WWDC2003 Session 726

Transcript

Kind: captions
Language: en
welcome to our VR double feature the
second half of that I'm Rhonda stratton
from the QuickTime team and i'm here to
introduce you our second vr session
featuring Dennis Vela who has been
working on some just amazing projects
with quicktime BR and in the last
session we heard about a lot of new
tools and ways to to make VR and ways to
get into it in this session we're going
to hear about some really amazing
projects that Dennis has been working on
and a lot of guys have been work on some
cool things but dennis is just really
impressed me with some of the things
he's been doing so no further ado I'll i
do have to make one sort of
administrative thing as far as QA we try
to keep that to the end if you've got a
really burning question ok but please
make sure you always speak into the mic
when you have a question so the
translators can get it so that everyone
can hear the question and but I'll come
back up at the end and host it the
majority of the QA okay thanks so good
morning you can all hear me okay
everything's working in the back there I
get base nuns up I love it ok so a
little bit about myself since I don't
think many of you have taken my any of
my sessions before wherever so I'm that
VR guy you know when people say you know
that the our guy that's me right here so
my company is called light speed media I
also have another company called the way
ahead group because if you're not way
ahead you must be far by and Dennis
field of photography and basically I'm
just a photographer I tell people that
all sound unjust the photographer please
don't don't give me all this information
so I've been doing photography for a
long time i started in photojournalism i
became a photographer because stick
people are tough for me to draw you know
the little one line thing so i got
involved in taking pictures and i found
an early age in high school that it was
a great way for meeting girls you know
take their pictures so i got wrapped up
in
to a photography and after a little
while in photojournalism I started doing
a lot of commercial work and I
specialize in the automotive industry
for those of you who do not know the
automotive industry is an eight billion
dollar a year in advertising dollars so
i tend to be very toggle on so i started
doing work for like GM and jaguar if i
say them correctly three times they
promised me more work and i gotta fall
in the digital imaging in fact i was
doing digital quite a long time i'm a
beta tester for kodak and cannon on
digital cameras so about six or seven
years ago i heard about this thing on
the web you know you could take your
pictures and you could put together this
thing called quicktime VR at that time
it was a free set of tools just to play
with it to experiment with so I started
downloading it and if you were in the
earlier session you heard that the
automotive industry is one of the
largest users of VR so I started doing a
lot of quicktime vr for automotive use
have done some stuff for GM's have a
project coming up for GM doing some work
for a BMW so been in it quite a long
time for those of you who may not have
seen VR before it's basically a series
of still images we can use a lot of
different capture devices but it's a
series of still images whether we're
looking out which would be a panoramic
or we're looking in which would be an
object movie and we have a lot of
different techniques will talk about
that i'm going to switch to the laptop
one thank you and just show you really
quick two samples of what a vr is the
first one here i'm going to show you is
a cubic movie so this is a full 360
environment that i can look around in i
did this quite some time ago when apple
is just playing with cubics it's in
chicago it's at Christmas time and I
just wanted to show you know a nice
wintery scene when I travel around I do
a lot of traveling in Asia the
kids are like that's no so we'll close
that one out and then I'll show you an
object movie we'll talk more about this
later but i'll show you an object movie
and this is a actual aircraft that we
shot at the smithsonian we'll get into
that later but 36 shots and I can move
my cursor I can see all the different
sides of the airplane and our
Smithsonian project will actually have
text and other information and links so
it'd be a very interactive piece but
we'll we'll talk about that later but I
can go back to my presentation so I'm
going to talk to you a little bit about
three projects that we've done in the
last eight months and going to give you
a little bit of overview I'm going to
talk you through the process that we go
through I'm not really here to talk to
you about developing new tools that I'm
going to show you a lot of really cool
stuff and give you some ideas I'm going
to talk to you more about what we go
through on our different project I found
in an early age in photography that was
just as easy to go after big work as it
was for small work you know that old
additive about no big jobs are just as
much as little jobs is true so I tend to
concentrate on like major projects the
other thing that you may be interested
in knowing is that most of these
projects were ones that I created you
know I wouldn't talk to somebody and
show them concepts and came up with the
idea very little of our work is somebody
picking up the phone calling me saying
would you do this for us we have a lot
of projects but most of them were
created by ourselves my have an
associate I work with and we would talk
about different ideas and start looking
for clients that would maybe work for
the first one is the esplanade in
Singapore we have some people from
Singapore in the crowd this is like
their sydney opera house it's a huge
facility it's shaped like a durian fruit
and you none of you know what that looks
like but it's kind of like a pineapple
cut and a half late on both sides and
that's their facilities and
they had some interesting ideas for what
possibly they could do with the are we
we went in there and we start talking to
them about the concept of what possibly
they may be using the vr four there's
always expectations on the client side
you know they think that you know you
should be able to do this right and
you're like there's no technology for
that yet but I'll think about it and
then you know the clients concerns oh my
god will you be able to do this and you
know you have to sit there and go
through it Mac versus PC this was my
only client that I've had just some
concerns there were no concerns after
the fact that quicktime played no
problem in their system we win we loaded
up quick time on all their machines
because they're mostly pc-based they ran
all the VRI ran fine and then was never
concerned again for those of you that
may be working with quicktime we're
developing in quicktime i can tell you
that the tides have changed i have very
little issues now with any major
corporations in quick time before it
used to be like well that's an apple
thing you know where IBM we can't we
can't use an apple thing so so now it's
more along the lines of oh yeah quick
time I've heard about that that's just a
download right doesn't cost us now does
it I'm like no no it's a free download
you can go the apples website and pick
it up so the tides of turn and a lot of
people are adopting quick ton became
very important to us and a couple of
slides are coming up one of the things
that it's also important it's
pre-planning I think a lot of people
just come in they think we'll shoot
pictures we'll just use the pictures and
then we'll author the materials and
we'll put the VR together and they'll be
happy and you've already built in
problem points if you do that we do a
lot of pre-planning we go through we
take pictures of all the different areas
we then put together like storyboards
like for video works we put together
real story boards and we get the clients
to sign off on the storyboard because
guaranteed guaranteed the first time you
start shooting they're going to be like
you know could you shoot an extra
picture here it's only a few minutes
right now just just a few extra snaps
right here and you do that and then you
go
and you get to the next spot and it's
