Vectorform shows off at Microsoft’s “Many Screens and a Cloud” event
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – August 16, 2010Working with the Microsoft Research Team and Massachusetts General Hospital, Vectorform’s Justin Lankes and Patrick Samona demonstrated the Virtual Colonoscopy Viewer at a recent event in Boston, MA. Virtual Colonoscopy makes it possible to navigate through 3D images of the colon using a multi-touch platform. The goal behind this application is to reduce the time of a typical colonoscopy exam to only 5 minutes. Currently, the procedure takes 40-60 minutes. Virtual Colonoscopy requires a series of clear, high-resolution images to be taken from a CT scanner. Once the pictures are taken, the part of the exam that can be considered by patients to be “invasive” is done! The high-res images are then fed into the application, giving the doctor the opportunity to explore and navigate through the colon, searching for polyps. A standard colonoscopy procedure entails a doctor’s examination of the colon in real time using a fiber optic camera attached to a flexible tube; the tube then gets passed through the rectum. As you can imagine, this can be a long and uncomfortable experience. We hope Virtual Colonoscopy will encourage more people to opt for colon cancer screening, giving us an opportunity to save lives.
Would you like to learn more? Check out Microsoft’s Curt Devlin’s blog post about the application and the demonstration in Boston.
Virtual Colonoscopy will also be demonstrated at the RSNA Conference in November, stay tuned for more updates!
To communicate or not to communicate…?
Posted by Vito Dimercurio – August 12, 2010…the Windows Phone 7 SDK makes this a pretty easy question to answer. I mean, sure, it’s a phone – but how many ways do we stay connected to the world around us these days? To that end, we decided to throw together a couple of simple prototypes to see how easy it was to build the roots of those basic apps everyone’s going to want… The ones that use Facebook and Twitter.
Simple implementation of the Silverlight Facebook API.
By default, the current version of the WP7 SDK does not support System.Windows.Browser, so the out of the box Facebook binaries aren’t going to work. However, with a few quick “corrections” we are up and running in no time!
Simple Twitter feed
50 lines of C# and 40 lines of XAML gets you this not pretty but functional (Creative Teams around the world just felt a disturbance in the force) Twitter feed.
So, short story even shorter; our good friends at MSFT realize how important these various forms of communication are to us and have generously made it very easy to quickly build our own apps leveraging some of the most popular Social Networks in the world!
All the cool kids are doin’ it…
Posted by Vito Dimercurio – August 12, 2010…and you know you want to, too! As of July 26th, 2010 MSFT has publicly released Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta. The tools package contains everything you need to get started building your very own apps for what should prove to be a revolution in mobile communication and entertainment (including a “light” version of VS2010 and an emulator for testing). So come on code jockeys, go to MSDN and get your Silverlight on!
A NEW FRONTIER FOR THE SETTLERS OF CATAN
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – August 2, 2010Continuing to build its digital game empire, Vectorform re-imagines The Settlers of Catan for Microsoft Surface.
Seattle, WA and Detroit, MI, August 2, 2010—The Settlers of Catan is a classic multiplayer board game, combining economics, strategy and chance, as colonists compete to build settlements from raw commodities. Created in Germany in 1995, and now available in 30 languages, The Settlers of Catan has achieved icon status. Over 15 million copies have been sold worldwide, and an estimated 20 million people play regularly, through a diverse set of traditional and digital game forms.
In partnership with Microsoft, Catan LLC, and Mayfair Games, Vectorform has recreated The Settlers of Catan for Microsoft Surface. Microsoft Surface is an innovative computing platform that responds to touch, natural hand gestures and real-world objects placed on the display. With a large, 360-degree, horizontal user interface, Microsoft Surface offers a unique gathering place where multiple users can come together to interact with content and each other–making it an ideal platform for games like The Settlers of Catan.
Working to maintain an authentic, interpersonal experience of board game play, Vectorform leveraged the social nature of Microsoft Surface. This functionality, defined by Microsoft as “together computing,” provides a distinct advantage and authenticity over games played on traditional PCs or personal devices. “Where a computer game is a solo computing affair, board games are connected experiences. Together computing has its place now, and will be more prominent in the future.” Vectorform Game Studio Executive Director Joe Engalan says.
