Digit

In David Rosser’s final take on Flash on the Beach, he reminds us to build our careers on ideas, not tools. Sound advice coming from an Ideas Man. We can’t wait to see where FOTB takes Digit (and David!) next year.

Jer Thorp – New York, New York

Jer Thorp is mostly known for his beautiful and complex data visualisations. As a Data Artist in Residence at the New York Times, Jer shared some of the most recent projects he’s worked on, one of them being the 9-11 Memorial in New York City. He was asked to produce an algorithm that would allow victims’ names to be placed close to their friends and family rather than in the linear fashion most common in memorial sites. Jer thus produced a tool made with processing  that generated a name structure from a set of pre-defined rules. To read more about this fascinating project, click here.

Joshua Davis – The Unknown Voyage

Joshua Davis wrapped up theoverall conference with a session titled, “The Unknown Voyage”. He led the crowd through a collection of his print and interactive work, giving us advice each step of the way on how to further ourselves and our careers. An important point he made was to “build our careers on ideas, not tools.” Why limit our work to the constraints of the programs we work in when we could be thinking outside of the box, without limitations? An appropriate and thought-provoking end to one of the highlight events of the year.

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David Rosser shares more of his experience at this year’s Flash on the Beach conference in Brighton. Stay tuned for his final post tomorrow, where he encourages us (via Joshua Davis) to build our careers on ideas, not tools. 

Seb Lee-Delisle – Pixels for People

It’s not every day you get to be part of an art installation.

Seb’s Day 2 session ‘Pixels for People’ turned the audience’s iPhones and Android devices into pixels. Using a combination of JavaScript websockets, openFrameworks and over 150 mobile devices, Seb created a synchronous light installation along with a game that challenged audience members to capture the Nyan Cat — the fastest click being the winner. Seb tried this again during the JAM session in the dome and successfully synchronised over 200 mobile devices.

David Lenaerts – Keeping it real

David, being an Away3D core developer, was definitely on my Favorites list. As a fellow 3D enthusiast with a background in Maya and Flash, I was excited and intrigued to learn about advanced shading and rendering techniques. One of the key points he highlighted was using realtime physics calculations to counter software limitations. He argued that calculating realtime physics based simulations is expensive on the CPU, while the same effect(s) can be achieved by “faking it.” His presentation covered diffuse lighting, sub surface scattering and normal mapping techniques, which were followed by some jaw-dropping Away3D 4 demos. To read more about the topics David covered click here.

James Victore – Who died and made me boss?

All I knew about james before seeing him speak was that he had the most impressive mustouche ever! James headed the Inspiration session on the second night. Apart from running his own business, James Victore Inc., he’s also a professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Throughout James’s talk, he discussed various pieces of work from his new book – “Who Died and Made You Boss?”. His captivating and motivating session eventually had us all rocking out to Back in Black by AC/DC. A great end to a fantastic Day 2.

Images in this post are © of their respected owners.

Digit’s Creative Technologist, David Rosser, attended Flash on the Beach in Brighton this past week. The conference brings together the best minds in design and development to share, educate and inspire, while providing opportunities for hands-on technical training and networking. Digit’s attended FOTB for three years running, a tradition we hope to keep up despite there being doubt about the conference’s future (see David’s blog for more on this).

Here are David’s thoughts on the sessions that really stood out this year, and the importance of good reference libraries.

FOTB Title Sequence

This year’s title sequence was created by Bradley G Munkowitz, aka GMUNK. I’d never seen any of Bradley’s work before, so to experience a beautiful, well-rehearsed live action dance piece was a treat. The piece’s narrative follows a creative soul as he searches for inspiration and fights his inner ghosts — something we’ll all come across at some point in our careers. Click here to learn more about the piece.

Bradley G Munkowitz – Tron GFX

One of the first sessions on Monday was GMUNK’s Tron GFX talk, based on the 12 minutes of holographic work he and his team produced for the film, Tron Legacy. Showing an imaculate array of concept and post-production work, the visuals stunned us all.  He also had plenty to say about the roots of inspiration. He couldn’t stress enough the importance of reference libraries throughout his presentation, which I thought was an interesting insight. It’s true; a good reference library will always provide you with a solid collection of inspirational material that can help you on current and future projects.

Click here to see more of the eye candy GMUNK and his team produced.

Jon Burgerman – A short talk about working and not working, and how to waste time efficiently

The first Inspiration session was headed by Jon Burgerman. Jon’s work speaks louder than his personality, which (trust me) is incredibly loud! On a daily basis Jon spends his time drawing and illustrating colourful cartoons while singing about vegetarian food. He’s also in a band called Anxieteam.

Check the Digit blog next week for my thoughts on Day 2. They may or may not involve moustaches and my perspective on the power of Pixels for People.

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