The Narrowing Gap

At the turn of the century, the gap between fantasy and reality was already getting narrower.  Computer generated graphics were beginning to merge with traditional film techniques, 3D printing had been invented, if not popularized, and simulations of everything from bridges to molecules were teaching us about their real counterparts.

But this century.. hoo boy.

The image above is from the RoboThespian project, an animated puppet controlled by Blender.  Besides the fact that I called it before I heard about this, I think it’s worth pointing out that this is the shape of things to come.  As the twenty first century continues, Thingiverse and places like it will become home to projects like this, with increasing sophistication and depth, and with 3D printing added to the mix, it isn’t hard to imagine a future where designers of characters in Blender use scripts to generate 3D printable assemblies to construct and animate those same characters, using the same systems that animated them in the purely virtual world.

Blender’s python scripting seems to be lending itself to lots of other really cool virtual/real overlap projects as well: whether it’s freestanding spherical screens, virtualizing whole landscapes, or the open movie project showing up on bookshelves, the Blender community is increasingly aware of its applications in the real world.

And the better our systems of transmission between the real and virtual worlds become, the more blurred that line is going to get.