June 2013

I took the photos below directly from the TV screen of some of the test drawings that I have done in the last few days using Dima’s new drawing programme. Photographed like this they just look out of focus of course! But I quite like the effect that is obtained by viewing the image without wearing 3D glasses and there is no doubt that drawing in 3D with the glasses on is quite an extraordinary experience. It really feels like a whole new world to explore….A first ‘proof of concept’ drawing. The drawing is enabled in 3 separate ‘layers’.Above – viewed through 3D glasses the figure in the foreground really appeared to be standing in the room in front of the TV – very spooky!The image above has 5 drawing layers, 2 for the rooftops and 3 for the interior.Above there are 6 layers of drawing, with each head drawn on a separate layer. Seen through the 3D glasses they looked like a set of cardboard cut outs arranged in space – but I really only did this drawing to test the drawing line.Above – a quick 5 layer sketch…..
Now Dima has added a grey scale to the programme to enable me to do this kind of tonal painting. The image above has 7 layers and the 3D effect is more subtle.

If you have red/cyan anaglyph glasses please put them on now – and you should be able to see some of these drawing experiments in REAL 3D….

In his quest to develop a tool that will enable me to draw in stereoscopic 3D, Dima is now almost permanently glued to the computer and has has moved his workstation from the studio into our sitting-room. Needless to say, the dogs are profoundly unimpressed with this new arrangement…..
Now I am confined to my desk in the corner of the room and from time to time Dima asks me to ‘try to do a drawing’ on the TV monitor. I’ve been taking photos of some of these drawings – with the application being so full of bugs, both ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ that the process of drawing has gone from difficult, through simply weird to completely impossible!
The 3D bit was working really well in the beginning (this can’t be seen in the photo below of course!) but the drawing line went all over the place making anything other than abstract patterns virtually impossible to control.
So – deep gloom, then Dima started all over again to try to achieve a line that I would be able to control accurately…..
This version was great fun, but everything turned into pointillism – and then after some more tinkering, into something really strange……
……finally, Dima ended up with these really sinister worms (Unfortunately a photo doesn’t show them properly. I should have taken some video as they seemed to move and wriggle as they gradually faded and disappeared).
So – deep gloom again, and another new start……which this time, though full of bugs both ‘known’and ‘unknown’, I thought looked much more promising! But – the pen had no pressure sensitivity and if I lifted it up to make a mark in a different position on the drawing the two points automatically joined up so it was only possible to draw using a continuous line.
So – Dima’s programme still may be full of bugs both ‘known and unknown’, but at least he has got it to the stage where I am able to use it to draw….
Now he is working trying to fix the ‘known bugs’ – but I have a terrible feeling that there will be lots more ‘unknown’ ones lurking ready to pounce, destroying everything and sending him back into deep gloom again…..

Last weekend we stayed at Hotel Luční bouda, the highest mountain hotel in the Krkonoše (the Giant Mountains) – the unbelievably romantic setting for the wedding of our friends, Martin and Alice. We took the Tagtool with us of course! I did the test drawing below on Friday, after we set up the projectors and Tagtool in the corner of the room where the party was to be held on Saturday evening.With several DJs and VJs among the guests, there was a lot of equipment to set up – and some creative solutions were required to get everything powered and working, as can be seen in the photo below. (Note the hotel waste basket which found a new use as a wire projector ‘cage’ suspended from the ceiling lamp!)
Here are some photos of the drawings I made during the evening at the party.


Dima animated the drawing (above) to accompany the dancing and the photo below is the mountain landscape that I drew towards the end of the party.

We had a wonderful time at Alice and Mikulas’s wedding – it was a really joyful occasion and although the Krkonoše mountains were covered in a blanket of thick mist and rain for the whole of the weekend and it was impossible to see the summit of Sněžka from the hotel, we felt that we had had a proper holiday!