Vectorform used the artistry of Mayfair Games’ analog version of The Settlers of Catan to illustrate the game elements, including resources, land, and evolving civilization. The digital board is complimented with real-world elements, including an acrylic die set which is seen and recognized by Surface’s built-in cameras. Additionally, an x-ray visor, fabricated specifically for the game, reveals a player’s cards to the player, while shielding the cards from competing colonists. “I’ve never seen real die used in a digital game,” Mollie Harms, Game Producer for Vectorform Game Studios, says. “I think the visors could revolutionize digital card playing. This is a new way to maintain secrecy that doesn’t hinder game play.” The visors, the dice, and the game-play experience on Surface were wildly popular with fans of The Settlers of Catan, who were involved in the design and development process, loaning time and feedback to informal focus groups.
The Settlers of Catan was first shown on Surface at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, in July of 2010. The extensive media coverage generated over 15,000 views of a promotional video for the game, within 72 hours of publishing it to YouTube. Vectorform will also show the game at Gen Con Indy, taking place August 5 through August 8, 2010, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Additionally, on September 3 through September 5, 2010, Vectorform will demonstrate Settlers of Catan at PAXWest, the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington.
Vectorform will continue to promote Settlers of Catan at conferences and private events through the summer, and is offering customized, branded versions of the game to a network of clients and partners for use on Microsoft Surface. In the future, Settlers of Catan will be available for purchase through Vectorform’s App Store. Additionally, the Vectorform App Store will sell other titles, including titles for iPhone, iPad, and other platforms. “The future for The Settlers of Catan is very bright, and we are going to push that experience to new markets and communities. But we’ve got quite a few more titles in the queue, and they are all very exciting. Keep watching, because this is just the start of the empire,” Joe Engalan says.
Click this link to view the Press Release
Vectorform to launch “The Settlers of Catan” for Microsoft Surface
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – June 21, 2010The Settlers of Catan has been one of the most popular strategic board games since its official launch in 1995. The game is translated in over 30 languages and sold more than 15 million copies.
Now Vectorform Game Studio brings you The Settlers of Catan as presented by Mayfair for the Microsoft Surface. This multi-touch, multi-player experience captures the authentic experience provided by the popular board game. Featuring 3 or 4 player modes, a beautifully animated and interactive board, and a free-form interface which keeps play flowing as smoothly as possible, this experience is sure to be a defining element in the legacy of Catan.
Features:
• Full multi-touch from the Microsoft Surface allows all players to interact with their elements of the board at once.
• A digital playing surface breathes new life into the Catan experience through graphics and animations.
• “State-free-trade” allow players to swap cards without entering modes or pressing buttons, keeping the experience as pure as possible.
• Customized art unifies the multi-touch interface with Mayfair’s 4th Edition release of The Settlers of Catan to create a seamless play experience.
• Integration with real-world objects to maintain the original Catan board game feel.
Vectorform on ExtraTV
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – April 1, 2010Last summer Vectorform collaborated with ExtraTV to develop an application for the Microsoft Surface. Check out the clip below of Vectorform’s Alison Weber, teaching Mario Lopez how to use this unique application, affectionately dubbed the Vectorform Telestrator.
We are thrilled with the spot, and only regret that a special shout-out to the team who worked extra hours to make this debut a success didn’t make the final cut. Clemens Conrad, Justin Bush, Hammam Chamma, and Karl Steckling, you rocked it! To our friends on the Microsoft Surface team, Kyle Warnick and Chris Wojahn, as usual you guys rock too!
Click the link for video: Ali on Extra
Vectorform’s SurfaceDJ App for iPhone receives “Best” and “Hottest” Awards
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – February 23, 2010iPhone Apps Plus, (www.iphoneappsplus.com) a website that breaks the traditional barrier of localized search results and compiles app rankings and reviews in all languages from app stores around the world has honored us with TWO awards!
