In week 212 there was an end of year show “dry” run” crit. Which was one of the final chances to get structured feedback on our projects. It also gave us a chance to put on a draft version of the final year show. It was really important for us to attend and complete this activity as it gave us the ability to finally see how we would like to present our work.
Above I have included a sketch of how I want the layout to be. As you can see, I have included 3 masks presented in a line with a television above it.
To prepare for this I wanted to showcase how the AR would work and how I would be presenting the masks. However, I had not finished the masks during this time as the XTC-3D was still curing from the day before. This meant that I wasn’t able to use the masks as an image base for the AR to recognise.
Nonetheless, I still wanted to produce something that would act as a placement for the masks. I used the renders of the masks and drew shapes on the front of them which I later imported as image bases within Unity. I used these images as place holders for the crit, to show how the masks will be used for the final year show. As I was able to work out how unity would work quite early in the pipeline I could easily replace the image base I previously used in my experimentation.
As for the layout I only had two masks made which made the placement of the masks easier as I hung the TV in the middle of the wall and installed a shelve on either side of the TV. Prior to the crit Jim had a few concerns about the layout and questioned whether a TV was needed. I explained to him that the iPad would be used to run the actual AR application and the iPad would be mirrored onto the TV. I wanted this because the iPad can usually be used by one person and I wanted everyone to see how the AR works. Including a TV would help others who are not using the iPad to see what is happening in the app and also gather people to experience the ‘experience’ together.
As a class, we went around everyone’s work to discuss the positives and negatives about it. During my turn, I found that the use of AR really interested everyone and they like that I physically produced masks for the project but would like to see it finished. Jim also enjoyed the inclusion of the TV within the exhibition as it allowed everyone to experience what the lectures were seeing in the iPad. He went on to say that it gave everyone the ability to see what was happening and helped everyone bond over what they were seeing.
However, as I have not completed many elements of the project there were a lot of negatives on it. The first thing that was brought to my attention was that my model needed clothing. At this point I still hadn’t textured or made the clothes for the Kitsune model, this led to Jim pointing out the sexual look the model had. However, I explained that I hadn’t made the clothes and this wouldst be what the character looks like for the final year show.
In addition to this, Manos also suggested the I should animate the characters with an idle cycle to make the characters more interesting. I had not planned to animate the character because I don’t feel that animation is my strong point. However, I will try to animate the characters as I do think they will benefit from some small animations for the final year show.
Finally, the exhibition space seemed to be quite boring because of the white walls and the use of wooden shelves were not attractive. At this point, I was still unsure on how I would want to present the masks for the final year show so the lecturers suggested that I should think about various materials I could use to present them. A few suggestions were: transparent shelving, poles, hanging from fishing wires and hanging from the wall. However, I was told that the layout of the two masks on the side of the TV was good because it provided a view of the masks eye level with the TV. This leads me to reduce the characters from three to two. I also haven’t completed the research for the cat character, therefore, made this decision easier.
The feedback was very useful as it gave me an insight into what others thought of my work and what I could improve on. It also gave me the opportunity to visualise what my exhibition space would look like and I will use this feedback to influence how I will present my work at the final year show.
Animation Project 