She's Got Game
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DISPATCHES She’s Got Game Theater students breathe life into software. students are paid for their work JEFF MILLER and gain a novel addition to their acting portfolios. “The actors are vital,” says Robert Gee, project lead for Raven. “The technology is there and we keep upgrading it, but we’ve got to have the right actors showing the right quali- ties of behavior. When you’re animating by hand something that really requires the subtle- ties of human body language, it just looks wrong.” Coon’s stiletto-heeled assassin will be a prominent character in one of Raven’s new games, and the motion-capture crew — or mocap in industry shorthand — really likes what Coon brought to the part. Coon, in turn, enjoyed get- Having a ball, Carrie Coon, center, prepares for a motion-capture session at Raven Software. She may not ting into character. “It’s a lot look much like an elite-force assassin, but the suit that Tim Uttech (left) and David Peng (right) have put of fun to imagine yourself in her in will help give lifelike movement to the assassin character in a Raven video game. a completely different way, as someone with superhuman Clad head-to-toe in a skintight formation, with arms straight qualities,” she says. yellow-and-black body suit, out. On black scaffolding Tony Simotes, director with reflective markers the size around the performance space, of University Theatre, says the of Ping-Pong balls attached an elaborate array of twenty- Raven partnership is highly to every moving part, actress four infrared cameras captures valuable, showcasing “how a Carrie Coon MFA’06’s new her every movement. After- theater student and a theater on-screen character isn’t imme- ward, she glides back into the department can interact with diately obvious. T shape, giving the cameras a high technology and actually But the black high heels are standard point of reference. make an impact on the enter- a nice hint. Coon is preparing On a nearby computer tainment. This is a new kind to become a video game action screen, Coon’s movements are of acting. No longer can an hero. She and several UW the- collected from the markers actor just rely upon a life on ater students are helping give and translated into a precise, stage.” life to computer-generated three-dimensional stick figure As a finishing touch for characters. that replicates her motion. It Coon’s elite-force character, In the Middleton studios becomes the digital skeletal sys- Raven did a “face scanning,” of Raven Software, Inc., one tem for Raven’s dark new char- using a scanning light projector of the most critically acclaimed acter, who ideally will move in to capture her face at differ- video gaming companies in convincingly human ways. ent angles, then animated her the business, Coon is work- The success of this high-tech facial features in 3-D. The result ing through a wildly athletic scenario hinges on talented is a character who will not only motion-capture regimen. Her actors — a need that led to move like Coon, but look like bullet-dodges, head-kicks, dive a unique partnership now in her, too — providing good rolls, and back flips will become its second year between the entertainment for family and the raw material for depicting company and the UW-Madison friends back in her hometown an elite-force assassin. theater program. Raven audi- of Akron, Ohio. Coon, who recently earned tions students, looking for the “Maybe my grandmother her master’s degree from UW- right blend of acting finesse and will start getting into video Madison’s theater program, physical skills that will translate games,” she quips. begins each fight move in a T well to their characters. The — Brian Mattmiller ’86 10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES The Skinny on Trans Fat Nutritionist helps diners find health in a sea of cooking oils. New York City is doing it. Star- has long been the preferred for the health-conscious is that bucks is, too. And the Memorial oil for making processed foods many foods that contain trans Union’s Rathskeller already did. because it has a long shelf life fats are being reformulated. Each of these entities is and a buttery consistency at “The bad news is that some going trans fat-free, switching room temperature, and it’s in the industry are replac- out hydrogenated vegetable oil cholesterol free. Trans fats com- ing trans fats with satu- for various alternatives. Other monly show up in cookies, cakes, rated fats, such as palm cities and other restaurants — doughnuts, crackers, pancakes, oil and coconut oil,” from Chicago and Los Angeles, and stick margarine, and in the says Tanumihardjo. “So, SPENCER WALTS to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and deep fryer vats that crank out you still need