Week 8 - Fabrication Presentations

During the lecture today we had Dr Deo Prasad talking about global collaborations for sustainable future. I'm quite interested in the field of ESD, building green is the way to go in order to having a better environment, constructing buildings that become one with the environment and not causing any future effects, e.g. noted China's river which became ruined due to dumping rubbish and waste in the past, now they are trying to revive the river, which costs a lot of money and time.


My Impression

Digital
Team Digital had a very detailed environment of the surrounding buildings, which included AI. Weaknesses they might of had is that the interior spaces were not clearly defined, also not much textures where used, which appeared in our team. Overall an interesting building I guess in a way they had a reason not to define the interior spaces, as not much information was provided.

Orange
The model looks identical to the concept drawings, the surrounding environment is very detailed, had bridges, alot of AI, and cars which gave off the feel to the place. Weaknesses display in my opinion would be the texture of the building, which is really bright, the uses of white could of been maybe replaced by a less intense colour. Textures wasn't present throughout most of the building and internal spaces were not properly defined. Overall the building and the surrounding environment was really detailed.

Urbans
The Urbans put alot of time and research into the building, on how it was built, the function, and the construction of form. Final model looks really good. AI would of gave the environment a sense of being there.

Omega
Presentation was really well detailed, outlined all aspects and steps of their fabrication. The overall fabrication is really detailed in all aspects, the only weakness is probably not texturing solids. But overall a great fabrication, great work.

Atlar
Very interesting fabrication, an underwater building. Good concept which the final outcome was great, environment was very detail (train station). Had a reasonable amount of interactivity, very realistic lighting underwater. Weaknesses would be that the building was not textured.

Every groups presentations was great, each different team had different strengths and weaknesses, It was great to see their final fabrication after seeing a draft preview of it during week 4. I've noticed alot of the groups did not texture their buildings which appeared extensivley in our own fabrication. Our surrounding environment lacked AI as the theme of the location was desert, therefore having AI wondering outside would define the meaning.

Team E-vole's Final Fabrication

Walkthrough Video



Video of "the experience"



Below is the link to download our teams final fabrication, well city.

http://files.filefront.com/13719955

The Day

Had a final group meeting today, which was pretty late, got to uni around 10:30pm, with my completed file which contained all the interior furniture and AI. We thought everything would go smoothly when combining Jackey's and Wirada's files together, then that's when the big problem started. First of all we had to place well city all over the desert site, which went fine but some textures were missing, the water went all black, and the windows had no textures, also AI were mixed up.

Wirada ended up working on my file (as it still had the textures of water and windows working) she added all the extra furniture. I had to go through again and fix up the window textures and AI movement. I captured the 10 images required and posted it on the team journal, while Jackey and Wirada worked on the two videos for submission. Wirada, Jackey, and myself worked on the powerpoint presentation which we need to revise, we are just about to finish.

I've noticed that I have been contacting my team members mostly by e-mail, msn messenger, and sms. It is great how technology can still help us keep all up to date on each others progress, since we live a fair distance apart from one another the technology's applications just made work more efficient for us. Also file sharing sites such as filefont, mediafire has become very handy for sharing large amounts of data, this eliminates the need to meet up and transfer from one another. Technology has greatly improved our teams management and communication and creating a strong sense of collaboration within the team environment.

Progress Week 8

This week has been really busy, I managed to finished interactivity on time, which included opening doors, breakable windows, but I came across a problem with the pool, I cannot swim in it. The textures are right you can shoot it and water will spray up but you cant swim in it, I've researched long and hard and finally found a forum which explains it easily.

http://incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=23812

Problem is now solved, the swimming pool is now swimable. Yet again as I was working with AI, they didn't seem to move even though they are suppose to. Another forum explains it easily.

http://au.gamespot.com/pc/action/crysis/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-43200694&pid=931665

A Problem we experiencing at the moment is lighting, when Swati placed lighting within the building it starts to make surfaces flashy. I really think the lighting needs to be worked on properly. So far I managed to get all my tasks done in time, also the class wiki.

Above is an example of the lighting problems we had.

Today we also met up for a group talk, hopefully if all goes well all we will be doing tomorrow is working on the presentation and videos.

Collaboration Topics Round 3

Planning

Planning is a process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale. Planning involves thinking for the future, therefore managing and preparing for the outcomes.

Why is Planning Important
One of the best ways to developing strong ways of winning is from planning.

• Planning is leveraged time. For example, planning 30 minutes per day can greatly improve your productivity. Having time to plan will pay off in the future, it will help you make sure that you are keeping in track with your goals and you can ensure that you become more task oriented. In an collaborative environment by simply taking 10-20 minutes to run through your objectives and outcomes, you are more likely to achieve them and not get side tracked.


• Planning provides the framework for informed decision making. By planning what you are going to do you will be establishing a framework and will be able to tick off items from your "to do" list as you go along. This is an extremely effective way to manage any tasks that you have.


• Planning reduces crisis management. If you plan accordingly there is a lower chance of any issues to occur. But it is also important to be prepared for unforeseen situations which may occur, so it is vital to be prepared to plan again when a situation happens.


• Planning helps to eliminate bad habits, and fear of failure.Planning allows you to set priorities and focus on what is important.
  

Effective planning everyday in any sort of situation will have a major impact on breaking bad habits individuals may have, and it shall lead to successful task management.

Reference : Willis. J, Why is planning important, Article Ally, accessed 4 May 2009, http://www.articlealley.com/article_32151_36.html

Source: People planning, Team Works, http://teamworksweb.com/strategicplanning.htm, (Date Accessed 4th April 2009)

Source: Planning Pencil, Despair, http://despair.com/planning.html, (Date Accessed 4th April 2009)

Remuneration
This is the payment or compensation that is received from services or employment. This is the base salary, but may also include any received bonuses or other payments received.
Remuneration in an collaborative environment, gives each individual a goal to work to as they know the outcome of pay, therefore it motivates the group to complete their set tasks to the best of their ability. The remuneration reward attracts the individuals, that is why it is important in an collaborative environment as it tends to motivate them to work towards the set goals which they know that they will get paid off well doing so.

Reference: Wikipedia, Remuneration, accessed on 4th May 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remuneration

Source: Money, BullDog Blog, http://www.bulldogblog.net/2009/02/, (Date Accessed on 4th May 2009)

Week 7

During the lecture today we had guest lecturer Jack Barton speaking to us. Jack works for a company called city futures, and uses digital media to present urban planning in for the future development. Interesting talk about how they are trying to collaborate CAD and GIS together therefore it will make it easier for urban planners to lay out their ideas.

Today only a total of 2 group members were present, we discussed our progress and ideas and problems. The texturing of the building was completed, so now its my turn to create interactivity within the building. Also, I found a major problem and I had to remove the glass from the windows, and doors from the framing in order to make them interactive. Later that day when I came to login in the class wiki, I noticed I'm logged in Jack's account, even when I log out of his and log into mine.I guess I have to work on it at home. I'm pretty behind for the class wiki so it will be a good idea to get a move on.

Research and Tests on Interactivity

These past few days consisted of me researching about interactivity within our built environment, I found that the crymod website is really usefull and has provided me without an immense amount of information required to complete the fabrication. I did some tests on opening doors, which was successful, and also making glass shatter.

This is what I created for my test, just a simple wall with a door, and a window to the left.

My attempt to smash the glass.

Attempt successful.

Spraying the window with lead.

Attempt at opening the door.

Successful.

I think I may have to do a few adjustments to the model and maybe create an open space where the location of the door is; then add doors in sandbox 2 to make them openable.