Determined to Get It Finished

Posted on September 26, 2017 by SusanG

As you might guess I have been working on something and I am quite determined to get it finished. More specifically, I am determined to get it done so that I can turn it in and hopefully get it reviewed before I go to the ZBrush Summit. So this week, instead of telling you about art I’m working on I thought I would share with you about this maze project for the VR course I’m taking. It’s been a lot of fun.

I’m always excited when I get something to work like it is supposed to or the the way I want. Those are not always the same thing. Still it’s exciting to toil at something and then see it all come together and this maze project as really been that. First there was building the maze which for me was an insane amount of fun. I really had a good time with creating false paths to follow as well as a somewhat challenging maze. I don’t think it is anywhere near the most challenging, though I did have one person get stuck, still it’s not a quick walk to the building in the middle or at the other end.

It is designed to run on an Android phone and is best viewed using a cardboard device. When it’s on my computer, as the screenshots show, it is just one screen but on the phone you have two view ports designed such that when using a cardboard viewer it gives additional depth to the scene. It’s a form of VR (virtual reality). The really cool thing about being able to run it on my phone is that I can share it, fairly easily, with people. I’ve had a few friends play it and their general reaction has been how cool it is and that it’s a lot of fun. Dang. What more could I ask for.

The assignment was to create this maze and then there were additional criteria that had to be met. Like adding a key that you click on so that it unlocks the door of the building, and adding some coins to collect along the way. Oh and sound. The door is supposed to play two different sounds, one if it’s still locked when you get to it, and one as it opens. That part nearly kicked my butt. Seriously. But I finally got it and in my triumph I thought I might go about tackling the next bit. Until I looked at the clock. Off to bed I went. The next night was no better. It’s now a bit of a blur and I’m not sure what I tackled next but I was up late once again. I finally got all the bits finished the next day and was able to get it sent to my phone so it could be played in full. I’m so excited. I have a few tweaks I want to make before I turn it in. Compared to what I did to get to this point they are very minor.

A quick bit about some technical bits of this project. I’m using the Unity engine for this course. The assets for the project were provided by the organization I’m taking the course through. I did not build any of the assets. I used them to build the scene and it’s functionality. Since I do model things that could be used for something like this, I don’t want to take credit for someone else’s work. I am taking the course through Udacity.

The screenshots in this post are from the game play on my computer, not my phone. Though I will need a screenshot of it running on my phone when I submit it for review. I have also been asked to create a video of it. Since I have no clue how to do that on my phone I’ll be doing it from my pc. Something that took some work to figure out as well.

I’m coming to the end of this part of the course. I will be turning in the maze in a few days and then will have a little time to prepare for the next segment before I go to the ZBrush Summit. As much as I’m looking forward to the next segment, and the summit, I’m also looking forward to a little bit of time to work on the Christmas card and some more art. With that in mind. Come back to see if I forgot anything in the maze and what else I get to work on.

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Starting to Come Together

Posted on September 19, 2017 by SusanG

All in all it turned out to be a pretty successful week for me. That’s a little self-centered given all that happened last week with the hurricane and the fact that there are yet more out there. It’s just I was stunned to reach Sunday night with progress on both the Holiday card and the Maze project for my VR class.

So yes, Hurricane Irma has left a mark. Just a few weeks after Hurricane Harvey left a mark. We look to be dodging the bullet with Hurricane Jose because even though it reached category 4 while Irma was heading towards Florida, he weakened again pretty quickly and doesn’t look like he’s going to leave as much of a mark. And now there is Hurricane Maria. Monday night’s 8:00pm advisory had her at a category 5 and likely to hit a bunch of the islands that Irma destroyed as well as making a more direct hit on Puerto Rico. I feel really bad for all those people facing that again. We thought 2004, with Charlie, Frances, and Jean and Ivan, and then 2005 with Katrina and Wilma were crazy hurricane seasons. Even with the devastation they caused, I’m not sure they can compare to the crazy of this year. And it’s not over yet. In case you didn’t know, the Atlantic Hurricane Season officially runs from June 1 to November 30. This year, we had our first tropical system form in April.

And now back to some fun stuff.

So because I was paying attention to the hurricane on the Sunday for last week, I didn’t get much done and was a little worried I would have trouble getting to things this last week. I did start a little slow. But finally got some momentum and started getting things done.

The biggest thing I worked on this week was the Maze project for my VR class. There are several things that I have to make happen with it. The first thing though, is I have to design a maze for you to navigate through. I wasn’t so sure about this at first but I gotta tell you, by the time I got it done, I was having a good time with it. My goal for it, for the week was to get it all mapped out and built and setup so you could navigate through it. Oh, and I wanted to do a test build to my phone just to make sure it was going to run ok.

I was really concerned that it would run really slow because of all the objects in the scene. I figured it should work ok because it shouldn’t have to render everything at the start, it should just render it as I approach it. But still I was worried. There are a lot of wall and pillar pieces.

