16 September 2015: Channeling Audobon

Before I left for SIGGRAPH, our creative team had been given the awesome task of creating several videos for the Department of Biology. These videos highlight some of the exciting research and field work that undergraduate and professional students embark on as they pursue their concentrations of interest. These are the types of assignments that are especially exciting for those of us working in production, as they mean we get the rare opportunity to bring a camera into the thick of a swamp, tidal wetlands, into canoes, and other places more way adventurous than the studio. You break out the galoshes, sunscreen, bug spray, UV filters and essentially pretend you're camera-manning for Steve Irwin. It's a trip.

For this assignment, I faced the same fate as many post-production specialists on exciting shoots -- which is, I didn't go. Boo. Instead, I was tasked with creating the animated assets for the video, which proved to be an expedition of its own.

Using the paintings of renowned 17th century wildlife artist John James Audubon as inspiration, I wanted to create an aesthetic that, while maintaining a sort of classically idyllic, exceptional naturalism, still moved in a way that looked modern and lifelike. Lesley Bullock's class is a real merger of centuries-tested ornithology techniques and 21st century data collection, so combining the 2 stylistic ideas reflected what we hoped to communicate about the course itself.

A preliminary sketch

To bring Audubon's paintings to life, I had to think like Audubon -- meaning that I took a bunch of assets and turned them into a monster composition, as one would a large-scale painting. I deconstructed several of Audubon's paintings in Photoshop, and animated each as their own composition in Photoshop -- fish were made to swim, birds flit, etc. Once they were all properly animated, I brought each composition into my main "Opening Sequence" comp and re-timed each so that every asset would have a brief moment as the camera's point of focus. 

I really love the way this composition looks when you step back from it; From a distance, there are obvious tricks at work to fool the camera's eye as it travels the piece (big scaling differences, for example. Dealing with Zoom/Point of Focus keys in AE can be a little tricky, so this was my quick workaround). I like that even this small sample of Audubon's work still looks pretty lush.

I feel that the time constraints of the video led to the camera having to pass over the scene too quickly, a little jaggedly; but in the future, I'd love to flesh this sort of composition out even further, with more assets, more subtle movements, and more time for the camera to travel over them and really take in the scene.

That's about 200 layers of greenery, waterfowl, fish and feathers.

While the opening sequence was the main chunk of my work on this vid, I also had the opportunity to create some additional graphics for warbler migration patterns and lower thirds, too... and don't get me started talking about lower 3rds. Those are so much fun.

This project was a great exercise in combining dozens of tinier compositions into a single massive scene, and it's a technique that I can't wait to apply to out next Biology Researchers vid. To see the finished video (with editing by the ever-slick Max), you can mozy on over here.

E

0

8 September 2015: SIGGRAPH 2015

I'm realizing that for all my unabashed gushing this past year, I have yet to sit down and actually talk about SIGGRAPH 2015.

As Molly, Max, and Alana can tell you, I never freaking shut up about SIGGRAPH (and the last few months were particularly bad... sorry y'all). For the uninitiated, SIGGRAPH is "the name of the annual conference on computer graphics (CG) convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization." In a nutshell, it's the yearly convergence and showcase of the best art, technology, engineering, and computing accomplishments of the last year. It's a maelstrom of wonderful, geeky things.

If you're interested in learning about what went down at this year's SIGGRAPH, you can enjoy the official conference recaps and the copious number of technical reviews. They're hugely informative and fun to watch/read. However, conference content is not what I'm gonna be talking about in this post.

The whole 2015 SV team (+ blazing heat)

This year, I served as Communications Lead for the Student Volunteer Subcommittee (SVSC for short) for the SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer Program. I accepted this position in October of 2014, and along with it a 2-year commitment to serve the Program at both the 2015 and 2016 conferences. Getting this job was a huge long-shot to my mind, and I'm still bouncing off the walls at the fact that I get to do it.

I found out about SIGGRAPH my junior year of undergrad (2013), and after applying, getting accepted, and serving for an insanely awesome week, I was hooked on the experience. However, by that time I was a year shy of being ineligible for the program completely. I volunteered again as a Team Leader at the 2014 conference, pretty much accepting that this might be it. I didn't anticipate making the jump from volunteer to subcommittee member but am happy to report that it's been nothing short of a fantastic full-steam learning experience with some of the best people I know. I'm so happy I get to repeat it all this coming year as Marketing Lead and generate some evergreen deliverables that can serve the program for future volunteers and committees.

