For Week 11 we went on a little trip up to the UNSW Scientia building. Up in this build is what they call iCinema. iCinema is basically a 360 degree 3D cinema room. It is set up with 12 projectors each projecting onto a giant curved projection screen. The images projected are 3D images so you must use 3D glasses to get the full effect.
They showed us a number of videos showing off how this cinema could be used. One was simply a video taken from a car showing a 360 Degree panoramic so it was like you are actually driving the car and can look around.
The other main one they showed us was an interactive real time environment that could be used to educate miners of the dangers they may face. It showed how this type of technology could be used in many ways, specially in the way of real time environments.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Progress
So after the Presentation and the Crits from other groups we have decided on some areas that we need to work on. More detailed Crit comments are on the team blog.
Summary of crits from other groups.
- Need more interactivity in the building
- interior spaces need more textures
- Better surrounding landscape
- Texture and detail the surrounding buildings
- materials and textures
- more AI
- interior furniture
So as we make our final environment we wil all work on different areas to fix these problems.
Summary of crits from other groups.
- Need more interactivity in the building
- interior spaces need more textures
- Better surrounding landscape
- Texture and detail the surrounding buildings
- materials and textures
- more AI
- interior furniture
So as we make our final environment we wil all work on different areas to fix these problems.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Week 10 Lecture
Week 10's guest lecture was from Andrew Wallace. Andrew recently graduated from UNSW doing Architecture and is now working for LCA (Lara Caldera Architects).
Andrew has explored many real time engines to help promote architecture. Has has done some excellent work with Crysis recently. He showed us a few of his big projects including one to do with a school in Africa and one to do with Sydney Harbour. He uses ArchiCad to create the models and then puts them in real time environments.
He alos explained how LCA was starting to use real time environments to show off architecture to new and existing clients and he explained how he thought the development of real time environments would greatly improve the field of architectural visualisation.
Andrew has explored many real time engines to help promote architecture. Has has done some excellent work with Crysis recently. He showed us a few of his big projects including one to do with a school in Africa and one to do with Sydney Harbour. He uses ArchiCad to create the models and then puts them in real time environments.
He alos explained how LCA was starting to use real time environments to show off architecture to new and existing clients and he explained how he thought the development of real time environments would greatly improve the field of architectural visualisation.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Week 9 Studio
Week 9's guest speak was Shilo McClean. Shilo is writer, lecturer and specialist in the field of digital visual effects in the film industry.
Shilo talked about how digital effects and digital computer graphics and film had been derived largely from computer games, and how the film industry has started to accept and appreciate the use of computer graphics. She explored how computer graphics could be used to aid the story telling process. She also went on to demonstrate how different fields that use film or video have also been adopting computer graphics to help portray their message. One example she gave was to do with a documentary on "Hurricane Katrina" by Spike Lee.
Special effects, computer animation and computer graphics and film used to be looked down on in the film industry and was assumed that it would destroy the film and take away from the story. Shilo was once told "you can't put it into the script if you can't capture it on film". This comment has been greatly proven wrong with the advance in computer graphics, specially in big budget films as transformers, harry potter etc.
She explained the differt types of effects or computer graphics that the industry uses, they are mainly:
Fantastical effects - This is where effects and computer graphics are sued to create a fantasy world or fantasy story. Heavily based on computer graphics and present here.
Hybrid-real - This is where there is a mixture between real and computer graphics to get the story across. The idea is to make the difference between real and computer invisible so the viewer can't tell which is which.
Hyperrealist - This is computer graphics that are so real and lifelike that is is difficult to tell if it is real or computer generated.
Surrealist - This is the use of computer effects and graphics to portray an almost dream out of this world feeling. It is almost impossible to achieve this effect with out computer graphics.
Shilo talked about how digital effects and digital computer graphics and film had been derived largely from computer games, and how the film industry has started to accept and appreciate the use of computer graphics. She explored how computer graphics could be used to aid the story telling process. She also went on to demonstrate how different fields that use film or video have also been adopting computer graphics to help portray their message. One example she gave was to do with a documentary on "Hurricane Katrina" by Spike Lee.
Special effects, computer animation and computer graphics and film used to be looked down on in the film industry and was assumed that it would destroy the film and take away from the story. Shilo was once told "you can't put it into the script if you can't capture it on film". This comment has been greatly proven wrong with the advance in computer graphics, specially in big budget films as transformers, harry potter etc.