I am happy to say that it runs just fine. I finished laying out the maze and got all the teleports in place and deployed it to my phone and it works. Yay! I did have a lot of fun trying to make a challenging maze and adding in all the fakes. (The paths that really just lead to dead ends.) So here’s an in progress, top down, screenshot of what I was working on.

I also spent a little time working on the Holiday card for this year. I gave Sticks a scarf to go with his Santa’s Hat. He’s got a really skinny neck so it looks quite funny. I shrank Walter the Worm back down some and he looks better. I thought about having Sticks hold Walter but, no. Then I moved everyone to the other side of the tree and posed Sticks. I’m liking this look a bit better. It’s getting close to being right. I think I need to make some adjustments with the presents, either move them around or add more or something. Then I should be able to get Walter in the right spot. So close. Just almost there.

For this week? Well, I’ve still got work to do on that maze. There are several requirements in addition to creating a maze that you can navigate through. So I’ll be working on that. I really need to get it completed and turned in as soon as I can. Preferably before the end of the month so I don’t have to worry about it while I’m at the ZBrush Summit. There’s also a good chance I’ll get some more work done on the Holiday card. It could get close to finished.

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It Just Wasn’t Happening

Posted on September 12, 2017 by SusanG

I got very little done last week. It was a struggle. The first week back to the day job after a multi-week vacation is rough, even when it’s a short week.

I managed to finish up the video lessons for my class. And got into the project and had a look. There are a lot of pieces to it and that can be intimidating. If you let it. I decided not to. I’m going to start with laying out everything and then move on to making it work as required, or better.

I had intended to get to working on the project more after that but then Mother Nature threw a wrench in the works with Hurricane Irma. There was always the issue of how big she was and that she was targeting Florida where I have family and friends and co-workers from the day job. And then there was the possibility that it was coming right into Charlotte as a tropical storm. So there was storm preparations to deal with and worry. And then there was the watching. This all takes up much more energy and time than you think.

As much as I tried to focus, I just couldn’t get my head completely into the things I need and want to do.

Sometimes, though, worrying about family and friends is the most important thing you can be doing.

Next up. Trying to get back into the groove of things. As I recall, I have a Holiday Card to finish setting up. A Crabby Plant to model and a VR project to work on.

My first priority is going to by the VR project. That one has a due date and it’s during the ZBrush Summit so I won’t really have last minute crunch time to finish it up. There are a lot of parts to it so as I indicated, I’ll take it in chunks. I’ll work on the layout of the maze and placement of the collectible items. I may have to work on traversing the maze at the same time just to make sure the spacing is right. Then I’ll work on any of the scripting that needs to be done.

Which reminds me. Did I mention that I finally made my travel plans for the ZBrush Summit. I did. It’s now official, I’m going to go this year. It should be interesting.

After that is the Holiday card. It has a bit of a due date as well since I want it available for the holiday season. Still, after a conversation with someone I realized that I might be better off to release it closer to when people are thinking about buying cards. And really, with hurricanes slamming the south of the country right and left, who’s thinking about Christmas.

I’ll probably need some play time in there and that’s where I’ll work on the Crabby Plant. Or after. It just depends.

In the mean time, I don’t have any new pics so I’m re-posting some pics just because.

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Virtual Becomes Reality

Posted on September 5, 2017 by SusanG

I read an article about Elon Musk while in Virtual Reality. That is just cool. I know if you have never experienced virtual reality it is hard to understand how one would be so excited about such a thing. Trust me. It’s really cool. And possibly my new obsession.

My first attempt at customizing my Avatar in Oculus.

Well maybe not obsession. I consider myself fairly balanced and unlikely to swing to obsession level over much of anything. Close. But not all the way. However, it is likely to become a fairly consistent part of my weeks. I’d say days, but I do still have the day job, family, and Taekwondo. So there is all of that to keep me grounded.

I have been on vacation from the day job for two weeks. I have had my new Oculus Rift for about two weeks. I finally set it up Friday. OH MY!! It’s probably a good thing I did wait to set it up. The best thing Oculus did was to make the first thing you experience in VR, after getting it setup, is something they call ‘First Contact’. It is phenomenal. Think of those movies or TV shows where the main character goes to a tinkerer and asks them to make or fix something electronic for them. Then put that room in a cleaner shed but with like chunky 1970’s 1980’s computer gear. There’s a  robot, like a floating top half of Wall-e. It’s so cute. I found myself talking to it and waving back at it. It wasn’t a long encounter and it wasn’t too in depth. It was just enough to spark excitement and imagination and to make you truly feel like your mind had been blown.

My current Avatar in Oculus

And if that weren’t enough. I woke in the middle of the night, right after that, and had to get up, which you know happens. And isn’t noteworthy in itself. Except. I woke to my earworms singing “Pure Imagination” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in Gene Wilder’s voice. So there you go.