like oh you know just just another
couple quick pictures over here it's not
a big deal and then the next thing you
know is that they have the only marble
toilet in Singapore and Michael Jordan
sat on this you know could you shoot a
quick the our forests you know and it's
one here and one there and one in the
washroom and next thing you know it's
like you've got a whole new project
going on and who's going to pay for it
so one of the things that we make sure
of is that we have everything approved
as to what we're going to do now there's
the thing out there called value-added
we're very big in value adding so I may
not charge you for the extra work but I
want you to know that I'm doing it you
know it wasn't something that we agreed
to so you can see what other things that
I may be throwing into project because I
want you happy remember your happiness
is my foremost concern if I say that
really well they really believe me too
so this one with a different project i'm
going to show you some of the arse in a
little bit this was for definitely
partners it's an agency that specializes
in doing web content for agencies and
they wanted to shoot or wanted to do
some things for VR and they came to us
and they said you know could we do some
interior so we had to do concept in with
them we did a lot of concept in law
thinking about what they wanted and then
expectations I learned a couple new
things with this project also
expectations were that they wanted to be
able to zoom in all the way to see every
thread in every seat you know we should
be able to do that you showed us that in
samples and I was like yeah but you know
the price I gave you was the price for
the VR you know I'd like this quality
and now you want me to give you this
quality for this price so so there again
I learned I ran to some rough times and
I had to change some of the expectations
on both our sides I have a lot clients
that they want to see something right
away you know what's that computer thing
can't we see that today you know you
just shot it two minutes ago they're
like
you have samples now so one of the
problems I ran into with this particular
job was that I started giving him my
rough ER the rough samples right away so
they could see it and they panicked they
were like this the colors don't match
you know it's a little jerky I had a
whole bunch of issues just because I was
trying to be accommodating I was showing
him my rough work as we were authoring
the materials and we ran into a big snag
with that and I had to stop showing him
stuff and showing him final products so
then it became a timeline issue you know
they would they would think that
everything was fine while I'm waiting
for them to respond telling me to give
me input and I wasn't doing anything I
was waiting on them to say yeah this
sample looks good you can continue on so
all of a sudden I get the infamous panic
call on Monday okay well we approve that
one in the middle and you'll have all 30
of them done by Friday right and you
won't charges board so there again is
client communication also keeping on a
timeline so just some of the things that
we run into when we were working on VR
they have a web and CD use this
particular company I'm sorry I forgot to
talk about something earlier this
particular company their goal is to get
you to buy a jet so we're showing a lot
of ER but the big difference between
this company is that they rent the jets
and has a lot of accessories so we had
to do a lot of small animations if you
were in the presentation earlier they
talked about animations and such so like
having showing you the capabilities of
the seats that rotate that see expands
phones that open and close into the
armrest that type of thing so we have a
lot intricate work with animations and
the problems that we ran into with the
animations with color consistency the
clients had certain expectations even
though the phones with different colors
in a different aircraft they wanted all
the phones to look the same color so we
had a lot of posts work going on in this
particular project the earlier project
I'm going back up if I can
sorry about that in Singapore they had a
couple of different uses for the imagery
they're not thinking web what wasn't
even close to what they were thinking
about they had this thing called a cyber
box in the cyber box and it's not done
yet we're still working on some imagery
and they're still working on some of
their technology is that you go to the
theater and you buy your tickets
electronically for a live show and I'm
this cyber box a map shows up where the
seats are available and then you click
and a VR pops up and it shows you what
your view is from that seat or that area
right well the thing was I had to
program in the further back you are the
wider it looks and the closer you get to
the front the closer it looks to stage
and it's one of those you know truth in
advertising so the idea is to upsell you
it shows you here's what your seat looks
like but if you buy a few rows farther
up your seat will look so much better
your view will look so much better the
other thing we had to learn was they
wanted to take the video or the VR and
they wanted to turn into broadcast
quality video so here we are we're
shooting all these still images and now
they come back and they said what we
want to do broadcast quality video and
the client doesn't understand the
difference between VR and QuickTime all
they know is well it moves right it
moves this way moves that why can't we
have a video of that come on now you're
you're the VR guy so there's a
application out there that hasn't been
rubbed in a very long time so those
developers out there they're looking for
something it allows you to go into After
Effects take your VR and program from
left to right or right to left and how
many frames per second ill roll it only
works in nine so which is a big problem
for me because everything I have is in
10 so I have to jump back and forth but
anyway allows me to output these linear
movies so we are outputting these
broadcast quality linear movies so that
they could have they have plasma display
screens like you see throughout the app
conference here they also had those at
the theater so that you could see like
different spots of the theater like the
library you could go see where the
library is on the big screen just as
rolling video can entice you to go visit
the library all right let me get back to
the citation shares and I need to launch
but we need to go thank you you're way
ahead of me every once and while that
happened so I'll be there in just a
second we need to get to my bookmark can
we switch to the laptop now I think it's
working there we go I just love it when
this stuff works so this is citation
shares and I'll need to take you to an
aircraft so we're we're we're live this
is not on my hard drive trying to to get
you there and you can see that you know
the different sizes and for 359 thousand
dollars you can go ahead and buy that
you know share that jet so they have
different like cabin stuff like that and
then we can have a VR of the interior so
here's a cubic VR that we shot just
showing the inside of the cabin we use a
3d rendering program to call Bryce to
create the exterior so it looks like
you're flying outside the windows and
the first thing that the company told us
was we're too low
of all the problems I faced I had it
were too low so I was like is it really
important so there well you know we
don't want people to think we fly
recklessly ok no problem i work on that
so it kind of has a distorted view the
client wanted to show like the entire
cabin right away so not particularly how
i would normally like to show it i'd
rather have it so it zoomed in a bit so
that we could to look around but it's a
way for people to see it their clientele
you know its fortune 500 companies
broadband is not the issue in fact some
of these people have like t three lines
to their homes so you know as big of
files if we wanted to make they were
fine with that Interiors the animations
that we were talking about so like the
seats I can rotate you know show
different accessories this seat doesn't
do much is the lame seat we have you
know we but we have other seats where
