Category: Reports

Testing and breaking the Super SloMo video interpolation algorithm

Using Super SloMo by Jiang H. et. al (Python/run on Windows 10):

I. Tests with a GoPro Hero8 in slow motion mode:

Notes: Had to reduce video quality to 720p to stop the algorithm from crashing. 2x slow factor works pretty well, 4x produces some jumpy / distortion effects.

In general, the algorithm produces a little distortion on the corners of videos.

II. “Breaking” the algorithm using some timelapse footage

Notes: This weirdness works best with footage that has people / objects entering and leaving a space.

III. Transition between two images (using two friends I’ve met before)

display.land misuse

I chose to play with the photogrammetry app display.land.

To think about ways to misuse it, I checked out the tutorials for inspiration.

 

EXPERIMENTS

  • when you’re capturing, there is a little progress bar on the bottom, showing you the minimum amount of capturing you need to do to make an image. I wondered what would happen if I ended the capture early. But it wouldn’t let me:

  • the app says “direct sunlight is ok, but beware of your own shadow.” –> to misuse, I tried allowing my own shadow to interfere. spoiler alert – it looks absolutely terrible. The funny thing is though, my shadow doesn’t appear in it anywhere…
It’s supposed to be a swingset. check it out here: https://displayland.app.link/DP2IsgPPa5
  • in general, you’re not supposed to do photogrammetry with transparent/clear objects –> to misuse, I captured my water glass.
check out here: https://displayland.app.link/WzDoU8OOa5
  •  I tried to capture something smaller, and from below – a chain hanging from the ceiling. Somehow, the anchor point of the chain was preserved, but the links exploded all over the place.

link to this one: https://displayland.app.link/p20yifoQa5

a photo of the actual chain:

 

Dsiplay.Land, HyperLapse, and Slit-Scan fun

  1. This is a hyperlapse video I made of the cat I have taken charge of in quarantine –> Meet Twigs. Looking forward to playing around with this more, too!

2. This is a 3D model made with Display.Land from a short walk I took. Instead of trying to actually capture a specific area/object, I let the camera just move forward and it created a much more heavily warped model. Some of my more disruptive experiments didn’t compile into videos that would work within the app. I like it and will keep messing around with it.

3. With the slit-scan photo app Poloska I took this portrait of the cat, Twigs. I really enjoy how broken and abstract the photo turned out.

App Misuse Olivia Cunnally

Misusing the Panorama App and the Slow Shutter Fast Cam App

Panorama as I roll down a hill:

Long exposure of me rolling down a hill:

Long exposure of my sister walking

Long exposure of camera moving up and down:

Long exposure of my sister shaking her head:

WalkOutside: This One River

I started with the intention of documenting this nature trail in my town. The trail used to be a Short Line that supplied materials to factories along the 3 mile stretch between 1840 until 1981. I wanted to document some of the more interesting remnants of these old industrial structures.

Taking the time to document this place that I had grown so familiar with, I was taken back to when my friends used to come here a lot, mostly in middle school. I decided to continue up the river as it meanders through our town, visiting other spots we spent a lot of time skating at.

Starting at what was the end of the river for us – we never really thought to follow the river into the woods beyond this bridge, and so this is as far as it reaches.

This wall is the first structure you see walking from the north end of the trail. These “Tree Sweaters” you’ll see along the trail appeared last year. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were made from acrylic yarn.
This bridge was originally part of the Skaneateles Short Line.

From here I meandered away from the walking path to take pictures of some of the other bridges and brickwork on this side of the river – you can see the previous bridge on the right, and the next bridge on the left.
As I was walking through this area I was struck how the snow obscures and partially “erases” the present chaos of the natural landscape. This seemed to emphasize the regularities in these deteriorating human-made structures. It made me think of the effect of missing data from our photogrammetry workshop. The slight irregularities in the deteriorating structures seem to match the irregularities of the blank snow, enforcing the cohesiveness of this illusion.

I thought about how the river’s movement was probably the most striking disruption of the blank snow canvas – cutting through it so violently in some parts and tepidly in others.
This waterfall is iconic. This bench is iconic.
I paused here to think about how it took hundreds of years for these stone structures to be deteriorated by entropy and reclaimed to the extent that they have by organic materials. It took less than a decade for this bench to be claimed by the organic material of a shit head with a lighter.
I know who did this – he beat me up before soccer practice in 8th grade. Knowing him, I honestly see this as an act of neuroticism more than an act of vandalism – but there may be an inherent connection between the two.
View from the bench.

Natural properties of a filter. This is where Doug found the frisbee.
An interesting feature of these woods is these rows of support pillars that used to hold up mills. They are always arranged in straight lines that seem to cut through the landscape at weird angles – directions that used to disappear seamlessly and intentionally.

The bottom of this area and the next is actually a concrete platform. In the Summer the river dries up and only continues below the platform, letting us walk across to poke around inside these buildings.

The Dock

Another bridge along the Skaneateles Short Line. This is the southern-most bridge of the nature trail.
This is where the river leaves the nature trail and cuts under roads and behind houses into the village.
Creekside
We used to skate a lot in these parking lots behind CVS.
This bank was real nice to skate when there weren’t trucks blocking it and people telling us to leave. The river is back there on the left in this picture.
Old Stone Creamery. We clocked a lot of hours behind here in the Summer. I remember the water being pretty gross here but you could jump off the dock and then lay out on that metal pipe that got ripping hot sitting in the sun all day. This is where my friend lost his frisbee. When we saw Doug with it, he said it couldn’t be ours because he found it at the nature trail.
If you go down this hole you can wander through the sewer system beneath the village.

