By Ariel Steinsaltz
Staff Writer
The seniors of the art and interactive multimedia department presented their senior capstone projects at a showcase in the Art and Interactive Multimedia building on Friday, April 27.
Between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., 37 projects were presented by senior interactive multimedia majors on the first and second floors of the building. Among the projects were a live-taped podcast, a virtual reality presentation, several animations and various interactive projects.
Ross Brody, a sophomore interactive multimedia major, was most interested in seeing the pinball machine that was built from scratch.
“I wanted to see what other people made so when I make my senior project I can get a scope of the ideas,” Brody said.
The pinball machine, created by Michael Martin and Dustin Guillemin, was called “Turbo Pinball Ultra” and was inspired by a pinball museum in Asbury Park. The project features images of space and the player’s score displayed. The projections were made using Unity, a 3-D game development program.
Another project on display was “15 Faces in the Forest,” by Chelsea Cariota, an interactive story in the style of a choose-your-own-adventure book played on a computer, though there was also a physical book made for display.
The cover art and story were designed by Cariota, an interactive multimedia and English double major, with her combination of multimedia and literary skills. The story involved the main character wandering in a forest, and was programmed using a free software called Twine that designs interactive stories.
Other displays included a board game modeled off of Dungeons and Dragons called “Monsters and Mayhem” by Jonathan Sayre and Anthony Defilippo.
“D&D is really fun, but it’s really complicated and hard to get into,” Sayre said. “We wanted to simplify that.”
The game has a fantasy setting and a hero and anti-hero players who attempt to eliminate each other.
Three of the projects on display were crowned winners by the panel of judges present, and the victorious creators were given prizes.
There were three judges at the panel. One was Will Richardson, a former teacher who is now a blogger. Another was Alice Cahn, a former vice president at Cartoon Network. The third judge was Sorraya Brashear-Evans (’16), an alumna who graduated with a double major in interactive multimedia and journalism and professional writing, and now works for CBS.
Haley Witko’s animation project, “R.A.D.I.S.H.,” a stop motion creation that includes 300 photos about a boy who does not know he is a robot, was selected as a winner by the judges.
The project began with concept art, and then the set was built from scratch.
“I really like sci-fi,” Witko said. “I also really like the idea of an underdog.”
The other projects that were selected by the judges were “Inner Speaker” by Jillian Festa and “Monkey See, Monkey Doom” by Austin Merritt.
All of the judges expressed that virtual reality and augmented reality are the most prevalent aspects of technology. Brashear-Evans mentioned that CBS is beginning to implement AR in the company.
“The world is becoming more visual,” Richardson said. “If you’re not using technology to solve real-world problems, you’re kind of wasting the opportunity.”
