des302-emergingtechnologies

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 11 - Unity script writing and visual summary

Current status: deliver

This week I focused on trying to get my unity project to actually function but I have been facing some problems with the script once again. Throughout the week I went through writing the script and resolving any appearing error codes to the best of my abilities.

Bellow is a function whiteboard script. The script I am struggling with is for the pen/marker that is used to draw on the white board.

4 error codes for the whiteboard marker: nth attempt but 1st attempt to fix today - 12/10/2023

made it down to 3 error codes but still having trouble 2nd attempt today - 12/10/2023

3rd attempt for today - 12/10/2023

I have been searching about the error codes on Unity's official forums and other forums that address the error codes. The error codes are easy to fix to more experienced users of unity and c sharp. But since I'm not familiar with this I am struggling a little bit.

4/5th attempt 15/10/2023

I have been struggling with this error code. I Have tried to resolve it myself using Google and Unity forums and any other resources at my disposal to try and do it myself but to no success. I've decided to seek help from my stream leader and peers for advice and many directed me to someone who could help from the empathic computing lab. I've emailed them but have yet to receive a reply. Two of my peers have offered their help and I have tried their solutions.

Here is a screenshot of trying a suggestion from my peer. While It did resolve the previous code error, three new errors appeared. Which I have to solve with some success.

I have some understanding of which line the error occurs in and the hints of ")" or "}" or ";" expected is what is missing but attempts to fix it sometimes comes up with more errors. Currently all I can do is to continue trying while I wait for a response to my email. I have two back up plans for if I don't get a reply soon enough. First one is two download the script available from the tutorial video I was learning from or have my prototype just be my VR environment with a non-functioning whiteboard.

I am mostly finish with my VR project as the environment is mostly finished and all that's left is for me to get my VR whiteboard functioning. Others things I need to get done is my visual summary, pitch presentation and video. Video won't take long for me to do and I could probably start putting it together. Pitch presentation will probably be made using some previously presentation slide from earlier on this semester. And visual summary is a slow process where its just me compiling everything from my Miro neatly to fit a visual summary for hand in.

I really need to get a move on and push through the next couple of weeks.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 10 - More unity work and video creation

Current Status: Deliver

For this week I focused on working on some 3D animations for my video and working on the C sharp scripts for unity for the interactive parts of my unity project. The environment is finished I just need to get the actual drawing program I want to create unity to actually function.

I once again took a break from unity after trying two different tutorials and rage quitting at writing scripts and decided to work on creating a 3D animation for my video. First I 3D modelled the figure, then rigged and posed them in a knelling position. I then added a ground that mimicked wet concrete to give some contrast to the smooth figure and to reflect the videos lighting in the background. I then added stand in videos for where I intend to have my stock footage and set up the camera to zoom out as part of a transition for my video.

Please note that the videos used in the above render for the animation will not be actually used but instead are place holders for the stock footage I plan to include in my video.

Above is the quickly put together video of my storyboard into an actual video to test how well it works. This was put together in iMovie using a combination of screenshots my storyboard and phone recordings of my 3D blender animation.

Current mood for week 10 and working on unity:

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

week 9: Continuation of asset creation and unity

current stage: development

For this week I returned to setting up my virtual reality environment in unity and basically testing if my 3D models I made in blender were functioning in Unity. The image above is a screenshot is off the virtual environment. For some reason all the texture images that were responsible for giving colour and material to the models was functioning for everything except the landscape. I struggled with finding out why the landscape model itself wasn't working despite following exactly all the same steps I did for all of my models. After a couples of tries at trying to figure out what was wrong I decided to take a break and make some more assets as the environment looked sparse and wasn't giving much visual interest.

In order to take a break and be productive I made more 3D assets for my environment while thinking where I went wrong in the previous prototype environment. I made one more tree, a couple of other plants and one landscape as backup or as an addition to give my current landscape asset some interest. This helped me step back and allow my self to reset and look back on where I when wrong in my first attempts.

