Contribution to hand-in May 24th

My part in this phase of our project involved conducted further research into more specific aspects of the project:

-Culture and Language
-Sociology
-Psychology
-Anatomy
-Chemistry
-Biology
-Cannibalism

This involved reading books and websites, aswell as conducting 5 of our 7 interviews with our experts and compiling research gathered at these.

I was also the photographer for this stage of the project, shooting all of our images and doing some of the editing. We took nearly 1800 photographs and large amounts of video footage for this stage of the project.

This work was then written and compiled into the report we handed in as my contribution to the presentation.

Leech Spine

Solidworks renders of the Leeches spine. Rapid prototyped, then inserted into the moulds with the gelatin.

The website

The website:
Well the presenting off the website was sadly a failure due to technical difficulties (It would only load pictures and video from certain computers). However, when the website does work it takes images from the server (as many as are put into the pictures folder) and turns them into a series of generative leeches. I have tried to reproduce as much of the detailing of the real objects with ridges and highlights etc, using generative techniques (so that the leeches different every time, and can scale to fit as many as are needed).

www.flesh2090.com/part2



when leeches are clicked on an image gallery opens up:



there is also a link to play our videos, and to download the workbook.





This site is somewhat closer to the group's aesthetic than our first site, but for the final website, I intend on making this 2D website 3D.

Final Fluid Renders

Houdini voxel fluid timelapse from Byron Mallett on Vimeo.

Since Houdini decided to take 30 minutes to render each frame, I managed to grab 8 frames and blend between them to create a timelapse. I think for next time, I'll start my renders at least a week early, maybe get some render farm time.

Final Video

FLESH from Meredith Crowe on Vimeo.


How I actually made this:

• Storyboard

• Took lots of images and videos of our models
• Exported videos from MPEGstreamclip as image sequences
• Pulled all photos (46,000 in the end) into iPhoto and arranged them into sets
• Cut out 80% of the footage
• Export galleries from iPhoto (about 50)
• Import individual galleries into MPEGstreamclip and export as clips
• Import clips into photoshop and fix lighting and colour to make everything consistent
• Import all clips into Premiere

• Find good music
• Cut and edit music to fit film
• Fix frequency levels and track speed
• Import to premiere

• Cut and order the whole thing together
• Rework audio
• Re-cut and reorder the whole thing together

• Try and render - fail
• Fight with premiere excessivly
• Ben does loading dance
• Win fight with premiere
• RENDER!
• Compress!
• Render as flv for website

Audio for Vid.

I'm having a bit of a freak out about audio for the stop motion, started to wish I had just committed to writing some a couple of weeks ago because its taken me just as long, and i dont have anything I'm happy with.

If anyone has any suggestions - songs or artists, let me know aseep.

continuation of the growth patterns of our slugs

Todays Shoot.

The photos from today are really good! And everyone's keen to help us out next time. We just have to keep in mind that theyr first years, and they go home for the holidays so ill grab their schedule off them and let everyone know.

Models and Film.

OK! so I've got at least four people coming in tomorrow, 2 guys, 2 girls.  3 of them are non european.  Starting shooting at 10.

They can shoot over the weekend too if we need them, but thats cutting it a bit fine.

I'm thinking about the video, looking at a combination of very slow video footage, and stop motion.  Have almost sorted the music for it too.

MORE fluid experiments - New direction

Done some rethinking about what actually happens to this sweat after it's emitted. I grabbed Byron Wood's leech model and I'm using it as a like a fluid guide. The goal is to have the fluid not just fill it like a mold, but almost flow into it's form by following a series of struts within the model before breaking the struts and filling the rest of the mold. It's sort of combining my work with growing fruit straight out a person's back but with fluids rather than plants. I'll also have maybe three variations of the leeches that I can copy along the shape of the outline that Kevin was developing, showing how these leeches can be grown en masse.

Technology wise, I think I've got the initial fluid filling the mold aspect working. Using the leech model, I can spawn a voxel fluid from a series of small bumps (they might be invisible depending on if they look horrid or not) and fill the container. This does look a bit artificial though, hence the idea to use an internal shell with struts that run through the center, giving paths for the fluid to flow through. Since this is a voxel fluid and not the particle fluids I was using earlier, it might be a bit hard to do the diffusion that I had in some earlier tests, though I think it might work with some more testing.

Here's a quick still I grabbed of some of the fluid being emitted.


I've layed out the emitters on the bottom in a line with varying widths. The goal will be to have a series of "pumps" along the bottom which will move the liquid around into the various struts inside the leech. Ideally, the emitters at the front and the back will contain different shades of green with extra blue or yellow. If the diffusion works then as the struts start to meet up, the shades will mix, forming a really nice forest green.

Timeline wise, I'm looking at hitting render on this either Friday night or mid-Saturday to allow a grace period to simulate and render this.

Fluid Diffusion experiments

Sorry I've been a bit quiet guys. I've been fighting with Houdini over getting fluids to combine and I finally had a breakthrough.

Here's a quick example of the diffusion working. I know it looks quite basic now, but the underlying tech seems to be all working (thank god).

Fluid Diffusion in Houdini from Byron Mallett on Vimeo.

Now that this is working, I can layer sweat glands along a surface and have them emit fluid particles. These then combine to form a fluid with a high viscosity and blended colours which then hardens to form a form which can be eaten.

