Final Presentation ( POST )

Well, that's it!
We had our final ( marked ) presentation of the weather room today. While the rest of the group thought it went well, Im not so sure myself. I'm having some really nagging problems with the motion capture (It's so tempremental ), and I'm not happy with the storm generation or cloud separation.

Although we dont get marked on it again, we've got the expo on tuesday ( 24th of October ). So I've got until then to fix the problems. I've already changed the motion capture for the blue LED. Moved it from a 5 pixel checker, to a 1 pixel checker. I've got to do some trace values to see if it is really more accurate, or if it's just the orange/yellow LED that's easier to track. I also noticed that the

webcam feed was giving off a heavy blue tinge. . . Effect of the webcam ? or of the environment ?
There's lots of questions that need to be answered. Once finished, I'll post links to the final .fla files, as well as a link to my blog.

I've ( hopefully , if my manager has followed through ) got monday and tuesday off from work this coming week. So that means I've got two more days of testing. Though most of the work I can do from home.

So I've taken the webcam down and brought it with me.

We were very lucky in our presentation today to be able to use one of those gaming seats ( Chairs specifically designed with speakers / subs built into the chair itself ). Donated kindly by bonnie so we had something relatively comfortable to sit on. In the final version I will be bringing in my 5.1 speakers ( if I can get a lift in), and the user will sit in a beanbag. I took various photos today and yesterday, as well as some video footage. I'll post some of that below. Saving most of it for my portfolio / documentation.

In any event, Im extremely tired. No more studio4 for the day. Im going to relax, and have a good nights sleep. . . After doing some audio

sigh

- Anthony

( stupid copy/paste is adding in extra linebreaks. It loves me long time )

Building Structure

Just a quick update on the weather room.

We're ending the final stage now, it's due next wednesday, and the final expo is on the 23rd. ( eek! )

We've got the mocap gloves all up and running, ( orange and blue LEDs ), They're quite neato. We've got a left and a right hand. Ive got to pick up some backup LEDs tommorrow incase they blow ( we're pushing more than the recommended power through them, so there's a chance they could die ... fingers crossed though, hey ? ). So as you can see, we've got a black rubberish glove, two sets of wires connecting to the battery pack concealed in the cuff, with one led attached to each finger. This is a WIP shot, But the gloves are constructed, and we're all done with those now. We've played with them and they're quite good at blinding you. The motion capture still needs to be tweaked for accuracy and distance. Kinda shitting myself about that part, but meh, s'all good.

We've Then got the structure. I dont know if I mentioned it before, but we're building in a stairwell ( it was the only place we could actually fit our structure and have enough roof space ). We moved the structure into place yesterday, and our two carpenters bolted it all together. It's sitting pretty now and looking quite strong and sturdy. As you can see from the photo there, there's a massive window behind it. Our next problem was blocking out that light. Bonnie found some great material for this, massive sheets of black plastic. Ugly as sin, but cheap and very effective ( one sheet, no light comes through - with no overlapping ). Unfortunately, when the window is 4.5 metres, it's a tad difficult to get up the top and attach it to the window ( one of our tutors tried, Jamie, hope those shorts are okay, the tape holding up ? )

And finally, we attached some more of the black plastic to the inside of the front part of the structure , to block out light from the outside in. We're encasing the entire structure in black curtain next, and attaching a projector ( rear projected ) Screen from the top rung of one wall to the top of hte other. it should give us a fairly large image projected onto a 'roof'. Fingers crossed though hey ?

Although we're all very stressed, it's good that we can still have fun doing such a long long LONG assignment

Improved Motion Capture and Cloud Collection

Just a quick status update.

I've modified the cloud spawning program , so that now when two clouds are 'joined' they will 'grow' into a new cloud instead of appearing as a new one. I've also changed the way the particles are created, with less on the fly blurring, increasing speed dramatically.

Secondly, I've just this minute finished the second prototype motion capture system. however I am unable to test it until I've aquired a selection of new LEDs. So that's the plan for tommorrow afternoon after my P.P. Lecture and doing some mixing for Digital Audio. Testing with the LED Flash that my cameraphone has however, it seems to block out all of the interference. It's now just a matter of being able to track the colours effectively. But we wont know if that works until I can test it. I've customised this version to work in dark environments. similar to the final room. So fingers crossed hey ?

Will provide a progress update after I've done the motion capture test.

As for what the others are up to ?
The structure for our presentation is nearly complete. We're aquiring fabrics and materials for doors and gloves. Ben has finished the RSS code and Im having a look at that tommorrow ( which means I can probably finish the weather simulator section of the project over the weekend. Fingers crossed! ).

It's all coming together nicely, which is good - considering it's due on the 18th!

STILL TO DO :

- Join RSS/XML feed with Simulation
- New Rain Animation
- Sound
- Motion Capture Tests
- Completed Structure
- Linking Motion Capture with Weather Interaction
- Setting up and final testing.

Not too much really. But it will still take up much of my sleep.
More updates as they come. I'll encourage the other members to do the same.