Tech in Avatar

For this post, I hope that everyone has seen James Cameron's Avatar. Having talked with people about the movie, I found out that many did not realized the movie was more than usual computer animation. From what I've heard, the actors are real, but they were later turned into CGI characters. Lets see what the "Cloud" has to say about this information.

Yahoo Answers tells us that the actors "did all the motion stuff" and "JC" later superimposed Na'vi faces on them. This sounds pretty plausible, however, I feel like there was more to it than just superimposing a face on the actors. Another source on Yahoo Answers states that they were real people and fake aliens, kind of like on Jurassic Park.

A continued Google search resulted lots of pages, very few of which looked worth while at all. The majority of the pages seemed to be peoples opinions or renditions of articles people read with no links or excerpts from the articles. My next tactic was to try what is probably the only source of information, used by high school students, that rivals Google, Wikipedia.

A Wikipedia search for Avatar does not automatically result in the movie. Instead, the search is directly routed to a page about avatars in Hinduism. After finding the correct page, I was surprised by the amount and seeming technical knowledge of the writing. Also, there are 256 citations for this page! Wikipedia confirms that there were real actors and the use of CGI. The page paraphrases Cameron stating that there is about "60% computer-generated elements and 40% live action and environment." The source for this information is even provided: The Hollywood Reporter. Following the link provided takes the reader to the actual article on the Reporter's website. Though the name may not initially sound reliable, it meets many of the requirements put forth by the Internet Detective.

As for the technical information about turning real people into animated people or CGI Na'vi, Cameron had to wait roughly 14 years for the development of the necessary technology. The article discusses filming speeds, types of cameras, etc. However, one of the main aspects of this filming endeavor was a small camera attached to special individual caps the actors wore while filming. These cameras captured the actors' facial expressions in extreme detail and transmitted the information to computers. Cameron and others were then able to use this data to create and direct CGI characters.

This is the short description of how human-CGI characters were made for Avatar. I thank the people for all of the hard work that went into the wonderfully well documented page on Wikipedia. Collective knowledge can be a wonderful thingsometimes.

If you like the ideas, concepts, and/or possibilities presented in Avatar, check out this article by Popular Mechanics!

Course Post One

My goals for the Tech4Educators class is to learn about the wide selection of free technology available on the web. Also, I am looking forward to learning different ways to incorporate this technology. I hope that there is lots of time to work on and share ideas for using some of the technology that we learn about.

I am not really nervous about taking a tech class as I know that everyone taking the course has varying levels of proficiency with technology. It's all about asking questions and learning!

This is not my first time taking an online course. I have taken two other classes in a totally online environment. So, I am familiar with working online and the online classroom. However, this does not mean that I like taking online classes. If this course were totally online, I would not be taking it. I am a "brick and mortar" learner.

I have grown up with technology. I can remember being 8 or 9 and getting our first computer, and the hours of shopping at dozens of stores while my parents learned about the various types, speeds, etc, of the computers. (It ran DOS 3.1!) Technology has also been part of my formal elementary, middle, high school, and college education. However, the majority of the current technology that I use, and continue to add to my use, has shown and taught to me be my peers; from cell phones, AIM, power point, attaching an email, Audacity, webcams, facebook, making phone calls via yahoo messenger, blogs, and so much more.

I do not read blogs often, nor do I read the news often. I have tried blogging in the past, but never stay with it. We'll see how this one works out!