| Winter 07: Innovation in Education: New Course Links Technology and the Arts
Interactive "living painting": this painterly animation method, designed at NYU's Media Research Lab, makes the live output of a video camera appear as if it was painted in a variety of artistic styles.
Frames of a virtual video. The top row contains original frames from camera 1, the bottom row contains original frames from camera 2 taken at the same time, and the middle row contains virtual images synthesized from he perspective of a camera moving along the baseline of the original camera pair. Have you ever asked yourself, “How’d they do that?” after seeing a movie, a TV show, or even a commercial loaded with special effects? Students at Rensselaer will soon learn the hows and much more in a new course, Computer Vision and Graphics for Digital Arts.
Scheduled to begin in the fall, the course is the brainchild of Richard Radke, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering. It will emphasize research topics underlying the advanced visual effects that are becoming more and more common in commercials, music videos, and movies.
Putting EMPAC on the map
“There are a handful of well-known university centers that bridge academic technological research and the arts,” Radke said. “We hope that Rensselaer's strong nucleus of faculty who work in computer vision and graphics will be a great complement to the cutting-edge artists that the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) will attract.”
From motion capture to today’s commercials
The new course will explore a variety of topics in the field, including camera calibration, structure from motion, features and tracking, matting and background subtraction, morphing and view synthesis, non-photorealistic rendering, photo and video mosaics, tiling, image inpainting, and motion capture. Classes will discuss examples of visual effects from research papers, advertisements, music videos, and movies.
“With this course, I hope to expose students to advanced techniques in digital arts and visual effects, provide an in-depth design experience, and promote discussion between students from technical and artistic backgrounds,” said Radke. “A set of courses closely tied to technology and the arts is essential for training students who will write the next generation of arts-enabling software.”
Interactive "living painting" courtesy of Aaron Hertzmann/NYU Media Research Lab