03/08/2025
Happy International Women’s Day! 🩷 Here’s eight of our amazing 3D signing avatars. 💪 Curious for more? Check out www.motionlightlab.com/signing-avatars!
Image description:
A 3x3 grid collage celebrating International Women’s Day, featuring eight 3D signing avatars / female characters from Motion Light Lab. Each character is set against a warm gradient background, transitioning from yellow to orange.
Top row:
On the left, an elderly woman with long gray braids is wearing a white headscarf and a matching outfit, signing with her hands.
In the middle, with text reading ‘INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY’ with the Motion Light Lab logo in black.
On the left, an elderly woman with different shades of pink hair and a few blue rubber bands is wearing a pink tank top with blue stripes and a yellow turtle neck long-sleeve shirt inside.
Middle row:
On the left, a woman with medium short black hair in a light blue shirt and gold hair clip gives a confident look. In the center, a cheerful pink-haired character with swirling eyebrows raises her left hand and waves her hand with a light blue tanktop with a yellow turtle neck long-sleeve shirt inside. On the right is a young woman with short black hair in an orange NASA-style astronaut jumpsuit with a name tag reading ‘Angie.’
Bottom row:
On the left is a young girl with swirl eyebrows, green hair with pink highlights, a pink mask, and a playful smile with a green tank top. In the middle, a young girl with dark curly hair wearing a white long-sleeved top raises one hand as if signing. On the right, a bun blonde woman with a blue polka-dotted headband posing with a flex pose in blue jeans overalls with a yellow shirt inside.
02/19/2025
Come one, come all! Join us this Friday for an in-person VL2 Talks panel discussion! 🎉 We’ll explore: “Innovations & Impact: The Work of Motion Light Lab”
Featuring Jianye Wang (3D Animator), Tayla Newman (Project Manager), and Leila Sicoli (Graduate Assistant), this panel will dive into our creative work and its impact!
📅 Friday, February 21
⏰ 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
📍 Collaboration Space, 3rd Floor, HMB
Image Description:
A graphic promoting VL2 Talks, an event under Visual Language and Visual Learning.
Large text: “VL2 Talks”
Panel title: “Innovations & Impact: The Work of Motion Light Lab”
On the left, three circular images feature the panelists: Jianye Wang (3D Animator), Tayla Newman (Project Manager), and Leila Sicoli (Graduate Assistant).
The event details—Friday, February 21, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM, HMB 3rd Floor Collaboration Space—are clearly displayed.
VL2 and ML2 logos appear in the bottom corners.
12/24/2024
2024 was a year of progress and success at Motion Light Lab! 🌟
💬 We’ve been hard at work developing the first episode of Here Comes Mavo!, the pilot episode coming up for release in 2025. We hosted storybook creator training in Montreal and Buenos Aires. We won several film awards for Dimensions. We released new storybooks, Deaf Gain What?! and Little Colors for Little Ones. We advanced our SAIL 3D avatar character design. We won the Elevate Prize and saw a photo of our Founder/Director hit the Times Square billboards! 🎉
🤗 We sure are looking forward to 2025, where we will expand even further! So many exciting projects on the horizon! Keep following us for more magic. 💫
P.S. The team photo contains everyone on our team, but is missing Visual Designer Silvia and UG Assistant Sofia!
Image description:
The image is a festive holiday card featuring a group photo of the Motion Light Lab team. The card’s border is decorated with holly leaves, red berries, and a large red bow at the top, giving it a cheerful holiday theme. In the center, the group photo is framed by a green border.
The group consists of 12 people, some sitting on a black couch and others standing behind it. They are smiling warmly and dressed in a mix of casual and semi-formal attire. Several team members wear black shirts with the words “Creative Language + Technology” printed on them. The background of the group photo is bright yellow, adding a vibrant contrast.
Above the photo, the text reads “Happy Holidays!” in a playful script font. Below the photo, it says “& Cheers to the New Year!” in a bold red font, followed by “From the Motion Light Lab Team” in black text. The Motion Light Lab logo is in the bottom right corner of the card.
