Conclusion...

Looking back, it's been a long way now. Looking at my work here, its amazing the difference between the textured and the untextured environment, the whole world of difference it makes, and then the occlusions.

Then, having done my fair share of realistic textures during my 2 year job in the "real world," I find that there is really alot you can do with neat real time texture. Alphas, normal maps, specular and ofcourse occlusions. So the conclusion is, don't underestimate the power of good textures.

It is unfortunate however, that I have nowhere to upload my application on the web here. So I guesss, my VR Child's Play has come to a closure just as it is now. Perhaps, one day, when I'm very free and very bored, I'll revisit this little virtual home of my childhood alter ego...

But till then, keep the good stuffs coming, and may VR contribute to a better future...

Cheers all VR Troopers.

Exhaustion...

Well, basically I redid all the textures in the babys room, last time they were mostly flat, coloured materials, and looks really flat. So now all are painstakingly mapped with image textures, applied occlusion, bake, applied colour in photoshop, bake again, and here goes.

Created this comforter design with some reference. I love it. Do you?



Teddy now also have a face. Cute eh?



My com can hardly handle the occlusions... so slow... damn. I need some extra rams, maybe extra com too.



Worth the labour? Screen shot straight from virtools player. No touchups. Whaddaya think?

Also, a preview of my next levels.

Yeah, thats the nanny watching "The Haunted Mansion" on tv. Hmm....

While its been satisfying to see my new room, when I put it in virtools replacing the old ones, the collisions just doesnt work anymore, even when I reapply and all. Damn*.

Strangled, choking, ... *losing mah mind*

The Next Step...

I can't get myself left out, so I did my boards. Some heavy render with a total of 14 lightings in one room. Its illegal, I know. But...it gives me the look I wanted, so blah.






This is unconsulted and all. Hope Puan Seri will like it.

As for my apps, I managed to find the right script to make objects clickable..Yahoo!! Then it shall appear on the baby's arms. Actually, more like, it flies to the baby's arm. Hmmph....miraculous. But sometimes, it gets stuck along the way.

Next, I'd like to apply proximity sensor, so that the baby only gets to pick it up if its near. It only worked half way for now. Still struggling to find a way to make it work. And.... How can I make the baby animate with a press of a button? Still questions left unanswered.

Things I managed to do:

• Make camera follow mouse movement
• Apply collision to slide and bed
  
• (Halfway) Picking up objects
• Cubes
• Teddy bear
• Milk Bottle
• Ball
  

Yet to do:

• Make slide rideable (No idea how)
  
• Apply physics to ball (No idea too, since there isn't even a single sample related to physics)
  
• Insert nanny
• Make animation for nanny (as per storyline)
  
• Auto-animate for nanny.
  
• Animate door.
• Apply second camera to nanny.
  
• Insert sound.
• Smoothen baby walk cycle
  

Additional tasks:

• Apply shadows (Tried the basics, but didn't seem to have any result. Wierd wierd virtools)
  
• Retexture some object
• Bake texture
• Create main menu
• Exit menu.

I cry.

Critical Crit: Baby Steps...

Puan Sri said I need to darken the lights for a better night-light effect.



Before value: 3



After value: 1.3

I think the contrast is a little high. I wanted to make it slightly more ambient. No idea how. And the supposedly translucent night lamp drowned in darkness too.

But whatever it is, gotta keep myself focused for the crit this Thursday...Focus...

List of things to do:

• Make camera follow mouse movement
  
• Apply collision to slide and bed.
• Make slide rideable
• Picking up objects
• Cubes
• Teddy bear
• Milk Bottle
• Ball
• Apply physics to ball
• Insert nanny
• Make animation for nanny (as per storyline)
  
• Auto-animate for nanny.
  
• Animate door.
• Apply second camera to nanny.
  
• Insert sound.
• Smoothen baby walk cycle
  

Additional tasks:

• Apply shadows
• Retexture some object
• Bake texture
• Create main menu
• Exit menu.

Long list. Hope I didn't miss out anything.

Until Thursday's crit, good luck to ya all...

