"body/traces" Exploring Movement with DIY Lasers and 3D Animation -- Great Dance

February 27, 2009

"body/traces" Exploring Movement with DIY Lasers and 3D Animation

New media artist Sophie Kahn and choreographer Lisa Parra are exploring do-it-yourself (DIY) laser scanner technology and stop-motion 3D animation for their video installation "body/traces."

Their work-in-progress was presented last month at the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Here is an early mock-up of "body/traces" uploaded to YouTube in February 2008:

And here's a still from their installation:

Kahn and Parra use the David Laser Scanner system, a free software program that can be used with inexpensive scanners, video cameras and construction materials to create scans of three-dimensional objects. On the David website, you'll find an excellent step-by-step wiki on how to use their software.

This video provides an overview of how to use the David Laser Scanner:

For a more elaborate use of 3D scanners I recommend this instructional video from Know How Show:

More DIY 3D Laser Scanner Explorations

Kyle McDonald, inspired by Sophie Kahn and Lisa Parra, created his own version of a DIY 3D laser scanner for a stop-motion animation with basic tools including a camera, projector and the open-source Processing software. You can watch his video on Vimeo, learn more about the project and view a Flickr photo gallery:

DIY 3D Scanner from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

I learned about McDonald's explorations through an excellent write-up in Create Digital Motion.

Radiohead's "House of Cards"

The most famous example of artists using structured light and laser technologies has to be Radiohead's "House of Cards":

"House of Cards" is an open-source remix project that you can learn about on Google Code. You can also watch a high-quality visualization of the "House of Cards video."

There are two good making-of videos for "House of Cards." The first is a look at the GeoVideo System from Geometric Informatics:

The second is a general look at the making-of this popular music video.

Posted by Doug Fox on February 27, 2009 6:25 AM

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2 Comments

Kyle McDonald said:

I'm actually emailing with Lisa and Sophie right now about the potential for doing real time 3D capture. Both structured light scanning and the DAVID system produce their own artifacts, and they've been producing absolutely beautiful work with what they have... but I'd like to see what happens if the "exposure time" constraint (1 minute per frame with DAVID) is lifted!

Added: February 28, 2009 2:06 AM | Permalink

Doug Fox

said:

Kyle,

Thanks for comment and info. about your upcoming explorations of real-time 3D capture. I'm very interested. Please keep me informed.

Best,
Doug

Added: February 28, 2009 4:01 AM | Permalink

February 27, 2009