The Virtual Worlds of Cinema Visual Effects, Simulation, and the Aesthetics of Cinematic Immersion

This thesis develops a phenomenology of immersive cinematic spectatorship. During an immersive experience in the cinema, the images, sounds, events, emotions, and characters that form a fictional diegesis become so compelling that our conscious experience of the real world is displaced by a virtual world. Theorists and audiences have long recognized cinema’s ability to momentarily substitute for the lived experience of reality, but it remains an under-theorized aspect of cinematic spectatorship. The first aim of this thesis is therefore to examine these immersive responses to cinema from three perspectives – the formal, the technological, and the neuroscientific – to describe the exact mechanisms through which a spectator’s immersion in a cinematic world is achieved. A second aim is to examine the historical development of the technologies of visual simulation that are used to create these immersive diegetic worlds. My analysis shows a consistent increase in the vividness and transparency of simulative technologies, two factors that are crucial determinants in a spectator’s immersion. In contrast to the cultural anxiety that often surrounds immersive responses to simulative technologies, I examine immersive spectatorship as an aesthetic phenomenon that is central to our engagement with cinema. The ubiquity of narrative – written, verbal, cinematic – shows that the ability to achieve immersion is a fundamental property of the human mind found in cultures diverse in both time and place. This thesis is thus an attempt to illuminate this unique human ability and examine the technologies that allow it to flourish

The Visual Preference, Aesthetic Judgement, and Mood Response to Human-Centric Lighting in Office Spaces

Architectural lighting is a significant visual stimulus that impacts the occupants' moods and aesthetic experiences within the office environment. Previous literature suggests that the good quality of architectural lighting is considered an important factor that contributes to the visual aesthetic experience of an environment through psychological mechanisms. Lighting uniformity, luminance distribution, and direct/indirect lighting have been discussed in other studies, but lighting spatial patterns are unclear. In particular, assessing the combined effects of lighting parameters on human mood and visual aesthetic experience is challenging. Featured film scenes depicting office environments offer convenient material to study the effects of Lighting on occupants' visual perception and mood.This thesis presents the result of an exploratory mixed-method approach to determine how human-centered lighting design affects occupants' mood, visual aesthetic judgment, and visual preferences in open office spaces. Six spatial lighting patterns of open office workstations were analyzed using image content analysis of selected film scenes. The six rendered images were presented to 60 participants via an online survey to determine their preferences, interests, and aesthetic judgments. This research has revealed that two light spatial patterns were significantly preferred among the six lighting spatial patterns. The first lighting spatial pattern (LS-3) that the overall low average luminance environment, equipped with work view region lighting, which also has a higher luminance ratio (R), is visually preferred. In terms of the higher overall average luminance environment (LS-4), people preferred the overall uniform luminance without desk area lighting with a low luminance value (R). The study also indicated that subjects’ aesthetic judgment (mood repones) and the lighting spatial patterns (LS- 3) within lower overall average illuminance and only equipped with diffused pendant lighting and desk area lighting triggered visually felt more pleasant, relaxed, and satisfied

(Un)real (un)realities : exploring the confusion of reality and unreality through cinema

This thesis examines the confusion of reality and unreality in contemporary media discourses, and focuses specifically upon the medium of cinema. The art of our time, cinema reflects the postmodern fusion between machine and culture. As such, a crucial concern of this work, which addresses the impact of digital and visual technological developments in western societies and examines how such advances have come to supersede the historical and cultural imperatives, is precisely this resultant confusion/fragmentation. The thesis analyzes how audiences interpret the current cinematic evolution, based on computer generated imagery, and how their subjectivity influences and impacts upon knowledge, ideology, culture and society as a whole. The creation of (un)realities in fictional spaces is most apparent in such concurrent places as the Internet, videogames and Virtual Reality, spaces which are certainly of interest to this thesis. However, it is also crucial to note that recent years have seen a proliferation of films based on the confusion between reality and unreality; and, further, that these have enforced a fear of being deceived by technology. Indeed, such post-classical films as Total Recall (Verhoeven, 1990), The Lawnmower Man (Leonard, 1992), The Matrix (Wachowski and Wachowski, 1999) and eXistenZ (Cronenberg, 1999) materialize this fear cinematographically; a fear which is arguably then assimilated by the spectators because this fear is projected onto their lives. In this respect, it is essential to be aware of the creation of new spaces, identify related boundaries and understand our own creations in order to have control over our destiny. Concepts such as (un)reality, a hybrid of reality and fiction, are essential to refer to the inventions, contexts and information that appears in a world where atoms and a binary of 0s and 1s constitute a dual code to which our lives conform. The production of an original film, Luna (Diaz Gandasegui, 2007), works in synergy with the written text to illuminate the complexities of (un)reality and the vital influence of technology on its confusion

