was a focus, and the screening of U2 3D being a key point. This also demonstrated that mix between arts and science is also blending. This work is an example of a much larger and (obviously) commercial exploitation of similar e-Dance type outcomes and interesting to compare.