to look McDonald’s — are considering the French fries and other greasy at the nutrition label the same transition. goodies. But despite being when a product says The impetus for this major cholesterol free, hydrogenated that it’s trans fat-free.” shift in cooking oils stems from vegetable oil negatively affects Saturated fats also a rising awareness of the link cholesterol levels in the body. raise levels of bad between artificial trans fats “When you talk about heart cholesterol, so trans and heart disease. And Sherry risk, you want to have a good fat-free fries cooked Tanumihardjo, a nutritionist at ratio of HDL to LDL,” says in saturated fats are UW-Madison and UW Extension, Tanumihardjo. not appreciably better is helping diners discover the HDL, commonly known as than the regular kind. truth about trans fats. “good cholesterol,” transports As restaurants and Tanumihardjo developed cholesterol to the liver, where it the food industry work educational materials about fats is destroyed and excreted from to employ healthier oils and for the Wisconsin Nutrition Edu- the body. LDL, or “bad choles- to develop new options, Tanu- cation Program. The program’s terol,” transports cholesterol mihardjo recommends keeping fact sheet recommends keeping to the tissues in the body, and an eye on nutrition labels, and consumption of trans fats to a it can wreak havoc on its way eating a diet low in trans fat, minimum. “I haven’t bought a — leaving deposits of choles- saturated fat, and cholesterol. regular microwave popcorn since terol in the arteries that can lead The big picture matters, too, I realized there was so much to plaque and atherosclerosis. she says, repeating what must trans fat in there,” she says. Scientists now know that be every nutritionist’s mantra: Trans fats are found in par- trans fats increase bad choles- “You’ve got to consider total tially hydrogenated vegetable terol and lower good choles- diet and exercise.” oil, a food industry staple that terol. The encouraging news — Nicole Miller MA’06 COLLECTION leading apiculture program. PIERRE HUBER The Buzz on Bees But Miller was a Midwest- erner, and so his widow Most people wouldn’t know it, but among gave the books to the UW, apiculturists, the name Charles Miller used to be where they formed the the bees’ knees. But then most people don’t nucleus of the school’s bee- know what apiculture is. keeping studies collection. Apiculture is the raising of bees for the pur- “Today the books have poses of harvesting honey and wax, a $6 million more value from a history industry in Wisconsin today. And at the beginning of science perspective. So they’ve moved of the twentieth century, Charles Miller owned the over to Special Collections,” says librarian Jill country’s leading apicultural library. That collec- Rosenshield ’65, MS’68, MA’78. tion — nearly five thousand volumes worth — now In the near future, however, the Miller Col- resides in Special Collections at Memorial Library. lection is looking at a technological upgrade. However, the UW doesn’t have a beekeeping It’s on the list of volumes that the UW Libraries program, so it’s fair to ask why. hope to digitize as part of their Google Project. When Miller died in 1920, his will dictated (See “Catching Up,” Winter 2006.) Eventually, the donating his library to a university. Several dif- entire collection will be available online to every- ferent schools vied for the books, including one — even students at Cornell. Cornell, which then, as now, had the nation’s — J.A. SUMMER 2007 11 DISPATCHES Strung Out Scientists find a way to see extra dimensions. Peering backward in time to deciphering their influence on back then,” says Shiu. an instant after the big bang, cosmic energy released by the Lacking the requisite time UW-Madison physicists have violent birth of the universe machine, they use the next- devised an attempt to unlock 13 billion years ago. best thing: a map of cosmic the hidden shapes of alternate Don’t worry if you can’t pic- energy released from the big dimensions of the universe. ture ten dimensions. Our minds bang. The energy has persisted Along with our four famil- are accustomed to four and virtually unchanged for the iar dimensions — three-dimen- lack a frame of reference for past 13 billion years, making sional space and time — a the others, Shiu says, though the energy map basically powerful physics theory pre- computers allow scientists to “a snapshot of the baby dicts the existence of six extra predict what six-dimensional universe,” Shiu says. spatial dimensions that are geometries could look like. Just as a shadow can give curled in tiny geometric shapes According to string theory an idea of the shape of an at every single point in our mathematics, the extra dimen- object, the pattern of cosmic ANDREW J.