After making the new assets I decided to restart completely and deleted everything before trying again and finally figuring out that all I had to do was drag and drop the image texture file on to the model it self. Perhaps deleting the entire scenario wasn't the best move but I needed to clear the slate/canvas in order to achieve the vision I had. Plus I wasn't really liking the way I placed everything the first time round. Thus I remade the entire environment and added in new assets to make it look less empty and dull. I also played around with using different colours and texture images to achieve the current environment aesthetic. Currently there is a domination of purple and greens I want to introduce some more assets with other colour variations and eventually add in my bird but for now I more focused on actually have a function drawing program in my virtual environment. Aesthetics and environment achieved now I just need that actually functional and interactive part of my project.

I usually like to leave GIFs but haven't the last couple of posts. They're like a reward for each week and they make blogging less stressful for me.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 8: video scripting, storyboarding and slight branding

Current status: development

For this week, I decided that I needed to take a break from figuring out unity and asset creations. I was beginning to feel even more burned out and frustrated as I still couldn't figure out how to get things running the way I want it nor was I pleased with how my 3D models were turning out. It was really important for me to pause what I was doing and focus on something else before I started to rage.

In order to feel refreshed but still remain productive I decided to shift my focus on to planning out my video. My reasons for this was to one, distract my self but still remain productive, and two, scripting for the video helped redefine what my project is about and helped me remember why I am doing this project.

Before beginning I asked my self three questions. What is the idea? What is my aim? and what did I do? This helped me redefine my project in away that made it easier for me to convey the main message of my video.

from this I started writing a script based off of the three questions I asked and answered earlier. By this point I already have a vague vision and idea but struggle the type of tone I want to convey. Especially with a vulnerable audience I am trying to portray, I do not want to offend anyone.

In my storyboard (flowing left to right, top to bottom) I have communicated the stressful events/environments situational depression can emerge from and some symptoms/ effects it can have on a person. Through the use of stock videos and self-made 3D animations I want to convey the stressful events, the disruption and the sad emptiness that come with depression. However, I also plan to use some recorded footage of the project in action to show how the project works and also the possible effects it has on the user outside of the virtual experience. My project aims to help introduce art therapy in virtual environment as starting point for developing a coping skill to manage depression.

For next week I plan to refocus back into unity and asset creation. After this week I'll be more motivated and driven on actually getting my project to function enough to actually be able to create something in VR.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 7: asset creation and prototyping

Current status: development phase

What I have done:

Make assets for my project in blender

Bird character update

researching and testing out features I want in unity.

How did it go? how do I feel about it? what can I do?

Environment :

During this week I took a break from animating and preparing my bird character for unity and instead focused on creating assets for my environment.

I photographed some flowers from my garden for some inspiration when I creating my assets. While I intend to go for a more stylised aesthetic for my environment I still want to draw inspiration from nature.

I still have a few more assets to create for my project such as more types of trees, rocks and other types of foliage to flesh out my scenes. The amount of work I made so far is enough for a prototype and to give a rough idea of how my project will look. Early on I made three different concept renders of possible environments. I have yet to settle on a singular on but intend to incorporate some aspects from each of them. [I will place the original concept renders below]

Personally, I am struggling with creating environments for my project and perhaps will look for some more inspiration in how 3D artists and video games make their environments to help me with environment development.

Bird update:

I have finally animated and coloured my bird character for unity. There are still a few more animations I still need to make and have yet to test if it works in unity. My bird was a distraction for me to focus on when I get frustrated with environment development. But ultimately I moved back to environment creation when I got frustrated with my bird character. I'm still figuring out a name for them. I have gotten comments of it looking like a duck, chicken or pigeon and many people asking what type of bird it is. Which I reply " it's a bird, with an identity crisis." or " it's stylised to fit with my environment." but to be honest the birds is a secondary feature that will mostly featured roaming the environment. Depending on how much time I have or how well I can figure out how to use unity, I would like the bird to be intractable. With dialogue such as:

"Hello!"

"How are you today? [a number in put is available for user to interact with from 0 - 10 to indicate how they are feeling]"

"If you need me I will be here"

"I can't fly with my small wings but I have strong little legs to walk around with."