they actually unfold and there's like a
little place for your drinks we had to
animate the drinks coming in you know
all that good stuff so tables table on
there so again showing that you know you
can okay come on we can get there there
we go we can we show that you know you
have these fold out tables that type of
thing so they're big thing was to
animate showing the clients or
prospective clients all the
possibilities that if they rented this
jet for only three hundred and fifty
nine thousand dollars per year that they
could open up the folding table so but
actually they have found that this
technology is to improve sales they did
a little demo CD they sent out demo CDs
with PDFs to I think about a thousand
perspective clients and all those
thousand prospective clients they had a
response of 30 now you may say well 30
people yeah but 30 people at 300,000
I'll take 30 people at 300,000 every day
is a week so if we can go back to my
demo machine please
so that was a really good project for us
and it started started us thinking this
is the National Air and Space Museum
part of the Smithsonian it's my current
project right now it's it's rather a
huge project we're shooting over 200
aircraft on 144 space artifacts the
original project was going to go for
eight months we're now up to two years
or decimate that will be working on the
project for two years and I got an email
saying oh my god you won't believe it we
may have more work I'm like two years
you know there's only so much I can love
airplanes after two years but anyway so
we're shooting a lot of stuff we're
creating live quick times we are and
we're doing a lot of really cool
cutting-edge stuff so let's talk about
some of the things leading up to the
project so my initial contact with the
museum people want to know like how do
you get this work so I was doing work
for another museum and somebody told me
that the Smithsonian was thinking of
doing something similar and this museum
was so proud that they were ahead of the
Smithsonian so as soon as I heard that I
picked up the phone and started calling
the Smithsonian saying I hear you want
to be our shot they're like dr what you
know so i had to like finding the right
people this project took me two years
just to get it moving forward i've been
working on it for two years talking to
curators talking to different
departments at the smithsonian going
through a whole bunch of issues with
them my biggest thing is my contract is
35 pages long and 20 pages relate to
insurance you know like there's no way i
could ensure the Wright Flyer now I just
don't I can't get a policy big enough so
there's these new things that keep
having to learn as we go through
prototyping prototyping became really
big when I started working with the
Smithsonian and other larger museum
because for a visual thing you know
they're not visual you know I tell them
well here we can do this we can do that
and I show that to them and they like
don't get it so I have to use
they're actual pieces there's a joke in
Chicago that you know if you shoot an
apple pie a peach pie won't do you have
to shoot an apple pie you know to show
to an art director so anyway so same
thing with this I had to actually go in
and start shooting aircraft and build
prototypes with their stuff before they
could visualize what they wanted to do
expectations they had very low
expectations we were actually in there
showing them stopping there like I never
knew I could do this this is so cool you
know does it cost much that's a byword
funding you know funding is always a big
by word as the Smithsonian clients
concerns we had a lot of concerns in the
very beginning when we started shooting
because there was like touching the
artifacts they have very specific rules
about you know touching a 50 year old
airplane or an 80 year old aircraft Mac
versus PC I was really concerned about
this because the Smithsonian has an IT
department that's the IT department from
hell you know they're like Apple no we
can't do that you know I'm like no no
it's easy its quick time you know take
the Apple part out just think quick time
but that's an apple product it won't run
on their servers no it's not an issue
believe me so I spend it took two weeks
for them to hook up an airport extreme
they had two people activeness facility
to hook up to the extreme because they
weren't sure how well we would go and
they dedicated all day so it took 30
seconds to plug in the ethernet it's a
government job remember to people it
plug in that ethernet cable and then i'm
on the mac i said okay i have signal and
they're like no you can't it can't be
that easy no no it's a mac thing so it
took me two weeks to get that 30 seconds
for them to plug that in so dealing a
lot with convincing them that the mac is
the way to go as far as ease ability but
on quicktime no no issues show them
running quicktime on window show them
quick
streaming server you know show them all
the stuff that they could do without
changing the way they're working and
they were very impressed you know they
were impressed it doesn't break they
were impressed that it actually works
they weren't impressed that they
wouldn't have to hire extra people to
make it happen so it was a it was a good
thing for us hardware Apple computer and
Rhonda strain there they've been very
good to us and they've loaned us some
computers to use so we're using nikon
and canon digital cameras remember on
that digital guy in the other world so
we shoot with the nikon d 1 X's and on
the Canon side the Canon d1s make really
hi Meg files we'll talk about that later
bogen lighting kyden be our heads dr.
Lewis has made us that specialized
motorized head lexar meter with the CF
memory cards and great egg Macbeth for
color I've now served my country in God
because I've got all my sponsors out
there so lots of hardware let's go back
for one quick thing we I've gone the
wrong way here I hate when that happens
we have these rolling carts so there's
an aircraft in the background we have
the canon 1ds and we fire the cameras
right through far away into the
computers we've had a host of special
applications now hosts a few special
applications written for us but
basically you found is very expedient to
shoot right to the hard drives of the
computers saves this time downloading
and we can also visually see the images
right away we're using five computers
two laptops there's two photographers we
have volunteers we actually have more
volunteers now the Smithsonian has
dedicated staff to us and we have one
day k janitorial staff that's what CS
CES is it's our janitor we have our own
private jander because photographers are
messy so this is the interior of the new
museum it's called a hobby center it
200 feet wide and 1000 feet long and
museums the reason why we got involved
or one of the reasons we got involved
with them is there's a love/hate thing
of museums we want you to come and see
all of our great artifacts and you get
there and don't get too close back up
you know don't touch that so it's this
thing of they want you to come and see
everything but they don't want you to
touch anything and then the other issue
is that a lot of the airplanes are now
hanging so that you clean even get up
close to them so one of the reasons that
quicktime VR is a major asset to them is
that there'll be a hundred kiosks spread
out throughout the museum and as you go
through the museum you'll start to see
groupings of aircraft that aircraft up
beyond the kiosk and now you can start
seeing up close what you're seeing from
afar and I'll show you some samples in
just a minute color management was a
very big deal for us besides the fact
that Smithsonian has exacting standards
on like if something is printed it has
to be reproduced faithfully just
managing all these different cameras we
found out that the different camera
shoot color a little differently so
Apple has this really cool technology
called color sink and now quicktime is
supported by color sink so my life is so
much easier and Apple was nice enough to
fly out Kevin O'Connor he's a color
specialist that teaches for Apple and
great Egg Macbeth alone the calibrator
so we could calibrate all our LCDs and