This is the other side of that filter shown in the previous pics. There’s usually a landmass of gunk and trash here in the summer.
The first bridge that the river crosses from the lake.

It was pretty common to run and jump off this boat house in the summer.
Where the river begins.

 

[I just found out the whole things on google maps]

Assignment #53 Give advice to yourself in the past

 

Advice To past Joseph Amodei’s from twenty-nine year old Joseph:

 

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-eight: Hold onto Eevee and Olivia, everything is temporary.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-seven: Now would probably have been a good time to get back into therapy.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-six: Tell Ian how he is not being a good friend.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-five: Be more supportive of your sister’s decision to marry whomever she wishes.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-four: Write more in your journal.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-three: Hold onto the feeling of an open future, you have a long way to go still.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-two: Start taking care of your back now, this would have been a good time to start doing yoga.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty-one: These past few years have been hard, but keep making art and don’t worry it seems that so far you have not stopped.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at twenty: Go easier on your body and try to sleep more.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at nineteen: Enjoy the time with your friends. Alos, no need to wait 8 months to start therapy, just go for it, it’ll be p good, I promise.

Advice To Joseph Amodei at eighteen: Probably don’t start smoking.

Photograph a Scar and Write about it

So this small scab like looking scar (not super obvious) sits on my right wrist right next to the jutting out wrist bone, but acts as a hallmark of a moment of raw stupidity fuelled by a small amount of 12 year old anger.

I went on a school trip to France during the final term (I was living in England at this point) of my Middle school. There was an agreement overall that the students weren’t allowed to use their phones, but the tone set by the school wasn’t that it was for our well being and health to enjoy the outdoors but rather to prevent contact with unnecessary parties. So my 12 year old brain decided halfway through the trip to try to email (because that was the only function by iPod Touch had to communicate) my parents and say everything was fine. Now, the internet at this little French hotel was so awful from my hotel room that I had to precariously lean out my window in order to get even a minutiae of  connection. But lo and behold as I lean out the window who should also be leaning out their window but the teacher who was staying in the room next to us. Ensue awkward exchange of glances, a retreat into my room and a knock on the door. My iPod was taken, much to my behest and confusion considering other people’s blatant use of their devices throughout the trip. However, the real cherry on the cake was the somewhat ludicrous speech our assistant headmaster gave the next morning about his outrage over device use. This speech was of particularly note because he was clutching my iPod as he was giving it, waving it back and forth like some form of conductors rod of middle school student rehabilitation. My name was at no point mentioned in said speech, but I was particularly sullen and outraged throughout most of it. And this outrage fed into my stupidity.

The next day we headed to a little water park about 30 mins from the hotel. My dejected form taunted by the battery of technology usage around me on the bus ride over. Finally getting changed and proverbially leaping for joy at the prospect of a water park where I could just let go for an hour or two and forget about my 12 year old woes, I dived hands first into a pool meant to catch you from a slide. Now, these pools aren’t meant for swimming but rather are to curb your momentum from the water slide, and as such was really only 2 feet deep. Well I noticed this mid dive, and turned slightly to my side, catching most of my momentum on the wrist (enter scar) and side rather than right on the noggin. It is also important to note that the bottom of these little pools are purposefully roughed to make sure you have enough grip to stand up and get out without slipping. Good for not slipping, but also good as an abrasive. It is also worth pointing out that blood plus swimming pools equal big health and safety no no, so when I noticed what I had done to myself my responsible brain kicked in and immediately went to a teacher to get fixed up. Fortunately they possessed the ultimate solution to a 12 year old’s stupidity in the form of waterproof bandaids (after a generous amount of dabbing at said wound and letting it dry) so I was still able to enjoy the water park a little.

However, the real cherry on the cake was that as we were leaving the park our assistant headmaster went up to me, gave me my phone and with a particular tone of pity in his voice said ‘you’ve been well behaved, here’. So all in all, an okay day.

BONUS MYSTERY SCAR

I legitimately have no idea how I got this scar.

I woke up one morning this semester, did my morning routine and sat down at my desk and as I sat down I noticed pain in my upper right arm. Sure enough I rolled my arm meat over and saw that I had a fairly small, thin and long cut along my tricep. After a couple of days I noticed that the scab looked particularly like a zipper which was kind of curious.

Such is the tale of the mystery scar.

Walk Timelapse

I went on a walk up a hill nearby and took a timelapse. It’s about 90 minutes reduced down to 3.5.

I recorded the timelapse with an iPhone in my shirt pocket, which contributed to the jitteriness. It definitely gets very hard to tell what’s going on during most of the uphill portions of the walk, where the horizon disappears and all that’s visible is the ground. The clearer portions of the video are the flatter sections of trail, which on this walk were rather limited.

As it got darker in the trees on the north side of the hill, the camera automatically reduced the shutter speed, resulting in a very streaky and somewhat incomprehensible image. I think it would be cool to exploit this effect more by trying one of these timelapses in an even darker environment, maybe at night.

As for the most interesting thing found on this walk, I think it would have to be this rubber chicken screwed onto a tree by some mountain bikers.