This week I mostly worked on the decolonization essay as it turned into a slightly bigger work then I anticipated, even though it still feels as what I did wasn’t nearly enough to cover such a broad topic. However, due to having a bit more time for that work I was able to form it into more of an essay rather then just I small report which I am quite pleased at. As for the main project, this week I used the blog a bit more, though I still am not sure, how to do that correctly. I worked on the website further as I found a lot of Russian poems about seasons that can be used on the website. https://ingamasly.wixsite.com/website-1 (passwords summer and fall) I have also worked on the AR target image and mansaged to get it to 5 stars on Vuforia, Though I am much more pleased with the simple fact that Chao liked it.
5 stars!!!
I worked on some models for winter terrain. Though I also hoped to at least start the model for the winter character. The next week will really be just the continuation of the work.
I am incredibly exited as I finished the autumn character and I actually quite like how they turned out. I think it was a good idea to start over. Also looking at references helped a lot to figure out what I wanted. Chao said she liked it, which to me is a main indicator that I did a good job. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bx7iBN86tiE1_MGmQ_h_rWqxpBeazV4u/view?usp=sharing
Me and Chao have also experimented with AR part of our experience. We have been experimenting with object recognition. With a lot of help from Alejandro we figured out a way to use object recognition. And it worked on a simple box. However after some discussions with Alejandro we are thinking that this may not be the best course of action. As object recognition is somewhat glitchy an relies on a lot of external factors, so unless we are using photogrammetry which creates a very realistic model this method may not be the best course of action. We are thinking of “faking” object scanning. We will still create a 3D model and print it, but instead of using object scan the model will have an image on top of it that we will use as a target image. How will the image be attached to the object is another question. I am planning to research possible options. But for now I came up with using a sticker. That can be created by printing an image on a self adhesive paper on a normal printer. Or maybe a hydro dip is an option. As for the website, I had a few ideas, the Chao seems to like. We essentially have 4 hidden stories. 1 explains who the thief of the elements was 2 Telling about the great war between the gods 3 Rumor of the descendant of the thief returning 4 Explaining that 4 elements merged together create a dark element I thought of 4 different ways those stories could be told on the website. 1 Would be a database consinsting of (?) Wikipedia articles, poems/ stories, hopefully that are copyright free that relate to the theme of seasons. All of them will have a word hidden within them (maybe highlighted or the one that does not fit thematically) those words will form a sentence explaining who the thief was. (the player will have to form the sentanse themselves) 2 The war can be shown through a simple animatic. I have done a few in the past, I do quite enjoy making them. 3 As it is a rummor, I think it’s only fitting for it to be told as an audio clip 4 I think it could be a gif or an infographic showing that 4 elements form a dark element
ALSO I did a few skyboxes for spring terrain
The reason I did a diamond one is because it’s spring(air) shape The plan for next week for me is 1 Continuing doing the characters (would be great to be able to finish all of them next week) 2 Research how an image can be applied to a 3d print 3 Create a website. Research how can a password closed pages be created, as well as creating a database like pages 4 Potentially create a winter environment in Blender (I feel that now after having spent so much time there I should be more equipped for it)
This week I continued sculpting the face ang got some progress on that however, by Thursday I came to the conclusion that I will have to start over as I will not be able to pull of a realistic head so I will need to go for a much more stylized head. However I think doing it second time will be way easier as I have learned a lot during this process.
The style I’m thinking of right now is something more like that
I will also be creating a skybox of our spring terrain that Chao made. I was incredibly pleased with the model as I fits what I have imagined a 100%. We are also now thinking about the website part of our experience. We are thinking that we may create some 2d animations there as well as maybe links to wikepedia to find hidden words/ stories (will have to research it deeper)
been reading about real-life quests for our database website part like this gravity falls international treasure hunt https://blog.puzzlenation.com/2016/08/09/the-gravity-falls-cipher-hunt/
This week we conducted the user research and reseaved a lot of various results. It does not seem that people have some concrete design in mind as they all gave very different answers. But it will be interesting to design none the less My AR experimentation did not return much results. So I emailed Alejandro to get his help. Apart from that I continued modeling the body, it now has hands https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CcNKJnitJOC8jxoRfMTg_Ciuy2geYDge/view?usp=sharing And I have also started modeling the head which turned out to be quite hard, but I am getting somewhere with it.
This week I tried experimenting with model targets in Vuforia. Failed so far, but I am willing to see if that something that I can fix on my end Apart from that I continued working on the body shape for the character, actually am finding myself enjoying it more and more. I do really like working on aesthetical things and working on making things look “nice” just gives me a lot of satisfaction, hopefully though I will not take me too long. Also we have been working on the user research, that part also is rather fun and if works well will also be an immense help for the project, and hopefully will be enjoyable for people participating in it. I have done some reading on the topic of character design and found quite few interesting publications many of which focused on the female character design and their sexualization.
This week I mostly focused on the character modeling I really wanted to properly model a character rather then go one in a drawing program I am doing mine in blender following this tutorial that I found really helpful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxMz4HylQfU I am quite pleased with the result so far I even tested it in mixamo and the model is working
I think that potentially we could use this as a base model and then change it accordingly to each of the character (however each of the characters have a unique physique, so that may be more troublesome then modeling it from scratch) As for the research we are now thinking on focusing on character design.
They don’t think they are better than others, they know they are. Very smart but incredibly annoying at that, always makes snarky and sarcastic comments about absolutely everything. They value the looks, ans always présent themselves the best. See beauty in simplicity and elegance. Some rumor you get a frostbite if you get too close.
