Medien Wiki - User contributions [en]

GMU:Computer's Cut/Julian Mosbach

2022-03-03T13:48:45Z

Julian Mosbach:

==Kitchen Nightmares but just the important parts==
{{#ev:youtube|JJrrYpdNkHE|740|left}}

I searched for 46 more or less emotional keywords. Everything from "shit", "disgusting" and "shocking" to "good", "great" and "awesome" (but most importantly "[__]", which is YouTubes way of decoding profanity). My original intent was to just show how adjectives are used in kitchen nightmares to drive the storytelling. It turned out however that they are used so frequently that the video encapsulates the whole plot. It is perfectly understandable what happens. But also some interesting things happen. For example, lots of adjectives are introduced by chef Ramsay and simply copied by the others. Also some dialogues function perfectly with just a touch of humor. Look out for Ramsay talking to the rastaurants owner Joe.

==Bachs Prelude to the first Cello Suite, the first 69 Notes sorted by pitch==
{{#ev:youtube|xS0aeOE80nw|740|left}}
The greatness of this edit mostly consists in the fact that every cut has a fade in and a fade out!

== Bach vs Bach vs me ==
{{#ev:youtube|6VP3XOJsncg|740|left}}
I took Bachs Cello Suite No. 1 and paired it up with the Banderie from the Orchestra Suite BWV 1067. The catch is: I transposed the score so the key is a tritone above the key from the Cello suite. What that means is the impurities of the cuts lead to the most disgusting harmonics possible. But through this mess of ear-bleeding-ugliness, you can still hear the melody. Hopefully.

== Cats...? ==
{{#ev:youtube|jQhPzAkYWHQ|740|left}}
As a big fan of cats, I naturally wanted to test the AIs ability to detect them. For what is the world without cats? Less hairy, probably.
I knew AI is under a lot of critique lately and so I chose the easiest source material I could think of: The famous Weimar Cat Documentary, specifically the first 10 Minutes of it. What should have been the output was about a good 5 minutes of nothing but cats, but instead I sat in front of my computer watching in horror as the algorithm not only failed to identify about 95% of all the cats, but also just straight up selected a dog. And those cats weren't difficult either. I could forgive a furball in the corner of a shot not being selected, but the AI just missed frame-filling close-ups.
CONCLUSION: the software was trained by dog-persons.
3/10.

==The Julian Mosbach String Quartet==
I can't play the cello. But in this exercise I used computers to make it sound even worse.
Ever since I got into classical music, I found Bach's "The Art Of The Fugue" to be just the most beguiling set of pieces out there. I always wanted to play it. However I only know how to play the piano and while there is a version for piano (which sadly is incredibly difficult to play and thus even the most skilled pianists play it way too slow - not for me) the piece just shines played by a string quartet. I, however can't play any string instruments, not do I own any. But my sister does. She used to play the cello when she was younger and showed me how to produce notes. So I sat down with that half-scale childrens cello and recorded every note in chromatical order for our algorithm to make me a cello quartet.
And this is where the trouble begins. I did not record to a metronome, but instead thought I could just record long notes, which PD could then chop up. It does not. It finds the note that is closest in length and plays that in its entirety. (by the way: the video of me playing the cello is eleven minutes long, which means I sat through hours of just listening to it again and again then the sorted notes and that for every instrument to find that mistake). So I needed to give the algorithm perfect note lengths. I did that by putting the original audio in a DAW based on 115BPM (the pieces tempo) and cut each note in semi, quarter and eigth notes. I got very lucky here because the piece mostly consists of these. I ran the analysis again, to find that the detection of the notes themselves is very challenging, since the cello has so many overtones that it just confuses sigmund. At first I tried to EQ the first and second overtones (octave and fifth above), which again is 148 notes that each get their own treatment. But that again didn't work out. So in a last final-straw attempt I took a synth with a simple sine wave and manually reproduced the original audio with quantized notes. 148 midi notes placed by hand. Needless to say decisions were regretted at this point. BUT THEN. IT WORKED.
Kind of. Each instrument sounded roughly how it was supposed to, but when I put them together nothing worked. This was because the piece contained linked and dotted notes. And the algorithm looked for absolute lengths. So instead of putting even more notes in the original audio, I edited the midi files to remove any links and dots. So a dotted quarter note became a quarter and then an eigth of the same pitch. Arguably at this point its not Bach anymore, its Mosbach-Bach (say it fast). Now, finally after all this editing it was ready to work. I was emotionally wrecked but excited to see what PD had cooked for me. And something happened that I didn't expect. For some reason, the algorithm had pitched each instrument 3 semitones down. Except for the cello-voice. This took me hours to find, because I checked the cellos pitch again and again and it was correct.
But then finally, after pitching the cello down to match the other instruments, I was ready to press play...
- just to find out, that our algorithm does not take into account pauses. So whenever there should be a pause, it simply played the next note without hesitation. At this point I am wondering whether I should have simply cut everything by hand. That might have saved me A LOT of time.
But I kept on working and edited each pause by hand, using the other instruments as reference.

