I've finally finished modelling Adrian in 3D, but I did not refer to the previous tutorial that I've posted because I realized that they are modelling a more realistic model whereas Adrian is very stylized and of different proportions.
So, I started a new file from scratch and here it is!
Because this is a humanoid character, I've asked Mr.Kim on how to properly animate Adrian. He said that I need to add the spines for him and that will take some time, so he said he'll show me how to do it. And for the eyes, I left that part because I wasn't sure how am I gonna animate it to blink if I build the sockets (based on the tutorial video I watched). Mr.Kim said that since this is a stylized character, I don't need to make the eye sockets, but put a button-shaped polygon for it.
So once we get the spines done, we can animate it with the other objects and hopefully, completed in time! :D Amirah is still animating the letter 'Adrian' and 'Aeroplane' and that would be it for letter 'A'!
We're having abit of issues with the lower third, as Mr.Muzamir noticed that right now, the transition of the letters looks like it is typed out from a typewriter. So, he gave a suggestion that we animate the letters to make it look like it is being written, in a way that would help the children to learn how to write properly as well.
But now that we are doing a 3D model, we're having some issues because we don't know how to make that kind of animation on Maya. I found other samples of lower thirds that in a way, does not look like a typewriter but still has an educating factor to it.
Winnie the Pooh
The animation of the honey pot is synced with the syllables of the letters.
What we have in mind is that, when the letters appears on the AR, there will be a little solid (maybe a little ball) that bounces across the letters similarly like the one shown by Winnie the Pooh.
Following our previous tutorial with Mr.Muzamir, he suggested us to model Adrian in 3D instead.
I've never actually tried modelling a character before (I'm okay with objects, but not an actual finished 3D character), so I went to Youtube and look for a video tutorial.
Since Adrian is of a chibi proportion, I had to be specific and look for a chibi modelling tutorial :D
And here's what I've done so far!
I'm not exactly finished with the tutorial, I've only done the topology of the head. Now I need to import an image of Adrian so I can tweak it as close as how Adrian originally looks like.
We were asked to do some research on colours that would appeal to children, so I went on Google and here is what I've discovered.
Blue - In a study at the Surrey Baby Lab, babies tended to look longer at certain colors for the longest amount of time. One of these colors in the study was blue. Much of this hue's appeal is in the type of feelings it conjures. Blue is often associated with mellow feelings like peace, tranquility and calmness. Blue is synonymous with water, ocean life and swimming pools.
Red - Another bright color that has mass appeal with children is red. An emotionally intense color, red has high visibility, which is the reason it is used for stop signs, traffic lights and fire equipment. When you see something red coming your way, you are not likely to miss it. Red is also used in many ways to indicate courage and valor.
Orange - Orange is a very hot color that is also very highly accepted by young people. Not as aggressive as red, the hue increases oxygen supply to the brain, according to Color Wheel Pro. This effect creates a sensation of heat and produces an invigorating effect in the brain, which then stimulates mental activity. Orange is also a popular color because it is the color of many citrus fruits as well as the shade associated with fall and harvest.
Purple - Rarely found in nature, purple combines two other popular colors to produce a powerful color on its own. According to Color Wheel Pro, purple has the stability properties of blue with the energetic capabilities of red. It is often associated with magic, wisdom and mystery. Purple is often a favorite color with pre-adolescent children, but babies also showed interest in the color during the Surrey Baby Lab study. Purple makes a great color for girls fashion but it is also a color fit for a king because may royal robes are dyed in this particular hue.
Most of the websites also states that children prefers blocks of bright primary colours, particularly red, as red is the first colour that they distinguish.
I've been searching for tutorials online for ARmedia and so far, there weren't many tutorial videos available on Youtube besides the ones that we've posted on earlier posts.
But I've manage to find a couple of videos that displays how ARmedia works on iOS and Android.
For iOS
For Android
I've also managed to find another video that shows how ARmedia supports animation, although the animation was done with Autodesk 3ds Max instead of Autodesk Maya.
ARmedia supports basic animations or 3ds Max.
And on their official forum, they have several methods on overcoming some of ARmedia's limitation when using Maya.
For instance, ARPlugin only supports several materials which are; Lambert, Blinn and Phong. Any other materials would be displayed as a grey Lambert. And as for the animations, they do not support animation systems that uses Motion Path or Constraint. Instead, they offered a solution by using a Bake Simulation technique that is available in Maya itself.
I managed to download ARmedia plugin for Maya few weeks ago but when I tried to look for online video references, there weren't many for me to refer to. Most of them were only showing the finished product and projected them from their webcam with the printed marker.
I've tested out with Maya, with a model that we got from Mr.Kim from our previous semester, and a default marker that the plugin has provided. And it seems to be working fine! I've tried using my own marker before this, but I're not sure why it doesn't work.
Nevertheless, we're still trying to find out on how to publish the file, because the file that we exported was in an .armedia format.
Once we manage to figure that out, we'll post the outcomes here!