She explained the differt types of effects or computer graphics that the industry uses, they are mainly:
Fantastical effects - This is where effects and computer graphics are sued to create a fantasy world or fantasy story. Heavily based on computer graphics and present here.
Hybrid-real - This is where there is a mixture between real and computer graphics to get the story across. The idea is to make the difference between real and computer invisible so the viewer can't tell which is which.
Hyperrealist - This is computer graphics that are so real and lifelike that is is difficult to tell if it is real or computer generated.
Surrealist - This is the use of computer effects and graphics to portray an almost dream out of this world feeling. It is almost impossible to achieve this effect with out computer graphics.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Week 8 Crit
Team: Digitalism
Pros: Digitalism have a strong concept for their design. It is a concept and design that can be quite emotional to people, as it has a strong history behind it. Due to this the whole concept and realisation is quite strong. Rather than just being a random building or environment it has a background, history and emotions.
The building itself was well realised, it had been built well and a lot of effort into the actual building itself. It is a believable and strong building that works with the concept and the environment.
Cons: The surrounding environment isn't really resolved, and doesn't fit in with the concept. While the immediate surrounding buildings are modelled they do not give a sense of busy, over crowded and thriving city, it just looks a bit like a desolate city on a random island. The scale of the building is a bit small, the building is meant to be much higher and tower over everything else.
Team: Orange
Pros: The building is very well modelled and detailed, there has been lots of work put into the modelling of the building, this makes it look very resolved and like it could easily be a real building. The surrounding environment is very highly detailed with alot of work put in. It has lots of cars driving round, people and everything. This gives a good sense of the context and environment of the project.
Cons: The textures on the building itself where a little lacking. There could have been more texturing making the building a little more life like. The same goes for the interior spaces, they could have had some more textures, and maybe a little more interactive to make the environment more immersive.
Team: Evolve
Pros: Evolve had some very good videos for the presentation, they where quite entertaining and used some humour which is good for a presentation. This meant people payed more attention because they didn't get bored too easily. The way they presented the videos also gave a better idea of what they are aiming for in their concept. They also had some very good internal spaces in the environment. These internal spaces where very well resolved.
Cons: Evolve had limited interactivity in there level, there was not much that the person could interact with, and not much that helped the person feel immersed or involved with the level.
Team: Urbans
Pros: The good thing about Urbans environment is that they where going for a grand scale building and they have managed to achieve that. The building itself both inside and out looks extremely grand and large, which is what they where looking for. This definitely adds to the overall effect of the environment. They had a good presentation which showed off exactly what they where trying to achieve and how they did it. The presentation of the building itself was quite good as well.
Cons: The surrounding environment could be improved. There was a lot of effort put into getting the landscape from Google Earth and the like, so its a shame things like the lake in the middle was out of scale and the surrounding environment was not quite resolved.
Team: Atlar
Pros: Atlar had some good presentation renders, that showed off there building in a very good way to make it as realistic as possible. They had a good concept that suited Crysis very well. Crysis is good at things like water and environments so the concept involving water was a good choice. This means that presentation renders could be at good high quality. There was a lot of good thought out interactivity in Atlar's level, so the environment felt very immersive and resolved.
Cons: The building itself and some of the interior spaces could have used some more textures, this would make the whole concept and design look much stronger and more resolved. I think this would greatly add to the environment.
Pros: Digitalism have a strong concept for their design. It is a concept and design that can be quite emotional to people, as it has a strong history behind it. Due to this the whole concept and realisation is quite strong. Rather than just being a random building or environment it has a background, history and emotions.
The building itself was well realised, it had been built well and a lot of effort into the actual building itself. It is a believable and strong building that works with the concept and the environment.
Cons: The surrounding environment isn't really resolved, and doesn't fit in with the concept. While the immediate surrounding buildings are modelled they do not give a sense of busy, over crowded and thriving city, it just looks a bit like a desolate city on a random island. The scale of the building is a bit small, the building is meant to be much higher and tower over everything else.
Team: Orange
Pros: The building is very well modelled and detailed, there has been lots of work put into the modelling of the building, this makes it look very resolved and like it could easily be a real building. The surrounding environment is very highly detailed with alot of work put in. It has lots of cars driving round, people and everything. This gives a good sense of the context and environment of the project.