{{#ev:youtube|QD62-dQRCHY|740|left}}

Its sounds...accetable? Maybe? There is one very prominent issue still prevalent which I wasn't able to solve. The instruments alone work perfectly, but played together, they keep going out of sync. I think there is two reasons for that: Firstly any error in detection leads to a slightly changed note length which multiplies when more notes are played. The violin 1- voice for example has the most eigth notes and seems to always drag behind the others (constant error multiplied). And secondly I think that sigmund detects high notes faster than low notes, which makes sense physically, because it should need at least one full cycle of the wave before detecting a note. And that just takes twice as much time per octave you go down.
To give that combined error a number: the pieces original tempo was 115 BPM but due to lag between the notes and inconsistent detection the PD-Version is just 108BPM. In this case, manually editing the pauses really saved a lot, because it meant that the instruments were always synced up again every 30 seconds or so.

This might have been it, but I decided to take one last step. I am a firm believer in "the product", meaning that a "good" process in my eyes shouldn't make up for a bad product. Or in other words: nobody is going to applaud your for putting lots of effort in something if the end product is bad.
So, as this is mostly a video editing class, I took the original sound files again and cut it up to build a Kontakt-Sample-Instrument. (If you don't know what that means: Sampling takes a bunch of notes and maps them to midi notes, which gives you the ability to play something using the notes you recorded in real life).
I completed it with a legato-script, reverb and a binaural mix for complete immersion.
After that I took the same video and just married them together:
{{#ev:youtube|fafbMK1yUtU|740|left}}

GMU:Computer's Cut/Julian Mosbach

2022-01-31T08:07:04Z

Julian Mosbach:

GMU:Computer's Cut/Julian Mosbach

2022-01-05T14:49:56Z

Julian Mosbach:

GMU:Computer's Cut/Julian Mosbach

2022-01-05T14:46:07Z

Julian Mosbach: /* Kitchen Nightmares but just the important parts */

GMU:Computer's Cut/Julian Mosbach

2021-12-12T22:04:28Z

Julian Mosbach: /* Kitchen Nightmares but just the important parts */

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-30T15:04:09Z

Julian Mosbach: /* Implementation */

'''Making VFX Assests with Physarum Polycephalum'''

Whats immediately striking about slime molds is their unique look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure are simply enchanting. So the question is: Is it possible to transform images of slime mold into usable assets for VFX works? And to be precise: The goal is not to recreate, but to use actual footage. So what needs to be done is to make keyed versions of timelapse footage of physarum growing, that can then be reapplied in changed perspective to other surfaces in vfx software such as Adobe After Effects.

== Concept: ==
Normaly, keying is done by shooting objects against a green background. However, since Physarum tends to be a green-yellow color, blue seems to be a better alternative. It offers both greater color- and luminance-contrast.
Secondly, in order to see the finest details it is necessary to shoot as high resolution as possible. To maximize any cameras resolution, it is best to let Physarum grow on square plates (best in 4:3 ratio) to use the whole sensor.

A quick test was done with single photos.

[[File:P1310563.JPG|400px]]

A good looking specimen was photographed in front of a cyn (sadly not blue) piece of cardboard.

[[File:Keylight_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Sadly, using standard keying software, the diffusion of the medium and the fine veins of Physarum left a big cyan border. Its not unusable but would need a lot of work to be up to standards.
This posed the need for a different keying method: The blue channel was extracted from the image and its inverse was used as a luma matte.

[[File:BlueChannel_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

The upside of this method is that it results in translucent parts of the image. Most keying software (in this case Keylight, which is built in to After Effects) only produce images that have either completely transparent or completely opaque parts. Physarum naturally transmits a lot light that passes through it. The thicker the veins, the more opaque they get. In image-terms you could "measure" the thickness / opacity by looking at how yellow Physarum is. In the picture you can see quite well that some veins are more translucent than others. The issue with this method is that white (as in specular highlights) clips the blue channel as well. So not only does the background get keyed out, but also each reflection. Sadly, Physarum is very shiny, so in any lighting setup, where lights are above it, there will be reflections.