We decided to test Metaio first. This is because we had consultation with Mr. Razif, expert of Ar and would assist us, he was more familiar with ARMedia at the same time, he is able to look into Metaio since Taylor's provide the full version of Metaio.
We tested on one of the software called "Metaio". Unlike D'fusion, Metaio is much straight forward and does not have much features as it is the trial version. We have yet to try out the full version of Metaio that is available here in uni.
(First QR code with Metaio)
(With video)
First of all, you will need the Junaio app in your mobile device to be able to scan and load the AR.
The splash screen of Junaio upon launching.
Press the button on the top right side to scan QR code.
You're ready to scan the marker.
After launching Junaio, scan the Qr code and once Junaio has finish loading the page, you will need to scan this marker.
Scan me!
What I concluded is that you can have the same marker for both QR code because the AR that is loaded depends on the QR code scanned.
Meaning, the QR code will connect the device to the cloud which stores the AR.
Observation/ Conclusion:
Metaio takes a longer time to load the AR. It is not so suitable to be used for real time.
For our game, we need 3 or more different markers to be able to be detected and launched. Metaio does not allow this action and the reason:
Metaio is not a standalone app/software. It needs QR code to be able to read the marker. Therefore, one QR code only reacts to one marker at a time.
-Trying it out-
Solution: Use a software that does standalone and wraps everything into an app. This way all the information will be saved in the cloud and can work together at the same time. (Can detect all markers simultaneously)
We are now looking at ARMedia (ARToolKit software)- URL: http://www.armedia.it/dev_tools.php
We've finally decided to work with D'fusion due to it's versatility. It offers more options and we think it would be much more suitable to be used for our games design.
We've looked into a few tutorials on D'fusion and like Metaio , D'fusion has a plugin for Maya therefore, any 3D animation has to be exported using said plugin.
Although it seems much more advanced than Metaio, it offers more variety and is much more specific in terms of tracking and projecting.
For this module, we had decided to take on interactive games design using Augmented Reality.
The idea is basically like "Hide and Seek".
Unlike regular games, augmented reality allows developers to come up with ideas that will force the players to interact and move around and the game interacts with the environment that the player is in as well.
When the user launches the AR app, objects will appear and the player has to move around the objects to look for the character. One character is found, players will have to tap onto the screen and bring the character back into the device.
An animation of the character will be triggered once the character is being tapped on, players will then have to tap on the character again before he runs off.
The concept will be similar to Total Immersion's "Interactive games book";
The only difference between our game and Total Immersion's is that our game will take place in the environment that the player is in.
Software Research:
There are 3 software among the many AR software that we is possible to be used to develop this idea.
1) Metaio
Metaio works alongside Junaio, therefore the Junaio app has to be downloaded and available on the mobile device to scan and launch the AR.
2) D'fusion D'fusion is the running software of Total Immersion. This is the software used to produce the interactive game book.
3) Vuforia Vuforia is a product of Qualcomm Technologies. Below an example of AR that was developed using Vuforia.
Besides that, AR t-shirts by "Chestburster" are also made possible by Vuforia.
Software comparison: Metaio Advantages: Metaio can be downloaded for free. Uploading and publishing on Metaio Cloud is also free. Disadvantages: The trial version has limited functions and does not offer much flexibility and freedom for the developers. It also takes a long time to load the 3D object and needs a QR Code. Markers feature that can be used are only image detection, environment tracker and 3D object tracker. (very limited compared to the others).
D'Fusion Advantages: Has multiple options and is free and gives more room to explore AR. Some of the interesting features of D'Fusion are motion detection, face tracking and many more that is not available on Metaio.
The markers are detected and animation is played very quickly compared to Metaio, and it does not require a QR code.
We've spoken to Mr.Razif, sound designer and Flash game expert who also happened to be our lecturer in our previous semester. We explained to him about the idea that we had in mind, about how we wanted to incorporate AR into our game. He said he has only tried AR once, but he asked us to come up with a sketch of our ideas and show it to him so that he has a better understanding on how to help us out.
Nevertheless, he said he'll try to work something out for us in the meanwhile.
-Angie-
UPDATE [20th September 2013]
We asked him on our technical issues, like if we could include randomizer and input Flash into AR. He said it was possible, with a Flash input called Adobe AIR for iOS. But he mentioned that he is more familiar with ARmedia, which is the first software that we looked into.
Right now, we have 3 softwares to try out, which is ARmedia, Metaio and D'Fusion.
Initially, both of us agreed that we want to implement 3D into the gameplay, so that we could add some realism into it. Hence, we've decided to use Maya as our main tool for the animation. For that, we found a plugin for Maya by Inglobe Technologies called the ARmedia Plugin.
It enables users to visualize their 3D models using Augmented Reality directly in the real physical space which surrounds them. In a very precise sense, 3D models can be visualized out of the digital workspace directly on users' desktop, by connecting a simple webcam and by printing a suitable code.
