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.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
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.
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