Cons: The textures on the building itself where a little lacking. There could have been more texturing making the building a little more life like. The same goes for the interior spaces, they could have had some more textures, and maybe a little more interactive to make the environment more immersive.
Team: Evolve
Pros: Evolve had some very good videos for the presentation, they where quite entertaining and used some humour which is good for a presentation. This meant people payed more attention because they didn't get bored too easily. The way they presented the videos also gave a better idea of what they are aiming for in their concept. They also had some very good internal spaces in the environment. These internal spaces where very well resolved.
Cons: Evolve had limited interactivity in there level, there was not much that the person could interact with, and not much that helped the person feel immersed or involved with the level.
Team: Urbans
Pros: The good thing about Urbans environment is that they where going for a grand scale building and they have managed to achieve that. The building itself both inside and out looks extremely grand and large, which is what they where looking for. This definitely adds to the overall effect of the environment. They had a good presentation which showed off exactly what they where trying to achieve and how they did it. The presentation of the building itself was quite good as well.
Cons: The surrounding environment could be improved. There was a lot of effort put into getting the landscape from Google Earth and the like, so its a shame things like the lake in the middle was out of scale and the surrounding environment was not quite resolved.
Team: Atlar
Pros: Atlar had some good presentation renders, that showed off there building in a very good way to make it as realistic as possible. They had a good concept that suited Crysis very well. Crysis is good at things like water and environments so the concept involving water was a good choice. This means that presentation renders could be at good high quality. There was a lot of good thought out interactivity in Atlar's level, so the environment felt very immersive and resolved.
Cons: The building itself and some of the interior spaces could have used some more textures, this would make the whole concept and design look much stronger and more resolved. I think this would greatly add to the environment.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Final Environment
So finally we have created our final design environment, after many late nights and computer issues it is done. I am quite happy with how it turned out, we all put alot of work into it and it came together nicely. I think it really shows off the design well, in terms of the design itself and the context. As you walk around the environment you can really get a feel for the design and how it would be if it was built. This is a strong point of Crysis which makes it a really good Realtime Architectural tool. The environments are very submersive so it feels like it could be real. The ability to walk though the design and look around itin realtime is a great plus, specially with our building which has many different internal and external areas, which could not be completely shown if we just had renders or architectural visulizations.
We all put alot of work into the project and helped each other out, and helped other groups out. So there was not only group collaboration but entire class collaboration as well which is good.
The main areas i worked on where:
- AI -
The AI in crysis is a good tool to visulise circulation in the design and see how it feels and looks with people walking around. Circulation and people is a very important aspect in our design because it is a cultural centre. So the AI was a very big itegral part of our design. As well as people i added birds and animals in to emphasize the harbour and the context.
- Sound -
The sound in Crysis adds to the whole feel of the environment and makes it more submersive. It means as well as being able to walk around and see the building you can also hear surrounding sounds to give you a better feel for the design and its context. Since our design is on the harbour this is another very important step.
- Surrounding Buildings -
We modelled a fair few surrounding buildings. This was to help give better context for the site and design which is an important part of our design, as it is designed to fit into the environment and be part of the environment and culture of Bodo. In the end we ended up importing a context study from the original architect so alot of the surrounding buildings i made did not get used.
- Lighting -
I did a fair few tech tests and experiments on how the lighting works and different types of lighting to enhance the experience. This includes normal lighting for the building and the wharf as well as Time of Day lighting and environmental lighting.
- Interactivity -
We added a fair few itneractive things such as cars, boats, birds and people that once again make the environment more submersive. These things add to the overall environment and its impression on the viewer.
As well as these main parts i also helped with a lot of other things, such as the roads and the furniture in andaround the building such as on the wharf and in the city. I also conducted alot of experiments so that when it came to doing the Crysis environment we had things sorted so we could streamline the process and there wasn't too much stuffing around and redoing things that wouldn't work.
We all put alot of work into the project and helped each other out, and helped other groups out. So there was not only group collaboration but entire class collaboration as well which is good.
The main areas i worked on where:
- AI -
The AI in crysis is a good tool to visulise circulation in the design and see how it feels and looks with people walking around. Circulation and people is a very important aspect in our design because it is a cultural centre. So the AI was a very big itegral part of our design. As well as people i added birds and animals in to emphasize the harbour and the context.