Vibrating Existence: Early Cinema and Cognitive Creativity

This thesis collects together technical, historical and neurological evidence to examine how our perceptual and cognitive experience of cinema has changed diachronically and especially as a result of the transition from analogue to digital cinema projection. The slow arrival but sudden dominance of digital projection technology has provided a historic opportunity of renewed interest in the means by which cinema is created. This research attends to a particular aspect of the experience of cinema which has failed to survive the industry-wide changeover: the seemingly advantageous deletion of the shutter and its attendant flicker from the cinematic dispositif – the ‘flicks’ are literally no more. The transdisciplinary approach employs a combination of historical film technological research, especially focussed on the Early Cinema period (1895-1915), experimental media archaeology, and empirical electrophysiological study, to investigate the cognitive impact of historical (flickering) and modern day (effectively flickerless) cinema technology. The research uncovers the prominence of the relation of the mechanical and the perceptual in the early cinema period and thickens our understanding of its texts and contexts, ultimately adding a new dimension to the substantial existing body of work on early cinema. The argument of the thesis is situated particularly in the sector of film archives and museums (Film Heritage Institutes) where recent work has concentrated on transferring films of the analogue era to data files for display on an all-pervasive network of digital screens. However, while digitisation may preserve the content of these films it does not preserve the experience. These digital copies speak only to traditional film histories based on literary or auteurist ideas and do not communicate the visceral sensory impact on the late nineteenth century viewer. It is suggested that through reinstating the connectedness of the mechanical and perceptual our understanding of early cinema experience can be transformed. The research also has further implications for other forms of moving image exhibition such as the continuing use of analogue film in artistic practice

Towards the optimization of resolution and rendering issues in the context of contemporary environmental design computer modelling

This dissertation sets out to find a pragmatic solution for optimizing both resolution and rendering issues in the context of contemporary environmental design computer modelling. In this regard the following issues are addressed: Firstly, determining (with reference to a limited selection of existing 3DS Max software and plugins (i.e. VRay and Mental-Ray), which specific piece of software produces the best compromise as far as visual accuracy is concerned whilst still offering the designer the best scope for further design manipulation. Secondly, establishing design techniques which can increase the speed of model making as well as reduce rendering time without having an adverse effect on issues such as resolution and image quality. Lastly, ascertaining the least number of surfaces for a typical geometrical shape (e.g. chair, table, ornament etc.) without losing visual veracity by manipulation of the design itself. The research strongly supports the notion that VRay is the best overall software to be employed as a base before applying any design solutions. In this latter regard a number of solutions became evident as a means to both save memory and cut down on rendering time, including such factors as using spotlight rather than an omni light when rendering, because omni light calculations include the generation of needless shadows. The beneficial effect of employing ‘target direct’ light and reducing the area of light in order to decrease the calculation of shadow. Eliminating objects which do not need shadows from the lighting calculation and shutting off the reverberation and refraction factors before rendering. It was also confirmed that a black and white mipmap is better than a colour mipmap as far as saving on the system’s memory

Fulldome Content Production: A bricoleur's approach

It has been only a little more than ten years since the introduction in planetaria of digital projection systems that can fill the entire dome of the theater. This technology called fulldome video has considerably changed the experience delivered by these institutions as it brings the immersive power of wide field displays and the possibility of interactive shows to astronomy education. Today, many established venues have upgraded their traditional system and many others are about to follow the trend. This technology facilitates content creation because it allows to make use of the digital tools already available to more conventional digital audiovisual productions such as 3D animation. Therefore fulldome also opens new vistas for artistic expression beyond traditional astronomy and science themed content. As the new medium redefines the experience delivered by dome theaters, it also challenges the identity of these venues. By looking at the technical and cultural aspect of this transition through the media theory of remediation, this thesis identifies areas of tension between tradition and innovation as well as challenges and opportunities for new productions. Complementing this research, a design enquiry on new means of productions inspired by the do-it-yourself methodolgy and defined as design as bricolage is explored. The result is a specification for an open source fulldome production pipeline and an implementation using existing software and custom built tools. The metaphor of bricolage is evaluated as a practical mental model for the activity of design, and provides insights on the practice of design itself. In a synthesis of the theoritical and practical research results, a strategy based on the notion of property rights as distribution (open source) is proposed to promote new alternative fulldome productions. Problems and affordances of this model in the context of fulldome are discussed on the basis of previous implementations in software development and 3d animation production,and including thoughts and comments from members of the fulldome industry

The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections

Screens are ubiquitous today. They display information; present image worlds; are portable; connect to mobile networks; mesmerize. However, contemporary screen media also seek to eliminate the presence of the screen and the visibilities of its boundaries. As what is image becomes increasingly indistinguishable against the viewer’s actual surroundings, this unsettling prompts re-examination about not only what is the screen, but also how the screen demarcates and what it stands for in relation to our understanding of our realities in, outside and against images. Through case studies drawn from three media technologies – Virtual Reality; holograms; and light projections – this book develops new theories of the surfaces on and spaces in which images are displayed today, interrogating critical lines between art and life; virtuality and actuality; truth and lies. What we have today is not just the contestation of the real against illusion or the unreal, but the disappearance itself of difference and a gluttony of the unreal which both connect up to current politics of distorted truth values and corrupted terms of information. The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie is thus about not only where the image’s borders and demarcations are established, but also the screen boundary as the instrumentation of today’s intense virtualizations that do not tell the truth. In all this, a new imagination for images emerges, with a new space for cultures of presence and absence, definitions of object and representation, and understandings of dis- and re-placement – the post-screen

Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments

This open access book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments