Posted to newsgroups, emailed to some multimedia firms:
ANNOUNCEMENT RE THE VIDEOGRAMMATRON (repost/forward OK, kill date Dec 31, 1998) FR: Kirby Urner, 4D Solutions TO: Animators/Artists, Potential sponsors, Talent RE: Business opportunity (Silicon Forest) Those of you with animation skills, e.g. have produced shorts for Childrens Television Workshop (CTW), animation festivals, videos on technical subjects etc. might be interested in sending samples of your work and/or brochures/URLs re your firm to 4D Solutions.[1] Our test pilot TV series, for possible syndication (after screening for test audiences here in the Silicon Forest), is now in storyboard phase. Entitled "The Videogrammatron" (inhouse project name -- perhaps changed for release), this math-science show will feature short clips (claymations, animations...) spliced together from archives, with each show a mix of new and old, ala the 'Sesame Street' model, along with interviews of talent in the field, other live action ('Bill Nye the Science Guy' an inspiration, also MTV). If you're interested in sponsoring the show i.e. have a toy, kit or gizmo of math-science relevance which you would like featured in an educational context (with web address), this may be worth checking into as well. The curriculum behind this series is custom-tailored to serve a specific market niche and has a fairly tight focus, in the interests of having the heterogenous clips from a variety of artists/sources all interrelate (much as 'Sesame Street' interrelates its clips around topics A-Z and 1-20). So of course some criteria apply (preponderance of clips will run for under 2 minutes). Submitted materials not returned unless return postage/mailer included. Do not send confidential or eyes-only segments (that might come later, if we agree to nondisclosure in writing). Do not expect immediate replies. And please, DO NOT SEND LARGE FILES as email attachments (by pre- arrangement, I can point you to my FTP site for uploading). To get some idea of themes and threads we're following, and for a peek at current sources of raw materials, check my website (winner of the coveted Dr. Matrix award for science excellence): http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/index.html and also links at http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/links.html (e.g. Richard Hawkins QuickTime archives and STRUCK animations). Bottom line: if you produce relevant clips, we'd like to collaborate and offer fair compensation for your time/energy. We will hope to negotiate (usually nonexclusive) rights to allow unlimited recycling of your contributions in our TV series, with full attribution and contact information (provided you wish this) available via the companion website (not always practical to squeeze all credits into the show itself). Sincerely, Kirby Urner Principal 4D Solutions PS: If your firm is a sophisticated computer graphics shop, you might want to try taking on the challenge of producing some prototypical hypertoons. For more on the hypertoons concept, see my write-up at: http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/hypertoon.html PPS: feel free to forward this message in its entirety (kill date: December 31, 1998). ==== Russ suggested I accompany my Videogrammatron proposal with some clues re the video clips I'm hoping to database and splice together. Those below focus on the prefrequency geometry minus some of the real TV segments we'd like to be getting from Project Earthala archives (e.g. of Fly's Eye being assembled, refugees getting evacuated etc.). I think Russ was on-target. Here are some ideas (some of which already exist in one or more versions, but the idea here is to get lots of different "artists' conceptions" around each concept e.g. someone might do it in claymation, some with paper cutouts, some with computer graphics... endless permutations possible, ala Sesame Street model (clips focussed on A-Z, 1-15 or so). Kirby ==== Video clips needed: I. Great Circles: 1. Cubocta 25 axial spin pairs -> 25 great circles 2. Icosa 31 -> 31 3. Jitterbug 31 <-> 25 <-> 31 (left & right handed 31) -- 87 -14 -- 4. Juxtapose 73 superimposition of 1 & 2 minus dupes 5. LCD triangle 6. From 25 gc net, highlight spherical tet, oct, rh dodeca and go to 'flat' versions (reverse) 7. From 31 gc net, highlight spherical icosa, rh triaconta, pent dodeca and go to 'flat' versions (reverse) II. Sphere Packing: 1. Rhombic Dodecas agglommerating around a nuclear 1 in cuboctahedral conformation 2. Dissolve cubocta sphere packing to octet truss 3. Highlight tetrahedral void in truss -> spin around face center axes -> explode into A modules 4. Highlight octa void in truss -> spin around 6 mid-edge axes -> explode into A and B modules 5. Spheres start growing at octa tips of rhombic dodeca (octa inscribes as long face diagonals) -> alternate packing (ccp) 6. Spheres start growing at 1/2 the cube tips of the rhombic dodeca (duo-tet cube inscribes as short face diagonals) -> alternate packing (ccp) 7. Spheres start growing at other 1/2 the cube tips of the rhombic dodeca (duo-tet cube inscribes as short face diagonals) -> alternate packing (ccp) 8. Superimpose dual packings (1 & 5 or 7 & 8) to show pattern of vertices in 'xyz cube' lattice 9. Superimpose all four packings and pulse between 2 'xyz cube' lattices to show bcc lattice 10. Use lattice backgrounds to "tune in" chemicals (give chemistry symbols across bottom) as per Russell Chu's R&D III. Assembly/Disassembly: 1. 24 Amods -> tetrahedron (vol 1) 2. 48 Amods + 48 Bmods -> octahedron (vol 4) 3. Octahedron -> 8 x 1/8th octas 4. 4 x 1/8th octas + tetra -> cube (vol 3) 5. Cube + 6 x 1/6th cubes -> rhombic dodeca (vol 6) 6. 6 x 1/2 octa + 8 x tetra -> cubocta (vol 20) 7. Rhombic triaconta circumscribes unit sphere (vol 5+) 8. Rhombic triaconta shrinks almost imperceptably (vol 5) 9. Rhombic triaconta explodes into T mods (vol 1/24) 10. Cubocta jitterbugs to icosa (vol ~18.51) (reverse) 11. Jitterbug continues to octaphase (vol 4, doubled edges) IV. Frequency 1. Multiplication-by-division of cubocta outer layer into smaller spheres (10 ff + 2) 2. Triangle cross-hatching & 2nd powering demo 3. Tetrahedron subdividing & 3rd powering demo 4. Geodesic sphere (icosasphere) of higher/lower frequency 5. Cubocta <-> icosa jitterbug outer layer while varying frequency 6. Above-the-line prefrequency (angles only) vs. below-the-line frequency (energized) i.e. 4D vs. 4D+ V. More specialized 1. Tiger jumps back and forth through 0-hoop (left/right 31) 2. Electronified brain rotates "below the line" while hypertoons flicker "above the line" 3. Trains chug along g.c. nets, sphere-hopping at adjacency points 4. Electronified brain holds a pattern (31), tiger jumps, holds another (31) ==== urner@alumni.princeton.edu (Kirby Urner) wrote: > >10. Use lattice backgrounds to "tune in" chemicals (give chemistry > symbols across bottom) as per Russell Chu's R&D > See http://home.att.net/~kas-chu/toc.html for more details re Russell's recent chemistry investigations. Kirby