Rosemarie's Blog

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Class 13 - Final Class

Added the Human Brain to our Open Wonderland starting point as requested in the classwork.

In class walking around final projects

My Autistic Liberation Front Final Project

Virtual Helping Hands Final Project

NewWays Counseling/Sunshine Therapy Garden

More Final Projects

My Atlantis Space Shuttle

Mark III Space Suit

Sojourner below

Also added the two Apollo Space Suits for my final project

Working on Final Project

3) SUBMIT YOUR FINALS. Place into a folder ALL of the original Google 3D Warehouse objects that you used in the final AND also the COLLADA renditions that you made of them, and then Zip compress the folder. Email the Zip-compressed folder to me at walshag@bc.edu with the subject “FINAL PROJECT”. In the body of your email provide the link to your blog.

Rosemarie Tagliamonte

Boston College

Application Services

St Clements 467

617-552-1937

From: Rosemarie Tagliamonte
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 9:08 PM
To: 'walshag@bc.edu'
Subject: Final Project - Rosemarie Tagliamonte

Hi Aaron,

The files have exceeded the limit as shown in the screen shot below. I will upload to myfiles and send you a shared link. It will handle large document files.

Rosemarie Tagliamonte

Boston College

Application Services

St Clements 467

617-552-1937

From: Rosemarie Tagliamonte [mailto:rosemarie.tagliamonte@bc.edu]
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 9:07 PM
To: Rosemarie Tagliamonte
Subject: Rosemarie Tagliamonte has shared some resources with you

The following has been shared with you.

Aaron - I've shared my final projects zip file - was too large to email.

File	Subscribe to and/or Bookmarks
/tagliar/GSOE/FinalClassProjectFilesRoseTagliamonteWalsh.zip	Subscribe to and/or bookmark FinalClassProjectFilesRoseTagliamonteWalsh.zip

Thank you,
Rosemarie Tagliamonte

This message was automatically generated.

Collected and prepared by Rosemarie Tagliamonte:

Austistic Liberation Front, Muskie Marquette, Alfhild Briers, and Natasha Shatzkin

NewWays Counseling Sunshine Therapy Garden, RJ Muni

Collected and Prepared by Rosemarie Tagliamonte
Three 3D high quality space-themed object Google 3D links for objects that were moved into Wonderland with COLLADA format.
Object 1: Soujourner Ares Vallis (Mars)
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=5736eb04fa0fb38438fa0f9c0a591f55
Object 2: Space Shuttle Atlantis
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=2c4c30bc85bd7654b7b0facc2e60c9ce&prevstart=0
Object 3: NASA Mark III Space Suit
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=cf5e13277f3612f739e220ac20393eb5&prevstart=0
Object 4: Apollo Astronaut SpaceSuit
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=283a51b718769a62b207e27937b6e503&prevstart=0

Psychologically Benefical Charge
The link for the human brain: - Center to the psychological benefical charge
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b869d976fc60e9ace4b68d3b17c43658&prevstart=0
Fflowers for New Ways Counseling/Sunshine Therapy Garden (previously Virtual Helping Hands) located at the following:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e96e0f3375e5f601bd54aff0ec2d4573&ct=hppm
Tent Dome - Autism Liberation Front
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a4295f6b93a3e11488961f28097fe890&prevstart=0

Course Evaluations - already completed before this class - thus, the screen is blank.

FINAL REPORT AND RESUME/PORTFOLIO MATERIAL

Rose and Allison are report editors and are completing the following page:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fSqjJ5iFz3MXbZPkJp62T1ENezd4ISFHZLElESM9M6A/edit

The official report will be published by the Open Wonderland Foundation on the “Wonderlblog” which we will be able to reference in your resume and portfolio. This has been updated with summaries for both the EMMS Rocket World charge as well as the psychological beneficial Open Wonderland class Final Project.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Assignments for Class 13

Three 3D high quality space-themed object Google 3D links and Open Wonderland Screen shots of the below objects that were moved into Wonderland with COLLADA format.

Object 1: NASA Mark III Space Suit
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=cf5e13277f3612f739e220ac20393eb5&prevstart=0

Object 2: Space Shuttle Atlantis
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=2c4c30bc85bd7654b7b0facc2e60c9ce&prevstart=0

Object 3: Soujourner Ares Vallis (Mars)

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=5736eb04fa0fb38438fa0f9c0a591f55

The email below includes my Zip compress all of my COLLADA objects, the original Sketchup models they came from, AND a text file (or MS Word file) giving the http:// links for each of my objects.

From: Rosemarie Tagliamonte
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 9:08 AM
To: 'walshag@bc.edu'
Subject: Class 13 Homework-Rose Tagliamonte

Hi Aaron,

Homework has been attached.

Regards,

Rose

Monocular Depth Cues Work

Monocular Depth Cues Reading

Monocular Depth Cues from the above article:

Size Differences

As I was in Rocket World, you can see that the above white two squares depict that the right object is father away as it is smaller in size. This is the perfect picture to see how this monocular cue exists in Rocket World. The objects that are closer are larger, and the objects further away are smaller.

