Designing the Future of Animation
Shane Lynch,style> a senior computer science major, and Chad Eby ’06,style> MFA, imaging and digital arts, are members of a UMBC research design team responsible for the newest development in editorial cartoons. Led by famed-cartoonist Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher, Lynch, Eby and staff from UMBC’s Imaging Research Center designed a 3-D virtual bust of President George W. Bush.style>
The project’s concept, making a three-dimensional caricature talk, walk and interact with the public in real-time, is considered unprecedented for animation.
The digital bust is the brainchild of Kallaugher, a cartoonist for the Economist and former cartoonist for the Baltimore Sun, who came to UMBC in January 2006 as an artist-in-residence, a position sponsored partly by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.
Lynch and Eby each had their own responsibilities for the project. Lynch programmed the coding for the 3-D cartoon, making it work in real-time. The stately figure can move its mouth in various directions, furrow its eyebrows and pop out its ears. Eby arranged the hardware interface, chose the equipment and programmed the software that operates the movements of the virtual puppet.
The project took four months to complete and required the diverse skills of the team members, which also included Dan Bailey,style> the Center’s director, and Eric Smallwood,style> technical director of the IRC.
Lynch and Eby both agree working with KAL and learning about the man behind the satirical cartoons was exciting and rewarding.
“We are pretty far ahead of the curve,” said Eby, who is beginning his first year as an assistant professor in Florida State University’s Art Department. “I have no doubt this is the future of animation.”
To view the design stages and to track the project’s progress, visit http://www.irc.umbc.edu/kal/.
(8/29/2006)
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