Edit: The previous problems about floating legs was fixed by deleting some IK handles and repositioning and un-rotating the root joint (pelvis). However, the character is still a little jumpy. The first person view ended up being abit of a err... earthquake-ish when walking. O.o

Interaction: Step 1 - Walk

Yeah, I took that long to finally make it walk properly. But there are still problems.



On start, its feet stays on floor.



On next step, its feet floats in the air.

And on and on, so baby bounces up and down, up and down... And as you can see, it floats within the bounding box. Sigh...

But anyway, managed to attach camera to baby's head, based on Fuad's tips of parenting it, though I wasn't sure exactly how, but I put it under the group where the skeleton of the eyes are.



Just drag the camera to the eye group within the hierarchy manager.
And in case you are not sure how to open hierarchy manager, you can just right click on your object and choose.



Or just go to the menu bar, Editors>Hierarchy manager.

And MUST remember to set IC (Initial Conditions) for BOTH CAMERA and CHARACRTER.

And here's the resulting first person view. (Camera lense field of view set to 24mm).



Happy virtooling... X_x

Because I'm abit cuckoo...

Yay...baby does gymnastics...

Ok, its not just me. My model too... Somethign wierd happened when I exported baby into virtools.



Yeah...headless baby. Its creepy. I don't know where the head go. I tried reexporting. To no avail. I applied the walk animation, and I played it. Damn, its freaking creepy....



I dont know why, its just baby. Cos nanny looks fine.



Though she seem to be having extra smoky, ultra smear eye liner...

The overall ambience seem ok, though the shadow contrast seem pretty high.
Later.

The New Boards...

Latest...





Rendered with maya software. The second one with raytracing.

What makes a VR look good? Nice textures, bump maps, baked textures. I assume. Now, how hard or easy is that?

I suck. I screwed it I know.
My spirits are low, I'm feeling miserable here. All these are making me miserable. Can anyone help me??...

Max Vs. Maya.

I thought that Maya will win. But then, I might do the baking in Max. So umm... is 2 better than one? Depends. An ongoing conflict and union of two, like a marriage.

Can Max marry Maya? Now, with the help of Obj (Wavefront Object File) importer-exporter, I have mind bogglingly switch between the 2 softwares to create accurate and hopefully problem free 3d models.

This must be crazy and I'm totally nuts and wasting my time.

Has a couple of problems along the way too. Anyway, here goes todays miserable update.

Characters:

I've managed to apply skeleton on Baby and try to do some animation. Its scary, cos the last time I tried animating my character, its all awry.

Baby walks...

Baby says hi... ooops!!

Somebody help me, seriously.

Heres ma hot nanny. Still inanimate though.

Context & Environment:

When I first reimported my stuffs back from Maya, Max gave me a heart attack, in the form of something like this...

It was in fact worse the first time around. This is considered "generous". I wonder why does max do this. Is it a problem with my models? Is there something overlapping? I don't think so. And so I try to render.

You see anything? Looks fine to me. One thing, the beauty about Max is that i can easily apply and change colours to all those objects. At least it represents my ideas on how the overall look should be like.

Oh, and I added new furnitures for baby, like

a new closet and a scrap of the slide...

...a more proper pillow and a bedside table.

I still owe baby a nightlamp, as seen on my method board.

Work work work. Driving me crazy.

Heres a different angle to my cozy/messy little apartment.

Till my next update, keep it up people!

Wish I can have it better with my method board. :(

Method Board 3: Final

Presenting my finalised method board...

So, I have added colours to the scene and cleaned up the lines. I think its so clean its almost vectorish... Then I start wondering why I painted in the first place. Ahem, but nevermind. So umm...there it is. My final one. I think I like how it turned out, though not perfect. And guess its beter this way. Like it? not? Comments welcome.

Method Board: 2; Critique

Progressing on to the the following day, we have our critque session and my hours of painting resulted in this.





















They commented that I should add some colour to the child area, which is the foreground and also to correct my perspective. So umm...more painting to go for next Tuesday's submission (Tuesday right?). Oh, and one thing, I think all of you guys should watermark your images if you are to upload it here on the net. There are lotsa art thieves around. You never know who will take yours and do whatever with it. Well its not like totally preventable, but at least makes the process abit harder for them. So, cheers to all my fellows who made it thus far.