come up with a look-up tables for the
cameras so that everything matches I can
shoot any camera in our that we have
even going across brands you know
whether it's a Nikon or Canon and I can
match within five percent the color
using color sink and color a couple
tools out there from greg tagged macbeth
so became a very good thing because
nothing's worse than going through a vr
especially a multiple rho vr and seeing
that the color shifts for one world
right just you know it's it right away
it's not a good thing don't want to go
there
so color next thing is custom hardware
no one airplane is alike you know
they're always you know variations and
stuff and people were asking like how do
you rotate that you know you know do you
walk around it well if you walk around
if you do the marking you know every 10
degrees around the facility and walk
around then the planning starts to look
jerky it doesn't come out as smooth as
if you rotate the aircraft itself so you
know I'm always fighting budgets you
know just like any government
institution I'm just a contractor I'm
not even the photographer anymore i'm
just a contractor and so we're always
fighting budgets and i've come up with
all the hardware we could buy
commercially to do that and they were
like great we have no money for that
okay well let me think about it so
there's these things called baskets and
the baskets are what they move the
aircraft around they actually use them
on aircraft carriers to move fighters
into tight corners and stuff so we
bought a bunch of these baskets this is
two inch steel pipe and we have special
fittings made so we can slide the
airplane into wherever we need to get so
it's centered over its rotation point so
we have these and there's about 150 to
200 pounds of weight there's a steel
plate there's a piece of plywood and
duct tape because no good project can
survive without duct tape and that's put
on the floor and that's our center point
and then two people at both ends of the
airplane start pushing it and every 10
degrees its marked on the floor they
know they should stop and then we shoot
another picture now on occasion I found
out that the floor in our first location
What's in level you know you get 10,000
pounds rolling and the mass wants to get
that low point it's pretty tough to stop
it so another one of those things that
we learned lighting we had a lot is with
lighting how do you get light into these
cockpits how can you get into tight
places again lots of ideas we ended up
buying seven dollar for fluorescent
bulbs digital cameras have great
capabilities to white balance
in multiple color spectrum settings so
we use these fluorescent bulbs we tested
a bunch of them and found a particular
brand it was pretty consistent and we
used those on stands we hang them they
actually now have battery operated
fluorescent bulbs where it takes about
five to ten double-a batteries so we can
hide double-a batteries within the
airplane to light it up so we can shoot
the are on the inside again we have a
lot hardware we had to come up with
that's Jim's rig on the left kai dance
fear achill head we have a special the
government must assume that butts are
always 28 inches wide because all
military feets are 28 inches wide so we
have a special stand that the VR head
clamps to and then we can put the VR
head into the seat so we can give that
view as if you're sitting in the
aircraft we also have what's called a
bug and super clamp and that hangs on
pipes above so that we can see around
inside the cockpit now on the other side
I have my own little VR head that I made
of wood for fisheye lenses so I could do
four shots with a fisheye has a little
pin that stops it because that cockpit
is molded to somebody's head the shield
that comes around is only six inches
wide you know they made it extremely as
they could in 1932 so there I had some
new issues for placement and stuff
Louis's I'll just move this a little bit
more forward and I'll just start this
there it goes so on the jet aircraft
that we have to shoot they have like
prototype jets and they have like f four
fighters and a whole bunch of really
interesting fighters it takes 15 minutes
to open up the canopy because they have
no power source so they have to crank
the hydraulics so with these types of
assemblies we have to open a window
click
you'll move the head no click and then
close the window 15 seconds later the
camera fires open up the window move it
to the next position click close the
window get out of the way so can you
imagine 15 minutes between the click so
we we were thinking about the issue I
had talked to Louis so he came up with
this automated VR head for us so that we
can mount this inside the Jets we can
then press the button to start it close
the canopy and then it will start
shooting it'll do its whole roll it
takes about six minutes for it to shoot
the entire interior and then we can open
up the canopy again so you know within
45 minutes we're done entirely with that
aircraft as opposed to 15 minutes you
know cranking and closing so a lot of
problem solving in our projects and a
lot of issues that we have to think
about this is the view from above so you
can see underneath the airplane our
little Mark's every 10 degrees duct tape
no good project can live without duct
tape so and on the other side that's the
bomb site to the b-29 now the
Smithsonian's putting every aircraft in
the museum back to flying condition if
you could add gas to it you could turn
the key it would fly so that's the level
of restoration that they're going
through well the problem for them is
that all the things that go inside the
airplane will disappear you'll never get
to see it so like this is the first
non-optical weapon system the US
government ever had with a simple radar
bombing site so they yanked it out of
the airplane and we had to photograph it
again we didn't have a turntable that
could take it so we just slapped a piece
of plywood down and there's a little
piece of PVC pipe shooting off the side
and this guy sits on this little roller
and he lines it up and then he pushes
himself off I take the picture he rolls
back up moves it over you know it's
cheap automation so and then we take the
actual images and then we'll drop out
background so like you see on the
Stevens a crow that's the monoplane on
the bottom there you know we're always
dropping out backgrounds for all the
different they are so I'm going to now
show you a whole bunch of samples we
could go to the laptop and I want to
launch where's the mass of the earth so
I'll show you the first sample so this
is a standard VR and the problem that we
run into is until you blow in the text
and all the other information people
look at and think it's just a toy right
it's a model here we are pushing these
big aircraft and they they think it's a
rendering but I can look at all the
different sides okay so i can see all
the all the different parts of the
aircraft how do I shoot it though
there's the airplane sitting on the
baskets there's our weights in the
middle we have these big blue tarps so
we have two areas in the museum we have
two studio set up with these hundred
foot long blue tarps and then I can
click and I can rotate the aircraft and
then we bring in the volunteers and they
sit there for days on end you know
cutting pasting dropping out backgrounds
so this is how we start it i'll show you
the where is it now the radar unit this
is the final piece for the radar that
you saw sitting so this will be on the
computer kiosks will talk about the
kiosks in just a minute and the idea is
information would be showing up around
around it I could look here so here's
the mono coupe that we did the exterior
again one shot every 10 degrees we now
have an assembly what you haven't
authored anything yet but we have an
assembly like a big arc that their
welding and then we're going to be
placing it above the aircraft so we can
do multiple row so that you'll be able
to rotate the plane down and see it like
a God's eye from above the Smithsonian
the VR is really cool but what they
really love is are the interiors
so this is a cubic of an interior of
that same aircraft we haven't put it in
the rendered sky yet I can go right I
