In the Amsterdam harbor

I can see a little improvement over the years coming back to Amsterdam, after almost 8 times I get less lost which is always nice. But to look like a local demands some practical organization, you don't want to not give the impression you are a tourist (by staying in front of the Van Gog museum or asking where is the red light district or example) or one the numerous IBC visitors (they are easy to spot because they often keep their badge around the neck, or they are packed in the tram line 4 and 11,  men dressed in suits, some are struggling to check in and out in the public transport...) they are simple rules to follow: avoid tram line 4 and 11 during the dates of the IBC event, visit other museums than the one mentioned above or simply walk from place to place and try to get lost.

Going to IBC give you only a few hours (or to any fairs or conferences) to explore the city where the event is hosted. And after the whole day standing up, running to this or this session or talking in front of the audience of the "Cutting Edge Session 2" about your work on 3D stereoscopy camera for digital dome you want to find a place who will treat you well (I'm not talking about massage with good ending), a place with a decent coffee or a good beer who tastes different than Heineken are welcomed.

Being a spotter since this summer for Berlin, I use the spottedbylocals city guide for Amsterdam which have the great feature to be usable off-line on your smart electronic device (the other features being a list of regularly updated spots in the city you are visiting or just living). So, you are lost, turn the app on, check on the map the closest spots depending what you are looking for "et voilà".

And for my second evening in town I had the pleasure to meet the people behind the spottedbylocals city guide. Of course we met in one of the local Amsterdam spots, the stadscafe Van Mechelen which offer a large choice of beer and a delicious burger. Nice evening it was.

A day or two at school

And it was not a random school, but the HFF or school for movie and tv in Babelsberg. There we took part with a colleague to a workshop on 3D production. This last for 2 days and it was more than entertaining.

It is reductive to say we learn a lot, but it was. We could play with professional cameras, 3D cameras with different configurations: parallel lenses, mirror rig system with cameras at 90° from each other. And follow the whole production work-flow, the basis stages of the process starting with sweetening, then alignment and color matching and finally depth grading.

On the last day of the workshop I thought why not going back by bike, there is just 30km, so I did, I also lost my way which added some km to my way back home. But crossing Grünewald forest is a real pleasure, especially being the only one not in bike equipment, going fast and sweating like a sweating machine.

Some links:
-HFF

A day at the museum and more

First official day of the KUI event, a Culture and Computer conference hosted in the Pergamon museum in Berlin. Mixed feeling about the papers presented in contrast to the very interesting keynote given this morning by someone from the Israel museum in Jerusalem. The speaker did talk about their collaboration with Google Art, how to put your museum on-line or how do you make it existing on-line without loosing visitors.
 
Before the social event of the conference the possibility to have a guided tour in the museum was offered, I took it and it was amazing. The guide who was supposed to give a 30min talk was entertaining us for 1h30. We were all drinking his stories, jumping from country to country, time to time, history to mythology, mythology to politic. The highest point was the fight depicted from a 2m piece of facade where we could see parts of Athena and other bodies, the statues were moving and the swords flying, take that immersive 3D cinema.

I ask the question: what is a conference without his social event? An incomplete event.  This time it took place on the top of some federal building not fat form Alexanderplatz. And after a nice diner with a americano-franco-russian couple I left the place to join ma douce for a concert in Eschschloraque.

Eschschloraque, a bar name easy to misspell, a surviving alternative bar in Hackescher Markt close to the Kino Central. Comfortably installed in a sofa facing the stage we are waiting for the musicians. Here they come, Japanese singer, Russian piano player and a Greek guitarist. Songs in Japanese, Greek and more. Always nice to discover the musical touch of a band.

Today I did travel in time, in space, in language... and I'm not even confused. Take that narrow minded people.

Some link:
-KUI event
-the Israel museum
-Google Art Project
-eschschloraque

La 3D à Berlin

Petit tour chez les collègues au 3D Innovation Center. En partance de mon bureau, s'éloigner de Mierendorfplatz, descente vers le sud, traversée du Spree, le tout à vélo et 5min plus tard arrivée à destination.

Qu'est-ce me direz-vous? C'est un show-room qui expose tout ce que sait faire le Fraunhofer à Berlin avec la 3D. La 3D pour le cinéma, la tv, applications médicales, tout. Le pipeline de production de contenu 3D comme on dit est ici montré: acquisition avec caméras, comment récuper les informations de profondeur avec deux caméras ou plus, comment générer des images multi-view (donc pas uniquement stéréoscopie dans une direction), comment encoder un flux d'image 3D (codec tout ca). Ils ont aussi un studio tv tout vert et plein de caméra partout, une régie pour travailler les vidéos, une configuration pour tester la diffusion (broadcasting donc) vers différents supports (TV, cinéma). Il y a aussi une salle de cinéma pas dégueux avec au choix deux systèmes de son immersif. Plutôt bien fourni donc. Et j'allais oublié les écrans 3D sans lunettes, donc auto-stéréoscopique.

L'idée est d'une de montrer ce que l'on sait faire, mais aussi de pouvoir organiser des workshops et démontrer ainsi la faisabilité de création de contenu en 3D. En particulier qu'un workflow HD pour production 2D est parfaitement utilisable pour la 3D (pas de coût supplémentaire excepté celui de se former). Et enfin pouvoir orienter les gens vers les personnes compétentes et éviter de travailler avec des charlatans de la technologie.

Du lien social:
- 3D Innnovation Center