According to their website, “The Best Medal is awarded to applications which are of high quality and in great demand”. This was given to SurfaceDJ. The free version, SurfaceDJ Lite received the title “Hottest”- “awarded to application which are of good quality and are major topic of discussion in a certain period of time.”
What are the deciding factors in granting the award? iPhone Apps Plus tracks the rating and reviews of all the iPhone Apps in all iTunes app stores every hour.
We’re looking forward to future awards! Check out the reviews for yourself here:
http://www.iphoneappsplus.com/music/surfacedj-lite/index.htm
http://www.iphoneappsplus.com/music/surfacedj/index.htm
Terra X: Scene Eulau
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – February 23, 2010The spectacular finding of the well-preserved Stone Age graves of Eulau, near Naumburg is the topic of the Terra X documentation, “Tatort Eulau”.
Three women, two men and eight children were buried 4,500 years ago, affectionately positioned in a tender embrace. In 2008 for the first time internationally, we have proof of the early existence of a nuclear family that can be studied with DNA analysis. A sensation!
But what really happened? Why did these people die at the same time? Did they become victims of a violent crime? Who were they and why did this tragedy occur? Under the direction of BKA-Profiler and with help from the most modern analysis methods, archeologists and anthropologists determined this case noteworthy. What seems to be turning into a criminal case from the Stone Age is becoming a key to an epoch of human history where many mysteries are unsolved. This could help shed light onto human life and social behavior of this region of Germany at that time.
TIME magazine has chosen the Eulau graves investigation as one of the ten most important scientific discoveries of 2008. Vectorform was on site with our MS Surface for the TV production in October of 2009, at the Regional Authorities for Care of Monuments and Archeology / National Museum for Prehistory in Halle, Germany.
Under the direction of Michael Gregor and Gerwin Darwin:
Prof. Dr. Harald Meller, Archeologist and Museum Manager of the National Museum for Prehistory Saxony-Anhalt in Halle; Dr. Michael Baurmann, Federal Criminal Police Office/ Criminological Research (Wiesbaden); Christian Meyer, Anthropologist (University of Mainz) and Dr. Robert Ganslmeier, Chief Excavator Eulau, in collaboration with Vectorform and with the help of our custom built multi-touch application, we were able to bring the case of Eulau to life.
The program is scheduled to broadcast in 2010.
Dynamic Paper Cutouts
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – December 14, 2009While stop motion can be a fantastic medium, the process is too slow for many productions. Even for simple elements, like wrinkled paper, the time it takes to do things physically is often untenable; for the Microsoft PowerPivot online advertising campaign, Vectorform required lightening quick turnaround on visual elements and animation revisions, often on an hour by hour basis.
This is how the paper cutout effects were designed and generated dynamically using Adobe After Effects.
Animation with alpha
For our example video, character animation was handled in After Effects. Having broken down the script and subsequent voice acting into paragraphs, the lipsync was animated in Papagayo (see Lipsyncing with Papagayo for more on this important aspect of the high-speed workflow) and the elements were animated in individual compositions for each clip.
In other cases, the animation may be a 3D rendering, from another application, or hand drawn. The biggest concern here is that the elements must have full alpha, with no backgrounds or half-transparent portions (antialiasing is good, but there may be issues with large patches of partial transparency once we start playing with alpha boundaries).
Paper textures
Depending on the desired effect, this can take all sorts of forms. For the Microsoft PowerPivot video, a sequence of crumpled paper photos were used along with frame blending in After Effects. This was slowed down (again, using frame blending) till the desired look was found. The final paper texture animation should be the same size and length as the other comps.
Using directional R/G/B lighting when photographing the crumpled paper could make it possible to develop false geometric distortions in After Effects, gaining a little more realism in how the imagery follows the shape of the paper. This tutorial, however, only covers the use of plain-lit paper textures.
