Skip to main content

Watch this: Kinect turns a dancer into a 22,000-point musical sculpture

Watch this: Kinect turns a dancer into a 22,000-point musical sculpture

/

Daniel Franke and Cedric Kiefer's latest work uses Kinect to transform a dancer's movements into sand being poured.

Share this story

Digital artists Daniel Franke and Cedric Kiefer have released their latest creation, an "unnamed soundsculpture" which turns the movements of dancer Laura Keil into a moving sculpture reminiscent of sand pouring through your hand to the floor. The designers used three of Microsoft's Kinect cameras arranged in a triangle, which creates a three-dimensional model and tracks every aspect of Keil's movements in minute detail: her body is transformed into 22,000 points.


The designers then mapped a camera move around the motion-tracked model, and added gravity so that each point steadily falls to the floor creating the illusion of flowing sand. The delay this creates also means that it often seems to be more than one dancer, with ghostly arms protruding from the current body of dots. The result is mesmerizing, perfectly complementing the electronic soundscape by Machinefabriek. For a full look at how it was created, and a chance to see each step of the process, take a look at the making of video below.