In order to avoid that, a third method of keying was used. For this, Adobes color grading software Lumetri was used. In there, a HSL-selection was added to target the cyan background. This gives much better control of the result, as it is possible to set specific ranges of saturation and luminance and thus control the translucency.

[[File:LumetriHSL_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Still, an optimal keying-solution needs to be found. In the current figuration, Physarum casts too much shadow onto the background.
In order to improve my results and to film the real-deal-timelapses, it is needed to look into the following things:
1. A light setup is needed that doesn't create as harsh highlights. A big source. However, its not very economical to leave a big LED running over night, if pictures are only taken every 10 minutes or so. Maybe an arduino-solution?
2. Physarum casts shadows. There are two possible ways to avoid this. Either the distance to the background must be increased (by e.g. filming vertically instead of top-down), or maybe physarum would grow on a blue medium. Having seen the issues other students had with food-coloring, using small amounts of pure pigment or acrylic based paint should be a better option.
3. With these test-shots, the resolution was not sufficient to see the finest veins. The original plan was to use 20x40cm plexiglas sheets, but maybe 2x4cm makes more sense. This would also diminish filming times maybe to the point where it makes sense again to just leave LEDs on the whole time.

== Implementation ==

Previous tests have shown, that a medium that had synthetic ultramarine blue pigment in it, inhibited the growth of physarum. As a workaround, the timelapse-medium had a thick layer of blue medium and on top on that approximately a millimeter of normal, clear medium. With that, a test timelapse was shot overnight (about 10 hours of time). The camera used, was a blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4k, which had the unique advantage of the option to be cable-powered without any accessories. The timelapse was shot in BRAW 12:1 and 3840 by 2160 px and the resulting video was 3 minutes and 16 seconds long.
Because oat flakes in the shot would give away the true scale of the image, a bedding of E. coli bacteria was grown and prepared on the plate. The shot was lit by a continuously running LED-Panel with a power of 15w.
Sadly, the specimen of physarum was not very strong and grew only very little during the interval and what grew hat only a very faint yellow tint.

[[File:TimelapseRAW.png|400px]]

This wasted a lot of resolution but might still be usable, depending on the shot size and intended use case.
The cropped and keyed image had a size of roughly 800x800 pixels.

[[File:KeyResult.png|400px]]

To see if it would be usable, a test shot was filmed, 3D Tracked, the footage composited in and graded. The oatflake was masked out to make the slime mold appear larger in size.
In order to hide the bad resolution and make the Physarum more alien-like, a vector blur was applied.

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-30T15:02:11Z

Julian Mosbach: /* Implementation */

'''Making VFX Assests with Physarum Polycephalum'''

Whats immediately striking about slime molds is their unique look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure are simply enchanting. So the question is: Is it possible to transform images of slime mold into usable assets for VFX works? And to be precise: The goal is not to recreate, but to use actual footage. So what needs to be done is to make keyed versions of timelapse footage of physarum growing, that can then be reapplied in changed perspective to other surfaces in vfx software such as Adobe After Effects.

== Concept: ==
Normaly, keying is done by shooting objects against a green background. However, since Physarum tends to be a green-yellow color, blue seems to be a better alternative. It offers both greater color- and luminance-contrast.
Secondly, in order to see the finest details it is necessary to shoot as high resolution as possible. To maximize any cameras resolution, it is best to let Physarum grow on square plates (best in 4:3 ratio) to use the whole sensor.

A quick test was done with single photos.

[[File:P1310563.JPG|400px]]

A good looking specimen was photographed in front of a cyn (sadly not blue) piece of cardboard.

[[File:Keylight_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Sadly, using standard keying software, the diffusion of the medium and the fine veins of Physarum left a big cyan border. Its not unusable but would need a lot of work to be up to standards.
This posed the need for a different keying method: The blue channel was extracted from the image and its inverse was used as a luma matte.

[[File:BlueChannel_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

The upside of this method is that it results in translucent parts of the image. Most keying software (in this case Keylight, which is built in to After Effects) only produce images that have either completely transparent or completely opaque parts. Physarum naturally transmits a lot light that passes through it. The thicker the veins, the more opaque they get. In image-terms you could "measure" the thickness / opacity by looking at how yellow Physarum is. In the picture you can see quite well that some veins are more translucent than others. The issue with this method is that white (as in specular highlights) clips the blue channel as well. So not only does the background get keyed out, but also each reflection. Sadly, Physarum is very shiny, so in any lighting setup, where lights are above it, there will be reflections.