Method Board: Work In Progress 1

For the latest method board submission, I'm still currently working on A3 size at 300 DPI. Gosh, its hard enough on A2, I wonder what am I supposed to do to enhance it in A1. (Can't my graphic card help me? I have no clue.)

Anyway, here's my first method board, that I consulted Pn. Seri with. A combination of painting and photos. Very raw and inappropriate, I agree. She commented about the composition. I showed her another rough sketch of mine and she preferred that positioning and adviced that I add in the baby girl into the picture as well, instead of focusing on teddy bear.

So I painted a new one from scratch, based on that rough sketch I had.

As of 05:05 pm, this is my level of progress.

The aim is to capture night lighting and atmosphere. There is supposed to be a night light on the bed-side table as well as some light from the outside of the room, to be reflected on the hallway and the lady here. Strange how it look more brownish in photoshop and so jet black in here. Still very raw though. But right now, I wanna go for some shooting action. Be back with more.

In the mean time, some sneak peek onto my environmental modelling.

Just the apartment block itself. Not much. Realised that there were a few mistakes. Gotta fix it after I'm done with the method board. Later.

Part 2: Execution.

I started a little of modelling during the holidays. Very little. :p












Milk bottle, 85 poly.

Iron, 42 poly.

Ironing board, 26 poly.

But apparently, we're not that quick into execution yet. So we have to come out with some method board:

Well this version has been rejected, but I decided to post it up here just for fun. Happy photoshopping, people...

Lazy Artist: And a Panic Attack

Finally willing to come back here and do a little update.


Heres my screenshot for the precon billboard. Simple and lacking, but it'll have to do. For now. Will be back soon hopefully. Ganbate all.

Finally...One Major problem solved...

Yeah...what a relief... sigh.
I guess we sometimes just feel like giving it all up. But you just gotta hold on and keep holding on until it happened. Yeah...have faith that it will...the end, will happen. Well, sad to say though, I haven't rid myself off my good old "disease". Sorry lecturer, sorry mom, and teachers, and counsellors. I just... can't help myself sometimes. But I tried. Really. But at least, this time, I "almost" made it. Better than before. A lil improvement is better than nothing. Really. You just gotta take it step by step. Keep it up and you will find yourself there one of these days.

So, you see, I spent my last night doing some of it, then slept at 2, woke up at 9 and continued doing it. I had to sleep. I just had to, even though I feel like I should just finish it up first. But, i think I'm not so much of physically tired, but more like emotionally. Like c'mon, I need a break. And then again, usually the ending parts are the hardest for me to go through. I don't know, I just have a problem "finishing" aor "wrapping up" things. Its like, I dont want it to end somehow. Maybe because I'm afraid to be judged. A "work in progress" can't be judged, cos its not completed yet. You don't know how much more that person can do, how much better it will get. But once you put your pen down, you put it up, and announced to the world and say, "yeah, im done, and this is my work." people will start deciding whether its nice or not, and you have no excuse. So, I guess it gets better with practise. Maybe its not so bad afterall after you get used to it, right? Hmm...yeah....so despite that my sketch book is still crappy, a few things not-so-done in my pre-con billboard, there IS a certain time where you have to just put down your pen and say "yeah, I'm done, and this is my work." So there it is.





















Still sux, I know. Just not as bad as last time, but somehow, something just doesn't feel right isn't it? Does it feel right to you? too empty? too sketchy? I dont know. All I know is, Ive printed, pasted on the board, and had been over with. Yeah.

And then there is the precon billboard too. I think its fun, cos Now, i have most of the basic models of the house already. Great yeah? but when i think about my characters... like >.<
Relax....calm down........breathe........
Nevermind...

Anyway, the nightmare's not over yet. Cos I still have SRI to do. And the number of respondents I get is just 18. Sad huh.... My target was 100. Ahahahahaa.....
Nah, it wont happen. I thought I'll be happy with just 30 something. But damn...
Well, like before, after sometime, you just gotta tell yourself that, ok, thats it. I gotta move on to the next stage and make do with what I have. So, good luck to ya all, for your SRIs... ganbate. And at the same time, have a nice holiday. ;) Cheers~.

