Re: A defence for controlled animation
David-Michael Allen (dma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu)
Mon, 29 May 1995 15:21:32 -0500 (CDT)
On Mon, 29 May 1995, Torbjoern Caspersen wrote:
>
> The point when refering to VR is that some parts of system view-control is
> a powerful narrative tool.
>
Maybe I missed the point, or might be that I come to VR from
philosophical and artistic directions. When isn't the visual--whether it
be television, film, or software graphics--a narrative tool? Narrative is
that element which aids our comprehension of "story" or milieu. Still and
motion are ends of one device, not different devices in and of themselves.
Narrative for VR is highly dependent on the visual; not to
discount sound, but it is secondary to the visual--though a number of
years ago video-game designers determined that improving the sound
quality positively influenced our perception of the graphics. Even text,
which is based on a visual referent, that might appear in a VR world is a
visual narrative.
[Stopped to read the new mail that arrived as I am composing this.
Caspersen is, in part, predicting my response, so I'll move on.]
The one problem Caspersen sees is the difficulty in creating "new"
visual elements in VR. A greater danger is of not taking full advantage
of this possibility to create. Mediocrity and laziness are lurking
threats. However, user expectations may very well weed out the
incompentent and the haphazard. Maybe.
Thanks for the postings.
David-Michael Allen