In order to avoid that, a third method of keying was used. For this, Adobes color grading software Lumetri was used. In there, a HSL-selection was added to target the cyan background. This gives much better control of the result, as it is possible to set specific ranges of saturation and luminance and thus control the translucency.

[[File:LumetriHSL_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Still, an optimal keying-solution needs to be found. In the current figuration, Physarum casts too much shadow onto the background.
In order to improve my results and to film the real-deal-timelapses, it is needed to look into the following things:
1. A light setup is needed that doesn't create as harsh highlights. A big source. However, its not very economical to leave a big LED running over night, if pictures are only taken every 10 minutes or so. Maybe an arduino-solution?
2. Physarum casts shadows. There are two possible ways to avoid this. Either the distance to the background must be increased (by e.g. filming vertically instead of top-down), or maybe physarum would grow on a blue medium. Having seen the issues other students had with food-coloring, using small amounts of pure pigment or acrylic based paint should be a better option.
3. With these test-shots, the resolution was not sufficient to see the finest veins. The original plan was to use 20x40cm plexiglas sheets, but maybe 2x4cm makes more sense. This would also diminish filming times maybe to the point where it makes sense again to just leave LEDs on the whole time.

== Implementation ==

Previous tests have shown, that a medium that had synthetic ultramarine blue pigment in it, inhibited the growth of physarum. As a workaround, the timelapse-medium had a thick layer of blue medium and on top on that approximately a millimeter of normal, clear medium. With that, a test timelapse was shot overnight (about 10 hours of time). The camera used, was a blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4k, which had the unique advantage of the option to be cable-powered without any accessories. The timelapse was shot in BRAW 12:1 and 3840 by 2160 px and the resulting video was 3 minutes and 16 seconds long.
Because oat flakes in the shot would give away the true scale of the image, a bedding of E. coli bacteria was grown and prepared on the plate. The shot was lit by a continuously running LED-Panel with a power of 15w.
Sadly, the specimen of physarum was not very strong and grew only very little during the interval.

[[File:TimelapseRAW.png|400px]]

This wasted a lot of resolution but might still be usable, depending on the shot size and intended use case.
The cropped and keyed image had a size of roughly 800x800 pixels.

[[:File:KeyResult.png]]

To see if it would be usable, a test shot was filmed, 3D Tracked, the footage composited in and graded.
In order to hide the bad resolution and make the Physarum more alien-like, a vector blur was applied.

File:TimelapseRAW.png

2021-11-30T14:59:38Z

Julian Mosbach: Julian Mosbach uploaded a new version of File:TimelapseRAW.png

File uploaded with MsUpload

File:KeyResult.png

2021-11-30T14:59:34Z

Julian Mosbach: Julian Mosbach uploaded a new version of File:KeyResult.png

File uploaded with MsUpload

File:TimelapseRAW.png

2021-11-30T14:58:42Z

Julian Mosbach: File uploaded with MsUpload

File uploaded with MsUpload

File:KeyResult.png

2021-11-30T14:58:38Z

Julian Mosbach: File uploaded with MsUpload

File uploaded with MsUpload

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-30T14:57:45Z

Julian Mosbach:

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-30T14:57:15Z

Julian Mosbach:

'''Making VFX Assests with Physarum Polycephalum'''

Whats immediately striking about slime molds is their unique look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure are simply enchanting. So the question is: Is it possible to transform images of slime mold into usable assets for VFX works? And to be precise: The goal is not to recreate, but to use actual footage. So what needs to be done is to make keyed versions of timelapse footage of physarum growing, that can then be reapplied in changed perspective to other surfaces in vfx software such as Adobe After Effects.

== Concept: ==
Normaly, keying is done by shooting objects against a green background. However, since Physarum tends to be a green-yellow color, blue seems to be a better alternative. It offers both greater color- and luminance-contrast.
Secondly, in order to see the finest details it is necessary to shoot as high resolution as possible. To maximize any cameras resolution, it is best to let Physarum grow on square plates (best in 4:3 ratio) to use the whole sensor.

A quick test was done with single photos.

[[File:P1310563.JPG|400px]]

A good looking specimen was photographed in front of a cyn (sadly not blue) piece of cardboard.

