The CG Channel website has a short piece opening up a discussion on next gen digital humans. I tend to agree with the author: building virtual characters will become increasingly simple. Where I also agree (of course) is that there will be rising demand for designers. Over the past few years I’ve been watching the videogame job market and I’m finally now noticing a big jump in calls for “Environment Artists”. Translation: as game worlds become increasingly immersive, there is a need to fill them with 3D objects; not just copies of real-life products (which raises some sticky IP issues), but newly designed objects. It’s a trend I’ve been expecting for some time and it’s nice to see it finally kick in. The next ten years are going to be a blast.
Tag Archives: #industrialdesign
From A Wooden Apple To…
Since this is a new blog, I’ve been watching the traffic – mostly in the laughably vain concern that I might begin to approach my throughput limitation (hey, it’s my fantasy, alright) – and this morning discovered a rather interesting visitor had stopped in.
Now before I continue, I should preface this by saying I first read a slew of emails, all RepRap related. Included in one such group email was the confirmation that ABS cylindrical stocks are available and have melt points (~110 C) that make it possible to use this material in that experimental, 4-day-in-the-making, Vik Olliver Meccano effort about which I posted earlier. Having been in the manufacturing side of plastics for years, I can assure you ABS is highly regarded (too often I’ve had to make due with lesser plastics like SAN).
Hence my amusement at a mention by none other than Bruce Sterling on his Wired blog. And while I have nothing to do with the item in question, I do now perhaps have a better understanding of Mr. Sterling – even though I understand the post is intended to poke some fun. Well. Kinda. See, it took four years studying ID before I began to shed my aerospace engineering “blinders” (hey, I got through orbital mechanics mathematics and their painful derivations, but it didn’t make me inventive), and he’s only been at ACCD a few months, I believe. Furthermore, if I recall correctly, he won’t be there much longer. A shame. Hanging around a bunch of students who aren’t polarized into a way of thinking can be liberating… in ways that hanging around experts isn’t. I recall one student in 1992 (now a design firm principal, I believe) having the audacity to suggest handheld cellphone-like devices in ten years! That idiot! If only he’d listened to the impossibility of that development from all the senior instructors and engineers.
Why respond? Maybe because it was all the comments made by people in the late 70’s. “Whut da hell ya need a ‘puter fer? Ah got me a 350 Chevy.” I recall those kinds of comments. I just didn’t expect Bruce Sterling to be the one to pull them from my memory. What a great reminder of how things are. And how I expect them to continue to be, especially in regards to virtual worlds. I was just having this conversation last night with Jerry… in world….
(note: the above image from 8-Bit Nirvana)
And Even More FabLab Stuff….
The Economist has posted an article from their print edition reminding everyone that Dr. Gershenfeld has been using RP technology to assist those in need for years. I’ll admit having temporarily forgotten. It’s truly a shame that $20k is too much for some developing countries to afford; probably preventing the more widespread use of his collection of devices. I guess that depressing part of the story helped me forget. Isn’t that roughly the cost of a single Smart bomb?
A Second Look at Second Life
Since this blog only went “live” yesterday (I’d disabled it’s pingback features until then) I was surprised to see someone outside my small circle of mostly disinterested acquaintances had stopped in to visit. Curious to know who, I paid Setpoint Originator a visit. It appears we have some things in common. More importantly, I noticed the two previous entries concerned Second Life, and so decided to pay a long overdue visit to its homepage and some other related sites. The one that really struck me was this blog entry over on Wonderland. The “Virtual Hallucinations” example reinforces my previous thoughts on Molyneux’s “The Room” experiment in that there are surprising (and perhaps startling) ways to use this technology, and makes me wonder if something similar couldn’t be coded into SL… perhaps the ability to create enclosed environments wherein more dramatic experimentation can take place. Just a thought. But of actually greater interest to me now are some of the virtual economic and social issues transpiring there. Worth a third look…tomorrow after a good night’s rest.
I Kinda Remember That Idea (on Instant Emergency Shelters)
Wired has a cool article, “Need a Building? Just Add Water”, on shake ‘n bake shelters. I especially like this idea because I volunteered something similar – though not as elegant – during a Rubbermaid R&D conference years ago. And this one is so much better since it’s intended for humanitarian aid and uses natural materials. Excellent example of what ID does best.