Leech!

Some of the leech moulds.

Interviews and Monday

Scott and I have been going through the interviews and pulling quotes.  We are going to have a write up of them all, and look at doing voice over stuff in the video, but we don't know yet if this will work.

We are starting to get video footage on monday avo. have booked the room and camera. going to focus on close ups of the models, and how they interact and pull away from the skin.

Interview with Geoff Chambers

Interviewed Dr Geoff Chambers yesterday who is a microbiologist and evolutionist from the faculty of biological sciences VUW.  He was really really good to talk to!  Have the interview on tape, its about 45 mins, of which 20 are probably applicable to our project... sorry.  If you want the file, ill give it to you in class.  I'm hesitant to release it online.  Ive sent out more emails this morning, want to do more interviews by the end of the week if possible.

good news

ive got 6 people from theatre school meeting with me at 2.30 thursday avo in studio. Ill probably need a hand. If weve got some work to show them then bring it along thursday

how the boys might fit together according to stripes

Presenting for next time

Order of events.

Byrons film - animation of growth, sweat.

Scotts images - anatomy and leeches

Merediths Film - closer up of material works

Final images - Final communication stuff

CNC Milling

Solidworks render of surface being printed on the cnc routed.

Anatomy, body systems and sweat research so far

Ok so this is a brief summary of the reading I've been doing this past week on body systems and sweat excretion etc etc. I have looked at sweat abit but more about the body systems that create and deliver sweat in terms of what they do and how it might be adapted to produce the growth that we are talking about.

Sweat, as an excretion, is predominantly made up of water (more than 99%) but contains many other minerals, mainly Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium.

All of these minerals are considering essential "quantity elements" for bodily function, meaning we must ingest a certain amount of these to survive.

The body systems that create sweat are split into two main systems, The Eccrine system of sweat glands, and the Apocrine glands which form part of the Exocrine system.

The Eccrine glands are found all over the body, for the purpose of thermo-regulation or cooling the body. These glands are tiny coils of cells in the Dermis layer of the skin that turn into a straight duct of cells leading to the skin surface.

The Apocrine glands are found around the armpits, genitalia, anus and the areola of the nipples.

Their secretion is slightly different to normal sweat, and decomposition of the cells in this excretion is the main cause of body odour.

These glands form part of the Exocrine system, glands which deliver hormonal secretion directly to the external body or the skin.

The counter to this system is the Endocrine system which delivers hormonal secretion directly to the blood stream.

The human body is sweating all the time whether we notice it or not. If the body is in a positive mental state, free of stress or physical exertion, the rate of sweat is almost unnoticeable, this is because while the sweat travels up the straight part of the duct in an eccrine sweat gland the essential minerals (sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium) can be reabsorbed back into the body, leaving only water which can in turn be reabsorbed.

When the body is stressed, whether mentally physically or from heat, the rate of sweating increases. Because of the large increase in flow rate, sweat molecules are not in the straight duct of the eccrine gland long enough to be reabsorbed, resulting in mineral and water loss, which explains the increased need for hydration after large amounts of sweating.

Because we are talking about illustrating mental state through growth and taste, it seems viable to suggest that whilst in a positive mental state, our growth will be healthier, as the body has more nutrient content to work with, and as such we could have more growth to share with someone in more of a negative mental state where normally heavier sweating would be caused their growth would be less healthy and less desirable to eat. The odor caused by decomposition of these cells could also add another level of sensory development to the growth, not only taste but through smell it can tell us when someone is in a bad mental position and therefore less desirable to eat from, or more in need of help from people in positive mental states.

Scientific discussion of body odor is not all negative however.

Androstadienone is a chemical compound found in male sweat, which can influence the endocrine systems secretion of hormones into the blood of the opposite sex. Its odor has also been found to induce pheromonal activity in humans, and can 'significantly affect' the mood of the heterosexual woman and homosexual male. A pheromone is defined as a chemical excretion that triggers a social response in members of the same species, they are very often talked about in the breeding patterns of animals, less so in humans, supposedly because of the development of the human brain and our ability to consider other external factors? This branch of science could be much more relevant to our project however because we are talking more about reproduction and evolution, as well as the rather animalistic nature of cannibalism that loosely ties into the project.

Also important to point out that the female ovaries and the male testes are part of the Endocrine system, which could relate to Meredith's research on food, specifically fruit as the ovary of a plant.

Research applied to different social situations we are considering:

Male - Female sexual partnership

based more around the apocrine glands and compounds like androstadienone, this is where we could really push the erotic side of the project.

Male or Female - Peers or group

the Eccrine glands and growth based on mental state, healthy or not healthy, working in a similar method to the change in flow of sweat.

Male or Female - Child

less based on mental state more on development, as a child, there need for sourcing compounds such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium are much greater to aid there development, as such the interaction between these people could be more about healthy growth from the elder being passed down to the younger.

I think it could be really interesting to look at colour and texture for differentiating healthy from unhealthy growth based on mental state, or we could look at how the gelatin breaks down on the skin similar to the decomposition of cells in sweat and odor.

In terms of the upcoming handin I'll work on some visuals of body systems to accompany the physical models and images were doing this week. Would also potentially like to start a basis for the workbook to cover the research and development of the project that we'll have to write in full for the final handin.