"welcome back! Ready to start painting? I'll go find your brush!"

Personally I would like to have my bird Interactable as I think it would comforting but I am aware of my skill set and will have to settle for it to roam in the background or not appear at all.

Unity update:

After following and tutorials on how to create a drawing program or the very least a white board in unity. I noticed a majority of the videos required script writing. I have very little experience in any form of coding including C#. I have noticed allot of unity users tend to use visual studio/visual studio code or Jet brains rider. It took me a while to decide which IDE software to use but eventually chose Jet brains rider due to the following reasons:

1. the tutorials I watched they were using rider

2. my computer meets the system requirements for rider

3. visual studio/visual studio code won't support Mac from next year onwards (I use Mac specifically and Might want to continue using unity and writing scripts in the future and not wanting to have to change half way through next year)

I followed a tutorial on youtube on how to make a whiteboard in unity, to simulate drawing in reality and was following the way they wrote their script. The images above are the script I wrote based off the tutorial. However, It is incomplete and comes up with lots of errors due to my lack of familiarity and skills with unity and the IDE I am using. I'm still inexperienced and perhaps need to start with some more skill level appropriate C# tutorials before further attempts. In the mean time I am making more assets and learning C#. I was too eager and overestimated my self and skipped the basic tutorials because I wanted to focus on what I wanted to make first. But I am now aware that I need to slow down, take a step back and reevaluate what I can and can't do before continuing.

I currently feel a bit overwhelmed and burnt out but I'm trying to push through. I do find that when I'm stressed or need a way to focus I tend to doodle my little bird which helps me think and makes me feel a bit better. I hope I can include them and share the same effects they have on me to everyone else.

[link to the unity tutorial video that I was referencing earlier]

I personally think this is as very good tutorial I just need more practice and familiarisation with JetBrains Rider and Unity.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 6 - storyboarding and concept art continuation. (virtual character modelling and rigging test)

Current status: development phase

What I've done this week:

Presentation- I've given my 302 presentation however felt that I didn't do as well as I wanted to. I even made a script outline for my presentation but panicked and missed some key points and facts I wanted to mention. In my panic and rush I forgot to mention the status of ethics approval for my project which brought up some concerns in some feedback. However,I want to clarify that due to the not having ethics approval for this project. I will not be doing primary research and instead will be using secondary data and mostly user testing for the technical feasibility and user testing will be done in class.

Developing a virtual character - The inclusion of a virtual character was pulled from last weeks storyboard from the encouragement of my stream leader. After a rough patch in creating concepts for virtual environments. I have had this consideration of including a virtual character as a comfort character that inhabits and brings life to my virtual environments while being Interactable with the user. This character has been in the background of my project since week 2 and have been a reoccurrence in my mind since then.

3D modelling and rigging virtual character in Blender - Originally I thought of having a virtual character that was either a dog or cat or some type of other animal instead of a bird. But then thought "but birds are everywhere?" I see them in the city, in my neighbourhood, at the park, near the beach, ect. There seems to be some type of bird in most environments. And I feel that this non distinct avian would fit in any of the virtual environments I decided to develop. [skip here for talk straight to point talk about 3D modelling and rigging] Basically I made some basic sketches of the my Bird and did some very minor adjustments and exploration to the general shape of the body and eyes. Once I was happy I was a simple sketch and used that as my reference for modelling in blender. Once I was happy with my model, I began rigging my model after a quick refresher on how to rig in blender on youtube.

video of test virtual character rig in blender. ( Sorry for the sound, I don't know how to remove it. But you can hear some birds chirping in the background which grounds my early statements of birds being nearly every where.)

some closer screen shots of the Miro board. I find the beady eyes cute, but some might find it disturbing?

What I plan to do during the break before week 7:

I do intend to continue making weekly blog updates to keep a routine. ( To be honest I feel like mid semester breaks are illusion we tell ourselves to give some semblance of a drive/ goal for productivity but in truth a percentage of us are most likely still working on our projects/assignments during the break)

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 5 - storyboarding and environment concepts

Status: currently in my develop phase with story boarding and concept rendering.

tools/tech used: Ive been mostly using blender for concept renders and asset creations. I plan to use unity as my main program for the final project and have my project viewed in a oculus quest 2 VR head set. Though I might have my environment be prototyped in Mozilla hubs.