- Sound -
The sound in Crysis adds to the whole feel of the environment and makes it more submersive. It means as well as being able to walk around and see the building you can also hear surrounding sounds to give you a better feel for the design and its context. Since our design is on the harbour this is another very important step.
- Surrounding Buildings -
We modelled a fair few surrounding buildings. This was to help give better context for the site and design which is an important part of our design, as it is designed to fit into the environment and be part of the environment and culture of Bodo. In the end we ended up importing a context study from the original architect so alot of the surrounding buildings i made did not get used.
- Lighting -
I did a fair few tech tests and experiments on how the lighting works and different types of lighting to enhance the experience. This includes normal lighting for the building and the wharf as well as Time of Day lighting and environmental lighting.
- Interactivity -
We added a fair few itneractive things such as cars, boats, birds and people that once again make the environment more submersive. These things add to the overall environment and its impression on the viewer.
As well as these main parts i also helped with a lot of other things, such as the roads and the furniture in andaround the building such as on the wharf and in the city. I also conducted alot of experiments so that when it came to doing the Crysis environment we had things sorted so we could streamline the process and there wasn't too much stuffing around and redoing things that wouldn't work.
Final Design Pics
Here are some pics from the final design, these and more can be found on our team blog.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
AI Issues
So as we continue to develop our design we are running into many issues. One such issue is that the AI can be quite messy and not very streamlined. The problem arose when i was trying to clean up the AI. Where the AI follows paths and walks around the level it is very messy and many repeated commands, so i was looking for a way to combine them all into one.
After many hours stuffing around trying to find a command to containt them all, such as an "All" command that would tell all the AI to do the same thing, i got no where. So i went and had a look on forums, and after another few hours i finally found what i was looking for, the command Logic-All. Problem was in Crysis i couldnt find it, after making sure everything possible was turned on i finally found it under the WIP (work in progress) set. After all this time i them found out that it doesn't acutally work, which is probably why its in the WIP set, so it was many watsed hours and it means that the AI will just have to stay messy.
After many hours stuffing around trying to find a command to containt them all, such as an "All" command that would tell all the AI to do the same thing, i got no where. So i went and had a look on forums, and after another few hours i finally found what i was looking for, the command Logic-All. Problem was in Crysis i couldnt find it, after making sure everything possible was turned on i finally found it under the WIP (work in progress) set. After all this time i them found out that it doesn't acutally work, which is probably why its in the WIP set, so it was many watsed hours and it means that the AI will just have to stay messy.
AI and Sound
These pictures show some testing and work with AI and sound for our design, this was mostly done on test levels for efficiency.
Sounds are fairly easy to set up, you just need to draw a shape that will contain your sound. In otherwords a shape that when you are inside it you will hear your sound and when you leave the area the sound will fade away. After you have drawn your shape you just need to link the AmbientVolume object to the shape and chose your sound and volume levels, that is basically it.
With the AI i was trying to clea up and stream line the AI flowGraphs, this wasn't very succesful due to the command i wanted to use not working properly.
Did some more stuffing round with the AI and seem to have it in an organised flowgraph. Also have worked out how to add good area ambient sounds, so that we can have a harbour sound as you walk around our level.
Biggest problem with the sound is that for some reaosn crysis will not import external sounds, even though they are in the right format they just wont play in crysis, this means that we can not have the sound fo birds and the like we wanted on the wharf.
I have added a few WIP pictures of working on the AI and Sound.
Sounds are fairly easy to set up, you just need to draw a shape that will contain your sound. In otherwords a shape that when you are inside it you will hear your sound and when you leave the area the sound will fade away. After you have drawn your shape you just need to link the AmbientVolume object to the shape and chose your sound and volume levels, that is basically it.
With the AI i was trying to clea up and stream line the AI flowGraphs, this wasn't very succesful due to the command i wanted to use not working properly.
Did some more stuffing round with the AI and seem to have it in an organised flowgraph. Also have worked out how to add good area ambient sounds, so that we can have a harbour sound as you walk around our level.
Biggest problem with the sound is that for some reaosn crysis will not import external sounds, even though they are in the right format they just wont play in crysis, this means that we can not have the sound fo birds and the like we wanted on the wharf.
