Ben Burtt talks about WALL-E

RT Australia had the opportunity to sit down and speak to sound designer extraordinaire, Ben Burtt.



[via ROTTEN TOMATOES]

Wall-E meets headphones

[via traileraddict.com]

Wired into existence

Björk ·· All is Full of Love



[Director: Chris Cunningham]

JazzMutant @ Siggraph Emerging Technologies 2007

Digital innovations that change the way we work, live, and play.

Emerging Technologies presents creative, innovative technologies and applications in many fields, including but not limited to: displays, robotics, input devices, interaction techniques, computer vision, sensors, audio, speech, biometrics, wearable computing, information, data and scientific visualization, biotechnology, graphics, collaborative environments, and design.

And in several domains, including but not limited to: medicine, music, entertainment, education, home, business, aerospace, communication, transportation, security, military, and technologies for the aging and/or disabled.

[Emerging Technologies Video Preview - Windows Media, 10.2 MB]

Jazzmutant is proud to have been selected by the Siggraph Emerging Technologies Committee in San Diego to demo a new prototype device for digital imaging involving multi-touch control. This solution will go beyond mere finger-drawing and clearly illustrate a new way to interact and improve productivity with drawing and video editing software. Furthermore, the solution presented will be the very first multi-touch enabled Tablet PC shown to the public.

New Multi-Touch Interaction Techniques for Visual Content Creation

The latest development of JazzMutant's multi-touch technology with a particular focus on visual and graphic arts, and some new advanced interaction techniques involving a multi-touch display in combination with other input devices.

Enhanced Life
Because of their versatility, multi-touch displays are appropriate for both productive and entertaining computing. By providing ergonomic design with optimized workflow, they improve user experience and make interaction with computers much more intuitive, playful, and efficient.

Goals
JazzMutant delivers advanced control solutions for musicians and sound engineers, but video and graphic artists have requested similar systems for their applications. This system demonstrates early attempts to fulfill those requests.

Innovations
The JazzMutant resistive technologysystem differs from optical systems in its form factor. Because it is both scalable and portable, it can be integrated in a wide variety of devices. It is exceptionally reliable, even in harsh environments. And it can be used in conjunction with other pointing devices such as stylus. This enables richer interaction techniques that can not be achieved with touch input alone.

Vision
In the past two years, many good multi-touch interaction techniques have been introduced, but most of them are merely focused on zoomable user interfaces. This approach is only the tip of the iceberg. The key to success for future multi-touch systems is multi-modality: appropriate integration of several input devices.

[via createdigitalmusic.com]
[siggraph.org]

More on WALL-E at Comic Con 2007

Andrew Stanton: "One thing I knew in the beginning is I didn’t want to have dialogue in the traditional sense. In order to stay true to the integrity of the inanimate object, I really wanted to view most of it’s personality through how it was constructed. And it’s a metal box, a piece of electronics. I’m basically making R2-D2 the movie."

[source: comingsoon.net]

Stanton introduced "Star Wars" veteran Ben Burtt, who is doing sound design on the film. He played samples of the various robots sound effects then showed animation samples of the robots.
He wasn't sure if he'd be working on Indiana Jones 4 since the WALL•E schedule was going to overlap with its schedule. WALL•E is his first priority.

[more @ slashfilm.com]

Ben Burtt: "I would love to be involved. Its kinda a tradition but Wall E and Indiana Jones have the same schedule so I don't know. My priority is Wall E." Stanton, however, gave Burtt an out, saying "I think we can find a way to work that out. Nobody is denying Indiana Jones."

[indie.cinematical.com]

It's not often Ben Burtt gives a live demo of his sound design, and I was enraptured as he used a small keyboard to show off some of his extensive work for the (mostly) dialogue-free Wall-E.

[chud.com]


[WALL-E: Official Site]
[Pixar’s WALL•E Promo Postcards]
[Audio interview with Andrew Stanton on WALL•E]

Related Story:
Pixar’s WALL E Revealed

Musical Robots

LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots is a Brooklyn-based group of artists and technologists who create robotic musical instruments. Founded in 2000 by musician and engineer Eric Singer, LEMUR creates exotic, sculptural musical instruments which integrate robotic technology. LEMUR's philosophy is to build robots that are new types of musical instruments, as opposed to animatronic robots that play existing instruments.

[LEMUR website]
[Arts Electric interviews Eric Singer]

Magnetic Fluid Art

The famous Protrude Flow, permanently exhibited at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, is one of the few spectacular electromagnet sculptures artworks. A black fluid reacts to sounds and voices, and assumes organic, three-dimensional shapes that grow counter to the force of gravity. An interactive installation in which fluid movements of physical materials evoke surreal impressions.




Morpho Towers, Two Standing Spirals is another work of this kind, built by Sachiko Kodama and Yasushi Miyajima, with music provided by Tetsuhide Hidaka. On the usual plate filled with the black fluid, two rotating helical spiral towers are able to spring up trembling magnetic fluid spikes, moving in synch with the music, thanks to finely tuned magnetic fields. The synch with music is accomplished through metadata, so the liquid somehow, embodies the music presence and movement. The same fluid is able to trick gravity, and it represent a liquid materiality triggered by magnetic invisible fields. So the immaterial (digital) communicates with the invisible (magnetic field) generating a temporary material embodiment (the magnetic fluid spikes).

Title link takes you to Wikipedia.



[via neural.it]
[more on YouTube]