3D Digital Scanning Promises Eternal Youth in Hollywood

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Paul Debevec Institute for Creative Technologies

Paul Debevec inside his geodesic light box at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies in Playa Vista.


The motion-capture technology that made “Avatar” one of the most expensive films in history will, in the not too distant future, become the tools of independent film-makers on shoestring budgets.

As computer graphics algorithms improve and costs fall, shooting a film with lights, cameras and human actors may be considered a quaint and expensive luxury.

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Google expands Playa Vista footprint with 12-acre purchase

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After months of speculation, Google has purchased 12-acres of office space in Playa Vista that could accommodate as many as 6,000 engineers.

The $120 million lots run along the north side of the Hughes “Spruce Goose” hangar, which is across the street from the Google-owned YouTube Space LA, a film and production studio for YouTube content creators.

The Google buy “really makes and brands Playa Vista as the tech and innovation capital of Los Angeles,” Playa Vista’s city councilman Mike Bonin told the LA Times.

Bonin was “stoked” to hold his swearing-in ceremony last year at Google’s Venice offices, a binoculars-shaped building designed by Frank Gehry.

Brookfield Residential, which is developing high-end housing in Playa Vista, is also likely stoked by the prospect of thousands of high-salaried professionals moving into the area.

The rising rents in Silicon Beach are sure to follow.

Is the Hyperloop possible? UCLA architects say “Yes!”

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A team of UCLA architecture students are spending the entire school year researching the Hyperloop, a futuristic transportation tube that promises to blast pods between San Francisco and Los Angeles at 760 mph.

The Hyperloop is the brain child of Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who released early design plans for the Hyperloop last year in reaction to the California High Speed Rail project, which Musk called too slow and too expensive.

Hyperloop pods float on a cushion of air and move through a low-pressure tube with the help of electric magnets and on-board fans.

Hyperloop pods float on a cushion of air and move through a low-pressure tube with the help of electric magnets and on-board fans.

Since Musk is so busy building sexy electric cars and low-cost spaceships, he hopes someone else will take up the task of providing California with cutting-edge bullet train technology.

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design school has taken up the challenge by creating a one-year research program, called SUPRASTUDIO, to work out the logistics of constructing a perfectly straight, elevated, vacuum tube between California’s largest urban areas.

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design students are studying the Hyperloop inside the former Hughes Aircraft hangars in Playa Vista.

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design students are studying the Hyperloop inside the former Hughes Aircraft hangars in Playa Vista.

The students are building a life-size prototype of a Hyperloop pod as well as a miniature vacuum tube system similar to the old mail delivery pods used in newsrooms and corporate buildings in the mid-20th century.

Program director Craig Hodgetts called the Hyperloop “insane” but insists that “the physics are sound.”

Program director Craig Hodgetts called the Hyperloop “insane” but insists that “the physics are sound.”

One of the biggest challenges will be consumer buy in, since travelling at supersonic speeds inside a vacuum tube might give some potential passengers pause — or lose their lunch. Most of the 25 students in the program are Chinese, with only two Americans enrolled.
All of them are Elon Musk fans, one student said.

The UCLA program is funded in part by Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, a crowd-funded project dedicated to making the Hyperloop concept a reality. The company, launched with help from the El Segundo-based JumpStartFund.com, was initially run by former director of mission operations for SpaceX, Dr. Marco Villa, and Patricia Galloway, former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.