Launching Skill Share
This is a short project only lasting a week but it is aimed at building on existing studio skills through providing a series of workshops throughout the week. These workshops will on VPT and Projection Mapping, VR workflows, Arduino work and finally 3D printing with data.
Throughout the week I have to attend a minimum of two but I might catch up on them all online as well since these are all areas that I would like to learn more about. So far I've signed up for the VR workflows and 3D printing with data since I think I could take pointers from each of these workshops to expand on past projects. In particular the VR workshop could be a good shout for expanding on my last project of 'RealTime Events', as I have already created the digital environment it would be great to see what it looked liked in a VR experience.
VR Workflows
So what is VR?
VR stands for Virtual Reality, which is "a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world." VR has taken the world by storm with gaming giant PlayStation now offering around 700 different games playable through VR headsets. VR doesn't have to be purely games though, people have created experiences like medical school training, flight simulations, virtual concerts and many more. I'm excited to go to this workshop and see how to actually start creating a VR environment since Unity is fresh in my mind.
Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift S
Oculus Quest 2
The Workshop...
It all started with Neil setting up the lesson and explaining in detail what VR is and how we can access it on this course. He had brought three different oculus models with him but two of these were his personal equipment. I feel like if this is something I would want to seriously pursue, I should look into getting the right equipment so I could do this from home.
The three models which are pictured to the left, were the rift (now discontinued), the quest (the newer mobile and portable version) and the rift S (the more powerful updated version of the rift, it has to be plugged directly into a PC).
There seems to be a decent number of companies offering commercial VR experiences. Neil told us about a VR film festival experience he took part in in London which reminded me about the Van Gogh immersive gallery I went to, also in London. The gallery I went to was a VR and projection experience, bringing Van Gogh's paintings to life. The VR set up was a large dark room with assistants taking you to and from the headsets. Once it was on you didn't need any controllers and it was a 10 minute long walk through film of where Van Gogh had lived over a period of time when he created some of his most famous paintings including 'Starry Night'.
It's interesting to me to hear of all the VR experiences happening as this seems to be something that galleries are truly embracing.
When we first started the workshop Neil actually told us that creating a VR environment isn't all that different from the environments we created during the last RealTime Events project. The difference is your Unity account has to be set up to export to VR and you have to have the Oculus Integration package in your Unity assets. Below is a screenshot of the integration package I would need to download and from downloading this I could simply load the OVR Camera into the scene.
The only downside to this whole process is that I love mac and that's all I use. To make these scenes and use this software it has to be PC so any work I did on this would have to be strictly in studio.
From the demo, setting up the VR camera was simple. It was the exact same process as creating a First Person Camera (FPS), with importing the asset pack and selecting the pre fab and then dragging that into the hierarchy.
Before you create an experience for VR you should consider the model you're going to be using. Headsets that need to be plugged into a PC could limit users range of movement and just generally how far they'll be able to move around a room.
Just like you could in FPS, you can add hands or tools for the user to have as a visual for their controllers. You can again use prefabs to make these or you could 3D model anything you want the character to hold.
The built in cameras are a great feature since i've never worked with sensors before so i'm assuming this would be the easiest way for me to start however that doesn't mean I don't want to expand my knowledge of sensors. Neil did elude to the fact that cameras are becoming more mainstream so sensors may die out...
Dear Angelica
I actually got try out the headsets as well, my favourite was the rift s as it had some nifty hardware features like the built in adjustable ear covers for audio. Its display was impressive with a very clear picture and no lagging visuals, having a full 360 view point was the coolest part especially as I had to physically turn in real life to be able to see parts of the film. The film I watched was 'Dear Angelica' and although I wasn't paying too much attention to the storyline, the visuals were incredible. I loved the fact it seemed like you had been placed in the middle of a painting as it was being painted around you.
Going Forward...
I really liked this workshop and I feel it's something that I could actually do and the kind of work i'm producing just now would translate well in a virtual environment.
From this week I can take a lot of starting knowledge and apply this to projects not only going forward but i think it would be cool to see how my last RealTime Events project would look in a VR headset especially with all of my spatial audio cues.
