What is technologically possible / What is needed in ministry

The purpose of this document is to summarize what is technologically possible using 3D technology. A secondary purpose is suggest ideas and methodologies on how this could be implemented to benefit the church, satellite churches, missionary work and any other areas of ministry that might exist. The 3rd piece is to find out what Refuge City church needs or could benefit from in the aforementioned areas.

Some of the videos and animations have been seen / discussed but have been added on this page for a demonstrating of the type of technology and also so it can be shown to a larger audience if desired.

As you read through the content of what's possible in 3D - keep in mind that techniques and styles are being shown, so if the wording or images don't quite grab the right way, they can be adjusted.

What's possible in 3D

Camera, 3D Object, Parametric 3D assembly Motion

• Camera motion
  • Rotation (Entire model turning on a 3D Vector) on the X, Y, or Z axis
  • Translation (movement) on the X, Y, or Z Axis
  • Scaling (changing size of the entire 3D world, similar to a zoom feature) on the X,Y,Z
  • Field of View - How much of the 3D world is visible in the camera frame
  • Other - which is more technical as needed
• Object & Parametric 3D Assembly Motion
  • Rotation (Entire model turning on a 3D Vector) on the X, Y, or Z axis
  • Translation (movement) on the X, Y, or Z Axis
  • Scaling (changing size of the entire 3D world, similar to a zoom feature) on the X,Y,Z
  • Custom Parameters
• Skeletal Motion - Requires additional R & D
  • Re-rending an external 3D object casing based on an internal 3D object location

Camera Motion Prototype - Partial Building walkthrough

In a non-prototype version I would have used a different ceiling texture or even tiled the ceiling, different object type for the walls, and corrected the spacing a bit. However, this gives you a sample idea of what it would be like to walk through a building. There are many options you could adjust, remove the ceiling all together...etc.

Google Earth Studio - real earth animations

I received permission from Google to use Google Earth Studio to make over head animations of anywhere on earth. The sample video below shows an orbit view of Refuge city church.  This is a simple animation but you can add other motions with the camera like zooming in, translations, etc. One idea is to take all 7 branches of the church and show them orbiting together on the same screen ["Refuge City Church - Reaching out to those in Klamath County..."]. 

My original intention for this technology was to use it for the Children's home in Kenya. This would allow planning and visualization on whole new level plus help in gaining support when a missionary like John travels to other churches around the country.

To further illustrate the point of a non-city area, here is a sample of the great pyramid using the same technology (makes it a little easier to visualize Kenya).

MP4 - 3D animation videos - church web page / other

Any of the video examples that have animation in 3D can also be added to the church website - and they could be longer as well. I mentioned this because as we first began to discuss possibilities for using 3D for the church - I was thinking about the 30 second advertisements (Ex. Men's Retreat at Fir point Bible camp - see the video in the "Before Service Videos" section) that roll by on the big screen before service.

3D Videos of 30 - 300 seconds could also be created for sermon augments with pre-scripted animation.

Before Service Videos

Merge the concept of before service event "advertising" with 3D - here is a prototype for a Fir Point Bible Camp. The idea is not to replace the existing "ads" but augment them with 3D animation so they catch peoples attention and draw them in.

Christian Ads - for (Scripture / God) - not events

The video below is ad add for tires. Imagine though, something like this.  We know that scripture once planted in the heart of a believe will change their insides and their outside circumstances. Sometimes though, the first time its heard (although Romans 10:17 still applies), people can't always immediately visualize what is meant. Showing them the concept in 3D may help them look at the scripture in a way they never had before giving the assist for Psalm 119:130.

Rewrite the video below with this concept: At the start of this video - you see tires rolling quickly down a road. Imagine instead of tires you see offering buckets, and on the second pass, you see buckets of soup with a label (like for a soup kitchen) being scooped into bulls, then return to the tires and add a sign - watch out for the pot hole (and show a indented pot-hole in the road) - all of these being examples of good works.

Trying to get saved by works - not getting very far down the road? Try Ephesians 2:8-10 - For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that of not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.

Instead of the sign boards: "No Matter", "where the road", "might take you!", "We've got you covered!"

Replace the beach scene with a road leading into heaven

"For its by grace", "ye are saved", "through faith", "He's got you covered!"

Add one more line of text - "Not of works - lest any man should boast!"

Add images - the offering bucket, the soup pot with the ladle and a bowl, and a pot hole in the road with a warning sign that all have a red X through them.

Whether this is a good example /  needs some tweaking / or not - what I am trying to describe is a style of 3D to get people to think about scripture in a visual way - so that it makes sense to them and can get down in their heart.

