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In this episode, we talk to the purveyor of puns, the one and only, the very first Treehouse teacher, Nick Pettit, live from our our office in Orlando Florida.
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Hi, I'm Craig, welcome to The Treehouse
Show, The Treehouse Show is our weekly
0:00
conversation with
the tree house community.
0:03
[MUSIC]
0:05
This episode, we'll be chatting with
the purveyor of puns, the one and only,
0:10
the very first tree house teacher,
Nick Pettit.
0:14
Live from our office in Orlando, Florida.
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[SOUND] Thanks for
being on the show today, Nick.
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Can you tell me a little bit about
how you got started in technology.
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>> Technology is really been
a pervasive part of my life.
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I cannot of live with the intersection
of art and technology.
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So growing up, I was very interested in
traditional art, I took piano lessons.
0:32
In high school I went to high school for
the arts and to take further, but
0:39
in parallel computers for
always gonna there.
0:44
I remember when I was 5 years old,
my Dad would come home from work,
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we don't have the internet at home,
so but if he had it at work,
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and so he would download games at work.
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And bringing him home on floppy disk.
1:01
So everyday my dad would come home and
I would say,
1:02
dad did you downloading your games today?
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This was the age of like
share where stuff so
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I was playing like commander king and
doom.
1:09
>> Nice.
I think I played like wolf and
1:12
[INAUDIBLE], when I was five years old
which is this was before the ESRB, so
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it was fine.
1:19
It was totally okay for kids-
>> [LAUGH]
1:20
>> At the time.
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So and it was through that
lens that I saw computers.
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I saw them as an instrument for
expression.
1:30
And so growing up, with my interest in
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art and sort of seeing
computer as a tool for that,
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I became interested in creating
websites and you know,
1:45
I always kind of wanting to make video
games but that was like too hard for me.
1:50
And so, I don't know.
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I guess to answer your question,
there was never really a definitive
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moment where I said okay,
I am interested in technology now.
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Like, this is my hobby, and
that's what I'm gonna do, and
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that's what I'm gonna do for a career.
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It just kind of happened.
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It was the environment I was in, I guess.
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>> Cool, that's awesome man.
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Wait, what do you teach here at Treehouse?
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>> So at Treehouse,
I teach VR development.
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So we teach how to make virtual
reality games and applications.
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For my first five years here,
I taught websites and web development.
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And that is where I got
my start in technology.
2:34
I found that the combination of art and
technology was most present,
2:38
for me, in the instant
gratification of web development.
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And it was just really easy to make
make websites, and there's a lot of fun.
2:50
And I liked because it was interactive,
which is kind of a different
2:56
quality than something like film or
books have.
3:01
There's this added dimension.
3:06
So, the way I think about
mediums is in terms of
3:08
the dimensions of expression, I guess.
3:13
So, if you were to apply that to say film,
3:15
you have this 2D screen so
that's two dimensions.
3:19
And it plays over time and
so that's three.
3:21
And maybe you could add in sound, right.
3:24
But, websites and software in general,
3:27
have this added dimension
of interactivity.
3:30
There's things that
the user can do when you
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can take that feedback into account and
your corresponding expression.
3:37
So did that for a while and
I like web development because
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it was kind of the wild west,
that were know best practices and
3:47
you could just kind of make
it up as you want it long.
3:50
And now, virtual reality has taken my
interest for the exact same reasons.
3:54
>> It's [INAUDIBLE] in
the same place there, right?
3:57
>> Yeah.
3:59
Because there's no best practices and
4:00
really I'm just kind of
making it up as I go, and
4:04
trying to follow the trends and
predict where things are going to go.
4:09
So, yeah, I teach VR.
4:15
[LAUGH]
>> That's a short answer.
4:16
[LAUGH]
>> Awesome, well I like that progression,
4:17
that's really cool, man.
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And what's more interactive than VR,
right?
4:22
I do have an important question,
what is something about you
4:26
that the students won't learn
from one of your courses?
4:30
>> One interesting fact to it is,
growing up,
4:33
I was a child actor from ages-
>> Whoa.
