We Are the Crystal Gems 2.0 (MomoCon 2018 Panel Intro) *UNOFFICIAL*

Uncategorized, Videos

THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL. Seen a lot of people express a lot of confusion, so here’s the HD upload! This was our intro for last week’s panel at MomoCon. McKenzie edited the running sequence that people believe it’s real. Enjoy perhaps?

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This video, including all pictures and clips used is a critique and is covered under “fair use” under section 107 of the US Copyright Act 1976. If you would like to see the shows and episodes in full. Purchase them online or the DVD sets by their respective owners.

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HairControl: A Tracking Solution for Directable Hair Simulation

Uncategorized, Videos

We present a method for adding artistic control to physics-based hair simulation. Taking as input an animation of a coarse set of guide hairs, we constrain a subsequent higher-resolution simulation of detail hairs to follow the input motion in a spatially-averaged sense. The resulting high-resolution motion adheres to the artistic intent but is enhanced with detailed deformations and dynamics generated by physics-based simulation. The technical core of our approach is formed by a set of tracking constraints, requiring the center of mass of a given subset of detail hair to maintain its position relative to a reference point on the corresponding guide hair. As a crucial element of our formulation, we introduce the concept of dynamically changing constraint targets that allow reference points to slide along the guide hairs to provide sufficient flexibility for natural deformations. We furthermore propose to regularize the null space of the tracking constraints based on variance minimization, effectively controlling the amount of spread in the hair. We demonstrate the ability of our tracking solver to generate directable yet natural hair motion on a set of targeted experiments and show its application to production-level animations.

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JAZA 6DoF Photo Contest Winners

Uncategorized, Videos

KanDao, the makers of the KanDao Obsidian camera, sponsored a 6DoF photo contest called JAZA, Journey Along The Z-Axis. In this video I look at just the first, second, and third place submissions in detail.

If you’re interested in seeing me look at all of the submissions, check out this much longer video: https://youtu.be/CtSYq8ApUts

Gold medal – Joao Penaguiao for the Reindeers in north sweden
Silver medal – Lars Lindqvist for the Supermarket in Japan
Bronze medal – Lotta Hardelin for the Garbage dump in India

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Photo Info:
Garbage dump in India – Lotta Härdelin, Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
Delhi is the worlds second largest cohesive metropolitan with more than 50 million inhabitants. These 50 million people generate more than 10 000 tonnes of waste every day. In Shastri Park, in the north eastern part of Delhi garbage is seen all over the streets. The air is hazy because of the airpollution mixed with smoke from minor fires.
In the middle of the Shastri Park dump, Sadita and her family sort out plastic from the mountain of waste. A good day, her family can earn about 4 dollars. The family have lived at the dump for about ten years. When asked what it´s like to live at the dup, Sadita shrugs and says ”The dirty air affects us, but what can we do? We havet o earn money for food”

Supermarket in Japan – Lars Lindqvist, Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
Abandoned towns of Fukushima, Japan. After the nuclear meltdown in 2012 this store has been left to nature.

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Codename: Niantic Occlusion – Real World AR Occlusion featuring Pikachu and Eevee

Uncategorized, Videos

The recently acquired Matrix Mill team at Niantic has spent years building and perfecting deep neural networks that can infer information about the surrounding world from one or more cameras. This technology redefines how machines see and understand the 3D world and more importantly, how digital objects can interact with the real elements of it. Using computer vision and deep learning we are able to develop techniques to understand 3D space enabling much more realistic Augmented Reality (AR) interactions than are currently possible. In the above AR experience of Codename: Niantic Occlusion, you can see Pikachu and Eevee weaving through and around different objects in the real world, dodging feet and hiding behind planters. This level of integration into the environment around us is a proof-of-concept that excites us about the future of AR.

©2016–2018 Pokémon. ©1995–2018 Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc. Pokémon and Pokémon character names are trademarks of Nintendo.

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A Hole to Climb Out

Politics, Politics2, Uncategorized

Fun fact: As of the 39 states which have publicly listed their set of candidates, Democrats have filed as candidates in at least 3,580 out of 5,411 seats in state houses which are open to contest this year. The number of seats contested by Democrats will likely increase to over two-thirds of contestable seats after 6 more seats list their primary candidates. 

In 34 states which are having state senate elections and have listed their candidates, Democrats have filed as candidates in at least 848 out of 1,972 available seats in partisan state senates which are having elections this year. This number is also likely to increase with six more states’ listings of state senate candidates, although only likely up to over half. 

Democrats right now are 500 seats shy of running for a full 2/3rds of state legislative seats. Democrats currently hold 2336 state house seats, 333 seats shy of half of the partisan total of 5338 partisan state house seats, and 809 state senate seats, 165 shy of half of the partisan total of 1948 state senate seats. So we’re likely running for at least 1244 more house seats and 39 more state senate seats (total 1283) than we currently have. 

We’re starting from twin holes of Republican state-legislature gerrymandering from 2010 and a greater concentration of the Democratic base in cities which may stymie any Democratic wave, but this is already the largest number of Democrats to run for state legislatures since 1982. With Democrats running for at least 4,428 out of 6,066 available total seats, we’re already running for two-thirds of available state legislative seats this year.

UK to Legalize Equal Civil Partnerships/Unions

Politics, Politics2, Uncategorized

So this decision from the UK Supreme Court demanding that Westminster open civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples on equality grounds is a bit of a game-changer over there. 

It makes the strongest-yet case for Parliament to extend civil partnerships as an option for opposite-sex couples, saying that any argument to the contrary has not been sufficiently or logically made. It’s an evolution of civil partnerships away from what was once a “separate-but-equal” regime. 

My idea is that if Parliament acts on this (it’s already legal in some British crown territories like Jersey, but it’s not a sure thing that Parliament will keep CPs), it will allow for both heterosexual femininity and heterosexual masculinity to evolve a bit away from legal and political relationship hierarchies. Under this, in the CP, the father won’t be required to “give away” their daughter as a “wife” to a “husband”. This may even go as far as needing to change entire laws around parent relationships with their children. I want to see this happen, because it may have a broader impact upon the Anglosphere’s gender heirarchy beliefs. It may also help further a heterosexual masculinity which isn’t as hinged on gender hierarchy or power within relationships. 

The only reason why the US didn’t adopt civil unions or domestic partnerships en masse – even for heterosexual couples – is because the federal government never accepted them, benefitted them or even talked about them.