08/20/2024
We’re excited to announce that “ASL Champ” won Best Demo at the 6th XR Access Symposium! 🏆✨ This VR platform for learning ASL features an interactive game with a signing avatar and real-time feedback, thanks to advanced motion-capture and deep learning technology. 💯
Image Description: At the top of the graphic, the text reads “2024 XR ACCESS SYMPOSIUM.” The image features a group photo of individuals holding a certificate of recognition. At the bottom, the ASL Champ logo is displayed alongside text that says “ASL Champ” wins the Best Demo Award. There are logos for SAIL, the Action & Brain Lab, and the Motion Light Lab, with accompanying text that reads: “SAIL is an NSF-funded project based at Gallaudet University within the Action & Brain Lab and Motion Light Lab.”
08/15/2024
Join us THIS SUNDAY for a special ASL storytime session with Dr. Genie Gertz, featuring the classic “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle! 🐛📚 This event is perfect for little ones ages 0-6.
Mark your calendars: this Sunday, August 18, from 9:30 to 10:00 AM at People’s Book in Takoma Park, MD. Following the story, there will be a brief gesture activity. We can’t wait to have you with us! ✨
Image Description:
A flyer for Motion Light Lab’s upcoming ASL Storytime event featuring the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. The title reads, “ASL Storytime with Dr. Genie Gertz.” The flyer includes vibrant illustrations of a caterpillar, sun, and grass from the book and provides event details in colorful squares, including the date, time, age range, and location. The event is for children ages 0-6 and will take place on Sunday, August 18, from 9:30 to 10:00 AM at People’s Book (7014 Westmoreland Ave Suite A, Takoma Park, MD 20912), followed by a gesture activity. On the bottom: GKLS and ML2 logos.
07/26/2024
🌟 Happy Friday! Look how cool the fake tattoo looks on him! We love it when people wear ML2! 💯
📣 Did you know we have ASL Literacy Activities for kids everywhere? Craft activities, worksheets, ASL lessons, quizzes, and more, all FREE! Quick access to sign up and use the resource here: https://motionlightlab.podia.com/asl-literacy-activities! 🆓
Image Description:
A yellow background with rainbows. Polaroid of a young boy smiling and holding up his arm with a closed fist. On his arm is a ML2 fake tattoo with a rainbow and Drop (one of our storybook characters). On the bottom of the Polaroid is pretty text: “Fun Friday with Simon!” with ML2 logo in the center of this text.
07/17/2024
🌟 Spotlighting one of our projects, SAIL 2.0! This is a work in progress.
⛵ SAIL stands for Signing Avatars and Immersive Learning.
‼️ YES! We’re developing a Virtual Reality (VR) game where people can learn everyday signs! Fun fact: The user will be able to choose from two teacher avatars named after two remarkable figures in Deaf history: Andy and Dot! Comment if you know who they are named after! 😉
💟 The teacher will guide you as you move through different environments and provide signing feedback!
🫱🏿🫲🏻 This is a collaboration with Action Brain Lab, another lab under the Visual Language Visual Learning (VL2) research center that is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation! We started with SAIL 1.0 and now we’re on version 2. These things take time to create but we’re grinding every day!
🤔 Want to know more? Post a question in the comments!
Image Description:
The picture is of a person with VR goggles on. The person is actively engaging with the VR, her hand upright. In front of the person is a monitor demonstrating what the person is seeing in the VR goggles. The SAIL logo and full name is placed on this picture: “SAIL, Signing Avatars & Immersive Learning”. A blue banner is under the photo: “Learn ASL in an immersive virtual environment!”. Below this is a white banner with ML2/ABL logos and this text: “SAIL is a NSF-funded project housed within the Action & Brain Lab and Motion Light Lab at Gallaudet University.
08/20/2024
08/15/2024
07/26/2024
07/17/2024
