Thursday, September 11, 2008

Character Concept Sketch: Snoopy

Concept #1
Age: 23~28
Warrior – type
Embedded Rockets/Propellers
Conservative and Traditional
Stubborn
Egyptian – theme
Staff for Weapon
Stars on chest = medal of horor




Concept #2
Hindu – theme
Evolved from Elephant
Strong & Heavy
Steady Tempered
Lots of Arsenals hidden within body (e.g. Trunck = canon)
Likes to take care of others; Big Brother type






Concept #3
Doggy theme
Powerful sensor for sound and smell
Nosy; likes to butt into other people’s affairs
Information hunter
Sly or Innocent ?
Hyperactive






Concept #4
Like #3
Lazy/Laid Back
Agile
Age: 13~14
Male





Other Sketches

group: haVoc and Fengyu



havoc yuitza-rishi sharma
fengyu quan- fengyu hao
------------------------------

sketch1:

basic attributes
character name : SHAOLIN
gender : male
age : 5
appearance : cute, short, big head, missing tooth
strength & speed : normal strength, super fast
dexterity and stamina : right hand stronger. super stamina
preception and itelligence : smart
damages : strong
class features and class rank :

Iconic trait :
habits : eat candy, laugh loudly
flaw : too short
fears : robot dentists
desires : have a lot of candies

biography- once upon a time there was an monk who always wanted to fight. but since he was a monk, he couldnot fight. then, he decided to get himself cloned. his clone was a super Shaolin robot who knew how to kick ass. he entrusted the job of fighting the bad guys to his clone robot.

abilities
basic skills : shaolin kung-fu, shoots power blasts from hands, and lightening fast moves.
feats :
specialty : shoots power blasts from hands, flying, handles spear
tricks :
advantages/disadvantages :

combat options
weapon name : White Wax Wood Spear
type and range increment : 4 meters, and can be thrown to 99.9% ccuracy.
advantages/disadvantages :

=================================================

sketch 2:

basic attributes
character name : SHAOLIN
gender : male
age : 100
appearance : old, almost broken, short, bend back, 3 teeth left, white eyebrow
strength & speed : normal strength, slow
dexterity and stamina : a little lower than normal
preception and itelligence : brilliant
damages : deadly
class features and class rank :

Iconic trait :
habits : laugh loudly
flaw : make noise when he moves
fears : fish
desires :

biography- once upon a time there was an monk who always wanted to fight. but since he was a monk, he couldnot fight. then, he decided to get himself cloned. his clone was a super Shaolin robot who knew how to kick ass. he entrusted the job of fighting the bad guys to his clone robot.

abilities
basic skills : shaolin kung-fu in a very sloppy way
feats :
specialty : plays dead
tricks : shoots power blasts from hands.
advantages/disadvantages :

combat options
weapon name : walking stick/kane
type and range increment : 2 meters.
advantages/disadvantages :

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Week 1 - Machinima

Real-time Connection + Rapid Prototyping

Cute Robot Demo
Cute Robot Sketch

Silver Bells & Golden Spurs
Directed by Eric Call


Red vs. Blue
Rooster Teeth Productions

Filming Tools

Video Capture
Snapz Pro X 2

Virtual Camera
Machinima Starter Kit
Alt-Zoom Studio

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Shadow Patch

Blog post about dynamic shadow: Ayumi Cassini and Torley - 1 and 2

VIDIA GeForce 8 series graphics card (or better) is required, and the patch is not yet available as an official viewer either one to compile yourself, or compiled by one of Second Life residents...

source files:
svn.secondlife.com/trac/linden/browser/branches/shadow-draft
rapidshare.com/files/121755588/secondlifeshadows.zip.html
compiled files:
www.megafileupload.com/en/file/68953/SecondLifeShadows-zip.html

realXtend and PC-Mac issues



Minimum system requirements for realXtend Viewer:

