tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24928148423322640052012-01-02T12:24:55.639-05:00<i><a href="http://www.nformationdesign.com/">N Formation Design, LLC</a></i> specializes in creating custom, 3D interactive media for a variety of clients. This blog is a place for us to think out loud about our business and to research topics related to our work.chrislandauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12726034628357552774noreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-7639942859788353602009-03-31T18:49:00.002-05:002009-03-31T20:04:55.975-05:00

This past week the web standards organization Khronos Group (the folks responsible for management of the OpenGL standards) announced a partnership with Mozilla that will aim to create a new open standard for ‘accelerated 3D on the web’.The announcement generated quite a bit of buzz and commentary in the online graphics community. John Dowdell of Adobe wrote a highly critical blog post on the

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-26482377544508316262009-03-29T16:35:00.002-05:002009-03-29T17:06:05.562-05:00

Most everyone these days who has participated any sort of web-service is familiar with the Captcha. It's the (usually) annoying little set of disfigured letters or words that you must decode and type into a box to assure that system that you are, indeed, a human being. Weeding out traffic from hackers and bots is a necessity so that the providers of these automated services can dedicate their

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-74379913133688258982009-02-01T17:40:00.006-05:002009-03-22T18:23:34.150-05:00

Automated generation of 3D content is an interesting and noteworthy problem that seems to be getting more and more attention lately. With the boom of custom user-driven 3D content both online (virtual worlds, 3D chats, etc.) and off (video games) there is an increasing demand for better, cheaper, and more personalized models. Automating model creation, or at least an initial base model, would

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-32364643573764303702009-01-15T20:16:00.002-05:002009-01-15T20:30:27.351-05:00

The Bureau of Surveying and mapping in China has announced that they are nearly finished measuring and digitizing the last surviving portions of the Great Wall. The digital models are being created from detailed photographic mappings of nine provinces in the northern region of the country.Furthermore, the traditionally Internet-unfriendly Chinese government will make the models available

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-16193268897949012902009-01-14T22:37:00.007-05:002009-01-14T22:57:22.187-05:00

We are happy to announce the successful launch of our latest interactive web project, a 3d configurator and sales application for custom made pendants. Commisioned by Austin & Warburton Jewelers of Ann Arbor, MI, the application was launched at TheParentAndChild.com shortly before the busy holiday shopping season.From the project page:We designed a set of customized 3d configurators that

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-91508865135219166872009-01-13T21:48:00.003-05:002009-01-13T22:04:57.440-05:00

For a great example of the benefits of 3d and virtual environments, take a look at the new addition to Google Earth recently reported in an article by a Bay Area ABC affiliate.Google Earth has become a great tool for interactively viewing existing structures and topology, but the truly novel step comes in integrating future structures with the existing world. Google has done just that by adding

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-18829354961603850462009-01-08T21:00:00.004-05:002009-01-08T21:30:17.465-05:00

The RealView 3D company has announced a new desktop 3D scanner that will be unveiled at the recently opened CES 2009. It's great to see more competition in this market. Hopefully the prices of these systems will begin to come down! NextEngine seems to have the most popular 'low cost' version which still comes in at $2995 for the bare-bones package. Though we don't have one in house, I have seen

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-68372125330027715422009-01-06T22:15:00.004-05:002009-01-06T22:55:26.274-05:00

Nature, the preeminent journal of scientific research, has boosted the credibility of interactive 3d for scientific visualization by publishing their first 3d interactive figure. The January 1st issue contains 3d figures of molecular clouds in a paper first-authored by Alyssa A. Goodman, astronomy professor at Harvard University.Nature makes use of '3d PDF' technology which allows 3d applets to

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-14826577683869538542009-01-05T22:17:00.003-05:002009-01-05T22:46:09.359-05:00

A recent article in the Washington Post highlights efforts by Arlington County government to bring the region into the flourishing world of interactive 3d. Resident John Feather is volunteering his time to get these advanced technology initiatives off the ground and making sure they get the attention they deserve.Much of the article is devoted to area presences in Second Life. Feather (avatar

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-71225338391553127892009-01-02T21:03:00.002-05:002009-01-02T21:13:05.939-05:00

N Formation Design had a great 2008 with many exciting interactive 3d projects. We look forward to new adventures in the coming year and hope for continued adoption of interactive 3d technologies.Stay tuned to the N Formation Design Blog for more (and hopefully more frequent!) news, tips, and technology reviews in the coming year.Happy New Year and best wishes for business in 2009!