Beyond that, who knows what my involvement with the Student Volunteer Program will be. Some people have told me what it should be... but for now I'm taking things one conference at a time. Fingers crossed.

</ life story >

So. SIGGRAPH 2015.  

Ashley (aka AshToDaMAX) and me, basically summing up what we do all week. Over and out!

The Student Volunteer Program essentially serves as the bulk of (if not complete) operational support for the conference. These students are the ones checking badges, manning doors, tallying room counts, delivering supplies, assisting contributors, demoing new technologies, answering attendee questions, solving bizarre problems, monitoring illegal recording -- you name it, a volunteer probably does it. Our volunteer force came in at a whopping 374 Student Volunteers -- tack on an additional 21 Team Leaders, 6 Subcommittee members, and a handful of awesome helpful SV alumni and you have about 400 folks making up the entire team.

 SIGGRAPH took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center -- a 720,000 square foot facility that would house ev.ery.thing. It's the job of the SV Program to make sure every area is appropriately staffed. No small task.

The Los Angeles Convention Center

To date, this is the largest volunteer force I've ever worked with on a project/event, and being in a higher-level management position was both daunting and exhilarating. Being relatively new (there are some 5+ year veterans in the program, giving you an idea of how dedicated folks can be), I tend to feel like a greenhorn and hope the sounds coming out of my mouth aren't totally naive. This year, we were gifted with an extremely capable and self-motivated group of volunteers... and I largely credit their performance with helping me fill out my boots. The amount of uncomfortable conflict-resolution I thought I might do was considerably less than I imagined (but then again, I'm a serial overthinker).

But before I get too self-deprecating, I have to say that despite some loneliness here and there, being a leader feels really cool. I know this post is devolving into another gush-fest but hear me out. It could be a personality thing, but being in an environment that's energetic and fast-paced and busy and your ~#1 BIG JOB~ is to help others... it's like, the most addictive feeling to me. There's always a job to be done, always a question to be answered, always another opportunity to do something that could make somebody's day. Being one of the folks that people come to specifically for that purpose feels really gratifying. OK, the more I write about it, the more I see the ego behind this... Let me sum it up by saying helping others is cool, it feels good, it boosts your self-esteem, everyone should get into it.

Business in the front, party in the back; Team Leaders and us, the SVSC.

The conference itself ran from August 9 -13, and it went by really fast. Operationally, SIGGRAPH 2015 went off without a hitch. There were no major malfunctions, no huge logistical mishaps, no full-stop issues, and no (dare I say it over walkie-talke?) emergencies. This is pretty unheard of. I and the rest of the SVSC have to credit Christine Holmes, the 2015 Program Chair, for this. I've met very few people as dedicated, thorough, considerate as Christine, and it was through her efforts that so much of our jobs were made easier. I'm so honored I got to work on her team.

Our Team Leaders performed amazingly, too, and by the end of the week we were floored to see how closely that group of 21 had bonded with each other. I'll always feel a little bit like a matchmaker knowing how Team Leaders were selected, and it's actually an amazing feeling to know that your careful considerations of applications led to a specially-crafted team with a pretty remarkable balance of personalities and work styles. Everyone leaves SIGGRAPH feeling a little more grown, but this is especially true for Team Leaders. I was really happy to see that after a 60-hour week of individual struggles and learning-curves, this group was emerging stronger and more confident than when they walked in.

I'll also take a minute to mention those not involved with the Student Volunteer Program who were essential to its success: Cindy, Paul, Mandie, and Marcia in Conference Management, Peter and Sam from Security, Marc Barr the Conference Chair were - are - all awesome advocates for the work the Student Volunteer Program hopes to accomplish. On-site, they gave us support in an environment where it's common for people to regard Student Volunteers as just students -- and not the asset they truly are. During the craziness of the conference, it's easy to get stuck in the microcosm of the Program and forget all the hard work and effort that comes from the outside. They'll always remind me to look beyond my workload and appreciate the big picture.

Sam, myself, Fahad and Peter. Peter and Sam are the most hilarious security personnel you will EVER meet. EVER.

Took a minute to cheese with some fellow VCU Rams in the SV Photobooth

Apart from the day to day hard work and operations, SIGGRAPH also involves a lot of partying, hard drinking, dancing, laughing, sleep deprivation, and general great times with friends you only get to see once a year. As you can imagine, returning to ALT Lab after 10 days of this was hard. There's no denying that volunteering at SIGGRAPH is a huge emotional high, and lots of folks feel a similar come down when they return to "normal" life.