So where is this useful? A Christian devotion on the church web page - pre-service screen - element in a sermon - automatic email list from the church where people subscribe for a daily inspiration - in a bible study session shown on a laptop - Sunday school video - something to pass on to your non-Christen friends to help them understand the bible better? - I don't know, but there are lots of possibilities.

Animated Bible Stories

For this category the difficulty level increases dramatically. The videos would be longer. The animation more complex. The quantity of 3D items needed would increase. You move from a range of inanimate objects in motion to also humans and animals. 

So how would you even being to approach this? (Refer to the 3D parametric assemblies section) - you would start by building a library of 3D objects. First you could check with the Children's Pastors / Teachers and find out what kind of object based examples they have been using for an extended period of time and build those into the library. Next, you find out where the next 3 months of teaching is going and you develop a 3D object list and add those to your library. 

Determine the time length that is needed for the animation - whether 5 minutes or 30 minutes. You create a storyboard that illustrates what the animation would contain.

In summary, this type of animation is built a step at a time over time. The greater the content of the 3D library, the faster an animation can be created.

Lego - 3D

I don't have a specific plan for the Lego yet - but its available for Children's church or something along that line - and it can be animated as well.

Room / Building Layouts

Arrange tables in the virtual world ahead of time before doing the work.

Short but smooth animations

Often during preaching, the point that the pastor is making is put up on the screen. What if beside that point #, you could display a short but smooth animation that illustrated the point being made. If the Mac software cannot do a mix of text/video, a PC can - see the PC driven animation software. This animation here is about 12 seconds - and where as you might not use a book base in your sermon, it shows you an example of how the smooth animation works of an assembly and disassembly.

3D Parametric Assemblies

3D can be complicated to create - but with custom software I have designed the 3D so that you can make a 3D parametric assemblies. This means that as your progressively build a 3D collection of ministry items (not just brown, but any color or texture), then you have 3D assembly that are ready to use by drag and drop. This will allow videos, on-demand animations, and other types of 3D to be created quicker. These parametric assemblies are also animatable.

Software Driven Animation

For the next two sections (Dynamic 3D Model updates / On Demand Animation) I will introduce two new type of animations that can be used in presentation software. Instead of creating the 3D animation ahead of time and exporting it to an MP4 video - a PC would drive the 3D updates / Animation. Since the church uses a lot of Mac's, if you purchased a display port / hdmi video switching unit (Ex. One hdmi going to the Mac system like normal, and a second hdmi going to a pc graphics card), then there should be virtually no interruption when changing video sources on the main screen).

Which ever pastor was preaching in the main service would have a touch screen with a wireless or cat 5 (up through the floor) connecting to the pc as its second screen. This screen on the pulpit would control the 3D / animation. This may sound complicated to set up but as your read the next two sections, you will begin to see that this technology will take presentation software entirely to the next level of what is possible. Why do we need to move to the PC? Because the type of 3D animation that is used is not available on a Mac. Both systems I will be talking about will have a touch control panel on the bottom of the screen - and the 3D will update immediately as soon you lift your finger.

Additional Help: This type of software requires testing ahead of time. I spoke with a church member and although they would like to know more details, they expressed interest in helping out as a software tester for this type of animation. This type of software will require some training for the pastors or speakers.

Dynamic 3D Model updates

Lets say you are preaching on the armor of God. You open the 3D app which shows a solider / human in the upper 3/4 to 7/8 of the screen. On the control panel you have the breast plate of righteousness, sword of the sprit, peace boots, helmet of salvation, breast plate of righteousness, shield of faith. The buttons will allow you to remove or add any piece of armor at any time. The sermon could be along the lines of - if you have all the armor on except the shield of faith your doing good, but you are unable to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. If you add the shield of faith but remove your helmet of salvation, then the devil can come whisper in your ear and make you doubt your salvation. You could use the same style of examples with the other pieces of armor. With dynamic 3D model updates, instead of watching a pre-scripted MP4 animation, the pastor has control of modifying the solider / human at the exact moment they need it. You can also repeat the add / remove actions as many times as you need to get the point across. If you want to be able to show fiery darts - well, absolutely!

This is an example of the parametric assembly in presentation mode for the Scientific Research Suite (the software that produces the 3D).  What you are viewing is a 3D parametric object built with math so that allow components resize and reposition based on the variables in the right panel. During a sermon or teaching lesson your 3D model of the armor of God (and I haven't built and example with the armor yet, so the book case is showing what's possible), you can adjust features of a parametric assembly - like adding and removing the armor, just like you can change the dimensions of this book case. Whatever you build into the math will be reflected as an feature that can be changed, added or removed in the parametric assembly.

