V3.1 - Conclusions + Zen

Looking at the videos again, I'm a little frustrated and excited about the project. I do really like the weird Tron style and odd blips of mis-aligned lights. It has that great analog effect of old-futuristic movies that hasn't yet quite come to pass.

Believe it or not, but that odd blip doesn't happen in person, but seems like some frame-rate issue with the video. Documenting this is pretty hard, as many POV-ers will attest these things effect your eyes very differently than a camera's CCD. I've tried different long exposures, ISO/apertures, video settings and found some things that work pretty well. As I said too, I've accidentally made some very nice and surprising images along the way.

I think the V3.1 video part 1 starts to look quite a bit like the animation of the 3D model I tried to match. That alone is pretty promising. As I hoped to do I've learned a lot about vertical and radial resolution, and the RPM/FPS needed for the animation and Persistence of Vision, not to mention circuit design software, PCB manufacturing, built a 3D-to-2D to micro-controller design process, and made all that work together pretty well.

So, V4 and V5? I'm still trying to work out what resolution I think a very detailed 3D bonsai tree will need. I also should define what an acceptable first tree will do. Will it "grow" over time? Can that be spontaneous, or does it need to be pre-programmed? If it is generated by an algorithm, what outside forces can be incorporated into the process over time? I'd like a flexible development platform, a very hi-res LED array so I could concentrate on the programming end of that. I suppose those things will have to come along together.

This is a lot of progress, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm also feeling like, other than a better 3D tree model for V3.1 to display and a slightly faster fan, I've reached the end of the V3 family. I'll likely begin work on V4, either in 3D or in written form next.

V3.1 - Video Documentation P2

Here's another video of the new 8 layer tree. This one has a diffusion over the LEDs, as the other one looked too much like little points of light, and didn't blend together like I'd hoped. This works better, but I'll have to find the right material and LED spacing eventually.














Sorry, the red/orange landing lights never came back on. Watch the other V3.1 video first and this one should make sense too.

V3.1 - Video Documentation P1

Justin was kind enough to weigh in on the previous videos. As I'd feared, the handheld video was pretty shaky and sort of disorienting. I built a little camera rig just so I could move around these models a little more smoothly. I'll have to put up a picture of that contraption as well. On to the new video...














Also, at Justin's inspired direction, I added those little red/orange LEDs to the base. They look like little landing lights, but are mostly there to keep the sense of orientation as I move the camera around the model. They worked well, except they kept shorting out during the shoot. Too rushed I guess.

V3.1 - Tree Model Testing

The 8 layer tree model finally uploaded and spinning. At first glance it didn't really look much more complete or detailed than the 4 layer tree did. I also thought the 3D model was pretty tree like at the time I modeled it, but now I'm less sure. I experimented with a different wheel shape, more donut like with a large center (hub), which had the effect of more consistent detail from center to edge of the B/W conversion.










I think it looked better than this spinning, so I'll have to shoot some more video too.

V3.1 - 3D Tree Model

I've built a pixelated 3D tree in 3D Studio Max for testing 2 boards back to back. The animation on the left shows the model and how it unwraps into the 2 flattened SpokePOV images. I'll upload those to the back-to-back boards and test out the better vertical resolution.

V3.1 - Double Board Assembly

This is the new, higher res hardware setup. I didn't really know how this was going to work until I started populating (assembling) the second board. These are two identical boards, back-to-back, and offset vertically. When spinning, one board should end up making layers 1, 3, 5, and 7 and the other filling in the spaces should make layers 2, 4, 6, and 8. Here are the boards set up on the fan.










I should be able to create a 3D model of a new tree with 8 layers, and separate the interwoven layers into the 2 B/W images to upload to the boards. Here are a couple more photos to show the 2 boards back to back.










I got my hand in one of the long exposure shots, we'll say that's for scale.