{"id":9352,"date":"2023-04-07T07:29:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T12:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=9352"},"modified":"2023-04-07T07:29:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T12:29:54","slug":"game-development-skills-solve-an-art-gallerys-problem","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/game-development-skills-solve-an-art-gallerys-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Game development skills solve an art gallery\u2019s problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Brian Michael, a media arts and game development student from Sycamore, Illinois, places 12 works by painter Jerry Jordan. Brian created art installation software for the gallery, which takes the dimensions of the paintings and the wall, so he can determine the correct placement and spacing for the art. This software saves workers from hand-measuring and manually working out the placements. (UW-Whitewater Photos\/Craig Schreiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brian Michael, a\u00a0media arts and game development major<\/a>\u00a0from Sycamore, Illinois, still beams when he talks about being paid to do programming for his campus employer,\u00a0Roberta\u2019s Art Gallery<\/a>, located in the University Center at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sometimes gets to be a bit of a bother finding all of the measurements and making sure everything is evenly spaced and what the height should be,\u201d said Michael, referring to the challenge of hanging a new exhibit on the walls of the gallery. One day he realized he likely had the skills to create an art calculator program. He went to his supervisor, Tonia Kapitan, the services manager who oversees the students who run the gallery.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
MAGD student Brian Michael works behind the scenes at Roberta’s Art Gallery in the University Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI said I could make a program to solve this problem,\u201d remembers Michael. \u201cShe said \u2018that\u2019s cool. I\u2019ll pay you to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael spent his winter break creating the program he calls Primis. Based on the information it receives on the dimensions of the walls and art, the number of pieces of art and other details, Primis shows the user where to put the screws into the wall so that art is perfectly spaced and hung. Michael found he even could outdo other art calculators with powerful visuals in Primis.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Brian Michael created Primis, an art installation software program, for Roberta’s Art Gallery in the University Center, where he is a student worker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy program gives a virtual gallery that shows the wall in its entirety so you can see what it will look like with all the pieces on the wall,\u201d said Michael. \u201cYou can hover over a piece with the mouse and visual arrows show how far from the ground it should be and how far apart from other pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The task wasn\u2019t easy. Michael painstakingly worked out each step in the programming process until the day he and his co-workers were ready to test-drive the software in the gallery.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Brian Michael, in the doorway, created art installation software called Primis so he can determine the correct placement and spacing for art in Roberta\u2019s Art Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI could see their eyes lighting up because the burden of having to do all the math by hand was gone,\u201d said Michael. \u201cTonia knows how much I do with my major and I think she was as almost as happy as me when it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael said he came to UW-Whitewater because its MAGD major was focused on game development and relevant programming while other programs were more general. He said his game development professors encourage students to use their skills in innovative ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy professors say that if you just do what you have to do to get by, then you\u2019re not going to get very far,\u201d said Michael. \u201cYou need to put yourself out there and make projects you can show in a portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Brian Michael, a media arts and game development student from Sycamore, Illinois, hangs 12 works by painter Jerry Jordan at Roberta’s Art Gallery on Jan. 25, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cProblem solving is pretty much the fun part of programming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As a result of his success, Michael has another fun problem to solve \u2014 how to market and sell Primis to art galleries.<\/p>\n

\n

Written by\u00a0Craig Schreiner<\/a>\u00a0| Photos by\u00a0Craig Schreiner<\/a><\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/news\/archive\/2023-03-art-gallery-magd-major<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Michael, a\u00a0media arts and game development major\u00a0from Sycamore, Illinois, still beams when he talks about being paid to do programming for his campus employer,\u00a0Roberta\u2019s Art Gallery, located in the University Center at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. \u201cIt sometimes gets to be a bit of a bother finding all of the measurements and making sure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[84],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-9352","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-whitewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/9352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=9352"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=9352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}