[[File:Keylight_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Sadly, using standard keying software, the diffusion of the medium and the fine veins of Physarum left a big cyan border. Its not unusable but would need a lot of work to be up to standards.
This posed the need for a different keying method: The blue channel was extracted from the image and its inverse was used as a luma matte.
[[File:BlueChannel_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

The upside of this method is that it results in translucent parts of the image. Most keying software (in this case Keylight, which is built in to After Effects) only produce images that have either completely transparent or completely opaque parts. Physarum naturally transmits a lot light that passes through it. The thicker the veins, the more opaque they get. In image-terms you could "measure" the thickness / opacity by looking at how yellow Physarum is. In the picture you can see quite well that some veins are more translucent than others. The issue with this method is that white (as in specular highlights) clips the blue channel as well. So not only does the background get keyed out, but also each reflection. Sadly, Physarum is very shiny, so in any lighting setup, where lights are above it, there will be reflections.

In order to avoid that, a third method of keying was used. For this, Adobes color grading software Lumetri was used. In there, a HSL-selection was added to target the cyan background. This gives much better control of the result, as it is possible to set specific ranges of saturation and luminance and thus control the translucency.

[[File:LumetriHSL_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Still, an optimal keying-solution needs to be found. In the current figuration, Physarum casts too much shadow onto the background.
In order to improve my results and to film the real-deal-timelapses, it is needed to look into the following things:
1. A light setup is needed that doesn't create as harsh highlights. A big source. However, its not very economical to leave a big LED running over night, if pictures are only taken every 10 minutes or so. Maybe an arduino-solution?
2. Physarum casts shadows. There are two possible ways to avoid this. Either the distance to the background must be increased (by e.g. filming vertically instead of top-down), or maybe physarum would grow on a blue medium. Having seen the issues other students had with food-coloring, using small amounts of pure pigment or acrylic based paint should be a better option.
3. With these test-shots, the resolution was not sufficient to see the finest veins. The original plan was to use 20x40cm plexiglas sheets, but maybe 2x4cm makes more sense. This would also diminish filming times maybe to the point where it makes sense again to just leave LEDs on the whole time.

== Implementation ==

Previous tests have shown, that a medium that had synthetic ultramarine blue pigment in it, inhibited the growth of physarum. As a workaround, the timelapse-medium had a thick layer of blue medium and on top on that approximately a millimeter of normal, clear medium. With that, a test timelapse was shot overnight (about 10 hours of time). The camera used, was a blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4k, which had the unique advantage of the option to be cable-powered without any accessories. The timelapse was shot in BRAW 12:1 and 3840 by 2160 px and the resulting video was 3 minutes and 16 seconds long.
Because oat flakes in the shot would give away the true scale of the image, a bedding of E. coli bacteria was grown and prepared on the plate. The shot was lit by a continuously running LED-Panel with a power of 15w.
Sadly, the specimen of physarum was not very strong and grew only very little during the interval.

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-30T14:46:35Z

Julian Mosbach:

'''Making VFX Assests with Physarum Polycephalum'''

Whats immediately striking about slime molds is their unique look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure are simply enchanting. So the question is: Is it possible to transform images of slime mold into usable assets for VFX works? And to be precise: The goal is not to recreate, but to use actual footage. So what needs to be done is to make keyed versions of timelapse footage of physarum growing, that can then be reapplied in changed perspective to other surfaces in vfx software such as Adobe After Effects.

== Concept: ==
Normaly, keying is done by shooting objects against a green background. However, since Physarum tends to be a green-yellow color, blue seems to be a better alternative. It offers both greater color- and luminance-contrast.
Secondly, in order to see the finest details it is necessary to shoot as high resolution as possible. To maximize any cameras resolution, it is best to let Physarum grow on square plates (best in 4:3 ratio) to use the whole sensor.

A quick test was done with single photos.

[[File:P1310563.JPG|400px]]

A good looking specimen was photographed in front of a cyn (sadly not blue) piece of cardboard.

[[File:Keylight_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Sadly, using standard keying software, the diffusion of the medium and the fine veins of Physarum left a big cyan border. Its not unusable but would need a lot of work to be up to standards.
This posed the need for a different keying method: The blue channel was extracted from the image and its inverse was used as a luma matte.
[[File:BlueChannel_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

The upside of this method is that it results in translucent parts of the image. Most keying software (in this case Keylight, which is built in to After Effects) only produce images that have either completely transparent or completely opaque parts. Physarum naturally transmits a lot light that passes through it. The thicker the veins, the more opaque they get. In image-terms you could "measure" the thickness / opacity by looking at how yellow Physarum is. In the picture you can see quite well that some veins are more translucent than others. The issue with this method is that white (as in specular highlights) clips the blue channel as well. So not only does the background get keyed out, but also each reflection. Sadly, Physarum is very shiny, so in any lighting setup, where lights are above it, there will be reflections.