4:36
[LAUGH]
>> 2 to 18.
4:39
>> Okay.
4:41
[LAUGH]
>> But for me, in my mind,
4:42
that sorta falls into the same realm
of artistic expression, right?
4:44
So at the time, in the 90's,
a lot of the work for
4:49
an actor was just doing commercials and
that sort of thing.
4:52
>> Okay.
4:57
>> So, basically anything that
wasn't like a Hollywood Movie,
4:58
was shot in another market,
Florida being one of them at the time.
5:05
And I mean that's still true today,
but Florida was starting you become
5:10
this fab for producing television,
5:15
I mean that was age of like Universal
Studios,Nickelodeon and all that.
5:18
And a lot of commercials and
music videos and things were shot.
5:23
In Florida specifically Orlando.
5:28
So, yeah as a child actor and
I guess I don't know, it wasn't something
5:32
that was like super important to me which
is why like I don't really do it anymore.
5:39
But, these skills are certainly useful
when teaching Treehouse courses and
5:43
being on camera.
5:49
>> Yeah, for sure.
5:50
Do you have maybe some
we could have from that?
5:52
[LAUGH]
>> Probably not.
5:55
[LAUGH]
>> Come on.
5:57
>> I'm actually curious if any
of that still exists somewhere.
6:00
I'm sure it's probably on a VHS tape
at my parents' house somewhere.
6:08
>> Okay.
6:13
>> But, no, don't have anything in handy.
6:14
>> Okay, cool, hey man I've been
hearing that the Orlando office has
6:17
a pretty awesome VR playground, so
what if you could show us that.
6:22
>> Sure thing, so basically we have
a what we called a mixed reality set up,
6:27
a mixed reality studio,
I guess you could say.
6:33
So when you demonstrate
VR to other people,
6:38
it's kind of difficult to get
a sense of the space, because
6:42
typically VR is shown in the same
way that you view it in VR headsets.
6:47
So, In third person,
you're kinda looking at this crazy
6:53
HMD View, or Head-Mounted Display View,
where you're looking all over the place.
7:00
And there's really not
any particular focus.
7:04
And it's very shaky because,
in real life, our heads are very shaky.
7:07
And in VR, this feels very natural
to the person that has a headset on.
7:11
But for other people, It's really
kind of a weird thing to look at.
7:15
It's weird to look through
somebody else's vision, so
7:21
what we've done is we are using this
technique cock mixed with reality,
7:25
which uses a green screen and combination
with some modified field software So
7:29
we can shoot someone in VR,
against the green screen.
7:35
And then we key that out, and
7:40
we're able to get a third person
perspective on the action.
7:42
And the way we do that,
is by tracking our physical camera in VR.
7:46
So that we have a virtual
camera that matches one-to-one.
7:52
So the virtual camera moves with the
physical camera and the movements match,
7:56
and that's how you get a good key or
8:00
a good match between
the two pieces of footage.
8:03
So it's cool but
it's also a really great way to
8:07
demonstrate VR to other people that
aren't wearing the VR headset.
8:12
That is awesome, let's see a demo.
8:18
>> Now we can pick up the ball and
8:22
throw it and then using the grip
buttons on the side of the controller,
8:26
we can return it to
it's original position.
8:31
We can also use the touchpad
button to start the clock.
8:34
And then, if we're lucky, we can make some
baskets and increase the score counter.
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So let's put some time on the clock.
8:43
[SOUND]
And let's try to make some baskets.
8:44
So close.
8:51
Almost.
8:55
There's one.
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See, if I can make one more, nope.
9:07
All right, didn't make the buzzer shot.
9:14
[SOUND]
And that's it.
9:15
>> Well thanks for
taking the time today, Nick.
9:18
I know you gotta get back to making
those courses, playing those games.
9:20
>> Sure thing.
9:24
Thanks for having me.
9:24
[MUSIC]
9:25
>> Thanks for watching the Treehouse show.
9:31
To get in touch with the show,
reach out to me on Twitter.
9:33
Or get us up on the Treehouse community.
9:36
See you next time.
9:37
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