viziblr

2010 has been a great year for browser based creative applications. First, I became a fun of the wonderful Harmony tool by Mr. Doob and then played with DeviantArt Muro, and now I’ve come across the latest cool visual treat: The Endless Mural.

 

I am unsure how one describes Endless Mural – it’s not for “drawing” like Harmony or DeviantArt Muro. I’d instead place it in the category of visual toys that generate interesting pixels. Or maybe this is a prototype for an automated tool to generate designs for Affliction t-shirts. For my own use, I think I could use this to create some unique title slide backgrounds for my PowerPoint presentations.

 

Another interesting difference is that Endless Mural can “play back” the drawings instead of simply showing the final, rendered output.

 

Here’s a YouTube video of Joshua explaining it in his own words.

 

And because it can be difficult to appreciate the tool without seeing it in action, below is a quick demo I recorded of me using the tool.

Endless Mural Demo (2010-11-27) from Saveen Reddy on Vimeo.

Screenshots

 

 

 

 

My attempts at using the tool

Below are a couple of samples I created

http://www.endlessmural.com/#7532

http://www.endlessmural.com/#7783

 

And by playing with Photoshop Elements ….

 

The floodgates have opened. Here are four hacks that caught my eye this week.

 

Interactive Puppetry

One of the better-looking hacks out there so far. There’s a little bit of a lag between the input and the puppet’s matching response – not sure if that lag is primarily due to the Kinect or the hack.

 

Interactive Puppet Prototype with Xbox Kinect from Theo Watson on Vimeo.

[via reddit]

 

Headtracking

A hard one to explain in words – you move and the perspective in the screen alters – so just watch the video below. I’ve seen this before with the Wii but of course it’s much more elegant without having to hold any hardware.

[via reddit]

 

3D Drawing

[Insert Minority Report reference here]. OK, Cool demo. Like all such hand-wavy (deliberate pun) demos – the challenge is holding one’s arms in the air for an extended period of time is very challenging.

 

 

Night-Vision – See what the Kinect is projecting into you

Creepy.

 

Like many people I first heard the song at the end of the movie Fight Club – but since then I’ve been charmed by many of the variations. Here are my top 5 - in no particular order.

 

Maxence Cyrin

A truly beautiful interpretation on piano by Maxence Cyrin.

James Blunt

I know I’ll get heat for this choice because his voice seems to polarize people, but in this song I think it truly fits in well.

 

City Wolf

Of all my choices this is closest to the original

Chantal Kreviazuk

Unfortunately this is an abbreviated clip. Still I hope you enjoy this very different performance.

 

Emmy the Great

This a quirky, cute cover.

Impressive! Now that people are hacking and playing with the Kinect, I expect we’ll see all kinds of awesomeness.

The first is this: 3D Video Capture with Kinect

[Via Reddit]

 

[UPDATE ON 2011-08-14]

GO HERE FOR THE LATEST INSTRUCTIONS

http://viziblr.com/news/2011/8/14/the-ultimate-guide-to-making-your-wacom-tablet-work-on-windo.html

 

The new instructions are MUCH easier to understand and follow.