can go left just like the car I can go
above come back around and go down below
so full 360 environment so this is a big
thing for the museum you come through
you go to a kiosk and now you can start
looking at the kiosk start learning more
about that aircraft so earlier I talked
to you about prototyping I have to show
you this one you know remember the the
wheels and the tires and the you know
the spinning at all so this is a float
plane they put it together on mattresses
so there's no wheels so my volunteer
that works directly with me is a retired
neurologist so you said 82 years old doc
Harvey I love the man dearly and we
never have challenges we never have
problems we're building new pathways so
so I have a lot of pathways on this one
so how we made this work was we have a
cream and I don't have the shot handy if
I find it later I pull it out for you we
have a crane we brought crane over and
there's a cable holding the airplane
it's suspended on one cable and you know
how it is if you tell a person that they
have to sit in the same space every shot
they'll never do it for you they'll be
all over the gamut so I didn't say
anything and watch the girl this is this
is my big kick she's staying the
airplane as we rotated every 10 degrees
and she's always in the perfect you know
like she's just looking ahead I thought
we should put water and make it look
like a mermaid mermaid going through so
here we are we're rotating this is an n
3n I know way more about these aircraft
now than I ever really knew by aircraft
this particular n 3n was hanging
Annapolis over there ice skating rink
and the Smithsonian was given the
aircraft and I had to go in and pick it
up and disassemble it and the people who
restored the aircraft it's like their
children and they hover you know and
while
hovering over you while there you're
shooting they're telling you more
information about the aircraft so you
know I know that you know like who flew
the airplane and all its significance so
let me show you prototyping will do that
really quick so I have a folder and i
want to show you so this was one of my
early concepts when they would call me
in and say could you show us some
samples you know possibilities for
kiosks one of the things that I said is
what will have a QuickTime movie will
shoot a video of say like John Glenn
which we we have we've always done that
and then somebody could click and then
they would be listening to him talk
about what it was like to fly in The
Mercury capsule right you know that type
of stuff the Smithsonian it's really
cool they have 28,000 Movietone news
reels you know old vintage movies from
the you know like 1900s and stuff like
that they're kept in a room like this
called the vault and the rooms
air-conditioned stuff with the stuffs
deteriorating anyway there's no way to
protect it so we started taking on
digitizing these old vintage movies with
their staff because we can't touch this
stuff which is really funny so anyway
so there's all this vintage footage that
we're running into so part of my job now
is not only shooting VR and keeping
records and all that but digitizing in
movies and now they hit me with this
which is the best Kodak to use if we
want to come back in 20 years yeah 20
years I'm like I don't even know what
the operating system will be so so it's
kind of it's cool and it's frightening
in the same effect because I'm writing
the standards for Russia Smithsonian and
the Smithsonian is writing the standards
for 30 other museums and everybody holds
up the National Air and Space Museum as
the reference the National Air and Space
Museum has 11 million visitors per year
it's the most visited Museum in the
world just as a sidebar the National Air
and Space Museum generates forty percent
of the entire budget for the Smithsonian
I don't mean budget as in like operating
budget meeting that forty percent of the
entire Smithsonian's budget is funded
just by the air and space museum so
that's how much visitors they have so
prototyping so I showed them that and
they were like yeah that's cool you know
what what else could you do so we had to
come back we had to think something that
I tried to avoid thinking so quicktime
and quicktime VR it's a really marvelous
technology you know quicktime I
correlates it being a bucket and
everything I can fit in that bucket I
can show so not only can I show the
visual not only can I show some pie can
put in programming right I can make
QuickTime movies control other
applications I can make QuickTime movies
that control the whole computer so this
is an early sample and I'll click and I
can look around right here and standard
be our movie right notice that the
QuickTime bar goes all the way across so
this is one big movie so I want to see
the Gemini spacecraft I want to see the
x1 I want to see the Wright Flyer think
of kiosks I'll always think of kiosk
internal displays showing you this stuff
somebody comes up they see a grouping of
planes they see a grouping of planes in
my QuickTime movie they want to do that
but now
we want to have more information so you
click on the x-15 now i'm pulling
retrieving text and other QuickTime
movies I'm doing that with all in that
VR shell so controlling all the other
applications I showed this to
Smithsonian and they were drool all over
it was disgusting we love this stuff
this is exactly what we're looking for I
was like why didn't you tell me that two
years ago so so I show them all the
capabilities but there's always the butt
right you have to wait you know it's
coming so you get quiet and they're like
but we have 11 million visitors per year
how how will we make this work on a
hundred kiosks you know people want to
spend their time there so we had to
think about we came up and there's a
technology out there called smart card
and smart card technology it's basically
a credit card one of the things that
we're working and they have USB card
readers but there's not enough drivers
out there for those card readers just
playing it out there so the thing now is
that you'll go to Smithsonian and you'll
buy like a credit card I'll have a
picture of an airplane marketing right
we're going to do 20 different pictures
20 different cards by all 22 dollars
apiece so funding it's always about
funding remember that so on the back of
the magnetic stripe they'll encodes your
name your email address and your mailing
address you'll now go through the museum
you'll start looking at stuffing and
you'll get to some point either time or
amount of information and all of a
sudden you'll get into a certain step
you'll drill down and then a shield to
show up you know there's some Sonia
shield and they'll say thank you very
much but your visitation with this kiosk
has now ended please swipe your card
you'll swipe your card and the servers
will automatically know where you're at
on the URL and it will email you a
picture of the corresponding aircraft so
that when you get home you can now open
up that email see the picture of the
Apollo or gem-knight whatever click on
the URLs and now go to website with even
more
10th this missoni is now growing outside
of the brick and mortar right there
before when I would talk to them they're
like you know we'll get to that in five
or six years you know and i'm like we
should do this now yeah five or six
years I don't even know what the
operating system will be in five or six
years so so Smithsonian love that but
then we show them something else besides
being a revenue-generating stream we
went a little bit farther now think
about it if all you're doing is looking
at jets and you're swiping your card for
jets obviously the odds are i would
think that you're interested in jets so
when i did this demo I did this yield my
show the card swiping and did all that
stuff in QuickTime you know jewel again
the whole bit but there's this little
oriental guy in the back of the room and
this is great I just love your you're a
beautiful person so hence the reason why
I picked up that line so I was like I
thought he was a curator right I thought
he was like some bigwig I hadn't met you
know like some director Reverend well
thank you very much and who are you and
he's like I'm the store manager think of
