Fulldome.pro

SIGGRAPH 2015 kicked off with an electronic dance party including a live performance by DJ Mobius8 and visual effects provided by Fulldome.pro. SIGGRAPH is the annual conference of the Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH). This year’s conference was held in Los Angeles, California and the opening night party was held at the Vortex Dome in the downtown area. The existing 45 foot (14 meters) dome was fitted out with an eight projector Fulldome.pro system which achieved a bright and uniform image at stunning 4K resolution. The system also provided flexibility, enabling the VJ to accompany the pulsing sounds of Mobius8 with live, real-time visuals from Fulldome.pro’s own Meduza 360 Music Visualizer as well as other VJ software, including Resolume, and clips provided by laptops and servers. Chris Lawes, Director of Business Development at Fulldome.pro stated “[the system] allowed us to …show three or four different types of content throughout the evening and just see where the crowd’s vibe was at and respond to that”. John Laraio, the man behind Mobius8, said of the “amazing video content – its some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen – really cool”.

The President and CEO of Vortex Immersive Media, Ed Lantz, described it as an “awesome projection system” and went on to say, “Fulldome.pro has done a very impressive job. … to be able to come in and set up a system and auto align in a day is really for us a dream come true. Especially for the event kind of stuff that we do – this is perfect.”

In May 2015 thousands of visitors to the Lightning In a Bottle festival got the opportunity to experience high quality fulldome art in an context that would not have been possible only a few years earlier. Mobile dome technology, coupled with fast, accurate and automatic projection calibration from Fulldome.pro made this a reality. Fulldome.pro collaborated with renowned digital fantasy artist Android Jones, to bring his stunning images to life in a fulldome show titled SAMSKARA. The immersive art experience was a hit of the festival, drawing big crowds, and long queues, to the gallery.

Android Jones is one of the world’s leading digital fantasy artists. His style is self described as “electro-mineralism” and his subjects are often on a spiritual or shamanistic in nature. Android was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. His artist parents encouraged him to pursue his own art. He attended the Ringling School of Art and Design, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Animation. He followed this up with further study at the Boulder Academy of Fine Art and even spent time at medical school, performing dissections to better understand anatomy for use in his art. After his studies Android worked at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic and then as a Concept Artist at Nintendo. He was Creative Director of Massive Black, an outsourcing studio for the entertainment and advertising industry and co-founded ConceprtArt.org, a non-profit on-line community where artists meet, learn and critique each other.

Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) is a family-friendly, transformational festival incorporating electronic dance music, experimental and folk music, art installations, presentations, demonstrations, yoga and meditation. The festival began in 2000 as a private party in Southern California and is now an annual public festival held around the Memorial Day long weekend on the California Central Coast. The sold-out 2015 festival ran over five days and attracted over 20,000 attendees. Android Jones exhibited his digital paintings in the Museum Of Visionary Artists, a 60 foot dome that housed a 15 foot fulldome theater.

When teachers at Panyaden School in Chiang Mai, Thailand were planning activities for their Media Magic study unit, they wanted a way to educate their students about how people communicate using 3D media. Fortunately for them, Fulldome.pro has a production studio, FullDomeLab right on their doorstep, so a field trip was exactly what was called for.

During the visit the grade 1 students met members of the FullDomeLab team of professional 3D artists and animators, who showed them how they create some of the stunning images and scenes from our fulldome shows. After seeing the various stages of the production process, the students got to experience the finished product by lying back under the 3 meter open dome for a tour of the solar system using the Event Horizon digital planetarium. The students then learnt the story of Prince Gopal and the Govardhan Hill in the animated film Gopal: Prince of the Cow`s Planet, which was created by some of the animators they had met earlier. While enjoying refreshments, on the balcony of the main studio building, the group was filmed from our remote controlled Multicopter G12 Valkyrie. The students were enthralled as the drone hovered in front of them and flew out across the studio complex and the valley beyond. Next it was time for the students to star in their own film! The class split into smaller groups and each group was filmed in front of a green screen. After capturing all the action, one of our compositors combined the separate sequences into a single scene showing all the students together.

After the busy morning the students and their teachers returned to school and the FullDomeLab team went back to creating more exciting content for our informative and entertaining fulldome shows.

Not every school is fortunate enough to be located just around the corner from one of our production studios, but many schools are located within easy reach of a fulldome cinema and, with the range Fulldome.pro portable domes and projection systems, it may be possible to bring the cinema to the school! The fulldome format is not just for planetariums, although with our Event Horizon planetarium solution, it can be used specifically for educating audiences about the solar system and the stars beyond it. The ever growing range of fulldome content includes education materials covering topics from dinosaurs to the ocean depths. Through the use of immersive, fulldome content students can visit places and times that were previously not practical or possible.

Located amidst rice paddies in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Panyaden School integrates Buddhist values and environmental mindfulness with a modern bilingual curriculum. For more information about Panyaden School visit: panyaden.ac.th

Fulldome.pro was a Principal Sponsor of the IMERSA Summit 2015, in Denver, Colorado. Fulldome.pro Sales Manager, Elena Gruzdevea and Director of Business Development, Fulldome.pro US ,Chris Lawes were participants and attended the Pro.Show networking event for key players in the industry.

IMERSA (Immersive Media, Entertainment, Research, Science & Arts) is a non-profit, professional trade association whose mission is to advance the art and technology of immersive digital experiences.

The IMERSA Summit is held annually in Denver, Colorado and brings together fulldome content producers, virtual reality producers, hardware and software vendors and content providers for five days of screenings, presentations, workshops and seminars. Participants had to opportunity to learn about the latest technology for the fulldome market but also to explore the many challenges and opportunities facing this ever changing and growing industry.

The official highlights package of IMERSA Summit 2015 was produced by Fulldome.pro.