Art residencies and grants
It looks like ThisIsColossal regularly covers residencies, contests, and grants for creative and artistic creations.
Maybe you can even apply for a residency from Adobe.
AI based art generation
I’ve written about AI-based generated art before. Why not try your hand at some of the engines?
Dall·e is an open source project. Try it here by typing in something fun and see what it comes up with.
Craiyon lets you type anything in and see what it comes up with as well.
High End Home Furnishings
Les Ateliers Courbet is just one spot where people buy high end furniture and home furnishings for their modern architectural homes/evil mastermind lairs. It’s a fine balance between high end art gallery and furnishings provider – blending contemporary artists with master craftsmen. I always love looking at the designs coming out of high-end architectural and design work. I need to find some others. 🙂
See also: Arita Porcelain Labs
Virtual Production environments – at home?
Virtual Production is really hitting it’s legs in real movies like the Mandalorian and replacing green-screen flows. It is, however, ridiculously expensive and requires massive spaces to work in.
Cinematographer and developer Matt Workman breaks down how he used a mix of real-world camera equipment and 3D knowledge in Unreal Engine to set up an indie virtual production studio in his house. He talks about his remote collaboration workflow as well. Learn more at http://www.unrealengine.com/film-tv
Orbital VR
I’ve already written about how movie houses are often giving up on greenscreen and using giant LED displays along with game engines (like Unity) to control what is displayed based on camera movement. It gives much more realistic lighting, better sight lines, no green-screen removal artifacts, and a host of other benefits.
Orbital Studios is one of the houses doing this kind of work. They have some good videos on their website.
They’re definitely still defining these production environments and using some interesting things like Quasar lighting to create light zones around the actors:
Edward Hopper: Nighthawks
Great Art Explained has a number of really awesome videos about major works of art – all explained in 15 minutes. One of my favorite paintings was Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. A painting I saw numerous times when I’d go to the Art Institute of Chicago.
One of the most interesting facts about Hopper was that he would meticulously plan, design, and research every aspect of his paintings before making them. It’s also fascinating how many movie scenes and visual themes were inspired by his paintings.
Arita Porcelain Labs
Arita Japan was likely the first place porcelain was found in Japan. Since then, it’s become the center of Japanese Porcelain. They make some amazingly intricate and delicate porcelain. Arita Porcelain Labs turns out some amazing items.
Here’s a movie about their work:
Tokyo Weekender also did an article on the labs and some other porcelain makers in the area.
Sierra Style 3D
Mausimus came up with a really clever conversion of old 2D Sierra adventure games to 3D using a 2.5D camera style (used in modern games like Little Nightmares or It Takes Two) and a voxel engine to keep things blocky and aliased. I think this is really excellent idea – probably the best ‘modernization’ of this style of old game.
He also has some other interesting code projects such as shaderglass.
Sublimotion
Sublimotion is a fascinating restaurant experience located in Sant Josep de sa Talaia in Ibiza, Spain. As of 2015, the restaurant is considered the most expensive in the world with an average price of around USD $2,300 per person.
What makes it so expensive? First, it is only open from June 1 until Sept 30 with only 2 seating’s of 12 guests per night – making reservations very exclusive. Second, 2-star Michelin chef Paco Roncero utilizes molecular gastronomy in the 20 course tasting meal. And finally, you get a fully immersive VR/Projection mapped experience with actors, laser light shows, DJ’s, virtual reality experiences, and actors.
Give this a look to see what the experience is like:
This isn’t the first restaurant with similar experiences.
Ultraviolet Restaurant in Shanghai was very similar but slightly more playful/experimental feel. Some have accused Sublimotion of having copied their original concept since there are some clear similarities.
There are also lots of other restaurants and dining experiences adding projection mapping to their menus as well. A few years back, I went to Inamo in London that had projection mapped dining surfaces as well as the ability to pay your bill, order more drinks, and even order a cab from the table.
Belgian artists Filip Sterckx and Antoon Beeck, who work under the collective name Skullmapping, to create the interactive eating experience called Le Petite Chef.
Retro Micros and Electronics in England
Two pretty cool museums to visit if you are ever in Kent UK.
First the one of the largest private collections of vintage microcomputers in the UK: The Micro Museum in Ramsgate.
This Museum is (Not) Obsolete is right next door and contains TONS of amazing vintage electronics – most of which still works! Working telephone switching hubs, scopes, and lots of crazy modern rebuilds done by Look Mum No Computer.