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Sand
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19 Dec 2014, 10:08 am

The computer light technology is beyond me but if you could create various reflective surfaces to bounce the light beam like a chrome plated parabola of revolution or even a pile of various diameter reflective spheres and somehow multiply the rays at the reflective surface you might get an interesting effect.

The mechanical system is quite simple. It merely is a matter of shining a beam of light on something like a random a random group of chrome plated plumbing fixtures that slowly rotate with a clock motor or some other slow speed motor. f the light beam passes through strips of various colored cellophane or other colored plastic interesting effects can be produced on a screen or ground glass which can be viewed from the back. If several tight light beams are ised as a light source, each light beam intensity can be modulated by sound input so that each sound frequency from a musical input creates a musical display.



Kraichgauer
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19 Dec 2014, 10:41 am

Sand wrote:
I'm a bit surprised I made such an impression. I have a tendency to go into combat mode on certain subjects such as politics and religion, being rather ignorant on these areas but most curious. As a former New Yorker I am quite upset over the results of both of these areas lately in view of the impression I get that they are both hastening the demise of life on the planet.

Insofar as religion is concerned I am gradually coming around to the concept that there is something of an intellectual quality of the universe itself - a kind of extension of the Gaia concept and the current exploration of string theory seems to indicate there are multiple universes. Since exploratory thought usually capitalizes on extending known patterns into unknown possibilities and there is now theoretical thought on multiple universes, perhaps our universe is a member of a gang or a herd of universes that discuss amongst themselves about the rather nutty ideas their planets might generate. Something similar to our own gut bacteria who seem to have emotional influences on our thinking.

I wouldn't take my ideas too seriously, I certainly don't. I'm just a rather old guy who never found it interesting to grow up since grown-ups, generally, are too busy earning money and raising kids to make much sense of anything else. I took a shot at those but never found myself particularly good at either.

Incidentally a few of my poems are on this site at the arts and music discussion. I've been looking over many of the poems I've written and many look pretty crappy but occasionally there's an interesting one.


I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who has no interest in growing up. :D


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AngelRho
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19 Dec 2014, 11:26 am

Sand wrote:
The mechanical system is quite simple. It merely is a matter of shining a beam of light on something like a random a random group of chrome plated plumbing fixtures that slowly rotate with a clock motor or some other slow speed motor. f the light beam passes through strips of various colored cellophane or other colored plastic interesting effects can be produced on a screen or ground glass which can be viewed from the back. If several tight light beams are ised as a light source, each light beam intensity can be modulated by sound input so that each sound frequency from a musical input creates a musical display.

I'm trying to model the mechanical system. I've seen someone use a barbecue motor for this. It's easier to manipulate digital objects, which are free, rather than having to come up with high-powered led's, custom stained glass, expensive lenses, etc. But rendering it takes forever. I originally tried rendering mirrored surfaces to no avail--took even longer than trying the lens simulation. The fastest method I've tried involved using buffer shadows and no raytracing at all, but that takes more faking. For now I'm stuck in black-and-white until I can figure out which technique is going to work best. Next time I'm going to try simulating a tighter light beam, whereas in my previous lens experiments the light beams were as wide as the lenses. It could also be I need to try a different index of refraction, or instead of only using a group of aspherical lenses on a plane, add a spherical lens placed close to the camera for a more composite effect. Of course, I COULD just spend the money and buy the parts I need, but then I'm stuck with a single-purpose machine and an angry wife. Using the computer to simulate it is less expensive, takes less space, is more time consuming, and has a higher learning curve. I suppose you get what you pay for, right?

Actually did have an idea for integrating light and sound in a "virtual installation." The simulation would consist of several light displays with a sound object attached to each. The blend of sound would vary depending on the user's location within the "room," and the user's location could be based on a predetermined path--a sort of promenade. The software I'm using allows saving the simulation as an interactive game, so it's possible that the installation would be completely interactive. It would be possible to travel within 3D space out of the bounds of gravity. Moreover, the installation itself could work as its own musical instrument. I'm still just getting around the basics, so realizing something like this is still years away for me. I could probably do a Kickstarter project and have the real thing done in a local art gallery a lot faster than I can put this together on my laptop!

Anyway…it's good to see you're still around. I may start a thread on this topic in the art/music/writing forum to update my progress if there's any interest. I've been making noise on a Yamaha TX7 and posting that in Musician's Showcase, and sadly it seems I'm the only one active in that thread at the moment.



Sand
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19 Dec 2014, 11:36 am

As I indicated, you are light years ahead of me on computer simulations. I have no way to teach myself that kind of sophisticated simulation. I can futz around with real reflecting surfaces and cheap color filters and get interesting effects with hardly any effort or technical expertise. Many years ago there were sound-light controller kits but that is long gone for an amateur like me.



Sand
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19 Dec 2014, 11:39 am

Incidentally, I learned my electronics as a radar technician in the US Army Air Corps in WWII so I can handle a soldering iron but everything else is Flash Gordon.



AngelRho
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19 Dec 2014, 8:31 pm

Oh, I'm terrible at this stuff. I've got the basics down for rendering primitive objects, which suits my particular purpose, and I've messed around trial-and-error with different object materials. Even advanced CGI artists deal with the same basics, and you have to think about it all in real-world terms. You're just connecting a bunch of shapes, and in my case it's not unlike sculpture. It just has the added dimension of determining how light behaves in a simulated environment. The specific knowledge and practice I need is minuscule compared with what people require for, say, feature-length films. The way I come up with virtual installations involves the same mechanics you taught me. It's just I have the added benefit of being able to discard/destroy objects at will, start over, and avoid electrical shock and house fires from faulty soldering and overheated light bulbs. Game simulations are much less time consuming but require a lot more applied mathematical logic than my poor brain can handle. Once I'm satisfied with my current work-flow, I'll move towards game rendering. There's also a modular music synthesis application called Reaktor that makes Blender (the animation/modeling software) look like child's play because the math is so much more intensive. I'll read a chapter in the manuals and watch a couple of Youtube tutorials, play around with it, and put it away for a few weeks before coming back to it. I've created a 4-voice vector synth in which the waveforms are calculated from random atmospheric noise. I've even used it in a project recently. Trouble is it hogs most of my computer processing power, so I have to be very conservative how I use it. I'm trying to rise above my own ability and level of knowledge, but honestly, I'm just not cut out to be a geek!



Sand
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19 Dec 2014, 10:41 pm

Although I love the basic concept of playing games with mathematical abstracts, my last assault on higher mathematics took place in 1947 when I attempted a course in higher analysis at City College in New York when the very kind instructor covered about six blackboards with his computations on interactions of undefined partial derivitives and I looked at the mass of mysterious unknowns as one might examine an uncovered garbage can full of multiple varieties of breeding insects. The total impression must have been what God saw before he commanded order out of chaos - not that I had His control capabilities. Order, after all, is not created, it is perceived and my perceptive skills were obviously not in a class with God's. So I left school and spent several years trying to become a comic book artist - but that is another story.



ruveyn
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19 Dec 2014, 11:09 pm

Sand Lives!! !! !

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AspieOtaku
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20 Dec 2014, 4:01 am

Yes he is he just responded to why society hurts so much! We aspies tend to live longer than average humans!


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