Windows XP/Vista
A graphics card with shader model 2.0 support,
128 MB graphics card memory and up-to-date OpenGL drivers
512 MB system memory
Pentium 2 GHz / AMD 3000 processor

installed Boot Camp with Windows XP on my iMac
Parallels, which is awesome and allows virtualization of Windows in a Mac windows, but it doesn’t play nicely with video-card heavy applications like Second Life,

Tutorial on capturing SL machinima using FRAPS and virtual Windows on Mac

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Maya and Avatar Animation

Attention Maya Animators - Free SL Rig
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=87870&page=4&pp=15

Free BVH Exporter 1.2 for Maya
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=42181&highlight=maya+avatar+animations

Create a custom MEL shelf in Maya
http://3dtrue.com/maya/4.html

note...
You can download the SL model and default bvh animations from the resource matrix at the SL site. There are a few problems though.

You can import the Tpose bvh to use as your skeleton (you will probably want to fix the pose, it isn't perfect). The avatar mesh is in .obj format, and needs to be resized. I used a scale of 136 to match the tpose skeleton. I suggest using SL_avatar_OBJ.obj and rigid binding to the skeleton.

You will have to do all the rigging yourself.

Be sure to keep your hierarchy in the correct order (you can open up one of the default bvh files in a text editor and see what order you need), and keep the names intact.

If you plan on using this exporter be aware that there are a few problems with it (read the previous posts).

Animation Editors
<>[list][URL=http://www.avimator.com/]Avimator[/URL]>>> [URL=http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=81886]a reference thread[/URL][/list][list][URL=http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-bvh-editor]slat[/URL]>>> [URL=http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=83702]a reference thread[/URL][/list][list][URL=http://www.daz3d.com/program/studio/1_0index.php]DAZ|Stuido[/URL]>>>[URL=http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=99007]a reference thread[/URL][/list][list][URL=http://www.blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html]Blender[/URL]>>> [URL=http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=25102]a reference thread[/URL][/list]
<>[list][URL=http://www.e-frontier.com/article/articleview/1597/1/281?sbss=281]Poser[/URL]>>> no need any reference...[/list][list][URL=http://caladan.nanosoft.ca/c4/software/posemaker.php]Posemaker[/URL]>>> [URL=http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=44734]a reference thread[/URL][/list][list][URL=http://www.highend3d.com/maya/]Maya[/URL]>>> [URL=http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=87870]a reference thread[/URL] [/list]

*** ***** ***
SL looks for contractor to create sexier walk

Animazoo helps animate Second Life avatars
*motion capture + AO
http://www.digitalmedia.com.au/node/58

scupted prim
http://www.kewego.com/video/iLyROoaftQ2z.html

motion builder
real time 3d char animation and motion editing tool
siggraph 2008
http://www.gamedev.net/features/reviews/productreview.asp?categoryid=35&productid=590
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-44434.html
file:///C:/Program%20Files/Autodesk/MotionBuilder75%20Ext2/Help/MBHelp75/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/_index.htm?forcejs=true&context=MBHelp75&topic=tutorials

mocap data
http://www.spafi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=456&Itemid=26
mocap system software
http://www.vicon.com/

*** ***** ***
more...
http://morbo.cs.pdx.edu/SecondLifeOfficialGuideCD/Files/Animation%20Resources/Avatar%20Manequin/Readme.txt
Second Life Avatar Content Creation Aids
January, 2005

animation with bvh & obj - skin weights
http://droffset.blogspot.com/2008/02/animation-with-bvh-obj-skin-weights.html
http://droffset.blogspot.com/2007/10/bvh-obj-match-made-in-bl00dy-h3ll-part.html

Daz3D
http://www.sltutorials.net/mtree/Animation_&_More/Daz3d_Animation_Tutorial_for_Second_Life/details/
http://secondlife.dolphpun.com/daz3d/