What I did this week:

Storyboard the initial process of user entering the VR environment

Concept images/renders of possible environments in blender but still need more work to fill them out.

more research and resource gathering on how to use unity and how to create a drawing program in unity.

Challenges I faced this week:

this week I struggled with issues involving rendering my concepts in blender but that was fixed by simply changing the render engines from cycles to EVEE. (examples of the two different renders below)

2. Another challenge I faced was my storyboarding, because I am still deciding between having a 2D or 3D drawing program in Unity. I am also debating on the decision of including a virtual character for the user to interact with and as a way to check in on the players well being.

Ive also tried to make a very crude animated story board using already rendered concept image and a doodled version of a virtual character.

3. I have been gathering video resources from youtube and unity's website in hopes to prepare myself for learning to bring my vision in to reality.

What I plan for next week:

To continue storyboarding the rest of the experience and resource gathering. May be actually start to familiarise my self with unity.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 4

What I did this week:

Define my hypothetical vision

mood boarding

pros and cons list of what software to use

presenation

My thoughts and feelings for what I did:

This was me basically breaking down and listing key elements of my vision that I gathered from previous research. From that I went on to create a plan A, B, and C ranging from highest to lowest fidelity. I personally feel that each plan could be furthered explored which I plan to do in week 5 with storyboarding and wire-framing.

I did some mood boarding to be inspired and gain motivation for the higher and mid fidelity plan of my project. Currently it could go either nature inspired using photos and 360 cameras or more fantasy/ fictional environment with inspiration from Science fiction.

here I made a list of pros and cons for the softwares I plan to use for my project such as deciding between unity and unreal engine. I was favouring unreal engine over unity but ultimately decided to use unity as unreal engine is cannot operate on my home PC. this is because my home PC is a Mac that is running on macOS Mojave 10.14.6. I also plan to use blender as my main 3D modelling software and have been gathering some tutorial videos on creating environments.

Made a script for my presentation and presented it. It went better than expected though I was restless and nervous leading up to my turn. At least I wasn't shaking too bad and actually tried to make eye contact with my audience more. Perhaps It was easier because the people present was less than the last time I presented.

Other thoughts:

My schedule is a little off due to the pushback of the previous blog post and presentations but over all not too bad of a week. Hopefully, week 5 runs a bit smoother.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

WEEK 3

what I did in week 3:

ethics module

organising my Miro board

preparing for project presentation

risk/limitation assessment and mitigation

developing a clearer vision with further research on topics

Thoughts and feelings on what I did:

I found the process of doing the ethics module and gathering evidence took the longest and had to be done in the span of over 3 days to complete all of the quizzes and readings. My thoughts during and after doing the ethics module Is how much consideration and care that is put into ethic to maintain and protect the well being of the subject and researcher.

Organising my Miro board was something I did in between the different sections of doing the ethics module in order not to get overwhelmed by the vast amounts of informations and readings.

I found making the presentation difficult as I needed to have my Miroboard mostly completed in order to complete my presentation. I mostly not a fan of presentation as I am not a fan of public speaking and struggle with organising slides and scripts.

risk and limitation assessments are somethings I struggle with as well as I can't do them all at once. It will probably a constantly updating list of things. I've manage to put down some basic and obvious risks/limitation and their mitigations. Like time management and lack of technical skills being remedied by timelines and early research and practice early on in the project

Due to this week overlapping slightly with week 4 I've decide to include the fact of doing additional research on situational depression, art therapy and the effects of different environments that can impact depression remissions. Most of this was to help better develop a clearer vision and be able to better explain my vision and reasons for my presentations

other thoughts:

aside from the going back and forth between these tasks I also made a mock up on what my vision could be like in VR using blender. It's not final and only a way for me to visually see and bring to life vision.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 3 [update delay]

Due to this week being incredibly hectic with preparing for 301 Assignment 2 hand in this blog update will be delayed to either 7th or 8th of august 2023. Hopefully week 4 won't be impacted too much!

