Michael Verdi

  • Hello

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    I’m an artist working on an immersive film for Apple Vision Pro. I’m documenting the process here. I also publish a zine about what I’m making.

  • 16K Upscale

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    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

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    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. 

    If you have an Apple Vision Pro, you can download this video and view it in Spatialgen.

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  • Progress

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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.

  • Dual Fisheye to Rectilinear 3D

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    There’s not a lot of info on the web for transforming the fisheye images you get with the Canon Dual Fisheye lens to rectilinear images.

    Shot with Canon R5 C and the 5.2mm F2.8 Dual Fisheye lens

    I finally found this tutorial for Stereo Photo Maker but I was missing the options that I needed in the menu. Finally I realized that these were only available in the Windows version. Thankfully I have an old Windows laptop that I keep for things like this. So following the tutorial I produced this image.

    Rectilinear crop exported in B&W anaglyph

  • Zine Pals

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    Fish I Have Loved #6 Awestruck by Vermicious Knid

    One of the cool things about sending zines out into the world is that sometimes people send zines to you. I got this one yesterday and it made my heart full.

  • Apple Vision Pro Persona

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    I installed Persona Webcam so I could use my persona in zoom meetings on my Mac and realized I could also make a recording of it, so here it is.

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