Now that I've had some time to process the experience, I'm realizing more than ever that attitude is so integral to accomplishing good work. Imagine a world where every work week is approached with the same enthusiasm and drive as a 5-day conference -- what would get done? Or better, what wouldn't get done? If we treated our colleagues like they were only here for a week, how would that affect team morale? What would that level of output look like? Not saying that maintaining a high level of enthusiasm every day is sustainable, but what reason is there to not at least start each day out with a similar feeling?

A lot of people describe coming to SIGGRAPH as a yearly refueling -- it reinvigorates the creative spirit and inspires folks to tackle the goals they might've been hesitant to go after before. I find this to be more and more true each year. This year's conference has given me clearer direction both professionally and personally, as it usually does. This conference, along with every other, is an experience I'll keep close to my heart.

Here's to next year, Anaheim!

E

0

17 July 2015

A forgotten London doodle - "Single Camera Shoot vs. Women's PantsPockets"

E

0

Rambling - Part Three: DML, LA, & LA

Lesson 3: Rules are for squares.

Beyond the amazing Indian food, disconcerting sights at Venice Beach, and finding our way into a speakeasy, DML in Los Angeles was a pretty overwhelming experience. Walking in, I thought its theme, 'Equity by Design,' was meant for the conversation of equalizing access to platforms; more of the nuts and bolts of building networks for connected learning. Instead, the talks were nearly all centered around social equality, and the focus was on the people and communities that make up the networks we use to learn. Even though the material was heavy, it was a really pleasant surprise. I find personal stories far more compelling than purely research-based presentations, and DML had no shortage of diverse and inspiring speakers sharing their struggles and successes in opening up the world of connected learning to their respective communities.

Faced with all this information about how cultural and societal structures limit our ability to make progress, it's easy to feel like all your efforts mean nothing. Seriously. I don't say that to sound fatalistic, it's just the truth. So many of the presentations talked about challenges of crime, poverty, and violence that all stem from larger injustices, and much of the work being done by non-profits and other educational institutions are (essentially) a series of workarounds* of existing, flawed systems.

 

(*which is not to say that people aren't completing significant, game-changing work. They are, and it's awesome.)

On an interesting related note, though, I noticed that the seemingly biggest presences at DML were the grassroots-based activists: Harry Potter Alliance, The Dinner Party, Dream Defenders, Roadtrip Nation, to name a few. Organizations that came together from their schools, churches, and the umbrellas of their shared interests to pursue goals of bettering their community. These groups weren't ordered to do anything, their missions don't stem from a 20-year plan laid out by a larger organization -- their calls to action were inspired by passion and a commitment to making change.

The takeaway for me was this: screw the rules. Genuine change can only be accomplished if, in addition to furthering one cause, opposing causes and obstacles are actively resisted. The current state of education in this country is discouraging -- it's restrictive, bureaucratic, and too focused on maintaining the status quo instead of evolving (fear of growing pains?). The people who are making change in their communities are doing so in ways that defy the rules and flagrantly say "so what?" to practices institutionalized education systems would deem inappropriate. Letting kids make art with curse words, violence, and genuine expressions of fear or grief? Providing university students with experiences in civic engagement that force them to re-evaluate the fact they might've been raised in a bubble? Pardon me, but hell yes.

This isn't a PSA to be reckless or selfish, but really -- the adage of begging forgiveness vs. asking permission has some merit. Not just pushing for change -- but taking initiative and doing it -- resolutely, without apology, and even without approval can make change happen, even if you have to apologize for it later.

Addendum: This trip marked the 2/3rds point of the 21,549 mile trek. A word of advice to all: When you travel from Richmond to LA for a 5-day stay, don't get on a plane 5 days later and make the same trip for a different working meeting. Your body will hate you, and it will not be shy in letting you know.

E

0

Rambling - Part Two: Milwaukee

Lesson 2: Friends are worth any amount of miles.

This is going to be a shorter post, because it's personal and I like to hold some experiences to myself. Not saying y'all aren't worthy of the story of my trip to Milwaukee, but this isn't an academic post.

Volunteerism is something I enjoy, especially when it comes to SIGGRAPH. You already know this, but I thought I'd take a moment to reiterate just how awesome it feels to reconnect with people who value service as much as you do. When you collectively travel thousands of miles to support one person on one day for a few short hours, it says a lot about the strength of your heart.

Volunteer work has placed incredible, generous people into my life who would have never been there otherwise. And for that I'm extremely thankful.

Photo credit to the amazing Christine Holmes.

