Building Interactive Worlds in 3D

Chapter 5

Interactive Paths

1       Story of a Famous Path

Power of Ten, the famous stop-motion animation created by film director and designer Charles Eames, illustrates the continuity of matter from the solar system to the atomic level. Power of Ten is structured around the idea of moving on a single trajectory to tell a story. Eames starts the story with shots across regions of outer space and then, in slow motion, takes us inside the atmospheric layers of planet Earth. The film ends up in the middle of a group of people having a picnic. After a pause at power zero, the camera resumes its vertiginous journey inside someone’s hand. The camera stops when it reaches the atomic structure of molecules of the skin. After moving viewers from megapowers ...