all those emails i can send out the
people who are interested in so the idea
is now building a database of what
you're interested in what's the most
important thing i can show you lots of
content i can show you a lot of stuff
but if i show you what you're interested
in you're more likely to buy right
you're more likely to buy if you looked
at 100 jet URLs buying a book on jets
i'm buying a book on the Wright Flyer so
now we're starting to create the
databases so that the store or the
Smithsonian will know what you're
interested in so a big goal so one of
the things that I like telling people is
always think outside the box always
think of what the other avenues are you
know I started my career is just a
photographer now i'm creating vr content
now i'm creating a kiosk content now we
started looking at like how to
accumulate all this information to help
the client to help them sell or to help
them get involved with more stuff i want
to close this
and close that I think I wanted to show
you one other there is I just look sorry
having user interface error because I
can't find the eye open up that file put
that over there we go must be under VR
under nessa so we were talking about
high res stuff earlier wish you with
these very high-resolution digital
cameras my canon can make a 32 megabyte
file every file every image is 4000 by
two thousand pixels approximately I can
create tremendous amount of information
so this particular vr is 8 30 meg files
authored together it's a little chunky
when I start to move around this is a 95
megabyte file but compressed down
through jpg it's about a two and a half
meg vr but what the museum loves is this
I can keep coming down looking at detail
so my project even though I have
attributes even though I'm doing a lot
of things my real project is archiving
history the entire project is based on
shooting all this imagery so that 50
years from now somebody can come back
and see what the details were on that
aircraft when the aircraft are hung
they're not scheduled to come down for
60 years so we're creating a lot of
information for them for researchers for
students for schools very big into
education let's go up so you know we can
start taking a look at you know lots of
information that's all the way back from
like here so a lot of information that
they can use I just want to open up one
or two shots we tend to make
screensavers of everything we shoot i
will launch
I'll just pick a picture so let me grab
this one here photoshop 7 latest
greatest thing runs faster on g5 I could
use the g5 dressing case anybody wants
to donate so let's go here and I'll just
zoom in and let's get two hundred
percent so I have a wealth of
information so Smithsonian loves the VR
they love what we're doing with the VR
but what they're really excited about is
that 144 pictures every 10 degrees of
every aircraft that's what they're
really excited about because now they
have a wealth of information that any
researcher can come back in a hundred
years 50 years ten weeks even and start
looking at what that was on that
airplane what the interior looks like in
two weeks I start shooting the Enola Gay
a very historic aircraft not so much way
did blue is also the forefront of
technology and they're having a shoot
everything the interior the exterior
going to be interesting rotating it you
know I'll have a lot of pathways after
that one so if we could go back to my
demo demo machine sorry so we'll move on
so software we're using Canon has a
product called remote capture for their
cameras nikon has a similar project
product so we're feeding the cameras
through firewire right to the computers
we're using imax imax our great little
imaging stations for capture and then
they've been the screens have been color
calibrator photoshop 7 with the rock
wire module apple computer sounds like
i'm doing an ad but we we use a lot of
their products preview is a very big
thing preview allows us to grab these
raw files and just look at them right
away on the screen we don't have to
spend time going through like an import
we're opening up photoshop i thought a
lot of my friends give me a hard
time how can you say your professional
you use iphoto but I photo has a lot of
great features I have a lot of people
who need to present on what our project
is and I put together a little slide
shows and I photo with music and then
i'll put a quicktime movie if it's a
more impressive piece that they need i
use Final Cut Express quicktime vr
authoring studio and then mail the
government loves email and and you know
I think they learned that from Apple so
because I get an average of thirty to
forty emails just from different
departments at the government checking
on what's going on and could you email
me that you know so that type of thing
will this stitcher for doing the cubix
also for doing cylinders and then be our
toolbox that works and that's actually
wrong i'll use 2.1 which one's native in
OS 10 so a lot of software stuff their
content display use now if you thought I
knew a lot about airplanes I know a lot
about displays know so kiosk kiosks is
the idea that the chaos will be
throughout the museum as you come in you
would learn about the different aircraft
kind of like that interface i showed you
earlier but the other thing is remember
you know eight million people per year
so we're talking about plasma displays
like 54 inch pioneer displays on both
sides of the kiosks being driven by the
kiosk color management is a big issue
getting color to match on LCDs matching
a computer display it's not an easy
thing so doing a law stuff with color
and in hand health so starting that's a
big bug thing buzzword for museums and
handhelds i'm going to show you this
this is say palm OS and this is a sony
CLE a outdated as a couple days ago so
let me go back to lewis's okay so here's
the vr running on palm OS think about
renting instead of renting the headsets
right ten dollars for a pair of heads
listening to a cassette think about
renting this for 10 bucks and as you get
close to a kiosk the infrared
transmitter triggers content on here
that's not on the kiosk ok so now
besides being a revenue stream always
think revenue you also have different
ways to display the content you can give
the visitors more information and two
weeks ago the Smithsonian it was really
funny discovered oh you can do sound
files you can put together really cool
stuff there's some beta programs out
there let me do this so a few weeks ago
the Smithsonian discovered that the CLE
A's have built-in camera right I could
take your picture thank you for smiling
so and and they've already figured out
what we rent these out and then we have
the cameras when we hook them up to the
imac iPhoto launches and they could
print it out and we could charge them
for it did I tell you that they always
think revenue okay so handheld devices
we're doing a lot of research and
development and hand-held sony has been
very nice to the Smithsonian and our
company they loan this several of these
units they're sending a whole box load
of these and we're starting to work on
prototyping for rentals and information
on the kiosk the other big thing is
education Smithsonian is putting in
earned the national air and space
museum's actually putting in classrooms
that will be wired with cameras and I
was real excited about I chat besides
QuickTime broadcasting and all that we
can we have a lot of capabilities so
they'll be bringing guest lectures doing
you know the remote learning or the
e-learning and we're real excited about
that because all the content we're
creating a lot of the directors are
excited about including this new content
in with their presentations so a whole
wealth of online we have to start
looking at servers and I'm pushing for
the xserve because they want to take
that 28
listen new movie tell newsreels confirm
the QuickTime have them on servers so
that educators from around the world can
log on and start looking at this content
to use in lesson plans or you can just
log on and you know just spend all day
looking at you know like the x-15 or
whatever so web youth and other big
development for them CD and DVD use
working really big on the DVD side they