I’ve picked up a few games and encounters. So far I like Duo but need more space. First Contact is really fun. And Farlands looks like it’s going to be quite a treat as well. I’ve added VR Toolkit so I can pull up my desktop in the headset. That’s how I got to read about Elon Musk while in VR.

I didn’t just do VR. Well, sort of. I did have to turn in an assignment for my VR class. That worked out really cool because it turns out my mentor is also a reviewer for my class and he happened to get my assignment to review. How cool and what fun. And it passed.

No. I haven’t spent all my time in VR space. Close. I started work on the Holiday card. I started building the scene and trying to get the main players into it. I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. Walter the Worm had to be scaled up just to be seen. When I got him to a size I like he shows up great if I’m focusing on him, and he fits right in. If I try to pull out so you can see Sticks and the Snowman, Walter gets lost.

Walter Worm close up. 

Walter Worm getting lost

I scaled him up so that he didn’t get lost when I pulled out but I don’t really like that look. I may try scaling him down just a bit and see if that works. Everything looks a bit washed out right now because of the lighting. I haven’t set anything up yet. I might have accidentally imported the lights from some of the other scenes but I think it’s just the default light that you are seeing. With all the white of the ground and the Snowman it’s going to be a bit bright. Once I get Walter sorted I will pose Sticks. Right now he’s standing there in the back with his arms straight out. I may give him some Holiday cheer colors as well, to go with the hat.

Walter Worm scaled up

There you have it. For the most part, the week as it was. Or at least the exciting bits. It’s back to the day job this week. That will be tough. Next up. I’ve got another assignment for the VR class to work on. I’ve watched the videos and downloaded the starter project, and even mapped out my maze on paper, so I’ll be getting going on that. I’ll get back to the Holiday card. A little think time and then a little play time and I may have it sorted before I know it. Of course I’ll be trying out more new things in the Oculus Rift. No doubt I will have more virtual reality to share with you as well. See you next time.

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Maybe That For Now

Posted on August 29, 2017 by SusanG

First, a quick update on the car issues from last week. It is all fixed. It needed a new battery and a new starter and no tires, and no oil change. Got lots of miles until the oil change and tires in good shape just needed a rotate and balance. So while still expensive, not near as expensive as it could have been.

I got the urge to work on some 3D modeling so decided to start on the CrabbyPlant that I showed the sketch of last week. I figured I am going to want to animate it, or at least pose it at some point so I wanted to model it in a neutral-ish pose. So I started out trying to make the leaves straight up, thinking that would be the easiest for creating bones. It was coming along, I got the two inside most leaves created and started working on the next one out and changed my mind. I was having some trouble with that third leaf and I started thinking that maybe I should start from the outside leaves and make them all straight out flat. So far I have only one leaf done that way. Those are the pictures in this post, a couple with the leaves up, and one with the one leaf flat.

And then I had a whole flurry of thoughts, ideas, and possible solutions while in the shower. Oh, and on a day that I wasn’t going to be able to do much about them for many, many hours. A few things were solutions for some things I was having trouble with on my second project for my VR class. Most of those didn’t pan out but I still found a solution to at least one of the problems. The other thoughts were about 3D projects, including the CrabbyPlant. For the CrabbyPlant to work really well with an animation rig, it’s going to need basically a spline rig. Something where all the bones follow a spline. In the rigging tutorial I use there is an example of that for the spine of the character. However for CrabbyPlant, every leaf will need it and probably the stalk, not sure about the eye stems. For now, I’m going to model CrabbyPlant in pose and later I will will rework the plant so that I can rig it. I’m not sure which way will be best, with the leaves up or the leaves out. Guess I’ll figure it out when I get to it.

That solves the CrabbyPlant issue. Now I just need to get working on it. By the way that spline rig is the same rig I’m going to need to use for Walter the Worm Guy when I rework his rig. If I do him first, I’ll have a little more practice with it. Of course with 6 leaves and a stalk at minimum, I’ll get quite a bit of practice with CrabbyPlant as well. The other issue I’ve solved is Funkatmyer. I really want more than just the Snowman, Walter, and Sticks on the Holiday card this year. So I think I’m going to save out a file of Funkatmyer with a different name, so I don’t mess up the nice T-pose file. In the new file, I’m just going to pose him as I want him for the card and then I’ll give him some nice holiday colored clothes.

Like with getting back to CrabbyPlant, now I just need to get onto those items. Pose Funkatmyer, put together the holiday scene with everyone in it and get that all dressed up. I had thought I was going to have most of that done already but it is vacation from the day job and a little fun and relaxing has to happen in there. Also, I have the second assignment for my VR class to finish and submit. I’m down to one requirement that I have to get working right and then I may add an extra or two. That’s next up to be worked on. If I get it submitted then I think I might take Wednesday or Thursday, maybe both, and work on the holiday card stuff. At least that’s the plan. You might want to check back and see if that’s how things actually go.

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