Occlusion

In Rocket World, you can see I am near some objects that depict occlusion. This is when objects that are close to us block objects that are further away. You can see that the objects that are closer are blocking objects that are further away in my screen shot. This gives us a dept perspective with objects occluding other objects.

Lighting and Shading

The above snap shot with me in Rocket World shows the shading of light striking an object that has depth. The surface of the object that is hit by light is the brightest, where as the sides are seen as more slowly more dark with gradual shading. There are sides that the light strikes and are the brightest and darker sides where there is shading. This is a great example of this particular monocular cue.

Texture Density

The textures in Rocket World show that the are more dense further away, and less dense closer. This parallels where objects appear smaller when they are at a distance. My above screen shot in Rocket World shows that the ground texture is more dense the further away it is, making the object appear smaller at distances. Near the tip of the red circle, the texture is much denser and darker. Closer to my avatar, it is less dense and lighter.

Linear Perspective

The linear perspective shows that sidewalks or railroad tracks become more narrow as they recede in the distance, towards our vanishing point in the extreme distance. The above picture in Rocket World shows the lines of the objects receding towards a vanishing point in the red circle. The vanishing point is to the right on the red circle, as you can see the top of the white squares are angled down to the right towards the vanishing point.

Atmospheric Perspective

Objects showing the atmospheric perspective depict close objects appearing sharp and detailed, with objects in the distance much less detailed. The above image taken with me in Rocket World shows the object on the right in red is very close to me and very clear. The objects on the left, in blue, are not as clear as they are further away. This depicts the Atmospheric Perspective Monocular Cue.

Core Web3D written by Aaron Walsh in the late 1990s to introduce Web-based 3D technologies to the web...

Class 12

1990 BBC SPECIAL ON VIDEO GAME ADDICTION

a. QED - My Best Friend's a Computer (Part 1 / 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-4Tt3hQVmk

b. QED - My Best Friend's a Computer (Part 2 / 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKf98ha6RfQ

c. QED - My Best Friend's a Computer (Part 3 / 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZoE1VZzBtI

CURRENT VIDEO GAME ADDICTION

a. DNN Story 2007 - Video Game Addiction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2zyQoM36Fg

b. 'Game Over' - A Feature on Video Game Addiction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18joS1IP2oc

c. Second Skin Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPOxuOCGi9I

4) Immersive Education Addiction in the Future

Virtual reality and higher education - Another perspective http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_vr_.html

Summary of the Virtual reality and higher education - Another perspective article:

This above Virtual reality and higher education article discusses Second Life and other virtual reality environments that are being utilized for immersive education. In utilizing virtual environment platforms, students can collaborate and learn within the immersive environment with their teacher and classroom students. Aaron Walsh, a professor in the Advancing Studies School at Boston College has been utilizing this environment as a standard environment for immersive education. As this article continues with an interview about participating in Aaron Walsh's immersive education environment, I also have been participating in this virtual environment as depicted by a few screen shots below.

In this below Open Wonderland environment, our class was collaborating with a Psychological Beneficial charge where everyone was collaborating and sharing this charge, creating a classroom environment amongst our classroom as well as with another class.

Another virtual environment we collaborated and learned within this class with Aaron was Rocket World. Below you will see a classroom charge of group space suit creations. Below you will see a spacesuit within Rocket World at sunset. Our classroom groups worked together to create spacesuits within Rocket World.

As the interview mentioned classes with virtual reality, computer graphics, and building 3D objects, this same class that I'm currently participating, our class met weekly in the virtual platforms. We collaborated, learned and created 3D classroom content. As the course progresses, we learned new technology, helped each other out, and created new virtual reality content in teams, participating in the immersive education standards for modeling and creations. We worked with numerous 3D content creation, modeling and environments, learning the positives and negatives as we progressed.

As this article mentions the virtual reality content moving towards more realistic standards, as students, we still do find some computer limitations at times. Due to the fact that technology is moving rapidly, we are finding it necessary to work to keep out laptops up with technology in order to run and work with these immersive environments. Most of the class was fine, but at times there were issues with hardware not cooperating with the software. We worked through these issues, borrowing other machines and collaborating together.

As this article continues to mention the ease of classroom participation from home, everyone has become familiar with working with each other in the virtual environment and knowing each other's voices via our audio whiteboard. In working together with new weekly challenges, we have all become successful collaborators, assisting each other out. It was something to adjust and get used to at first, but it has been a great learning adventure with technology and learning with our on-line classroom.

5) World of Warcraft: My Addiction.

Professor Aaron E. Walsh notes: This was written by "John" in July 2007. John was a student of mine. He was in my Discovering Computer Graphics course at Boston College (http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc), and was much more advanced than the other students. When I asked why he was taking this class, when he clearly had enough experience to take one of my more advanced classes, he explained that he had no choice: he had failed out of school, and was starting over. After we talked more as the semester went he explained why. I asked him to write it down for future students. Here’s what he wrote in one sitting about why he was “starting over”:

World of Warcraft (WoW): My Addiction

I've played various MMORPG games over the years, some being fairly addicting, some not even catching my interest, but one stands out above the rest as the most addicting and life consuming thing I've ever encountered in my life. You might have guessed it already, but that game is World of Warcraft, a game that I would recommend everyone stays away from.