In order to avoid that, a third method of keying was used. For this, Adobes color grading software Lumetri was used. In there, a HSL-selection was added to target the cyan background. This gives much better control of the result, as it is possible to set specific ranges of saturation and luminance and thus control the translucency.

[[File:LumetriHSL_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Still, an optimal keying-solution needs to be found. In the current figuration, Physarum casts too much shadow onto the background.
In order to improve my results and to film the real-deal-timelapses, it is needed to look into the following things:
1. A light setup is needed that doesn't create as harsh highlights. A big source. However, its not very economical to leave a big LED running over night, if pictures are only taken every 10 minutes or so. Maybe an arduino-solution?
2. Physarum casts shadows. There are two possible ways to avoid this. Either the distance to the background must be increased (by e.g. filming vertically instead of top-down), or maybe physarum would grow on a blue medium. Having seen the issues other students had with food-coloring, using small amounts of pure pigment or acrylic based paint should be a better option.
3. With these test-shots, the resolution was not sufficient to see the finest veins. The original plan was to use 20x40cm plexiglas sheets, but maybe 2x4cm makes more sense. This would also diminish filming times maybe to the point where it makes sense again to just leave LEDs on the whole time.

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-27T14:47:13Z

Julian Mosbach: /* Some preparatory thoughts and issues: */

'''Making VFX Assests with Physarum Polycephalum'''

Whats struck me the most when I first saw slime mold was its look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure where simply enchanting. My initial thought was: "I need to use that for a film." So the question is: Is it possible to transform images of slime mold into usable assets for VFX works? And to be precise: I do not want to ''recreate'' the look, I want to use actual footage. So the goal is to make keyed versions of timelapse footage of physarum growing, that can then be reapplied in changed perspective to other surfaces in vfx software such as Adobe After Effects.

== Concept: ==
Normaly, keying is done by shooting objects against a green background. However, since Physarum tends to to a green-yellow color, blue seems to be a better alternative. It offers both greater color- and luminance-contrast.
Secondly, in order to see the finest details I need to shoot as high resolution as possible. To maximize any cameras resolution I need to find a way to grow Physarum on square plates (best in 4:3 ratio) to use the whole sensor.

I did a quick test using single photos.

[[File:P1310563.JPG|400px]]

I simply placed a good looking specimen on a cyan (sadly not blue!) piece of cardboard that I had lying around.
Next, I imported the picture into AE to see if it was keyable.

[[File:Keylight_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Sadly, using standard keying software, the diffusion of the medium and the fine veins of Physarum left a big cyan border. Its not unusable but would need a lot of work to be up to standards.
So I tried a different method: I extracted the blue channel of the image and used its inverse as a luma matte.

[[File:BlueChannel_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

The upside of this method is that it results in translucent parts of the image. Most keying software (I used the built-into-AE Keylight) only produce images that have either completely transparent or completely opaque parts. Physarum naturally transmits a lot light that passes through it. The thicker the veins, the more opaque they get. In image-terms you could "measure" the thickness / opacity by looking at how yellow Physarum is. In the picture you can see quite well that some veins are more translucent than others. The issue with this method is that white (as in specular highlights) clips the blue channel as well. So not only does the background get keyed out, but also each reflection. Sadly, Physarum is very shiny, so in any lighting setup, where lights are above it, there will be reflections.

In order to avoid that, I used a third method of keying. For this, I used Adobes color grading software Lumetri. In there I used a HSL-selection to better target my cyan-color. This gave me much better control of the result, as I could set specific ranges of saturation and luminance and thus control the translucency.

[[File:LumetriHSL_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Still, I think I need to find a better way for keying. In the current figuration, Physarum casts too much shadow onto the background.
In order to improve my results and to film the real-deal-timelapses, I need to look into the following things:
1. I need a lighting setup, that doesn't create as harsh highlights. A big source is needed. However, its not very economical to leave a big LED running over night, if I only take pictures every 10 minutes or so. I will look into an arduino-solution.
2. Physarum casts shadows. There are two possible ways to avoid this. Either I have to increase the distance to the background (by e.g. filming vertically instead of top-down), or I need to see, if physarum would grow on a blue medium. Having seen the issues other students had with food-coloring, I think I will try using small amounts of pure pigment or acrylic based paint.
3. I need to figure out, what size of plate I want. With these test-shots, the resolution was not sufficient to see the finest veins. My original plan was to use 20x40cm plexiglas sheets, but I am thinking of going more with 2x4cm. This would also diminish filming times maybe to the point where it makes sense again to just leave LEDs on the whole time.

