3-D animation, live in concert

J.Walt Adamczyk stands in front of audiences like a symphony conductor, but this graphic and animation designer wields a pen, not a baton. Adamczyk creates paintings and sculptures on a computer pad, projecting 3-D images in a “Spontaneous Fantasia” of alien landscapes, strange oceanic ballets, surreal gardens, psychedelic swirls.

A theatrical audienceimmersive experience for dome venues, “Spontaneous Fantasia” can be seen Friday and Saturday at the Glendale Community College Planetarium, where it runs through Sept. 1.

“ ‘Spontaneous’ is my name for bringing drawing and animation into the realm of performance,” says Adamczyk, who designed the software for his show.

“The interface is a drawing tablet. I act a little as a painter, sometimes as a puppeteer, sometimes as a sculptor, sculpting a virtual 3-D environment.”

As the images are projected, they often seem to revolve around audiences, who watch the show from reclining seats. Adamczyk’s subjects, many set to his own electronic music, can be free-form, painterly or science fiction-ish; some begin as simple strokes, like sumi-e paintings. These can evolve into organic shapes resembling sea creatures, plants or alien life-forms.

For the high-tech immersive effect he wanted, Adamczyk designed a real-time video system. He worked with Sky-Skan Inc., which creates star show presentations for planetariums, using multiple projectors.

A CalArts grad and an innovator of technology for computer-generated imagery, Adamczyk has designed and produced real-time animation and interactive attractions for theme parks and entertainment centers for Disney, Sony and Universal Studios. In 2006, he and two colleagues received a technical Academy Award for the creation of the Aerohead motion control camera and J-Viz Pre-Visualization technology, which allow filmmakers to view virtual sets as actors perform scenes against a green screen.

He began performing his live shows in 2003. The common thread in all of his projects is real-time animation, Adamczyk says.

“It’s always been fun and exciting for me, but most of that fun happens in studio. I really wanted to share more of the excitement of the discovery and exploration and improvisation that can happen in animation.”

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-- Lynne Heffley