3D max
http://sl-everything.blogspot.com/2007/03/avimator-free-sl-avatar-animation-tool.html

bvhacker version 1.4.0 (April 2008)
3MB. Windows XP tested only. See support page for help.
http://www.davedub.co.uk/bvhacker/

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Random Note about Filmmaking and New Media Form

dctvNY - documentary video
MoMA - elastic mind

Monday, April 28, 2008

CGI film

Journey to the Center of the Earth (comic con, real D)

Choi Fei's Second Life Project

RMB City
China Tracy

i.Mirror

Friday, April 18, 2008

Producer's Note III - production plan

Machinima

Book Resources:
What a Producer Does?
Nickelodeon Cartoons
The Art of Howl's Moving Castle
50 Robots to Draw & A Giant
Sci-fi Film Posters
Exploring Storyboarding

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Interactive Puppetry

An interactive puppeteering device shown at Eyebeam...

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Invisible Threads - performance

Invisible Threads, a mixed reality performance, by artists Jeff Crouse and Stephanie Rothenberg investigates the idea of telematic manufacturing by merging live virtual performance with real-world sales presentation and assembly workshop.

[Photo]
The owners of Double Happiness Jeans set up their store at Eyebeam on Thursday evening. Stephanie, standing by a display rack of designer jeans samples, was talking to potential customers. Jeff assisted customers to place orders at a computer station which connected to the virtual factory of Double Happiness Jeans in Second Life and streamed live event at Eyebeam. Eight "workers", coming from several countries around the world, were at presence. For getting paid 200 Lindens an hour (about 90 cents), the workers waited at the assembly line, sitting at their computer screens, to perform their avatars once they received a cue from the voice chat to produce the jeans. This was the acting part.

I browsed through the product catalog. The jeans costs around 40 dollars. Susan from Eyebeam ordered a pair of My Pants. A image of the jeans was generated by workers in virtual factory, through a portal and server sending instructions to open the pattern in Photoshop on the same computer and print on cotton fabric via a large-format printer. After simple assembly – cutting, glue gun and stitching, a real-world commodity was created.



This mix of real-world and virtual economy seems to reflect on the similar working conditions of many remote jobs. While online interface opens more opportunities for workers of all kinds and all experience levels, even educational institutions would often offer lower compensation to a professor teaching online course than course on campus.

However, Double Happiness Jeans offers their workers a plot of virtual land to build their own home and provides spaces for recreational activities in-world and social networking. I am not sure if the stated mission of Double Happiness Jeans to produces jeans for profit is part of the mixed reality.

But the frustration to be able to find a suitable place and afford monthly land cost for such project is pretty real.

Invisible Threads - machinima


(This is one of the Mixed Reality Events at Eyebeam.)

Double Happiness Jeans by artists Jeff Crouse and Stephanie Rothenberg
Invisible Threads by machinimatographer Annie Ok is both a project documentary and promotional film.

The 8-minute machinima uses the format of how-to videos and plays "10 Simple Steps to your very own Virtual Sweatshop with Telematic Manufacturing". How-to videos can be fun to watch. The pace, music, and voice over keep overall tone of this film quite upbeat and maybe suggests a hint of irony to the difficult conditions of sweatshop labors.

Background tech info:
In order to make Double Happiness Jeans virtual factory to process live orders from customers in real world, Jeff spent a long time writing a piece of code that sends instructions from SL portal to the server then to Photoshop (using extension script) on the same computer presenting the virtual factory to print out selected patterns via industrial printer.

Annie offered some insights for machinima. The list includes – speech gesture (using voice chat to activate gesture animation) can be found in the inventory folder for real-time interaction needs, etc.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Atmosphere Rendering

Winglight
Effect rendering varies depending on graphic cards and system configurations.
Setting is saved on computer HD not inventory.


Thursday, April 10, 2008

Share Objects

When working collectively side by side, allowing friends to modify your objects on Contacts menu is good enough.

But it does not work for objects sent over from inventory dropoff. Be sure to always change the object to can modify and copy on the Create object menu.