actually have numbers and they track
what sales are and DVDs are definitely
on a high rise you know it's beyond the
missionary phase it's God steep curve so
they're talking to us about creating a
lot of content for DVDs now right now
what we've done is we do the fake VRS
and there's actually a way in DVD
authoring studio the change of
controllers so the idea is that you make
your linear movie but you control it
from your VR movie but you control it by
your cursors on your TV handheld remote
so you do a fake dr you could spin
around on the inside of that I think
they did that with Harry Potter I think
they have some VR stuff that's simulated
on Harry Potter ok other cool stuff now
I'm sorry I only expected five people
and I didn't didn't have time i bought a
hundred of these and somehow I'm down to
three so I'm going to pass these around
but after we've done with the
presentation today I'm going to pull up
the know you're at the wrong screen dude
back to the demo screen please so I'm
going to pass these around and if you
would grab that and everybody get two
seconds please pass it to the next
person if I now is 52 hug
revenue-generating I keep forgetting
that word so our latest thing is we are
and 3d so using one camera or two
cameras we're shooting imagery and now
we're creating 3d is 5
by moving red channels between the two
imagery I actually have some VR to show
you I will do that in a little bit so
you can see the effect but it wasn't so
much just for the average you know just
joy of playing on those glasses and if I
had a roomful of you wearing those I
would definitely take your picture but
there's a bunch of researchers who are
involved and right now all we're doing
is putting in distances we're putting in
these there about four foot wide they
have color swatches and a mark every six
inches as reference points and we have
four of these like pieces of foam core
that we put into our images while we
shoot so that later researchers could
come back and figure out how big
something is and what the distance is
the 3d is really big for them they think
that that be a major thing in the sense
of looking at objects and getting more
of a dimensional feel to it so when we
were showing them vr 3d they were like
can you shoot every airplane like this
let's see 200 times too I was like yeah
okay how big is the budget so if I will
show you that making it a business
because originally when the Apple I
asked me to come speak they were like
you know you've done this for a long
time and you actually make money so we'd
like to have you speak about making VR
shooting VR into a business so there's a
couple things that you need to think
about you know what I'm going to how can
I do this I can't do that I'll get
through this quick and then I'll put the
3d image back up there for you I'm sorry
so skill sets that I feel that you need
marketing marketing is really big I do a
lot of marketing stuff you know sending
all samples but you have to know your
market you have to know that mark is
viable and you have to find the right
people in that market when I shoot in
the car industry I know that there's
less than 100 art directors in the
united states that i need to speak to i
don't need a big ad campaign i don't
need a lot of stuff I need to find those
hundred art directors when I do VR I
pick the project where it makes the most
and then I I start distilling down who
it would service how I get there
negotiation I have a negotiations always
tough and the big problem is is that you
know they don't want to pay you you know
it's a computer thing right it's only
two seconds I can hire a kid for 15
bucks out of college to do this for me
so you know the way i start my
negotiation is this i tell them you know
I want a million-dollar they'll say how
much do you want for this project I want
a million bucks you know they come back
and they say you know like a million
bucks I said well you want you know you
don't want to pay me more than 50 Cent's
usually at that point they say i don't
want to pay you at all and and so then i
say see we thought the dialogue going
yes so you have to remember that you
know people have expectations you have
to find out if you can fix that
expectations and literally that thing i
just told you about the million dollars
and you don't want to pay me anything
I've started a lot of negotiations with
that very long you know because you need
to get the people into what they really
want so negotiations of a big thing
photo skills another big thing for me
because I think you have to have good
product to show so a lot of people out
there who are good marketing people but
they have very bad photos it catches up
so I tell people that they need to
practice computer skills you know
knowing the latest things I come to
conferences like this I've taken it a
actually a few classes now I get lost
when they say okay the line of color
right here you know and then I see all
those letters flying across on my car I
really need that skill but I still come
because creative people have a thirst
for knowledge you never know where the
next idea is going to be planted to make
sure that million bucks so I'm always on
the hunt for new products new thing so
computer skills I do a lot of Final Cut
Pro final cut express imovie iphoto you
know all the apples applications a
couple of third-party applications now I
become good at them when I grew my
business I would find people who had
skill sets to fill the areas i was
weekend and then I would find people who
skill sets to complement doing the same
thing the most important items to
remember i have two broke them down into
three groups because knowing you're all
developers i have to keep it simple so
perseverance my as i told you my
smithsonian project took me two years i
had a lot of heavy duty competition you
know people who knew you know the
industry just as well as i did who
probably had access to more hardware and
more equipment bigger budgets and i did
but i kept in there you know as people
got tired and dropped out because when
you're dealing with the government you
know their whole job is to hold you back
right so I just kept after it I kept
working and eventually the tide turn and
people got excited and then all of a
sudden the floodgates open so now we're
talking to other parts of Smithsonian
we're actually talking to some countries
now why museums are owned by countries
and we have some places in Asia and
North America that you are interested in
hiring us for our services think outside
the box you know I know a lot of VR
people who are you know it doesn't
matter what business but they're so
focused on what they're doing they tend
to forget that there's peripherals on
the side a good friend of some of us Tim
Petros who shoots VR he also has these
things called Bongo ties he makes a lot
of money on a little piece of rubber
wood stack you know but he needed
something to use in his business to hold
cables together so for me it's looking
at other avenues remember the panoramic
file of the interior right now we're in
negotiations with a publisher to do
posters and calendars it'll just be that
long stripped image with the calendar
down below or for another company it's
just going to be the posters themselves
just a dash so and they they pay up
front I like to
so a lot of other avenues so I tell
people think outside the box I have a
couple companies talking to us about the
handheld devices you know just knowing
that we're doing research and stuff
they're asking if we could help them
with ours and there's actually companies
I shouldn't share this with you but
since you spent the big bucks to be here
people have funding for research so the
government has grants and they're
actually we're talking to the grant
department by a grant on just coming up
with the concept of content for this so
and there's different things out there
that you can do you know they may
correlate to your business and you could
get paid for it okay so thinking outside
the box and my favorite and last one so
you know what I do is a value what you
do is of value you know I'm sure that
when Michelangelo was paying the chapel
up there they were like you know time
it's great it's beautiful they knew they
