“The Fort at Mashantucket” by Independent Artist
Conference:
SIGGRAPH Video Review:
Track:
- 07
Title:
- The Fort at Mashantucket
Director(s):
Company / Institution / Agency:
- Independent Artist
Description:
The Fort at Mashantucket is a detailed recreation of a 17th-century Native American village and fort based on archaeological data from an ongoing excavation at the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Connecticut. Modeled with Alias|Wavefront PowerAnimator, it is one of six interactive installations created by Nicholson NY for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.
The 2.5-minute tour begins with an aerial view of the village and includes 11 stopping points, where the viewer can learn more about discovered artifacts and the archaeology of the site. With a touch of the finger, the camera glides down to ground level and enters the fort. After exploring the village, the visitor leaves the fort and ventures outside and into a 3D-modeled cornfield. The camera then rises up out of the cornfield and soars back up to the aerial view.
The ground geometry was generated using actual topographical data of the site. The vegetation includes plants native to the area at the time, and an 18th-century cornfield was modeled to demonstrate Native American methods of cultivation. The scores of objects found in the fort model are either precise reproductions of artifacts found in the excavation or are based on extensive historical research.
Software:
Alias|Wavefront PowerAnimator
Additional Contributors:
Producer: Raymond Doherty
Art Director: Guido Jiménez
Content Director: Fred Lee
Modelers/Animators: Alberto Forero, Liju Huang, Peter Weishar, Mayumi Sato, Raymond Doherty
Editor: Jonathan Alberts
Composer: Joel Goodman
