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In a new article on BusinessWeek, they acknowledge that Data Visualization is becoming a prominent, and profitable, new field that’s drawing in new experts and software systems into the corporate culture.
Data visualization has nothing to do with pie charts and bar graphs. And it’s only marginally related to “infographics,” information design that tends to be about objectivity and clarification. Such representations simply offer another iteration of the data—restating it visually and making it easier to digest. Data visualization, on the other hand, is an interpretation, a different way to look at and think about data that often exposes complex patterns or correlations.
Data visualization is a way to make sense of the ever-increasing stream of information with which we’re bombarded and provides a creative antidote to the “analysis paralysis” that can result from the burden of processing such a large volume of information. “It’s not about clarifying data,” says Koblin. “It’s about contextualizing it.”
Focusing heavily on the work of Aaron Koblin, it’s a great piece to keep on-hand when your boss comes around asking about the values of visualization.
via Data Visualization: Stories for the Information Age – BusinessWeek.
Science business, infographic, visualization
With all the rage in 3D Stereoscopic displays, be it on computers or in the theater, you might want to spend some time brushing up on just how it works. Binocularity.org has descriptions and examples of stereoscopic effects on their website, including:
- OpenGL Examples
- Stereoscopic Camera Calculator
- Glossaries
- A list of technical papers and report
- and more
Hit up their website and get your knowledge on.
binocularity.org – Home.
Science 3d, education, examples, stereoscopic
Wayne Robson has just released “MudWalker”, a plugin for Mudbox 2010 that allows one-click transfer of textures, screenshots, and models to other applications.
MudWalker is a free Plug-in specially developed by Wayne Robson that allows you to easily send your model, textures or screenshots to other applications with a single click. MudWalker was beta tested at Pixar to assure it worked will in production pipelines
It’s free to all freelance artists and companies with less than 5 artists(of any type).
Hit their website for details and a demonstration video. The list of supported software is impressive and includes 3ds Max, SoftImage, Modo, Silo, After Effects, Photoshop, and more.
via MudBoxHub .::. The Independant Home of Mudbox.
Graphics free, mudbox, plugin, software
Jody Strausser is an assistant professor of modeling and simulation at TCC, Tidewater Community College, where he was invited to setup a two-year program specializing in computer modeling. He quickly realized that they needed a good visualization lab for it to be effective, and with tiled-displays being all the rage he begun to look into costly projectors to build an immersive full-scale visualization system.
Strausser, instead, went with Mersive Technologies’ Mersive Desktop, which combines the images from three off-the-shelf projectors (TCC’s are from Canon) into one large, seamless image. The program is run from a desktop or laptop computer, and it can project any content that can run on the computer. The trick, though, is that Mersive Desktop uses its own software and a camera to calibrate the images, reading specific feedback patterns from the projectors, feeding the information to Mersive’s server software, and the software automatically aligns the projectors (in the software). It basically tells the computer how to “stitch” the projector outputs together to form a large, seamless display.
But what are the benefits of this large 27-foot screen?
Strausser said that when viewing modeling and simulation projects on a small computer screen, it is easy to overlook some of the details. With the large screen, students realize their work will be seen by the entire class, so they want their work to be precise. “With projection, students who created a tank, for example, may see that the tank is actually floating above the ground. On a 27-foot screen, those details really stick out.”
Engaging Students with Giant Visualization — Campus Technology.
Science immersive, mersive, tiled
Recently, automobile websites have been buzzing over a short camera-phone video that shows an experimental Porsche wagon-design (known as a “Shooting brake”), clad in black-primer, parked on the sidewalk in Germany. Enthusiasts have been polarized as to whether they love it or hate it, but it’s now been discovered that the entire thing was a hoax from the departing TopGear.com America editorial team.
According to Devin Johnson, a BBC spokesman, TopGear.com has migrated to BBCAmerica.com, and the company “is continuing to explore opportunities for a U.S. version.” The viral scheme was overseen by the site’s former editor, Jared Holstein, and was executed by summer interns.
The model was created by Matt DuVall, a student at Savannah College of Art and Design, using Maya and then composited with FinalCut Pro and Photoshop. New York Times has all the details.
Porsche Shooting Brake Is a Fake – Wheels Blog – NYTimes.com.
Graphics automotive, hoax, maya, vfx
CGSociety’s publishing arm, Ballistic, is running a promotion with $10 shipping on any one book, and $2 shipping on any additional books.
Because we know how expensive shipping can be, for a limited time we’re offering $10 shipping on all titles at Ballistic Publishing worldwide. Order multiple books at once and save even more, with extra books shipping for $2 each.
This is a limited offer which ends on the 31st of August, 2009.
via CGTalk – $10 Shipping at Ballistic Publishing.
Graphics ballistic, books, sale
The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), a sports network jointly owned by the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, approached Shooters Post & Transfer to help them build their latest commercial. Due to budget constraints, they decided to shoot everything on greenscreen and composite in backgrounds later. This afforded them not only creative flexibility, but kept everything within the always-shrinking advertising budget.
”The virtual set allowed us to composite the fans into the scene, and because we shot digitally we were also able to take all the camera data and use that to make the scenes perfect in terms of lighting, shadows and perspective,” Mendez said. ”The other advantage was the control we had on these complicated VFX driven spots. Partnering with Churchman Productions ensured that the client got want they wanted and the budget was not blown because something was shot incorrectly.”
You can see the commercial at the Shooter’s site, and read the full press release after the break.
Read more…
Graphics commercial, shooters, sports, vfx
Pixologic has announced a new feature to be included in the new Zbrush3.5, a new version of their popular modeling tool ZSphere, called simply ZSpheresII.
They’re light on details, but from the video (on their site) you can see them quickly model a skeleton using the classic zSphere systems, then begin to add muscles, skins, and fine details on top of it, while keeping them all connected.
ZBrushCentral – *** Introducing ZSpheres II.
Graphics pixologic, software, zbrush, zsphere
Here’s a quick list of things we didn’t post :
Graphics, Science pixels
Scientists at HP have demonstrated a technique for using ordinary, unmodified flatbed scanners to scan an image and then detect and correct defects such as creases.
On the surface, the technique appears relatively simple. Most flatbed scanners use two separate light bulbs to accurately capture all the colour in a photo. By controlling these independently of each other, two slightly different images (each taken from different directions as the bulbs move under the photo) can be captured of the same photograph. From these, rudimentary 3D information can be generated.
With the defect — a crease in our example — identified, software can artificially mask it entirely. Known as ‘infilling’, each pixel inside the scanned crease is replaced by a new one generated from pixels just outside of the crease. The software makes sure the two pixels are similar, to avoid sticking a giant red pixel in the middle of a bunch of green ones.
The main limitation is that it requires a 3D defect, defects that lie perfectly against the glass can’t be detected by the different lights.
via HP restores creased photos with flatbed scanners – Crave at CNET UK.
Hardware, Science hp, imageprocessing, scanner
VizWorld.com 
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