On Demand Animation

On demand animation is an entirely new concept. Imagine a blender like you would use in a kitchen. You have a base, a container to hold the items you are blending. You have the main lid, and often a small lid inside of the main lid that can be removed. There is a power cord and usually many buttons that give you variable speed depending on if you wish to chop, mix, ect. Now picture this blender taking of the top part of the screen (3/4 - 7/8). The contain fits over the blades that spin. In your control panel you have buttons that will turn the power on/off, change the speed of the spinning blade, other buttons to (add / remove) the (small / large) lid. You have a recipe on one side of the screen - and the ingredients we have to draw from is Grace, Faith, Hope, Love, Patience, Works and the pastors could add any more required to the list. So you are demonstrating how to mix the property ingredients to build a faith "Smoothie" - in James it talks about Faith without works is dead. So you take a 3D word "Faith" and a 3D word "Works" and use the control panel to remove the small lid to insert both the words and mix together the ingredients. You could make a point that the correct combination will come out yellow (Father of Lights: James 1:17-18). So faith by itself can be blue, works can be red - and so you mix those two up and you get a gray color - what is the problem? Then you go back and find out that love works by faith, so you remove the large lid using the control panel and add the 3D word "Love" and hit the mix button, now you get a nice yellow smoothie which is what it takes to make your faith work. At the same time this is happening, you show a corresponding scene of the man being lowered through the roof of their house on the cot and Jesus seeing their faith.

In this example - instead of watching a pre-scripted video, the pastor or teacher can execute the animation at will - so that the action corresponds directly to their talking point not being n times removed and provides a whole new level of teaching visualization that few to no people are currently using.

This video does not have a sermon base, but it is a prototype on how the On-Demand animation software might work. The buttons at the bottom of the screen on the control panel do not have to be arc's, they can be configured so that the pastor can easily learn the motion and known where the location of the button is so that they are not struggling during the sermon. This type of animation and be installed on any PC so that you can practice prior to the sermon. Once a pastor is familiar with the basic flow of the software, then all that is needed is to know what animations are available for the given sermon. Instead of the wood yard example, image the blender example describe above.

Church Logo(s)

Church logos can be created. Each component of the sign is in 3D so additional object animation or camera animation can be applied to make this as simple or as complex as desired. You can take a snapshot of this from any angle and use it as letter head (or footer), or add the logo onto church videos - website...etc. Although this is not an example of a church logo itself, it shows you an example of the technology.

Christian Humor

Many preachers start out with a joke to lighten the mood depending on what type of sermon they are preaching. In this case, you could start with a 3D animation. This humor shows the ark out cruising around during the flood. Noah tries to get the satellite to work so he says, hey Shem, can you adjust the satellite connection, we only seem to be getting on show "8 is enough!"

Regular Humor

Custom Christian Poetry - 3D or Non-3D

Custom poetry could be used in sermons - bible studies, webpage...etc.

The poetry can be used as desired or a new poem for a topic could be requested.

This is one of the poems I will be reciting at the bubble tea shop in the near future which I submitted to Garret.

There is also the option of playing the audio on a web page so that the poem can be heard.

Fruit Pie

I  want to do what's right

but my flesh calls out for more

I reach for the good of looks and feel

 to satisfy what my mind thinks I need

Back and forth the thoughts do race

I ride on the waves of promises

I fully intend to keep

but undermined the real truth denied

negating the principles I speak

Knowing all too well where the boundary lies

I walk on the edge of the fence

I lean over the side

to snag some of the night

a drink or two couldn't hurt!

but later-on during the upcoming days

the rope gets thinner

and begins to fray

I'm hanging by a thread of which I've carved my way to dangling

Oh how miserable unrighteousness is

the holiness quickly denied

I look at the tree

in the middle of the garden

and say this will go in my fruit pie

Those Things Which Must Be Sought

Some say the world isn't round

but similar to flat

their tainted views

brought shaky wisdom

stating it as fact

But I for one will sail the sea

whether edge be there or not!

and bold with faith

I shall find

those things which must be sought

If I Let Your Light Just Lead Me

(This actually has guitar music to it - besides being a poem)

There’s some things in life

I’ve been going through

Sometimes I don’t know what to say

Or what I’m supposed to do

But if I let your light just lead me

And bring me back in line

My hearts overwhelmed

But I know I’m safe

If I take your thoughts as mine

And I wish I understood the way I feel down deep inside

And I could separate out

All the unimportant things in my life

To know what’s right, is what I’ve longed for

All the days of my life

It’s just about right

It’s just about right

Summary