Physics at Play.

 

The chance to combine creativity and technology was too good to miss for graphic designer Gabriel Salas.
by Sara Goessi.

 

If you've been into a Village SkyCity cinema in Auckland or Wellington in the past year, you've probably seen the interactive advertising in the foyers, beamed onto the floor from a projector in the ceiling.

 

You may even have played the games incorporated into the advertising, like paintball and football. What you probably didn't get guess is that it's people with expertise in physics and maths who create this sort of stuff.

 

It's a brand new form of advertising, made by Auckland company Shoko. And a background in computer science helped Gabriel Salas land a job there. So where does physics come into it? "With the ball, we have to calculate the acceleration and the friction so that we time it to get slower when you kick it," says Gabriel. "And it bounces off the wall so you have to calculate how it will bounce."

 

You also need to know linear algebra when you're working with 3D graphics. Gabriel had studied graphic design after leaving school in Costa Rica. His introduction to computers was at the age of ten, when his father enrolled him in summer school.

 

He was always drawing, and also played music, and says once he started using a computer, he thought to himself, "This has far more potential than just drawing on paper or playing musical instruments. You get to do both in just a little box. I got hooked." The course also taught programming, using a language called Basic. In his spare time Gabriel started writing code on paper, and visualising games he wanted to create.

 

"Finally, after me nagging forever, my father said, 'Okay, I'll buy you a computer',+" says Gabriel. It wasn't a particularly flash computer - a clone of an Apple II - but he learned a lot from it because it crashed constantly and he spent a lot of time taking it apart.

 

From graphic design Gabriel moved into multimedia authoring. Then, wanting to get more into the technical side of things, he took some computer science courses. Last year he began looking at opportunities in other countries, and New Zealand caught his eye. In Costa Rica, he says, you choose between a creative or technical education, and it's unusual to combine the two.

 

"If you work in IT, you'll probably be working in a bank or something like that." The type of courses offered by places like Media Design School, plus the profile of companies like Weta, made him realise New Zealand was unusual.

 

"I started getting excited because it seems like there's a strong push towards business and technology, but in the service of entertainment and communication." Gabriel moved here in May last year to join Shoko. As well as Brand Play, the interactive advertising beamed into cinema foyers, he's working on Show Play, a version designed for benchtops and bars. Next up is Wall Play, which is basically interactive wallpaper. And for the future? Gabriel simply says he's now doing what he wanted to do, and his goal is just to get better. "The challenge with this kind of medium is that it's evolving so fast."

 

top of page °