The concept is very similar, making the painting move. I think Starry Night really lends itself to being animated because of the brush strokes. The painting already has these swirling, and twirling type patterns that make you think of movement. The main difference in this video is that the whole painting is moving. Not only do they animate the whole painting, they then make it interactive. By touching the screen the animation changes. What really impressed me is how fluid it seems. As the hand drags across the painting the sky follows. A great work of art like Starry Night already has life but animating it gives the painting a whole new feeling.
This is a great example of what you can do with an advanced scripting language. This one was made with Open Frameworks which is an open source programming environment that evolved from Processing, a program I mentioned in class and which we will explore after the break You can start with some tutorials from the site!). Processing is also an open source program and is widely used around the world to make interactive installations. Bands such as R.E.M., Radiohead, and Modest Mouse have featured animation created with Processing in their music videos. Check the Processing website linked above for some extraordinary examples. It was developed at MIT for artists and designers to be able to program complex animations without having to learn C++ or other more difficult languages (Frameworks is C++ based, check their site as well).
ReplyDeleteProcessing was created by Ben Fry and Casey Reas in 2001 while both were John Maeda's students at the MIT Media Lab. I hope you remember that I mentioned John as one of the great modern designers to watch and know about.