Have not got on with my work...

Yes, I have not.
And i am here indulging on the sins of reading random trivias... which I am so fond of doing.
What am I doing? nothing...I may say. Well, I still have time if i choose so. Better get going. Ciaoz...


A stab in the head...

FYP: Posting 1 - Pre Concept Billboard 2

Presentations been over with. And I showed my sucky board.

Its ugly, i know. It has no layout, and the wrong kind of title. I fixed the title in this one. Slightly better now, I hope.



The research board looks bad. I think the ideation board was ok. I especially like the dark corridor. It looked good on the projector when i presented. =P My Precon BB sucked big time. But anyway, it was all I could afford. At least I managed to show up and show it at the presentation, despite late. It was quite an acheivement, really, comparing to the past many sems. I should be relieved I did, though it was hard for me to feel.

I'd like to think that it is twice as difficult for me to do half the work that people do. Its not like I'm that stupid or what, at least people don't think so. But I'm anxious, and set high standards for myself, so much pressure which came from nowhere, it crippled me. I have to drag myself to scrape through, everytime, with every single thing that I do in my assignment. It was that bad. And by the end of it, I'm exhausted. Everybody is. But what disappoints me was what I could deliver, was hardly close to what others did. I wonder if I could've worked harder, done better. It breaks me. All of this. Like yesterday, the lack of sleep, the tension, I felt like I was gonna snap, cos the worst part of it was, its not the end yet. I have another week to go, 2 more submissions, or should I say 3, or 4.

Thesis report 3, 2 A1 Boards, an improved preCon billboard and sketch book.
But then again, seriously, if I'm to take it easy, the latter 3, I can just say, the hell with it. Maybe i can still make it through if I just get on with what I have. But I'm not like that. Im not satisfied. I can make it better, but there would be alot to do. Alot. And added with the thesis, I don't think its even possible to accomplish, all that I want to do. I want to make the best of it, fulfill all that the lecturers wish. But I guess, I cant. At least not all. I can try, do a thing or 2 better, but to do it all, it would be too much. Really. Think small, and simple. Keep it simple. Priority, submit on time, fulfill criterieas. Thats it. Be done. And to all fellow mates. until next time, good luck for your finals and all. And to some, remember, stick to the basics.

FYP: Posting 1 - Project Brief and Pre Concept Billboard

This would be the first "episode" of log for my VR Final Year Project work, for sharing and critique, so feel free to do so. Even though its the end of the second sem already. I know. But anyway, this will begin with the final presentation of the semester. Requirements:

- A1 Board Research- Environment & Context
- A1 Board Ideation - Character & Interaction
(Project title, 1 major, minor, subminor, name, id)
- Pre-Concept Billboard - VRML, print screens.

To be honest, I'm tired, and i think my work's gonna suck. I hardly know how to use the cosmo world. And i still have no idea what bench mark am I gonna use. So how? Where do I go from here?

Well, till next time, I'm checking out ....for now. Be back soon...hopefully...


Project Brief:

Category: Entertainment

Description: Role playing exploration

Problem Statement:

Childhood has been known as the time of wonderment, of innocence and dependence. Sometimes, adults wish to go back to being a child again. But most of the time, we forgot what is it like being a child, a young kid, a toddler, an infant. For most people, it is hard for them to imagine being a baby again and it is quite impossible to regain the experience of it.

With virtual reality, users can now view from the perspective of a baby again. To experience the limitations of it, such as the lack of height, energy, language skills, motor skills, as well as restrictions imposed by caregivers, such as being locked up in a crib. User can also experience what they see as a baby, with everything is so much larger, and not understanding what people say.

This is useful not only as a form of entertainment and get-away experience, but also for research purposes, such as for child care techniques and child accident prevention systems.

Project Mottephobia

For my final VR assignment for this semester, we are required to create a simulation based on a particular fear. For that, I have chosen a personal fear, a fear of butterflies and/or moths, either called mottephobia(for moths) or lepidopterophobia - which includes moths, butterflies and skippers - something between butterflies and mothhs.