Like most addictions, it didn't start out that way. It was just harmless fun; I'd log on for a few hours every day and level my character, talk to some friends I had on the game... it was nothing that took me away from other things. I was in high school at the time, and was still managing to get on with my work at first, even though that was a struggle in itself sometimes, and I kept in touch with my friends and saw them regularly.

At first I was surprised at how little interest I had in playing the game for long stints, as I had heard some things about how enticing and gripping the game was, and the first few months were fine, until I started to get near the level cap. Approaching the maximum level I began to play the game more and more, as reaching the end game content opened up a whole new world. I became involved with a hardcore raiding guild, competing to be the best guild on the server, and it all went from there.

The first thing that changed was that I now had raiding times to meet every weekday evening in addition to the gold farming I had to do during the day in order to be able to afford all the potions
and items I needed to raid, and somehow, my guilds progression through the bosses in the game became the most important thing to me in my life, and I slowly started to phase out my friends. At this point I was still going to school, so between the school day and the game, I had no time for anything else.

Contrary to what people might think, I didn't lack a social life at all, even without seeing or talking to any of my friends from school. In fact, it was quite the opposite, I had a whole new group
of friends... in World of Warcraft. Now I didn't even have to leave my room to hang out with my friends, I could just pop on my headset and hang out with them in the game.

Now, to rewind a bit, I remember when I was creeping up on the level cap, and my parents were beginning to get concerned with how much I was playing the game, I kept telling them that it would be all over soon. Heck, even I thought it would! Little did I know, the game would be even more demanding of me after that.

I wanted to be the best, I wanted to have the best items, I wanted to have the most gold. I wanted to be popular with the people on my server, I wanted to be known. I wanted to top the damage meters on every single fight. I don't know why, I can't explain it, but the game was just the most important thing to me, I wanted to do nothing else. I wanted to play every single day all day and night and would do whatever I could to keep myself awake and at the computer. Whatever it took, energy drinks, amphetamines, I would keep myself awake for hours on end, not getting any exercise and rarely leaving the house.

The more and more I played, the more and more things I felt compelled to spend my time doing inside the game. It seems that they create the game in such a way that even though there technically is a way to have the ultimate everything and clear all the bosses etc.. etc...... By the time you get close they add more content to the game to keep you going, its a never ending story. I would pick up my prescription for amphetamines just so I could stay up all night farming items to sell for gold, I wanted to have the best enchantments and to get all the rare random world drops... and so much more. I completely stopped going to school, completely stopped seeing my friends.... and the most worrying fact was that I didn't really care. It just stole my heart and mind from everything else, gave me a false sense that everything was okay and that I wasn't ruining the rest of my life. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't stopped, I had stopped going to school and cut off social contact with everyone but the people I knew in the game, it was like a world within itself. I didn't even want to stop until I had a taste of life without it, a taste that was forced, however. If I hadn't been forced to live somewhere without a computer I don't know what would have happened.

6) Read the following news items from a WoW-related incident in 2005 (convicted in 2010):

Couple Let Baby Starve To Death While Raising Virtual Baby Online [2005]

Internet Addicts Guilty Of Starving Baby To Death While Tending To Virtual Child [Convicted in 2010]

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Homework for Class 12

Motion Capture "MOCAP" and Lip Synchronization ("lip sync")

About mocap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_capture

" terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model"

Mocap in action: Watch this QuickTime movie

About lip synch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip_synch

Homework Assignments (from web page)

1) Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) assignment.

Download and unZip VRML characters. with the character zip file:

Downloading BS Contact latest version

Installing Windows 7 Media Player

Windows Media Player successful install

Installing BS Contact latest version

Modify the face image texture for the facegen.com "john_hi_vrml97" character (the high resolution version of VRML John). Edit the texture using a tool such as Paint or Photoshop to enhance John's appearance.

Original John File now starting to work with in PaintShop:

Adding blue eyes in Paint Shop

Adding red lips to John in Paint Shop

Adding black hair and mustache in Paint Shop

Adding a red bow tie in Paint Shop

Note: To open the VRML files you will need a VRML browser plug-in such as the program called BS Contact that you can get from the download area here (warning: don't use blaxxun Contact, as it will not allow you to view the VRML file on your hard drive. Use BS Contact VRML 6.1 OR LATER instead).

Now opening the above new files in a BS Contact browser:
Blue eyes file created:

Blue eyes and red lips:

Blue eyes, red lips, mustache, and black hair:

Additional bow tie for the holidays!

2) FaceGen Modeler assignment: Install the trial version of FaceGen Modeler (see "Real-time Synthetic Humans" notes above for the link). Use FaceGen Modeler to create a custom synthetic human head and face; use the Morph options to create interesting expressions. Blog at least 5 screenshots of your work as it takes shape (to show me how you created the head/face).

Installed FaceGen Modeler