Virtual Reality.

Lots of things happened between last post and now, but they generally involved little sleep and lots of work. So I'm going to do back to back posts about the latest addition to my activities: working with Jon. Last night we began photographing belts. But first, it was time have some sustenance for the night of work ahead! To describe a meal with the Wye family... both the food and the conversation are quite flavorful!

Now it's time to get to work. The above mentioned meal was consumed at the kitchen table, because what you are about to see below is in the dining room. Jon designed and built this contraption that is pretty amazing. No, it's not a spaceship.

But first, there was a little finishing on the belts we had made earlier this week. Putting on the buckle and first set of rivets:

And the second set of rivets holding in the belt loop:

Then we took the finished belts and buckled them.

The slid them onto this round platform he built. I really did help, contrary to what all of these pictures show :)

And put the platform onto an acrylic cylinder inside the frosted plastic dome. You can see past the camera lens into the dome where one of the koi belts is chillin.

Then began the adjusting. First the entire camera and tripod itself. White balance, shutter speed, aperture, camera height, zoom, focus.

The platform inside the dome is attached to a computer. We had it rotate 5 degrees, pause for 3 seconds, etc. until it did a full 360. So for each belt we would make a dozen adjustments until the buckle was in the exact same spot as the others, and the belt was perfectly level with the camera, and the buckle was straight, etc.

Once everything was set for the belt, it was time to strap inside the reflective bubble (by way of bungee cord) and hit start on the computer.... and "click...(one, two three)...click...(one, two, three)..." 72 times per belt. That's a lot of clicking. I think we did 8 belts ( redoing 2 or 3 when we realized that the lighting was a little off on the first ones). It was great once we got everything set and only needed to make minor tweaks each time.


Why are we doing this, you ask? The photos are all spliced together to create a virtual reality belt for the website that allows the viewer to spin the belt around a full 360 and see the entire thing. A lot of the belts have scenes on them, and previously there wasn't a way to be able to see all of the artwork - only pieces of it as it was coiled up for the photograph. But now...amazingness! I saw a test of it and it's pretty awesome.

Again, the call for last train was looming so it was time to come home.

In other news...
Check out a hilarious account of one cell phone in Bangladesh and Amy's beautiful (and so grown up!) Selma making an appearance on Craftzine.

I finally got around to finishing Sold. It was an amazing story, though very sad. I also got some exposure to Graham Annable's art, reading Grickle, Stickleback, and Further Grickle this week.

Next up is cleaning (perhaps even a room rearrangement!), knitting, painting, reading, watching the rain pour down, and being very happy to have a nice and relaxing weekend!

(and as I'm writing this, a new recipe is baking in the oven. I'm not a baker, but I thought I'd try something new. It involves apples, rice, pork, and some brown ale. I'll post the recipe and pictures if it turns out to be yummy; otherwise, forget I just said this.)