Breaking the fourth wall - 3d Interactive landscape photography

<p>Hi Guys. I am not sure where exactly these kind of things are posted and discussed as they not fit into any predefined domain yet.<br />To summarize, it started 3 years ago when after seeing a "parallax" WWF video I thought that I should do a similar thing given the fact that canon is unable to provide proper video support for their SLR's .But I wanted to take it to the next level by actually giving 3d geometry to the photos and realtime dynamic reflections. I came up with a video and it was a success but these days I wanted to do a bit more. So I started learning a bit of programming in javascript and some webgl.<br />This was the result. <br /><a href="http://aurelm.com/fully-3d-interactive-photography/">http://aurelm.com/fully-3d-interactive-photography/</a><br />This could be conisdered a request for critique or a showcase and it probably is but since it is rather new (nothing I have seen so far fits properly into this category) it is also a good talk subject about what the future of photography is. At this moment landscape photography is rather saturated and originality is lost within the sea of the same type of photos with the same subjects and lighting. The images I used as you can see fall perfectly into that category and are not the ones that I am proud of but they are some of the ones that draw a "wow" . But since I already had them in 3d it was the easiest road until I will make a proper art project involving photography and interactivity.<br /><br />Like I said beside showcasing it can be a good talk subject of what photography is, was and will be as it may follow a similar road to what a film was/is/will be or the same in computer games.</p>

I couldn't see the link, even after waiting quite some time for it to download.<br>

<br>I don't know what photos you've been looking at to assert so high-handedly: <br>

<i>At this moment landscape photography is rather saturated and originality is lost within the sea of the same type of photos with the same subjects and lighting.</i><br><br>

Sorry you think that landscape photography is in such poor shape AND that complex post-processing is the answer for boring photos.  <br>

<br>The pleasure of landscape photography for me is in always discovering something new, whether it's seeing something I've never seen before (like the <i>Archaea</i> I discovered out at the wetlands last summer) or photographing something in such a way as to take it into a new realm, like the "scum" picture below.<div>[ATTACH=full]852215[/ATTACH]</div>

<p>Hi.<br />Thanks for the reply.<br />1: what device did you open it in ? Did it get to the click to continue screen ? I tested it on most possible devices and pc's <br />2: That is true, the landscape photography for me at least is about the journey whatever the outcome, be it video, photos, overprocessed photos or just some material to use in something else. But I was talking more about the state of photography as a "product" more from the viewer point of view. <br />I did not mean that postprocessing is the way for boring photos but rather that posptprocessing is a way for good photos to get better. My critique of my own photos is that even if craftsmanship-wise they are ok they lack originality in subject or framing as the ones I used are very similar to many others. If I were an isolated island without network connection I would be very satisfied with them. But I am not so...<br />ps: nice photo.</p>

I had no trouble clicking on that link. You had some very good photos there to start with, Monument Valley and that cavern whose name I have forgotten. At first it looked like a video camera was just moving back and forth. Then I found that moving the cursor moved the foreground more than the background That gave the same effect as if I were to be at the scene and was moving my body along. That certainly was impressive and I am impressed.

<p>I also had trouble. In my case I could not get out of the page :(</p>

<p>these are very strange issues I am hearing. Could anyone that had issues opening the page tell me what OS/device/browser they did on ?<br />James, thanks for the feedback.</p>

<p>After trying three different browser I got into the site. I'm not sure it makes sense to describe the results as "fully" interactive, as the POV can only shift by a few degrees. Given that people are already finding actually fully interactive (as in, 360 degree) immersive interaction shot for and posted on silly places like FB posts, you'll want to reduce expectations for full interaction.</p>

<p>Yes, I'm sorry. The description is a bit misleading but I cannot change it. There is not that much freedom of movement as the idea is to keep the original photo framing in aspect but make it cam alive a bit by having a participatory viewer that has enough movement to feel it's not a straight photo but a 3d environment .</p>

<p>I'm not sure what people are whining about, this is cool and it's called an 'experiment' for a reason. Reminds me of the Chrome experiment for the Oz film (Wizard of Oz prequel) advertising. I'd call this 2.5d as opposed to 3d. Loads fine for me even on my not exactly new pc. I'm not sure how possible this is but I can imagine merging this was aerial video/camera zoom and interactive button areas so when you click part of the image, especially if it's a busy image. Let's say, for example, a classical fairground with clickable zoom to areas.</p>

<p>I liked it a lot at first, then got irritated that the view control is so limited. I think you need to fly maybe 12 drones in circular formation. I like that you are trying to break into a new medium, and it's an impressive step.</p>

 

<p>I got in, then the site crashed my browser, most recent Firefox with a PC. I did get back in. The frame with the seascapes never came into focus, so the moving OOF image was more than distracting. My curser was not able to make anything noticable happen. The Monument Valley image simply moves, rather like a drone rising and dropping. There are many stacking artifacts on the bottom right side of the image. You may want to clean that up. It's cool stuff though, and I wish you well with the work. Looking at your other landscape photographs Many of them are quite fine and don't need a gimmick to be appreciated.</p>

We did stuff like that using flash back in 2005 using a stitched set of images in a 180 degree pattern or using the movie timeline to go through "layers" of an image shot at different times of the day. We created mini movies that corresponded to where the mouse was on the screen and could fade out of one image and bring another forward. Or swap a color image with black and white using transparency based on mouse coordinates. There was even a truck/jeep ad that used a bank of cameras to capture a vehicle from several angles as it splashed through a bog that you could rotate around.

The landscapes are impressive and the sense of movement and tracking gives a sens of reality that video often achieves. It explains why videographers like to use sliders and thus get a shift between foreground and background to show the separation of planes. We might even think way way back to Disney's multi plane animation cameras whch created a sense of depth by using such clues along with the usual haze and perspective and color clues. I am a stick in the mud by thinking that true stereopsis is the finest way to show depth...I have not experienced virtual reality but I bet it exploits that power as well. I do like you choice of landscapes. Beauty of nature shines through.