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-43482258539009081912008-10-13T12:23:00.004-05:002008-10-13T14:25:23.793-05:00

ILoveSketch is a very cool application recently announced by the Dynamic Graphics Project (DGP) lab at the University of Toronto. In short, it makes sketching in 3D as intuitive as I have ever seen it. Anyone who has ever tried 3D modeling, especially an organic object, knows that the process is far from straight-forward. Sketches are usually used only as 2d reference points that have to be

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-77123696760895471672008-09-24T14:07:00.007-05:002008-09-24T15:04:47.472-05:00

I recently came across another newcomer to the web-based virtual worlds market: ExitReality.At face value, ExitReality functions similarly to all of the others out there (SL, Vivaty, Lively, IMVU, etc.). You register (free), login, and get a customizable avatar dropped into a social 'lounge' area where other users also congregate. When I first tried the Beta environment out, there were about 10

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-39523763342321984292008-09-16T12:33:00.006-05:002008-09-16T13:10:26.718-05:00

N Formation Design is happy to announce the completion of a great 3D data visualization in cooperation with Dr. John Lehman of the University of Michigan. This project incorporates spatial data gathered by Dr. Lehman via sensors in Ford Lake (Ypsilanti Twp, MI) with a 3D model of the actual bathymetry (underwater shape) of the lake.This visualization will allow community members to get a better

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-66260793525933251202008-09-15T09:20:00.000-05:002008-09-15T07:19:13.954-05:00

The big news of a couple days ago was the firing up of the Large Hadron Collider (or 'LHC') at CERN. This is awesome to us science-minded folks and should provided for some great advances in physics once they actually start smashing particles together.But I digress. The actual reason a brought that up was a neat link that came up in my brief research on the subject. It's a set of 360 panoramic

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-81771154102680746042008-09-12T14:38:00.006-05:002008-09-12T16:10:29.483-05:00

In this Web 2.0 world, users are beginning to have an expectation of involvement in their web experiences. The second part of this article deals with possible ways to fill this need.There are many techniques and technologies that can be used to create engaging user experiences. N Formation Design believes that the best and most promising solution is interactive (or "rich") media.Interactive

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-5716396742886231382008-09-10T16:53:00.005-05:002008-09-11T09:12:41.804-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to give a talk at a local marketing-focused lunch group. My topic was 'Engaging User Experiences' - what they are, and a few ideas on how to make them. It went over pretty well, so I thought I'd note some of the main points here.Creating engaging user experiences is all about grabbing the user's attention and then keeping their interest. These are the common

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-57474803938721939362008-08-21T11:53:00.002-05:002008-08-21T12:06:12.989-05:00

I wanted to follow up on my last Vivaty post and mention that (as indicated by Pat at Vivaty) several improvements have been made in their latest release. There are now shared spaces that you can use as well as some gestures and other interactions. They even recently added virtual pets!The most important release though is that of an authoring tool for scenes and objects. I have not tried it yet,

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-27002883888912170932008-07-23T16:06:00.003-05:002008-07-23T16:35:26.843-05:00

I've been getting a lot of questions about what the 'best' or 'easiest to learn' 3d modeling program is. After further discussion, it usually turns out that the person really wants to know what the 'cheapest' or 'easiest to obtain' program is. My answers to these people usually come in the form of some sort of open source solution. I've been really surprised at how few people actually know about

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-45645951484250430722008-07-21T11:02:00.004-05:002008-07-21T11:49:22.305-05:00

Creating great looking real-time ready models of complex objects is getting easier and easier.Anton van den Hengel of the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies is leading the development of an amazing new process that allows you to easily create 3d models from video. The process - called 'VideoTrace' - debuted last year at SIGGRAPH and involves interactively tracing the desired object over

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-42862590529763087312008-07-15T10:50:00.006-05:002008-07-15T13:58:09.657-05:00

After yesterday's foray into the Lively beta, I finally decided to swing back to the Vivaty private beta invite that had been sitting neglected in my inbox. To my surprise, they are now supporting IE6 as well as IE7. So, though I'd really like to see Firefox capabilities, at least I didn't have to upgrade...Vivaty currently functions as a Facebook or AIM imbedded application. I decided to go the

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-86379813463692984282008-07-14T14:30:00.005-05:002008-07-14T15:18:27.717-05:00