I have added a few WIP pictures of working on the AI and Sound.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Team Meeting
We met up today so we could all work on the model. Due to other commitments a Saturday was the only day we could all come in and work on it. After a slow start we managed to get stuck into things such as the surrounding environment, AI, Sounds and the main building model. I did alot of experiments and stuffing round to try and get people to randomly walk around and to have random AI but it didn't seem to work.
One experiment was to use the chicken system where chickens randomly walk around the level but the problem with this was that once you changed the model to people the animations didn't work so people just floated around instead of working.
We got a fair bit done during the day and had some good discussions to do with what needed to be completed and how we would do it.
One experiment was to use the chicken system where chickens randomly walk around the level but the problem with this was that once you changed the model to people the animations didn't work so people just floated around instead of working.
We got a fair bit done during the day and had some good discussions to do with what needed to be completed and how we would do it.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Progress Blog
Since the draft proposal we have done alot of work on our Crysis environment. We have added many new things and fixed problems, and generally made it a better real time environment that shows off our design.
The main building has been continually added to and edited in ArchiCad. Interior spaces have been added and the exterior has been improved. For the final presentation we hope to have it completely modelled up and resolved. As well as this, the surrounding buildings have been worked on. Immediate surrounding buildings have had more details added and have been refined to give a better site context. As well as this, roads and vegetation has been added so that it feels more like an environment people can relate to and see in context.
The harbour and the wharf which is a big part of our design has been greatly improved on. With many things add and refined. We have many boats in to show how the harbour is a very integral part of the site and is fairly busy. The wharf itself has been edited and built apon, with better walk ways, benches and lighting, once again to lift the whole environment to a higher level. The harbour plays a big role and these changes help to emphasize that.
These additions have not been with out drama, the level and editor itself has many issues abnd constantly crashes, at times loosing lots of our work. We also learnt the hardway with the uni computers, because they delete everything off the main drives when you log off. At one stage the computer where we had most of our work crashed and needed restarting and hence we lost several hours work.
There have been some team conflicts as well, not in the terms of arguments or fights, but the fact that everyone has other commitments such as work, family or other classes and assignments, this means that we ahven't been able to get things done as quickly as possible.
Our environment is coming along quite nicely and i am confident that it will be finished to a high level for our presentation.
The main building has been continually added to and edited in ArchiCad. Interior spaces have been added and the exterior has been improved. For the final presentation we hope to have it completely modelled up and resolved. As well as this, the surrounding buildings have been worked on. Immediate surrounding buildings have had more details added and have been refined to give a better site context. As well as this, roads and vegetation has been added so that it feels more like an environment people can relate to and see in context.
The harbour and the wharf which is a big part of our design has been greatly improved on. With many things add and refined. We have many boats in to show how the harbour is a very integral part of the site and is fairly busy. The wharf itself has been edited and built apon, with better walk ways, benches and lighting, once again to lift the whole environment to a higher level. The harbour plays a big role and these changes help to emphasize that.
These additions have not been with out drama, the level and editor itself has many issues abnd constantly crashes, at times loosing lots of our work. We also learnt the hardway with the uni computers, because they delete everything off the main drives when you log off. At one stage the computer where we had most of our work crashed and needed restarting and hence we lost several hours work.
There have been some team conflicts as well, not in the terms of arguments or fights, but the fact that everyone has other commitments such as work, family or other classes and assignments, this means that we ahven't been able to get things done as quickly as possible.
Our environment is coming along quite nicely and i am confident that it will be finished to a high level for our presentation.
Week 7 Lecture
For our week 7 lecture Dr John Barton from City Futures Research Centre UNSW came into to talk to us about Urban development. Firstly he ttalked to us about a project that he had a lot to do with which is called UrbanIT Project 2030. It is a large scale design project for the re-design of Sydney, almost like a city of Sydney Masterplan. He showed us an interesting video that they created showing off how different buildings and transport systems had been removed or relocated, new parks and walk ways had been added as well as new buildings. It was an interesting look at what Sydney could look like in 20 years.
He then showed us a set of images based on research that was undertaken near the city in a housing development. His research showed what different people relate with different things, such as happyness, lonelyness, danger and death. This gave an interesting insight into how different people related different things, and a good 3D representation of these themes.
He then showed us a set of images based on research that was undertaken near the city in a housing development. His research showed what different people relate with different things, such as happyness, lonelyness, danger and death. This gave an interesting insight into how different people related different things, and a good 3D representation of these themes.
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