Fulldome Media Environment
The video and gallery showcase the outcome of the construction of a five-meter diameter, three-meter tall, fulldome theatre and approximately nine minutes of animated media. Furthermore, a user interface was developed that allows visitors to control the playback of the animations inside the dome.
When visitors enter the dome, they are surrounded by three equidistant virtual paintings floating in the spherical theatre. The iconic selection of paintings includes: “Water Lillies” by Claude Monet, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Hokusai, and “The Dream” by Henri Rousseau. Through the use of a cellphone application, users can select the paintings to playback one at a time. Once selected, the media dissolves into a panoramic tableau of an expansive scene, composited from multiple images from the individual artists’ collection of works. The frame of the painting, both visually and figuratively, recedes as imagery surrounds the audience. Each scene builds upon the original artwork, by digitally synthesizing the image with other images from the artist’s body of work. These scenes are delicately animated with various layers of the painting, transforming dynamically in three-dimensional space. Each animated scene runs for approximately two to three minutes and is accompanied by audio. Once an animation has concluded, it dissolves to the opening scene, where the visitor can again select an animated sequence from one of the three artworks.
Featured below are three animations created for the fulldome environment, presented in virtual reality via Youtube VR. When viewing through a desktop screen you can move your mouse to change the direction of the camera around the scene. When viewing the animations through a cellphone you can move the camera via your finger or through changing the direction of the phone itself. The audio for these animations was created by Sharif Jamaldin.
