Preparing for Week 7 Guest Visit

Post 43

Happiness level:3

I've been really busy and focusing all my time on the construction of the wooband, codes and graphics. Full steam ahead!

Technical problems encountered:
- Unity can't change scenes with Serial ports. (can't call) Might have to put everything in one scene.
- SO LAGGY and the quality reduces because I had to convert all videos to OGG format.
- Only Unity pro could enable MovieTextures. (solved by using the trial mode..and uh. you know.)
- Arduino RGB colors overlapping each other (solved, but didn't get the color I want)

Motion Graphics problems encountered:
- I need plugins to achieve plexus. (It's complicated, I can't download them. And I'm cheap.)
- Had to depend A LOT on tutorials. (I thought my creative juices and spontaneity were enough, But no.)

Logistics problems encountered:
- My RM175 polystyrene ball dents easily and I don't plan on investing in another one.
- There's a line on the ball which has to covered. (It's the little opening that can't close properly when I sandwich the two halves together)

A great thank you to Yee Siang and David Tan for patiently teaching me and explaining to me the rules of Arduino and Unity.
I'm actually quite disappointed at TOA for not keeping up with the pace and installing UNITY in all the computers. They could install them for free and hire professionals! C# is dang important.

The only person who knows UNITY is Jam, and he's not even assigned to any of us. We had to call him on his personal mobile. This is ridiculous.

Can't believe I have to outsource so many talents and hardware.

Actions to do next:
TRY OUT THE WIFI MODULE!

Sewing til the AM

Post 42

Happiness level : 6

My Motion Graphics are 80% complete, they are taking a much long time than I thought. But I did try out sewing and it turn out looking like something that came out of a thrift store.

I have never sewed in my life, so this is literally my proudest moment, my proudest milestone.

After sewing of course, with buttons and everything, I discovered I cut the fabric straight down like a box. I forgot the human arm actually widens from the wrist up. So I didn't get to close it up properly.

This fabric is from a really old shirt, I used it because it's stretchy. 

I tried to cover it up but it looks really shady.

I discovered that sewing the boards on the fabric itself would be too flimsy. So I sketched out more ideas.

The red was inspired by Baymax from Big Hero 6. I wanted the interior to be two toned as well.

Then I realised, Buzzlightyear's suit has the same mechanism I need!
The compartment which conceals the boards. My dad suggested I cut up a bottle in half and use it as the flap. (like below)

Here are some more sketches for the band.

This is the sewing of the nylon hard fabric on the sports wristguards which are a perfect fit to wrist, and my father's. A cut up bottle will be used to encase the band.

I would be thickening up with two of these hard nylon fabrics and use the top flap as the base for my boards and sew them on the top flap. The bottom flap would prevent the conductive thread from touching the skin of the users.

Of course I went to dad and mom and they gave me two sports wristbands and sewed them together to get a better, firmer, stretchable band. Sewed a hard white fabric (used for collars of formal shirts) on the top of the cute bands to cover the little heart designs and prevent stretching from the top so that it wouldn't damage my boards.

Motion Graphics 100% by today HAVE TO.

Post 41

Happiness level: 4

I feel like Tadashi from Big Hero 6 with all these updates.

Here's a video of me talking for a change, I might sound dead but yeah all the deadlines are piling up this week so it's safe to say my spirits aren't at an all time high.

Expectations for week 7 Sharing

Post 40

Happiness Level: 4

I'm feeling the pressure.

Logistics and Microphone Debugging

Post 39

Happiness levels: 8

Tutor(s) present: Jazmi, Yee Siang, Jam!

Okay first up, the logistics.

Jazmi and I discovered that there was a leak at the wall from my graphics and suggested that I should vignette it out so the hard edges would be gone and there isn't gonna look like an error.

Other than that, the outcomes were pretty good, I suspended my polystyrene ball with a piece of fishing string and clasped the two halves together with the roll of fishing string in between to hold it up from within. Discovered that if I wanted to project on two sides of the ball I needed 3m+ of space.

That would be difficult since there are going to be about 30+ projects in the same area.

Should I compromise with just one side of the ball? :(

Discovered that the ball should be slightly higher than eye level so the users won't be able to see the shadowed top of the ball. Overall logistics looks pretty good and the user would be standing behind the projector to interact with it. 

Ill disguise the table and projector into my glove compartment holder & table (which I would also hide my computers and what not under it) and wrap it around with white board so it looks super clean and white and professional looking,

So happy everything works amazing.

Microphone Debugging

Jam came to the rescue!

My microphone got fixed and apparently I was uploading unnecessary scripts which hindered it to work. I also had to fix the baud rate so it matches the baud rate of my accelerator code. Everything is moving along swiftly. 

I just have to turn the strings to numbers with Parse and put them altogether, separate the game into three parts and upload the videos separately and I'm done with the coding! I'll have to focus on the wifi module next. (oh god)

And sewing. =(

Things to do next:

- Finish up the motion graphics for the two songs

- Code up the game

- Debug Wifi

Ball and things

Post 38

Happiness level: 6

Personal progress

As for unity, David has coached me own how to create and link my scenes in UNITY. To call the scenes I would have to use 0 or 1, I think it's way better, you couldn't get the name wrong by typo.

I have also purchased my project ball. It's diameter is about 50cm, it's a bit small but it's alright since the users are going to be standing really near it and the projector wouldn't be so far. I have a limited space only. It's crazy expensive, RM175.

As of for now I have spent RM720 on materials. So expensive. But if you look at it from an agency point of view, it's actually a pretty cheap project. Many projects reach thousands of ringgit. Yeah, I'm comforting myself.

Tutor(s) present: Yee Siang

Yee Siang lent me this microphone from college which worked perfectly. The problem with my previous microphone was that it was too sensitive to sound. Excuse my badly manicured finger.

Stage Design & Glove Design

Post 37

Happiness level: 6

Tutor(s) present: Jazmi

Stage Design

After showing Jazmi my previous post on the motion graphics, we concluded to use different platforms instead of using just a one dimensional screen. Most of my references and tutorials are spherical as well. I proposed a few stage sketches but concluded that I could use a polystyrene sphere instead to suit my motion graphic benchmarks.

He told me that I should be careful of the shadow casts if I were to pick my polygonal stage design.

I would cut a small section in the sphere and place the DJ in it. To avoid shadow casts, I will place a small mirror to reflect the DJ into the cut out hole.

I have also concluded to suspend the sphere in mid-air.

I am considering to rent another projector so that my project could be viewed in 360 Degrees.

Glove Design

As for the glove, it is decided and preferred that it took a look of a cuff instead of a whole glove wear up to the palms.