{"id":4343,"date":"2014-07-01T18:54:31","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T18:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=4343&#038;post_type=story"},"modified":"2024-08-27T12:49:39","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T12:49:39","slug":"virtual-theatrics-ninjaneersstella-sung-opera-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/virtual-theatrics-ninjaneersstella-sung-opera-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Designers Bring Opera to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Summer 2014<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[lead]When a dark and dingy prison scene fades quickly into a sunlit desert landscape, it\u2019s evidence of good theater. But when it takes place without stagehands, set pieces or painted backdrops, it\u2019s innovation.[\/lead]<\/p>\n<p>Such state-of-the-art digital projection transformed 13th-century Asia and entertained opera viewers during \u201cThe Red Silk Thread: An Epic Tale of Marco Polo.\u201d It\u2019s a trend that Stella Sung, a composer and professor in the 麻豆原创 School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD), applauds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/arts-research-innovation\/\">opera and theater companies are using technology<\/a> and virtual effects,\u201d Sung says. \u201cThe sets are active, not static, and with the animation you can build in movements and scene changes \u2014 things that you cannot do with regular sets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2012 Sung, who serves as director of 麻豆原创\u2019s Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology and Entertainment (CREATE), approached Winter Springs, Florida, animation company Ninjaneer Studios to collaborate on the opera production. She had previously worked with the firm\u2019s founders \u2014 <strong>Chris Brown, \u201911<\/strong>, <strong>Heather Knott, \u201911<\/strong>, and <strong>Joe Rosa, \u201911 <\/strong>\u2014 when they were SVAD students.<\/p>\n<p>[blockquote source=&#8221;&#8221; cite=&#8221;&#8221; color=&#8221;&#8221;]\u201cWhat we were looking at was how to use [technology] to tell the story in a more interesting and active way,\u201d Sung says. \u201cIt was a way for me to support our former students.\u201d[\/blockquote]<\/p>\n<p>The Ninjaneers showed her examples of 3-D projection mapping, which casts animated digital images onto irregular surfaces to create the illusion of depth, movement and real objects where none exist. Sung found their ideas to be imaginative, and together they began the laborious process of designing a virtual world for her opera.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with Sung\u2019s music for inspiration and timing queues, the team researched the era of Marco Polo to guide their interpretation of the court of Kublai Khan, an ancient Mongol emperor. They enhanced each scene with subtle animation, such as flickering sunbeams, swaying lanterns and moving clouds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want [the audience] to be able to see something moving, but not stare at it the whole time,\u201d Rosa says. \u201cThe main focus should be the singers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knott led a crew of nine animators to create seven scenes for the two-hour performance. Some scenes, such as a Chinese junk surrounded by shimmering water and moving shadows, took the combined power of four custom-built computers more than a month to render. Says Knott, \u201cWe can do things within the animation that would be very difficult or physically impossible with a regular set.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the digital sets were complete, installing and calibrating the projectors at the theater took about a day. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a few traditional sets that are on a grand scale that have taken a month to get [installed],\u201d says Knott. And the digital approach offers yet another benefit: \u201cIt\u2019s more of a green opera since you don\u2019t have all the sets to build,\u201d Rosa says. \u201cYou save trees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The completed opera, which premiered at the University of Florida, drew positive reviews from audiences, including a standing ovation that lured Rosa to the stage to take a bow with the performers. \u201cThat was the first time I\u2019ve done anything like that,\u201d Rosa says. \u201cIt was surreal because we\u2019re usually the behind-the-scenes people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many people were asking, \u2018How did you make that work?\u2019 \u201d says Sung, who hopes to produce the opera at other venues. \u201cI think the future of digital sets is very bright, and I\u2019m happy to have several projects in the works with the Ninjaneers.\u201d<\/p>\n<address><span style=\"font-size: 10px;\"><em>Image courtesy of Ani Collier<\/em><\/span><\/address>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4521,"template":"","categories":[],"tags":[341,285],"class_list":["post-4343","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-school-of-visual-arts-and-design","issues-14","issues-summer-2014"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Digital projections transport opera viewers and transform set design<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"麻豆原创 Alumni Create 3-D Projection Mapping for Stella Sung Opera The Red Silk Thread: An Epic Tale of Marco Polo 麻豆原创 School of Visual Art &amp; Design\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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