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-27T14:46:50Z

Julian Mosbach:

'''Making VFX Assests with Physarum Polycephalum'''

Whats struck me the most when I first saw slime mold was its look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure where simply enchanting. My initial thought was: "I need to use that for a film." So the question is: Is it possible to transform images of slime mold into usable assets for VFX works? And to be precise: I do not want to ''recreate'' the look, I want to use actual footage. So the goal is to make keyed versions of timelapse footage of physarum growing, that can then be reapplied in changed perspective to other surfaces in vfx software such as Adobe After Effects.

== Some preparatory thoughts and issues: ==
Normaly, keying is done by shooting objects against a green background. However, since Physarum tends to to a green-yellow color, blue seems to be a better alternative. It offers both greater color- and luminance-contrast.
Secondly, in order to see the finest details I need to shoot as high resolution as possible. To maximize any cameras resolution I need to find a way to grow Physarum on square plates (best in 4:3 ratio) to use the whole sensor.

I did a quick test using single photos.

[[File:P1310563.JPG|400px]]

I simply placed a good looking specimen on a cyan (sadly not blue!) piece of cardboard that I had lying around.
Next, I imported the picture into AE to see if it was keyable.

[[File:Keylight_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Sadly, using standard keying software, the diffusion of the medium and the fine veins of Physarum left a big cyan border. Its not unusable but would need a lot of work to be up to standards.
So I tried a different method: I extracted the blue channel of the image and used its inverse as a luma matte.

[[File:BlueChannel_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

The upside of this method is that it results in translucent parts of the image. Most keying software (I used the built-into-AE Keylight) only produce images that have either completely transparent or completely opaque parts. Physarum naturally transmits a lot light that passes through it. The thicker the veins, the more opaque they get. In image-terms you could "measure" the thickness / opacity by looking at how yellow Physarum is. In the picture you can see quite well that some veins are more translucent than others. The issue with this method is that white (as in specular highlights) clips the blue channel as well. So not only does the background get keyed out, but also each reflection. Sadly, Physarum is very shiny, so in any lighting setup, where lights are above it, there will be reflections.

In order to avoid that, I used a third method of keying. For this, I used Adobes color grading software Lumetri. In there I used a HSL-selection to better target my cyan-color. This gave me much better control of the result, as I could set specific ranges of saturation and luminance and thus control the translucency.

[[File:LumetriHSL_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Still, I think I need to find a better way for keying. In the current figuration, Physarum casts too much shadow onto the background.
In order to improve my results and to film the real-deal-timelapses, I need to look into the following things:
1. I need a lighting setup, that doesn't create as harsh highlights. A big source is needed. However, its not very economical to leave a big LED running over night, if I only take pictures every 10 minutes or so. I will look into an arduino-solution.
2. Physarum casts shadows. There are two possible ways to avoid this. Either I have to increase the distance to the background (by e.g. filming vertically instead of top-down), or I need to see, if physarum would grow on a blue medium. Having seen the issues other students had with food-coloring, I think I will try using small amounts of pure pigment or acrylic based paint.
3. I need to figure out, what size of plate I want. With these test-shots, the resolution was not sufficient to see the finest veins. My original plan was to use 20x40cm plexiglas sheets, but I am thinking of going more with 2x4cm. This would also diminish filming times maybe to the point where it makes sense again to just leave LEDs on the whole time.

GMU:Computer's Cut/Julian Mosbach

2021-11-07T12:56:57Z

Julian Mosbach:

'''Kitchen Nightmares but just the important parts'''
{{#ev:youtube|JJrrYpdNkHE|320|left|Video in a thumbnail box|frame}}

I searched for 46 more or less emotional keywords. Everything from "shit", "disgusting" and "shocking" to "good", "great" and "awesome" (but most importantly "[__]", which is YouTubes way of decoding profanity). My original intent was to just show how adjectives are used in kitchen nightmares to drive the storytelling. It turned out however that they are used so frequently that the video encapsulates the whole plot. It is perfectly understandable what happens. But also some interesting things happen. For example, lots of adjectives are introduced by chef Ramsay and simply copied by the others. Also some dialogues function perfectly with just a touch of humor. Look out for Ramsay talking to the rastaurants owner Joe.

