Interface[s] Montréal :: [Motion Editing]

5:30pm
– $30 at the door – package deals available, go to www.interfacesmontreal.org

[Motion
Editing] Motion as interface
Thanks to improvements in capture-tool technology, humans have become their
own interfaces; feeding the virtual environment with more and more human movements,
reactions and body positions, and opening new doors onto the world of artistic
creativity (dance, music, television).

Speakers
Tom Wilczynski – VOX populi
Marcelo Wanderley – McGill University, Devices and Music
Interaction Laboratory
David J Pearsall – McGill University, Department of Kinesiology
and Physical Education
Sha Xin Wei – Fine Arts and Computer Science, Digital Concordia

[Tom Wilczynski]
VOX populi
Laflaque puts on his tech pants
Gerard D. Laflaque, a character created by famous Montreal cartoonist Serge
Chapleau, has been resurrected last year after some 20 years of absence from
Quebec television. In the process, he underwent a major face lift, from being
a latex puppet to a full fledged CG character. He has become the host of a half-hour
weekly variety show based in part on news and current events called “Et
Dieu Créa Laflaque…”

Airing 20-plus
minutes of computer generated animation a week was both a technical and a financial
challenge. Motion capture and real-time animation software presented themselves
as the only viable solution to the problem. The pipeline called for integrating
multiple-actor sound recording, dual full-body capture using an active optical
system and virtual gloves, real-time software for working with the motion capture
data, phoneme recognition and traditional keyframing, OpenGL rendering as well
as integrating the CG characters into video environments with camera tracking
and compositing software. It had to produce top-quality animated CG characters
and be efficient enough to react to current events. Although many parts of the
show are done in some advance, every week several minutes of animation are captured
Wednesday and delivered for final show assembly on Friday.

The formula created
by the team at Vox Populi has proven a major success, with the show generating
tremendous ratings with the viewers. It also attracts many top names in the
Quebec TV and film industry to guest appearances, where they interact with the
virtual characters.

[Marcelo
Wanderley] McGill University, Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory
The analysis of performer-instrument interaction with applications to gestural
control of sound synthesis
My main research interest focuses on the analysis of performer-instrument interaction
with applications to gestural control of sound synthesis. This goal is pursued
through a two-pronged approach:
• the study of a generic digital musical instrument (DMI), its constituent
parts, and the suggestion of novel approaches to its design
• the analysis of acoustic instrument performances with the aim of eventually
finding cues to improve the design of current DMIs.

In the first approach
I explore the notion of gesture in music and consider ways to devise gestural
acquisition and the design of input devices, including the proposition of evaluation
techniques derived from human-computer interaction suitable in a musical context.
This is complemented by the analysis of mapping strategies between controller
variables and synthesis variables. Applications include the prototyping of novel
gestural controllers and digital musical instruments. In the second approach
I perform motion capture of instrumentalists’ expressive movements – those not
produced in order to generate sound – during the execution of pieces. I also
focus on the acoustical influence of performer expressive movements, and the
modeling of this effect. This research suggests that expressive movements can
be used as extra synthesis parameter and eventually improve the design of existing
digital musical instruments that simulate traditional ones.

For more information
on specific projects: Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (http://www.music.mcgill.ca/musictech/idmil/)

[Sha Xin
Wei] Fine Arts and Computer Science, Digital Concordia
Sha’s projects include the series of TGarden responsive media spaces, Hubbub
speech-based urban installations; calligraphic video Membranes; and Topological
Softwear instruments. This work has been supported by the Daniel Langlois Foundation
and the Rockefeller Foundation. Publications include “The TGarden Performance
Research Project” (Modern Drama, 2005), and “Resistance Is Fertile,
Gesture and Agency in Responsive Media” (Configurations, 2002), and “Differential
Geometrical Performance and Poiesis” (Configurations, 2004).
http://topologicalmedia.concordia.ca/

http://sponge.org/
http://hybrid.concordia.ca/~xinwei