Effects
The animation and paper compositions should be added to a new comp of the same size, and an adjustment layer and plain white solid should be created.
adjustment layer
Two expression slider controls allow us to globally control the strength of the displacement effects (to be applied to the animation and white solid layers), while the drop shadow performs a very basic role; add a little bit of lighting to an otherwise flat paper effect.
animation
Because After Effects’ Displacement Map effect is unidirectional, two are applied to help give a little more depth and variation. The displacement source for each effect should be set to the paper texture layer. Option-clicking on the animation badge (the stopwatch icon) lets us add expressions to the Max Horizontal and Max Vertical displacement values.
For the first Displacement Map effect, apply this expression to both Max Horizontal and Max Vertical:
thisComp.layer("Adjustment Layer 1").effect("Displacement Slider")("Slider")
The second Displacement Map effect needs this expression applied to both Max Horizontal and Max Vertical:
thisComp.layer("Adjustment Layer 1").effect("Displacement Slider 2")("Slider")
Lastly, a Curves adjustment is added to help the colours and values pop. Adding all the shading, textures, and distortions can start to muddy and dull the animation, so curves are used throughout to brighten and enhance the imagery.
Set the layer Transparency Mode to Multiply to apply it to the underlying layers.
white solid
This is the most complicated of the layers, with two main purposes; to expand and create the torn paper edges, and add depth to the underlying paper textures.
The Set Channels effect is important, as we use this to grab the alpha channel from the animation layer. Select layer 2 in the source layer 4 input, all the other settings can be left at their defaults.
Use Simple Choker to expand the alpha, creating the extra white space needed for the torn paper edge.
Just like the animation layer, add two Displacement Map layers with inputs set to the paper texture, and the following expressions applied to Max Horizontal and Max Vertical displacement values.
thisComp.layer("Adjustment Layer 1").effect("Displacement Slider")("Slider")
thisComp.layer("Adjustment Layer 1").effect("Displacement Slider 2")("Slider")
To finish the tearing of the paper edge, apply a Turbulent Displace effect and tune to taste. The amount, size, and complexity will all depend on the scale of the compositions and the desired style. Because the previous displacements are based on the animated paper, and the turbulence is based off of the new alpha shape, the effect will change automatically based on the strength and speed of the paper animation. Animating the evolution is possible, but typically adds far too much action and confusion.
After Effects’ Emboss is rudimentary at best, but once applied, we can add Channel Blur to soften the results into a usable effect (taking care not to blur the alpha). Matching the emboss relief value with the R/G/B channel blurs tends to work best. The direction is left at 0 degrees, giving a slightly concave appearance. This helps create the appearance of a slight page curl along the edges.
Lastly, a Curves adjustment is added to brighten up the output and improve the final composited tonality. Setting the layer transparency mode to Soft Light allows the emboss effect to adjust the underlying paper texture.
paper texture
Set the Track Matte to use the above layer’s Alpha, and the look is almost complete. In the example project, Levels were used to brighten the paper texture. This depends, of course, on the paper textures used and how dark the resulting paper crumple needs to be.
Final Compositing
Once completed, the composition is ready to be used in the final edit. For graphics that border the edge of the composition, there may be some artifacts left over from the multiple displacements. To fix this, either increase the size of the pre-comps to slightly larger than your output, or scale up the comp in the final video to cut off edges.
Watch the final PowerPivot video on YouTube or Vimeo to rate it or leave a comment!
Vectorform Applications at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Posted by Lindsay Ruthven – December 9, 2009News from Vectorform Germany. “Neue Arbeiten” (“new kinds of work”) was the event theme of the IHK and Microsoft Event in Bochum. At this event there was a presentation of the MS Surface and the 24’’ and a 46’’ Multi-touch Citron Displays. The special focus of this event was how modern ways of cooperation and communication can sustainably change companies. Vectorform provided various solutions out of different market segments on MS Surface and the Multi-touch displays and revealed the future potentials that lie within the use of Windows 7 and Multi-touch applications.
Dipl.-Kfm. Gerd Pieper, President IHK Bochum, Achim Berg CEO Microsoft Germany
Tillmann Neinhaus, General ManagerIHK Bochum (from left to right)
Achim Berg CEO Microsoft Germany, Dipl.-Kfm. Gerd Pieper, President IHK Bochum, Tillmann Neinhaus, General ManagerIHK Bochum (from left to right)