A fascinating technology to display your art online...

[olivier]

I wanted to share a technology which I believe to be new and unique.

This is a 3 dimensional interactive art gallery where viewer can walk in the space as if in a real room, a bit like in a game environment.... Fascinating and far more engaging than traditional static web image galleries.

The system is really easy to implement even with no technical expertise. It is also very advanced. For instance it allows visitors to view a painting on the wall of their own home through their Iphone camera... How cool is that?

If you are publishing your art online you must have a look at this.

I am using it to show some of my portrait drawings on http://www.bodyscape.net.nz/portraits.htm

There is a small player to install on first access, a 2 minutes job and a small price to pay for a fantastic viewing experience.

The makers of that technology are a young company called Gallerycentric. Contact them directly for more info. (I do not work for them, I am just a happy customer...)

Let me know what you think in this thread ... Could this the future of online art galleries...

Perhaps the good folks at ASC would be interested too. ASC would be the first art site to take advantage of this new stuff. (Pioneers of sorts... )

Cheers,

[kutedymples]

I went to the link and installed a "unity" player but it still didn't work right. It does look interesting and I will go back and look at it when I have more time. Thanks for sharing.

[pia]

Extraordinarily cool!! I also really enjoyed looking at your drawings. Fabulous!

[Katherine1]

Hi,
I looks nice, the efforts of artist are just fabulous. I like it but didn't get any source to learn them and the link you provided to install is taking so much time. Please share any light version so that everyone can install.

[Kristian_Saapunki]

Hi. This is a fun idea. My only consern is the need to install any thing. That will turn meny ppl of.

[ehoeveler]

Gotta say I'm concerned about installing the app..
I just got finished cleaning out a bunch of viruses from my own computer.
Can you show us some "old-fashioned" jpegs of your portraits?
Thanks, E.

[wizard3]

You need not be concerned about that app, but it is clunky. It is not at all state of the art. There is far better out there. Such things can be done in Flash and HTML5/Js. They are far more efficient than that engine. If interested I can teach those here how to do such things. Unity is overkill. It is a game engine and not a very good one. If going that route one would be better off with ShiVa. But, again this is nothing but a classic "skybox". They are very easy to program. Much of the trick to it is simply in the measurements. The image should be a 1 to 2 ratio of square power values... something like 2048 X 4096. With that they can be generated in Photoshop 3D. Take that over to Edge Animate and you have something that will run on any browser and any device.

[wizard3]

Neither are you thinking large enough. Why would you think in terms of a room to hang art in with Unity????? It is used to create entire virtual worlds... not very well I might add. ShiVa, on the other hand, is capable of generating an entire universe for you to display your work in. Unity has a price hook. The basic engine is free, but to truly create significant content with it one runs up against purchasing add ons. ShiVa web version is entirely free and has excellent documentation, video tutorials, and community support. It also has its own server technology included. If not for being an Adobe fanatic, I would be locked into the two best on the web - ShiVa/Blender, wed. It is more than displaying ones work. It is taking it to a new level.

[ehoeveler]

Probably I'm not - hard to think above and beyond, some times!
Thanks, E

[wizard3]

I can't access my graphics computer at present. It is rendering. These pano viewers are a specialty of mine. I have many of them and will post resources when the rendering is complete. One of the best I fear is no longer available. Just attempted to access it on this machine and it appears to be off line. I have many more. Some cost money. Some cost a great deal. Others do not cost anything. Some cost only some features while offering critical mapping features for free. The 3D web is the future. We all need to be prepared for it. It is getting very easy to access and execute these methods. The reasons for recent changes in web standards are for the most part to make these things more accessible.

They are not the only new method to be of benefit in showing our art. There are many. I will be showcasing several over the summer... and not very well I might add. I have decided rather than do that well myself with these methods I would take and encapsulated approach to share what I know. The most important thing we must learn is what every game designer and player already knows. This is what I implied with the symphonies of Avatar comment. We must learn to engage the viewer with storyline on the web the way a gallery does the viewer with architecture and interior design. It makes no sense emulating buildings with digital when it offers so much more. Why hang your work on a wall when you can hang it on the likes of a supernova special effect. I will sharing here also some of what is now possible in that respect. It makes a skybox look rather sad in comparison.

[wizard3]

Still not entirely done rendering in Vue but I can peek...

Hugin is a freebie I think. JCPanoramaEditor is an affordable and likely the easiest to use. Ryubin is free but only hints at proper layout without a very small fee. The ryubinpanorama.com website is absolutely amazing. Much is not for the faint of heart. It is geared for us enthusiasts willing to surmount even mountains for a good shot. These are the best of the best engines and free. They include video walls and sound. One can actually stand in the middle of a roadway and feel the need to dodge oncoming traffic. These are not ideal for posting on ones website without some work. If taken into present day Flash and converted to JS they are powerful indeed.

Another is PureTools. Costs money and not worth it given what Adobe can do now. Like it or not, if you wish to be a serious web artist to contend you must go Adobe Cloud. It includes being viewed by the top galleries and production studios in the world. Until one sees what After Effects (with Redhat and Element) is about one cannot possibly imagine what is to come.

Adobe is running about fifty a month now. That is for everything they have and will have, plus five permanent websites. In addition to that five you can have countless temporary websites for up to a year if they are active each month. One just changes the name after each year... or sells them. Adobe accounts are flat out geared to making money in the arts. In my opinion if you can't build a career with an Adobe Cloud, you can't have a career in the arts at all. It has EVERYTHING! It also has a hellish learning curve. I am working on a solution to that.

[wizard3]

About that learning curve: I am far enough along to know my solution works. I call it "Tutpedia". It is very simple and can be implemented in Adobe Bridge or with something like SQL (free). In Bridge one can assign 'keywords' to images or videos. There are countless video tutorials available for the many graphics programs within Adobe and elsewhere (Blender for example). The learning curve is daunting because one cannot know something from watching years worth of videos one time through. Instead edit them into ten second topic segments with as many significant searchable keywords as would be most helpful to you during actual execution of projects. Practice will add to the effectiveness of this method. They can be edited in After Effects or Premier. I also use Corel Video 6 for this and for screen capturing methods.

Then when one is working and in doubt do a quick search for a solution. Make sure those vids are short. It may take a few tries.

[wizard3]

I am very sorry! I mislead in the post that mentions Redhat. That should read, Red Giant, of course. They put out the finest plugs for After Effects.