Blogology is a glimpse into the work being done at Imaginology. Follow in the pursuit of its mission to improve the human condition with imagination technology. Articles in this blog are contributed by Imaginology staff, leaders in the imagination technology industry, and collaborators working on projects with Imaginology.
It is with great pleasure and excitement that Imaginology announces "The Afterlife Experience with Bony Tony, Holiday Special, 2020 Video Premiere, scheduled for Saturday, December 26, 2020. Streaming live on Facebook at https://fb.me/e/Zvtzsidb.
Please join us as for a very special evening as Bony Tony hosts the first annual, Afterlife Experience with Bony Tony Holiday Special. A live, interactive animated showcase of artists and talent. Featuring all your favorite, original characters, stories and locations in the worst parts of Phoenix and of course hosted by the dead guy voted to look least like Santa... @ogbonytonyBony Tony!
Featuring special guest artists, puppets, cartoons, performers, puppets, prizes and so much more. Live, from Imaginology studio.
What else do you have to do Christmas weekend!? It's not like you can go out dancing, you Bonehead! Get with the program and join everyone's favorite dead guy for freaky fun, laughs and quarantine hygiene lessons.
*masks not required to view video program on Facebook.
The Afterlife Experience is an original concept as part of “Puppetry with Purpose” at Imaginology studio. Designed to facilitate grief processing and healing through use of character and performance art.
In September, I had the terrific opportunity to work as a production assistant with Imaginology, to produce Mask Alive. This is the third annual Festival of Masks, originally an in-person event, now transitioned into the virtual festival world. This festival is rapidly evolving, while still keeping the family fun.
The Mask Alive event was live-streamed simultaneously on YouTube and Facebook on September 13, 2020. This fantastic event, full of culture and energy, can still be enjoyed onCultural Coalition’ssocial media platforms.The festival showcased the beauty and artisanship involved in producing these unique masks, while highlighting the artist’s expressions through dance and music.
Imaginology took great care, collaborating with Culture Coalition, to ensure this cultural festival had the ability to highlight the performers in away in which they could tell their story through video, and audio, while allowing emotion and creativity to emerge.
During the journey to create a family-friendly virtual event, filled with culture and life, Imaginology produced all of the introduction performances with artist Zarco Guerrero, Board President of Cultural Coalition, Inc. I would like to note that the collaboration with Zarco was not only fruitful in the countless light-hearted characters he brought to life, but it was enjoyable to see an imperative part of Cultural Coalition engage with the audience. The positive feedback from the audience, and their love for these playful characters, was all thanks to Zarco. This was a wonderful collaboration.
While in the midst of production, watching the stream go live, I reflected on the fact that, this event being virtual, has the potential to reach people around the world. While, of course, I look forward to once more enjoying the beauty of the commotion of in-person events, inhaling the smell of cooking foods, or taking in the sheer beauty of the dancer’s costumes while they perform, I also see the beauty in this event appearing in the digital world.
This new form can allow families to spend time together at home while learning and absorbing the love shared around this culture and artwork. Through this event, I love the idea that people who are not local, and who may not have had the opportunity to see this cultural exchange live, can now revisit and enjoy the festival when they have a moment of peace.
On a personal level, I would like to take a moment to touch on how much love and passion is evident within the hearts of these performers. I enjoyed the clear level of pride that could be felt through the masks. I applaud the energy and dedication infused in this project and look forward to other exciting projects birthed by this collaboration in the future.
When you think of the term "performance animation" you probably think of images of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, hunched over and creepily repeating "my precious". Or if you're like me and enjoy all of the behind the scenes, making-of content that fulfills my rock-n-roll, film maker fantasy, you are familiar with images of Andy Serkis hunched over and embodying every bit as much of Gollum as resulted in the film.
Either way, most people are familiar with the concept of people performing in blue or green screen rooms with motion capture "balls", velcro attached to spandex jumpsuits as computers analyze and record location information.
However, with the recent gaming industry boom and resulting hardware and software developments, some basic motion capture technology has fallen into the consumers living room, likely without them even realizing it. Enter the Microsoft Kinect Camera. No longer do you need to dress like you are riding in the Tour de France to capture motion data or even perform live animation. Granted, the professional solutions in the industry are still top notch and by no means does the Kinect camera replace these technologies, rather offers a piece of it to the general public.
Naturally there's a world full of engineers, tinkerers and dreamers who will tap into available technology and tools to create brilliant experiences. Many people are plugging the Kinect camera into computers and writing code to use this technology for fun, educational, experimental, medical and many other applications. Our interest was to determine if performance animation is ready for live streaming and new business opportunities.
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting a seasoned professional in the field of real-time, interactive animation - Gary Jesch of CHOPS & Associates. A referral from our LinkedIn network of media professionals (Freelance Audio Visual Technicians), it was suggested that I look into his business after discussing real time animation with a video engineer.
Turns out, Gary is one of the pioneers of live, performance animation. Creating virtual characters and performance animation solutions for numerous industries and clients for nearly twenty years. Although his most prominent character is his "CHOPS(Cyber Human On a Performance System)" character, among his dozens of various characters, his true character is himself. He was immediately open and easy to communicate with. You could certainly sense that Gary had a great "ear" for people. His live performances and interactions with people over the years has certainly created a polished experience and you can tell he truly enjoys his work.
His offered to participate in a networking luncheon we were having the following week was a no-brainer. We had planned an Imaginology open house to demonstrate live character animation streaming and CHOPS (http://www.chops.com/) was a perfect fit. His performance animation plugs directly into teleconferencing software to allow him to interact in real-time on your desktop or laptop computer. The best part may simply be that the system just worked. No crashes, no delays, no issues. This truly helps make the experience immersive. You are simply conversing with an animated character. I suppose this is the best form of technology. The technology that you don't even notice as technology, but rather as technology that just works and stays out of the way.
We set him up to engage people at the door as they came in and he stopped almost everyone in their tracks. His characters entertained, inspired dozens of questions and kept everyone on the edge of their tongue as they watched the characters in awe and wonder. This is where Gary truly shines, as he keeps the momentum and engages everyone in the room, simply continuing the conversation and interest. I can see where this technology has tons of potential for business. Not only do you get great value in attention and retention of your brand, but the animation can be recorded to create character animation sequences for other materials as needed (think live animation production services).
It was a true pleasure to see a professional performance animation artist at work. I now look forward to my next experience with performance animation on either side of the camera.
Overall, performance animation seems to be ready for the business world, as well as the consumer. The question remains: is the consumer more ready than the business world?
