City of Sapporo > UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts Sapporo > Education for Creative Talent > Creative Knock: Media Arts Workshops > Creative Knock 2023: CG Creation from Scratch – Event Report
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Update:February 2, 2024
Creative Knock 2023: CG Creation from Scratch – Event Report
Event Outline
- Date: August 5th – 6th (Sat-Sun), 2023 1 PM – 5 PM
- Location: SAPPORO Incubation Hub Drive (Odorinishi, 3 Chome - 6, Doshin Building, 2nd floor)
Event Report
In 2013, Sapporo was recognized by UNESCO as a “Creative City of Media Arts” and was t
asked with cultivating creative talent in today’s youth. Continuing from last year, “Creative Knock 2023” – a CG production workshop for residents, including students of the Sapporo Collaborative Core City Region – was held.
This year's theme was "Future YOSAKOI Soran Festival* Dance Team."
In addition to CG creations, this year’s workshop has been updated to touch on creative content utilizing cutting-edge AI and was held over a consecutive two days.
*What is YOSAKOI Soran Festival?
YOSAKOI Soran Festival is a traditional dance event held in early June every year in Sapporo. 2023 marks the 32nd anniversary of this event.
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Workshop Day 1 (5th August) -- "Let's Make a Robot"
A fixed number of 20 participants, ranging from middle schoolers to grown adults, were gathered. The workshop started with everyone’s self-introduction. Almost all participants were complete beginners with CG productions, but they each expressed their motivations brimming with interest and enthusiasm. Wondering “What kind of robot will I learn to make from scratch,” the participants’ anticipated two days began.
First, participants learned the foundations of CG modeling in a hands-on format. The software used was “Blender,” an open-source CG production software. Last year’s participants followed this year’s as teaching assistants (TAs). Puzzled by the unfamiliar operations, participants deepened their understanding by learning from senior participants and teaching each other.
In the latter half, participants finally began making full-scale CG productions. Under the theme of “Let’s Make a Robot,” participants were able to make various-shaped models by interacting hands-on with the software. Edit mode, subdivision surface, material settings, etc.—the content demanded these unfamiliar words and challenging operations; focusing step-by-step, the participants worked through the process.
The objective of the first day was to submit an original robot. By the end, 100% of participants were able to complete their own original robot!
Special Guest Talk Event: AI Artist Shingo Irie
After the workshop, a special guest talk section was held. The first day’s speaker was Shingo Irie, founder of the online mentoring service “MENTA” as well as an active AI artist. Irie shared his real-life experience of creating his own service by himself as well as how using AI has made such challenges easier. After listening, the motivation of all participants rose to another level, and the first day was finished.
Workshop Day 2 (6th August) -- "Let's Move the Robot"
On day 2, participants covered animation content with the theme of “Let’s Move the Robot!” After learning fundamental concepts and operations such as frame rate, keyframes, and skeletal animation (bone animation), participants were finally able to actually move their robots. Using “Mixamo,” an automatic animation generation application, participants uploaded their own CG model data and recorded their favorite movements. Seeing their robot vividly dancing, participants were surprised and said, “It was like it had come to life.”
In the latter half, the layout of the venue changed drastically, and cameras were set up on a open stage. The dancer who appeared was an active dancer from the YOSAKOI Soran Festival’s “Hiragashi Tenjin” dance team. Using an actual dance, participants tried to use AI to motion capture her movements. When the captured video was inputted into the AI program, participants were able to accurately recreate the dancer’s movements as animation data. After anticipatingly waiting, the participants could not hold back their joy and relief when the results came out well.
Next, participants applied the motion capture data successfully recorded by the AI to their robot models. Successfully completing this, a robot dancing YOSAKOI Soran was shown on the screen. It was here that the last topic was presented to the participants. The final project was “My Robot that Dances in the Future YOSAKOI Soran Festival.” Using their robots, all the participants created a team that dances in the future YOSAKOI Soran Festival. Please look forward to the completion of this project.
Cross Talk Session
The entire workshop process was followed by a crosstalk session at a networking event. Four of last year's participants, Kikuchi, Watanabe, Takado, and Asanuma, who served as TAs this year, took the stage. Each of them created works and activities with an amazing degree of perfection, and it was very stimulating. The speakers also shared their attitudes and expertise, leaving a strong impression on the participants’ will to create CG productions.
Day 1 and 2 Workshop (Summary Video)
