Michael Verdi

  • CineD Podcast on Immersive Filmaking

    Super informative interview. This covers all the stuff I’ve been learning on my own over the last 8 months.

  • Spatial Photo to Black & White Anaglyph

    The camera app in iOS 18 has a “Spatial” mode for iPhone 16 and 16 Pro. There you can switch between photos and video.

    I’ve always wanted to make a B&W anaglyph photo zine and while running this morning I realized that I knew how to make this work for images taken with my new iPhone.

    • Select your images in the Photos desktop app and use command+option+e to export them all at once.
    • Open the terminal and use Mike Swanson’s Spatial tool to split all the images into left and right views.
    for f in *.HEIC; do spatial export -i "$f" -o Left_$f.png -o Right_$f.png;done
    • Use Stereo Photo Maker to open sets of left and right images, and then use option+a to auto align the images.
    • Then export your image from Stereo Photo Maker

    Here’s one shot at my desk. I cropped this in Photoshop to see what it might look like in a 5.5″ X 8.5″ zine.

  • I love this idea

    It’s not a new idea but it’s new to me. I’d love to steal this and do something with film and/or performance.

  • 16K Upscale

    I’ve seen a few VR180 creators on Reddit talk about turning their 8K footage from the Canon R5C into 16K. The examples I’ve seen do look better so I thought I’d try it out. I used Topaz Labs Video AI to upscale a 30 second clip that I shot while we on vacation in Guerneville, CA a couple of weeks ago.

    It took about 26 hours (!) to upscale the video on my Mac Studio (M1 Max processor). I just used the default settings. I imagine I can get better results in the future. Here are crops from the original and upscaled video.

    Original 8K video – click to view original
    Upscaled to 16K – click to view original
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  • Rough Prototype

    I spent the Labor Day weekend learning how to add text and 2D video into an immersive video scene. I’m doing this because I have this vision for a film/app for the Apple Vision Pro and I thought I could 1. prototype a large part of this experience in video and 2. I could also make immersive videos like this and learn how to tell stories in this medium. 

    So to begin with, I came up with the requirements for my project.

    • I had to use existing video. I wasn’t going to waste time shooting new things or trying to have this video mean anything or stand on it’s own. I’m just working on learning the technical part.
    • I want to include text in the 3D space.
    • I want to include 2D video in the 3D space.

    There’s more I want to learn — immersive audio & 3D video in the 3D space — but I’ll save that for another time. Knowing how to add text and 2D video is most of what I need and it allows me to work on storytelling in parallel with the other technical skills. 

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  • Progress

    I spent the weekend learning how to composite text and 2D video into a 180 degree, 3D video. I mostly have it all working. Once I figure out a couple of issues I’ll write something up.

  • Photo Novels

    I got an email from someone who saw my La Jetée zine in Quimby’s in Chicago asking if I knew more about genre. I don’t but a little bit of searching led me to this presentation by SAW (Sequential Artists Workshop) which makes me really want to revisit this format.

  • Back to Work

    Goat Rock Beach 2024

    I met my family in Guerneville after my week in Dublin for MozWeek. Unfortunately, I got Covid and spent the last couple of days pretty sick. Thankfully nobody else got it and I’m mostly better now.

  • All The Things

    Tomorrow I’m heading to Dublin for MozWeek (annual company-wide meeting). I have a handful of zines that I’m bringing to give to people but I thought I could make something to give to others that would take them to the online versions. I ordered some NFC tags and attached them to small cards to make them easier to handle. Since I now had a small card, I also put a QR code and the URL on the other side.

  • A Mind Forever Voyaging

    A Mind Forever Voyaging by Steve Meretzky – Released: September 1985 (Infocom)

    The other day I was talking with a friend about selling things on eBay. I mentioned selling some interactive fiction title that I’d found in Goodwill about 12 years ago. For some reason I thought it was A Mind Forever Voyaging but it turns out it was something else. I don’t know why this is what came to mind but when I searched for information about it, I discovered that it’s covered in 50 Years of Text Games (which I own). So today I read about it while eating lunch. One of the things I found interesting was that unlike most of what had come before, this game was not about solving puzzles. Instead you explored, observed, and reported. This is the kind of mechanic I want in the game portion of The Phantom Moon.

    Read the original version of the article, 1985: A Mind Forever Voyaging by Aaron A. Reed.