Speaking at FITC Toronto 2010

So I realize this is pretty last minute, but I’ll be speaking at FITC Toronto this Monday with Mathieu Badimon. We’ll be speaking on Firstborn’s behalf. Our presentation is titled “Tools & Prototypes: Crafting a Unique Digital Experience.” It’s basically focusing on how for each project we make, we usually need to make demos to test techniques or make tools to aid in development. It’s more of a creative presentation than a technical one, as we really won’t be talking about code directly. So if you’re up at FITC this weekend, we’ll be presenting Monday at 12:10.

fitc-2010-presenting

http://www.fitc.ca/events/presentations/presentation.cfm?event=102&presentation_id=1227

Nowadays, there are numerous ways to create websites and a large amount of tools, frameworks, packages and other reusable pieces available online.

Some of these icon libraries, 3D engines, Augmented Reality demos and diverse experiments can often give good inspiration during the conception phase And can sometimes be requested by a client (to see a “demo” of how something would work). Sometimes using these pieces in a website or other digital experience can make you feel like you’re stitching a giant patchwork blanket without really getting into the detail of each of the parts; this is sometimes a safe approach but not necessarily an innovative one.

There is a alternative approach, which gives freedom to generate new ideas and where everyone can let their imagination flow before some of these ideas eventually make the cut of the technical feasibility. Implementing such ideas is sometimes more difficult but also a more exciting and challenging path into crafting something unique.

This presentation is about clients asking questions such as: “Can I have a headphone wire as realistic as the one in the TV spot…and for it to be interactive?”, “Is it possible to colorize the car in any color I want?”, “Can the user deform the 3D face to look like himself?” and internal brainstorm sessions punctuated with: “Could a pen write whatever request I make?”, “Can we fake this 3D character into a 2D landscape?” or “What about we sew the text onto the screen itself?”

More importantly, we will go into the process and the techniques we had to come up with to answer these questions through the creation of prototypes and unique tools.

4 thoughts on “Speaking at FITC Toronto 2010”

  1. Hey Eric,

    I wasn’t able to attend FITC TO 2010 this year due to crazy work deadlines…I heard a lot of good things about the First Born talk from coworkers who were there. Any chance you’ll get around to posting your slides. I heard something about a text/masking tool, and I was interested in hearing about your approach to this project.

    Best Regards,

    Sunil

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