I've added a couple of quick sketches of some plans for making this environment VR.
3D Printing With Data
So what is 3D Printing?
3D printing is a layering technique to create 3-Dimensional objects using computer aided design. It basically is a machine that you can upload your files, containing your 3D design, on an SD card to. The machine then uses melted down materials like plastic to build your 3D design from the ground up. You can get personal or commercial 3D printers but these could essentially be in multiple households across the globe with some of the least expensive printers coming in at around £200-£300.
In the studio we have the MakerBot Replicator 2 which is pictured to the right.
The Workshop...
Paul started the workshop with explaining what software is actually needed to be able to do this process from start to finish. In total you would need around 5 separate software packages to be able to take your data from Processing to a fully realised 3D print. From start to finish the software I would need would be; Processing, Illustrator, Photoshop, Cinema 4D and finally MakerBot.
Processing is basically where you start. That's where you would make your data sketch and export your greyscale bitmap as a pdf into Illustrator. From Illustrator I have to make it into an artboard which makes it into a vector. I would then resize the artboard and create a black background around it. Export this as a png to Photoshop and apply a blur effect, once again export as a png. That png file should then be applied as a texture to a 'relief' (which is basically a plane on cinema 4d). This then assigns the png to a 3D object in turn making it a 3D object. You can then export this as a waveform obj file to be uploaded to MakerBot. In the final stage in MakerBot you have to export the obj to a GCode file, this is the file type that basically turns your obj file into slices for the 3D printer to decipher. This GCode file is the final file that gets uploaded to the SD card. You're then ready to print!
My notes from the entire workshop are on a pdf reader to your right and includes all the helpful pointers that Paul gave throughout the session.
Paul Setting Up
Paul showed us how to feed the material and replace the plastic in the machine, he also warned us to be careful when doing this as it can be very hot and fiddly. When the material was put through the machine you could see the stringy melted plastic slowly pour from the top to the bottom of the plate. It was a red plastic but when you first put it in and melt it, it goes white then goes through a gradient to the intended colour.
Machine Printing
When the machine was actually printing you could hear the differences in noise depending on what area it was printing. It could get quite high pitched and loud if it was doing a fairly dense area but we had to be careful and listen out for a trapped screetch as this would mean the material was stuck in the feed.
Stanford Bunny Print
After we made the 3D file in cinema 4d and uploaded the GCode file from MakerBot to the SD card it was time for the printer to get to work. Before sending it to print we got to see what 3D prints look like inside as well as feel some of the quality of the prints. The prints themselves weren't heavy and the felt a bit flimsy but the type of plastic that is used as the material means prints like these, unless broken down and recycled, will be on the planet for like 10,000 years...
Going Forward...
This was a really fun workshop and I really enjoyed that I got to see a finished product at the end of it, even if a tiny print does take like 40 minutes!
Going forward I can think of many things I'd like to 3D print but I think I could really make use of this machine when it comes to creating handheld demos and replicas of any physical creation i'm making. Off the top of my head it would be cool to recreate a mini model of my arcade machine that I made for the Control project. That is quite a complex little model for a first try but it's something I could build up to and I may just need to practice some more simple prints first so I can get used to the process.
I've added some quick sketches of what I could see myself 3D printing and how I could incorporate 3D printing into my Control project.
Introducing 3D Printing to 'Control' Project
I've created 3D model mockups of possible outcomes if I were to incorporate the 3D printer into my 'Control' project. The projects final physical form was a wooden arcade machine style that included an Arduino board with sliders and buttons connected to a yes or no answer system. I built the physical contraption out of plywood and although it would be good for a a couple of goes at various installations, the build itself could've done with being more smooth and sturdy for continual usage. This is where I think the 3D printer could come in handy.
As long as the Arduino board and mini buttons where measured to fit snuggly into the all in one display I think the design could be successfully scaled down. I had come up with a few ideas to make it compact and transportable, maybe by including some kind of clip or chain. The whole idea of my 'Control' project was around how people are feeling so to have the device with you at all times I think may add to the concept.