A trick to get a bunch of objects all become can modify and copy... Link all the objects and change setting. Vola! Even after unlinking them, the objects will all be can modify and copy. Each object's name (and probably other settings as well) can maintain its individuality and won't get converted.

Share with group on Create menu is another setting yet to be tested...

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Producer's Note II - machinima course

Team
Industrial team works in a different dynamic from academic collaboration. Their work flow is designed to maximize the use of time and resources of each individual team member. Multiple projects will be assigned, and specialized tasks are distributed to corresponding skilled professionals. When I was talking to the 3D artist from one of the Nickelodeon studios in New York City, she mentioned to me that she has less chance working on various aspects of the animation production. On her team of 13 to 14 people, she mainly works on render pass based on the shot list the production assistant provided to everyone when others worked on background texture, lighting, 3D car animation in Maya and 2D characters animation in Flash, composite in After Effects, etc. based on the 3D models made by another team in India.

However as a course, collaboration is specific to a learning environment instead of a working environment. Even though the current stage of the machinima project requires quite a lot of production time, the instruction needs to be designed to empower participating students to contribute their expertise and perspectives to the project in both levels as an art film (results derived from iterative process of experiments and discussions), and as an innovative media and technology research (providing chances for engagement). At the same time, the guidance needs to create a focus and scope and set explicit goals and milestones. So at the end of the course, students may reflect upon this experience to further develop themselves within the field of design & technology.

Precedents/References:
Design & Education, Karen Sideman
(design questions, principles of empowered learning)
Media Lab, MIT - "learning by doing"
(the use of laboratory instruction)

Course Info
Timeline - 15 meetings
Design, storyboard, animatic - 2 weeks
Modeling, texture, lighting - 2 weeks
Animation - 2 weeks
Scripting avatar behaviors, particle effects, windlight - 2 weeks
Camera, lighting tool, avatar controller - 2 weeks
Shooting - 2 weeks
Post-production, presentations - 2 weeks
Screening - last week

Specialty Professionals:
3D Maya Artist - ShuChen Lin

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Linden Scripting Language (LSL)

Scripted behaviors: motion and interactivity... new mono
* animated sculpty faces
* internal face animations

Friday, April 04, 2008

Producer's Note I - SL preparation

Budget
We'll have two major categories of expenses. In addition to Parson's Mac Lab facility, we may need to leave 1/3 of budget for other hardware and software purchases. Another 2/3 can be used toward SL land rental and tools.

Miscellaneous
How to create Groups in SL
(Basic Account can create groups)
The goal to create a group is that the production/research team will be able to work on the set collectively, sharing and editing objects created.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Machinima Set up

Hardware
Cable or DSL connection
2 - 3 External Hard Drives (200GB for making 5 minute movie)
(FireWire 400/800 or High Speed USB 2.0)
Mac Optimized for 3D online game

Software
Second Life Client (free download, accessing 3D online virtual world)
Maya (for modeling sculpty and prims with plugin, texturing, exporting, and animating avatar)
QAvimator (free, for animating avatar)
Quicktime Pro
Final Cut Pro
After Effects
Photoshop
Snapz Pro X (Mac, free trail, real time video capturing tool) / FRAPS (Windows)

Supplemental Software
Ploopp SL (free, for sculpty, 2D painting modeling method)
Audacity (free, sound editing)
Reallusion CrazyTalk & iClone (free trail, Windows only, for lip-sync, facial animation & 3D character animation)

Optional Software
Blender (free, for modeling sculpty and prims, baking textures, exporting, animating avatar, and editing videos, interface is quite complicated, Maya is an equivalent software to Blender)
Lightwave (for sculpty)
Wings 3D (free, for sculpty, not sure if include built-in texture baking)

Optional Equipment
Projector
3DConnexion Space Navigator
(use with Flycam in SL)
Machinima Camera/Lighting Tools
(either free or cost Linden$ in SL / SL Exchange)