It was quite a strange project for me, cos u see, these things do freak me out. And I'm here dealing with pictures of them, of many of them. pany pictures of them. Even animate 3D models of them. Yuks. By the way, I just removed a picture of a huge Urania month in this post cause its disturbing. >.<

As I was searching through the internet for related pictures, I came a cross a site called IHateButterflies.com, "the official site for the phobia of butterflies and moths. It has a forum which phobes like me, share their feelings and horrible experiences involving these so called "beautiful", flappy creatures.

I had my fair share of bad experiences with those things, like when that horrible huge Urania moth that flew into my bedroom, landed on top of my closet and stared at me with its monstrous bulging eyes and ended up being spray-mounted by a friend of mine, stuck to a piece of mounting board and threw out the window - heh, poor thing. Wonder if somebody picked it up to be used for their design projects.

Then there was this strange looking strangely shaped white moth which keeps disappearing and swims out when my bf tries to flush it down the toilet bowl. Must be a horrifying sight - I didnt dare to watch.

Then, i tried and recalled some vague memories of childhood experiences which involve something like flailing my hands about trying to shake off some moth, a bad boy laughing at me, a nanny bewildered by the chaos and sort.

But reading that forum, I am glad that I didnt live in some place like certain parts of America where they had millions of colonial or migrating butterflies, with the favourite ones being the monarchs. That could have scared the hell out of anyone, even those who are not really scared by regular butterfly encounters.

Then, there are those who would swear againts being in the same room with a moth or butterfly. For me, if its only a tiny moth and its not fluttering about or very near me, i wouldnt mind. I pity those who shiver only by looking at a picture of a butterfly. Life must be real tough.

But one thing i notice is that, when they mention about first childhood memories of butterflies, it usually involve everyone else laughing at you while youre scared shit. I believe that experiences like these cause the victim to develop a phobia. You begin to relate that particular creature to the feelings that you had at that time - the fright followed by trembling fear, and the helplessness when people not only dont help but put you into shame and humiliation.

Ofcourse, if after that you acted supportive and solve the problem, like catch it and throw it out the window, things could be easier. But if you belittle their fear, say that they just have to "grow up" and that sort of thing, its just not gonna help. Like this girl who said that when she was in kindergarten, they were out to a school trip. And while walking to their bus, she yawned, and a damned butterfly flew into her mouth. The kids around her started laughing first. When the teacher in front was aware of the situation, she laughed as well. It took some time for the butterfly to finally fly away. Needless to say, that experience left her scarred. Well, in that situation, I think one wont want to do anything unless you're an expert butterfly handler. But even if you dont help, at least you can try not to make it worse by laughing all the way unsympathetically.

Design & Photography

I have a feeling these days that more and more people are getting into photography. Could it be just my increasing awareness? I dont know. But lately, alot of "popular people" I see does photography.

I think that this is influenced by the digital photography revolution and that has made phtography so much cheaper and easier compared to traditional film ones. You dont have to fork out any money just to view the pictures that you've taken. Then, you can do it over and over again. Try endlessly to get the perfect pict, without worrying about how many rolls have you wasted. And you can just keep practising. Isn't this just cool? Anyone can do it once you get your hands on a nice, good digital slr. Or if you're like me, just make do with regular digicam. At least I can still have fun snapping around.

Actually, seeing photographs everywhere its not exactly a bad thing. Pictures are wonderful things. Capture the beautiful moments in life, nature, the world. How to see things around us differently. Just that, sometimes, its just boring that everyone is doing the same thing. Too much competition and too much similarity, redundancy. It takes so much more to be appreciated than just a colourful sunset or a random black and white. It takes passion, and from passion you built your skill, and from your skill, you develop your passion, and on and on. In the end of the day, its still about doing what you enjoy. It doesn't really matter what people think. If people like your work, you get famous. If people don't, either you just dont try to make money out of it or you try hard to sell yourself out there.

Well, actually, I really hate doing things that everyone else is doing. But then again, what I really want is just to make pretty things for people to look at and hope it makes them feel good. Beauty is my passion. Beauty is my art. Beauty... from my point of view.

Do you think this is beautiful? LOL...

By the way, I'm really happy i got this new design template. Got it from somewhere. Looks easy to customise. Pretty neat. Will customise it later. FOr now, adios people...