weren't going to pay them but they made
sure he felt good about it so what we do
is a service what I do is help sell
products or help educate people that's
my two two things when I take a picture
of a car it's worth billions of dollars
in sales to GM well it's not the GM will
ever pay me billions of dollars or
millions of dollars or hundreds of
thousands of dollars but they will pay
me and they know that the value is of
how many good photographs so I should be
compensated accordingly so I tell people
when they get involved in projects to
remember what the value is that you're
doing and the most powerful thing that
you have in your repertoire is no no I
won't do it for that you know a lot of
us get paranoid and we're too worried
about knocking any money so we tend to
like you know okay I'll do it for that
and you forget that you ruined the
industry for the rest of your peers you
know I have to go I go up against
photographers willing to do vr4 $25 you
know there's no way that I will do an
image for 20 I won't even get out of bed
for twenty-five dollars
well I might get out that for 25 but you
know so you understand the concept of
you know what you do is valuable and you
should be compensated for and you should
be a certain level with it you know
based on your experience and you know
market pressures and stuff like that
there's a lot of things you know I would
do BR for a lot less if you know if
there's a lot of work that I could do
quickly and I've done that so something
for you to keep in mind is to keep your
value up because when you say okay that
you'll do it for that lesser amount now
you set a standard right I know I can
get it for this and I don't care what
you're going to do but now when they
come talk to me they're going to say wow
boy I don't know you know I can get this
guy to do it for 25 bucks well okay go
hire them for 25 bucks no I won't do
that so it's a very powerful world word
and I can actually tell you that I've
walked out of rooms and they've stopped
me before I left and say well but you
have all these other capabilities so I
always remember what your value is
always remember what you're doing so I'm
going to go back to the demo laptop and
pull up one image real quick and then
I'll pull up the 3d how we doing on time
I got time right we're good on time okay
yeah i'm yeah okay somebody may ask a
question by the way for those of you
going to ask questions i have prices for
stupid questions there's no such thing
that's a stupid question so you know all
right so this is that stripped image the
screens little contrasting but 90 Meg's
file you know I can zoom in they can see
lots of detail we're publishing we're
doing a series of 12 concord sr-71 I get
really cool stuff to shoot so the Wright
Flyer they're taking a wright flyer down
for us october so we'll be photographing
the rights lawyer lots of lots of really
cool technology lots of really cool
stuff so let me quit that and then i'll
get back to the VR so
so the three people that have the
glasses so put on your glasses okay and
here I can rotate and now that engine
should be unless the projectors reverse
no thank you the engine looks like it's
shooting out at you kind of kind of
sorta somebody say yes just say yes okay
good I love that guy so yeah so ended
and the 3d effect will maintain itself
even as we zoom in so it's not like some
of these photoshop plugins where it
makes it a fake 3d we can actually have
a full full rev 3d if I can front there
there so we're doing a lot of the
cockpits we haven't offered them yet but
we're doing a lot of the cockpits in 3d
here's the using preview this looks like
it's just jumping out at you at the
screen here's the still image from the
VR or still image from the VR the b-29
looks like it's also jumping out at you
so really cool some of the stuff we're
doing I want to close this and then we
could go back to my demo machine I'm
sorry to my presentation machine I can
launch something while they're doing
that okay good
so we're going to take Q&A and then i'm
going to show you one other thing that's
launching on my machine I just wanted to
reiterate that I've made an entire
business and an entire life of creating
vr content I started out as a little
photographer I'm just a photographer and
my business has grown we now have a huge
contract with the Smithsonian that looks
like it's going to go on for two years
do we struggle we struggle all the time
you know do we suck air like every other
small business Val I think she dropped
me quickly need to know oh I hate when
that happens okay we mean quicktime need
to know all that doesn't need to know
that so okay could we come back to my
demo machine so let's go back to my demo
machine i'm going to show you something
it's just and i can give you some
information today so i'm going to pull
this in I nobody's seen this
presentation from be here has anybody
seen this presentation before so be here
has a VR technology for video now be
here struggle like a lot of Internet
companies I can tell you that a company
two weeks ago bought their assets for
this technology and they're now rubbing
it to 10 so i'll be able to do this and
play it native and 10 but this is video
VR and I can look around in a full 360
right so we're on the streets of San
Francisco should be a title of a TV show
and it's we've got a what did I reckon
it's a chrysler concorde something like
that chrysler site and we're driving
down the street I've got the camera
mounted to the windshield you know it's
mounted to the windscreen and all sudden
this guy comes up alongside and he's
like what are you doing we're like we're
shooting video he's like cool hi mom
alright so you know how it is in the
United States we're a nation of shy and
reserved people and we don't like to
think outside the box and we don't do
anything crazy no never do anything
crazy but if two people do it it's a
sport so there's this sport where you
get on these wooden sleds writing you go
down the road as fast you can has
anybody seen this presentation ok so
anyway here let's go so we'll start it
up so we've got the camera mounted it's
on a little arm it's facing up I can
talk about the technology later and
we're going down the street and I
thought this was really cool so at any
point in time I can start spinning well
there's the dude yeah rush oh sure you
know what they line the streets of bales
of hay because sometimes the guys fall
off you know and they and they take
spectators off that was exactly the way
it was described to me I was like real
and the noise you hear they steer by
drag it's all about drag man those shoes
have special metal plates in the bottom
and when they want to go to the right
now you put the right shoes on drugs it
to the right we want to go ahead left
you drag it to the left so when you want
to slow down both feet fell down I just
wanted to show you the ending because I
love the ending of it this guy is like a
national champ you didn't have to
compete so it's this is the qualifier
that's why they could do this so we're
looking around doing our thing there's
the Bell say hey we're cutting them up
to finish line these guys had like 60
miles an hour two inches off the ground
we're passing the finish line we're
going to stop well maybe so and now
we're going to sit up because we can get
more leverage maybe you know what we'll
go with Plan B that fails of hey
but the camera was okay so thank you
very much for coming okay so we've got
some more things coming up one of the
things i want to point out is that the
quicktime feedback forum has been moved
to marina which is this room over here
come with your questions and while i'm
going through the rest of these slides
if you have any questions for Dennis
please line up at the microphones and we
have a few get just a couple of sessions
tomorrow who to contact how to contact
dennis how to contact Guillermo Ortiz
for any questions about quicktime VR at
apple or quicktime development things at
Apple more information you guys have
seen it a thousand times already and the
QuickTime content creation lab in
quicktime development lab is still open
for the next two days only today until
four-thirty because we've got the the
party down on campus