0

Rambling - Part One: London

Lesson 1:  Cryptic phone calls can turn into international adventures. Just gonna put that one on the table to start. The process of organizing my first-ever trip overseas went roughly like this:

Monday:
Molly: "They [this awesome, fully-online program in Addiction Studies jointly-run by VCU, King's College London, and Adelaide University] are going to London and they want to document their work. Could you go?"
Emma: "Um. YES?"

Friday:
Email Preview: "Confirmation - Your Flight to LONDON, UK has been Reserved..."
Emma:  (passed out on floor)

It happened that fast. On May 22, I jumped in a van with some of the most lovely ladies ever and rode to Dulles International -- about 8 hours later, we landed in London-Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom.

Mary and Me.

The whole point of this trip was to give the faculty at VCU, KCL, and Adelaide the opportunity to meet in-person and discuss the state of the program. The International Programme in Addiction Studies is a collaboration between 3 premier research universities, and in the short time it's been around, it's drawn hundreds of students from six different continents. IPAS really epitomizes some of the things we love at ALT Lab -- connected learning, breaking physical boundaries, and great use of online tools.

Femke, Mary, and Kyle -- IPAS' current triumvirate of awesome.

While in London, I documented IPAS faculty at their working meetings and grabbed a ton of footage of instructors explaining their courses for trailers and orientation videos. It felt pretty special being present with 9 faculty who had only collaborated through screens prior to this meeting.

Without getting too heavy into detail, the trip was a big success -- IPAS seems to be at a pivotal point in its growth, and as the programme scales larger and larger, it was good to see that some of the most crucial issues are being addressed. You don't usually think about the infrastructure of academic programs, but this was a great experience in seeing how high-level planning is accomplished. This little videographer is excited to get to work and see how far IPAS can go.

Dinner at the Athaneum. 2 generations of IPAS, 1 extravagant dinner, unmeasurable spirit.

This was my first trip overseas, and amidst the barrage of fashionable Europeans, espresso drinks, adorable accents, and taxi-induced anxiety, what really stood out to me (apart from the crazy quickness with which IPAS folks jumped into their work and the indefatigable Mary Loos) was the process of assimilating into British culture. Granted, assimilating to the U.K. is about as easy as it gets for an American overseas (and 10 days in a new country isn't enough to claim you've even remotely begun assimilating)... but there are still some distinct things Brits seem to approach in a fundamentally different way than we do.

A view of City Hall from the Tower of London

I was most surprised by the slower pace of the London -- it's an ancient city interspersed with fantastically modern buildings, but it still seems to hold traces of a trudging medieval way of life: workers taking long, drawn out lunches; the home-y interiors of the pubs that dot every block; open markets with no trace of chemicals or processing; the foggy curtain on winding streets which demands its walkers take a meandering, extended commute... or maybe it just seems that way to a post-Industrial American baby like me. I'm aware I have a tendency to romanticize things that are new and charming to me, so any Londoner reading this post will probably think I'm talking out of my (as they say overseas) arse.

Tell me where to find this in Central Virginia. Mouthwatering displays at Borough Market.

But I'll stand by this: Aside from feeling the blunt of my smallness and insignificance next to structures that outdate me by 2500 years... Being in England showed me that accomplishing good work shouldn't come at the cost of missing out on life. I think Europeans in general have mastered this idea of work and home being separate things, and it's a divide we tend to ignore in the U.S. Seeing the lovely people of IPAS come together was wonderful, not only because it was an opportunity to accomplish significant work, but it was also an opportunity to strengthen bonds, break out of familiar settings and literally see how people work on the the other side. It might be easy to assume that online, we all exist on the same nationless, borderless plane where all the variables of the external world don't affect our ability to share and produce content. In reality our cultures deeply impact the way we interact with things that aren't bound by time and space -- and maybe it's the veil of the Internet that keeps us from seeing this clearly (for better or for worse). It's a neat idea to see play out in front of you.

The moment we officially arrived in England. Cheers!

You can find more photos of my trip right over here. For future reference, check out my Instagram account for cultural revelations as they happen in real time.


E

0

15 June 2015 : Rambling

By time you see this post, I'll have traveled 21,549 miles in a little under 30 days. If you'd told me 4 weeks ago that I was going to have the same mileage under my belt as a 2014 Honda Civic, I would've said, "Number one, I drive a Toyota," and  "Number two, I don't have time to travel 21,549 miles!"

As it turns out, I did have time. And it was awesome time. Time that I'm resolving to give more freely, spontaneously, and generously, too. I'm going to take these next few blog posts to recount my experiences from the past month and what I've learned.

- E

0