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 2

This weeks was a fairly productive week. Feeling a bit more confident than last time.

What I've done this week:

Updated my project timeline

worked out my methodology after speaking with the stream leader.

did some preliminary research in the form studies ranging from art therapy, virtual reality, depression and the different forms of depression, virtual characters and their socio emotional benefits....

Developed hypothetical vision based off research

created a rough scope/limit of the project.

My thoughts and feelings on what I've done this week:

I struggled with how I would plan and write my project timeline last week. However, this week I decided to use the double diamond as a rough guide to help plan my project timeline in phase. This made things a lot easier for me to manage as I could focus on one phase at a time and not be overwhelmed.

I tend to struggle with finding a suitable methodology and often revert back to the standard double diamond of all of the design methodologies. In the past, I got a lot of feedback commenting that my chosen methodology require more elaborations or needed to be more distinguished. As I mentioned last week on needing some guidance, I spoke with my stream leader and told them how I tend to work and the type of researching I was used to. (note: I am a Design and Fine Arts conjoint. I am used to researching a topic/skill/artist, analysing what I've learnt and attempt to apply it to my work.) Together we were able to figure I had a Heuristic approach to research and was suited to practice lead research, learning by doing.

Most of the research I gathered are preliminary research to help better understanding the brief. Some are from 300 but further expanded and explored through new and additional literature that look at the topics separately and a few more additional readings that look at the more socio emotional side of things relating to virtual characters.

I have a hypothetical vision that was developed based of what I've researched. However, I'm just unsure on what emerging technologies I want to use. I think my vision is flexible enough to be able to be adapted in to a VR or a mobile version. But that mostly depends on the inclusions of a virtual character. I did get a passing comment from my peer to perhaps explore something else other than art therapy in conjunction to whatever emerging technology I decide on. I consider their comment, but felt that a lot of the one I had decided on other people were already research and I didn't want to compete with them. Plus I feel I have a better connection with art therapy than any other topics. Not because I've been to art therapy or have engaged with it in any formal way, but I often found that creating art was therapeutic for me. It was what drove me to continuously pursue it in my studies and was a safe way for me to express myself or refocus my attention from other studies or work. I felt slightly offended by that peers comment but I know they only meant well and was trying to provide and option for me to look at other paths I could take for this project.

I have created a rough scope/ limits for my project and have made some key points/elements I want to include. I am limited by my technological skills and the short 12 week time frame we were given. I will need to get people within my class to test my prototypes and not my target audience. due to ethical reasons. Whatever, solution I come up with I want to include some type of drawing program wether in VR or on a screen. The project should involve some type of VR environment and or virtual character.

Other thoughts: I still need to start on the ethics module and further update my micro board and make a presentation for week 4 but that's week 3 me's problem. I feel more sure of my self but shouldn't get too cocky.

I will try to keep a weekly schedule of Sunday posts.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 1

first week into the course and I am already feeling slightly overwhelmed.

Things that I've done so far:

looking at feedback on previous project proposal and figuring out what needs improvement

making a timeline and weekly to-do-list

Attempt to define a design methodology

define scope/limits of my project.

thoughts on what I've done:

Its easy to identify areas for improvement but I struggle to actually make improvements in those areas

Never have been good at making timelines as things never go to plan and personally prefer to make smaller more manageable tasks.

Finding difficulty in defining the right methodology for this project due to the sensitive nature of the research project. Perhaps asking other people, whom are researching similar projects, on what methodologies they've chosen could help me gain an idea on what methodology to use.

the most notable limits that emerged from the project is the obvious ethics surrounding the research topic and the limitations that are brought into it as well as the 12 week time Frame and limited skill set to potentially execute any possible solutions that could emerge

Already feeling drained. I might need to ask for some guidance.

[des302-emergingtechnologies]

Week 1 (TEST post)

Getting started.... reflecting on 300 and setting up blog and report for 302 and 301.