GMU:Being a Unicellular Organism/Julian Mosbach

2021-10-25T17:44:55Z

Julian Mosbach: Created page with "'''Making VFX Assests with Pysarum Polycephalum''' Whats struck me the most when I first saw slime mold was its look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure whe..."

'''Making VFX Assests with Pysarum Polycephalum'''

Whats struck me the most when I first saw slime mold was its look. The fine details and the seemingly chaotic structure where simply enchanting. My initial thought was: "I need to use that for a film." So the question is: Is it possible to transform images of slime mold into usable assets for VFX works? And to be precise: I do not want to ''recreate'' the look, I want to use actual footage. So the goal is to make keyed versions of timelapse footage of physarum growing, that can then be reapplied in changed perspective to other surfaces in vfx software such as Adobe After Effects.

== Some preparatory thoughts and issues: ==
Normaly, keying is done by shooting objects against a green background. However, since Physarum tends to to a green-yellow color, blue seems to be a better alternative. It offers both greater color- and luminance-contrast.
Secondly, in order to see the finest details I need to shoot as high resolution as possible. To maximize any cameras resolution I need to find a way to grow Physarum on square plates (best in 4:3 ratio) to use the whole sensor.

I did a quick test using single photos.

[[File:P1310563.JPG|400px]]

I simply placed a good looking specimen on a cyan (sadly not blue!) piece of cardboard that I had lying around.
Next, I imported the picture into AE to see if it was keyable.

[[File:Keylight_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Sadly, using standard keying software, the diffusion of the medium and the fine veins of Physarum left a big cyan border. Its not unusable but would need a lot of work to be up to standards.
So I tried a different method: I extracted the blue channel of the image and used its inverse as a luma matte.

[[File:BlueChannel_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

The upside of this method is that it results in translucent parts of the image. Most keying software (I used the built-into-AE Keylight) only produce images that have either completely transparent or completely opaque parts. Physarum naturally transmits a lot light that passes through it. The thicker the veins, the more opaque they get. In image-terms you could "measure" the thickness / opacity by looking at how yellow Physarum is. In the picture you can see quite well that some veins are more translucent than others. The issue with this method is that white (as in specular highlights) clips the blue channel as well. So not only does the background get keyed out, but also each reflection. Sadly, Physarum is very shiny, so in any lighting setup, where lights are above it, there will be reflections.

In order to avoid that, I used a third method of keying. For this, I used Adobes color grading software Lumetri. In there I used a HSL-selection to better target my cyan-color. This gave me much better control of the result, as I could set specific ranges of saturation and luminance and thus control the translucency.

[[File:LumetriHSL_00000_00000.jpg|400px]]

Still, I think I need to find a better way for keying. In the current figuration, Physarum casts too much shadow onto the background.
In order to improve my results and to film the real-deal-timelapses, I need to look into the following things:
1. I need a lighting setup, that doesn't create as harsh highlights. A big source is needed. However, its not very economical to leave a big LED running over night, if I only take pictures every 10 minutes or so. I will look into an arduino-solution.
2. Physarum casts shadows. There are two possible ways to avoid this. Either I have to increase the distance to the background (by e.g. filming vertically instead of top-down), or I need to see, if physarum would grow on a blue medium. Having seen the issues other students had with food-coloring, I think I will try using small amounts of pure pigment or acrylic based paint.
3. I need to figure out, what size of plate I want. With these test-shots, the resolution was not sufficient to see the finest veins. My original plan was to use 20x40cm plexiglas sheets, but I am thinking of going more with 2x4cm. This would also diminish filming times maybe to the point where it makes sense again to just leave LEDs on the whole time.

File:LumetriHSL 00000 00000.jpg

2021-10-25T17:35:39Z

Julian Mosbach: File uploaded with MsUpload

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File:BlueChannel 00000 00000.jpg

2021-10-25T17:34:36Z

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File:Keylight 00000 00000.jpg

2021-10-25T17:34:21Z

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File:BlueChannel 00000.jpg

2021-10-25T17:22:05Z

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File:Keylight 00000.jpg

2021-10-25T17:21:52Z

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File:P1310563.JPG

2021-10-25T17:17:37Z

Julian Mosbach: File uploaded with MsUpload

File uploaded with MsUpload