Last week Google jumped into the world of shared virtual environments with a beta release of 'Lively.' Lively is essentially a 3d chatroom where users can customize their avatar from one of a library of preset characters and create custom environments with furniture, pictures, etc.As I was downloading the Lively web-applet (it runs completely within your browser) I found myself pretty excited,

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-31270350614053255802008-05-22T19:23:00.004-05:002008-07-15T11:41:00.463-05:00

I recently received a beta-testing invitation from 'Vivaty,' a new player in the SecondLife dominated (and dragging) virtual worlds game. I'm not too familiar with the company, but based on a quick Googling, it seems to be well funded and has solid leadership. The most interesting buy-in for me at this point is their Facebook integration. If its solid, that could be a great boost for them and a

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-91481535653750295722008-05-05T14:23:00.007-05:002008-05-28T12:40:33.429-05:00

I thought I'd post a resource for anyone looking to improve their 3D modeling skills. The Ego Lounge over at Ego-Farms has a bunch of really great tutorials and comment threads with helpful tips and discussions. It's also a great place to get feedback on your work or help with a particular problem or technique.Ego-Farms is run by Eric Maslowski, a great guy and ridiculously talented 3D artist.

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-73608359502479862082008-05-02T12:10:00.004-05:002008-05-02T12:51:12.557-05:00

In a couple of weeks (May 12th), international industry leaders and other 3D proponents and interested entities will meet in São Paulo, Brazil for what is being called the 'X3D Earth' initiative.Web3d.org lists the purpose of the X3D Earth group as being: "to create an infrastructure of open and extensible standards to visualize in three dimension objects from real world and constructions of

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-49434672392683906642008-04-30T13:57:00.006-05:002008-04-30T15:03:52.771-05:00

We've been working on an exciting new project (see screenshot) and would love to get some feedback. A demo of our new 3d Virtual Apartment simulation is up and running. Take a look! We'd be glad do hear any comments or criticisms.On a broader note - Is 'virtual real estate' an effective marketing tool? Many industry leaders have adopted the QuicktimeVR method of virtual walk-throughs which

jamiecopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770829279003749088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-22561662523423503232007-08-17T08:10:00.000-05:002007-08-17T10:06:34.787-05:00

A lot of people have been tearing Second Life to pieces lately! From the interview and articles with David M. Ewalt at Forbes (whose site is getting a bit ad-heavy, seriously) to the article in Wired about how horrible it is to advertise there, people seem to have it out for the blossoming metaverse. But I don't think they understand Second Life's core elements: creativity, communication, and

chrislandauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12726034628357552774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-55529557643296776752007-08-17T07:52:00.000-05:002007-08-17T08:10:16.021-05:00

At N Formation Design we have recently updated our website. The new site includes the addition of a few new projects and an "Ongoing and Additional Projects" section in the portfolio. In the new section we include current projects like the work we are doing in Second Life for the University of Michigan Medical School and a recently finished website for Reynolds Pictures of Philadelphia. There are

chrislandauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12726034628357552774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-90078128473992423862007-07-19T11:25:00.001-05:002007-07-19T11:29:54.595-05:00

These are videos that are part of an educational applet that we created for Kumar Lab at the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute as a continuation to his Organelle DB and Organelle View. The applet also contains a rotatable yeast cell cycle animation. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. We especially enjoyed all the research that went into it. We had a difficult time finding

chrislandauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12726034628357552774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-90171252730676790182007-07-13T15:02:00.000-05:002007-07-13T15:15:59.006-05:00

It has been a busy day for N Formation Design. This morning, I (impromptu) went to a conference in Philadelphia on blogging called BlogPhiladelphia. I got to meet a few people and it made me super excited about blogging, but I couldn't stay long.Things are really rolling along on with our projects. One project actually went live today, and I've been dying to write about it.Now I can.The project

chrislandauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12726034628357552774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492814842332264005.post-78756325201263057382007-07-03T20:36:00.000-05:002007-07-08T00:50:02.015-05:00

Imagine moving through a scene composed of photographs. And anyone's vacation photos on flickr can be part of the mix. That's precisely what PhotoSynth aims to do. It is a product by Microsoft Live Labs that is still under development.This is the hottest new application from Microsoft. It does very similar things as the new Google Maps Street View and looks suspiciously like the images in

chrislandauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12726034628357552774noreply@blogger.com0