The End

Overall collaboration was interesting and our group worked quite successfully.
We made our meetinsg quite regular and monitored our progress through, critqueing our work. The main challenge was the time aspects, as some of us work and having a time where its feasible for everyone was the challenge.

In terms of contribution, i was in charge of the video's, the presentations and the lighting. My group had chosen these roles for me, as they thought this was my forte.
i still have a sound understanding of the engine, as i did play around in it, in the first couple of Weeks and watched my teamates use it also.

I feel as though this was a great course and has really benefited me

Progress for Group

So yesterday i did the lighting in the group and didnt end up getting a chance to do AI as it was quite late, in terms of contribution, throughout the semester my group chose the tasks to do, than myself, since i believe i am quite outspoken it would be a chance for my team members to allocate me the tasks. I was assigned the lighting and the AI, thoroughout all three fabrications and also alot of the work on the team journal and also the video's and the presentations. Since they felt that they are my forte's.

Anyways today i found out the lighting wasnt successful as they had to move the environment, and something didnt work. So tonight i have to do it again! :(

progress update

Did the lighting today yay!!!!

Some screen shots of the lighting

progress

Today we are having a meeting in regards to the final design, tonight hpoefully i will get to put in the lighting and then start working on the final tusff, such as the image captures, polish up our team blog and also just the final presentation.

Progress

So far i havent been able to touch the final fabrication, today our group will meet again as wirada and i will be doing the AI element in it. And then i will continue with lighting. After that we can start working on the videos etc. Once again its a bit of a shame that we are running behind schedule as we are tight for time.

The specialisation

Tutorial for In text Overlay

1. To get started you need adobe Flash Cs2 or Cs3 to create flash objects.
2. Create a new flash (Action Script 2.0) movie.



3. Now create a small box in the upper left hand corner like so :



4. Next use the text tool to create a text area and set the text to #value#. Crysis usually uses the font Agency Fb, through the Hud.



5. Next, change the text area from static text to dynamic text, and set the Instance Name to "varText". Your properties should look something like this.



6.Next comes the most important part. You must embed the symbols into the text area, click on the "Embed…" button and select the following and click OK

7.If you don’t follow that step properly you will end up with boxes.



8.In the Actions Window, select Scene 1 from the object explorer, and type the following code.



9. Now export the movie to a file and call it "myfirstHUDItem.swf". Be sure that Action Script 2.0 is selected from the Action Script version dropdown.The following settings were used.






after that step it got a bit messy and i wasnt able to continue, i will keep attempting the next few steps and post up on it went. It is difficult for someone that has never used flash before. I know that it can be done, but there is a lot of trial and error. In particular this case, we are constrained for time, so in terms of making it possible, it could take days for someone like me as oppossed to someone who is pro at crysis.

My tutorial for the wiki posted up into crisis
http://files.filefront.com/Crysis+Tutorial+In+text+oypdf/;13900918;/fileinfo.html

Group Progress

In regards to group and personal progress, I researched for my topic and looked in the forums for the in text pop ups. And it sort of showed the cheating method I think, well any method is a good method right now, but I think I will try the flash tutorial to get it starting to work. Fingers Crossed, besides that I have to fix up my wiki, and add two more topics even though it wasn’t assigned to me. I still want to complete the communication and Culture topics. I have to also edit most of the wiki topics that I have done, my entries didn’t look so good because I didn’t know how to format the style. So when i would copy and paste my research it would go all funny.

In terms of the final submission, I have been assigned to do the lighting, some AI, the video and the presentation and the written work for the Team Journal. I really enjoy making video’s and using Vegas and fraps, using the relevant music etc. Its like a climax to the submission of a project, because the end seems so near.

Our Group is meeting on Sunday, to change a few things about the environment and the model itself , so we are all aware of the changes that are being made. When working in a group I think it’s more productive when the team is together, instead of passing around the file and emailing each other of the changes. Yes in some Circumstances it may be viable, but now that it’s the end, I don’t think it is.
I have three assignments due on the same day, so im under a lot of pressure in terms of time and producing quality work.

This is Our Current Schedule, but I don’t think we have worked according to the program.

Week 12 Collaboration Studio

Now finally it has come to the end of another semester, and another final studio class.

Today our guest lecturer was someone we all know really well, the one and only Russell Lowe. In his Lecture Russell gave an interesting lecture, on current projects and papers he is currently working on. One of them was for a hospital and another was for an artwork competition. It showed both the practicality and also the fun side of the programs we have been taught to use. I found him to be useful and quite engaging out of most of the guest lecturers, because I guess I could relate to him most, and he is someone successful in this sort of a field.

After Russell’s lecture, we had a brief talk by Stephen Peter about Grad studio, it seems daunting and almost surreal, that its so close. We had the opportunity to look through some past years projects, the ones I mainly looked through were modelling and visualisation. They seemed to be of a high standard, and it gave me ideas on what I can do for my final project. I have never used 3 DS max before and maybe this might be a chance for me to. I would like to challenge myself and do the best I can do, as it will be one of the final things I do in my university career.

We were then talked to by our Tutors, Jeremy and Graham. They went through our building and added their critical review about it. I thought this was really important as our tutors guide us into the right direction, to achieve the best possible outcomes from us. Graham had talked about changing the outside environment, for it to be more inviting and more Oasis like. Also there were a few technical issues, like spaces and things like that but that’s all part and parcel of using a comp program. Also changing the style of the windows and changing the structure of the building.

Communication & Culture

What is communication?

Communication is the method by which people share their ideas, information, opinions and feelings.People sharing ideas, information, opinions and feelings may contribute to the operations of teams and the work of individuals.There are various modes of communication, some of which are used more commonly in some workplaces than others.

There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body language, voice tonality, and words. Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way by both sender and receiver. It is a process that allows organisms to exchange information by several methods.

Every time we speak, we choose and use one of four basic communication styles: assertive, aggressive, passive and passive-aggressive.

Assertive Communication
The most effective and healthiest form of communication is the assertive style. It’s how we naturally express ourselves when our self-esteem is intact, giving us the confidence to communicate without games and manipulation.
When we are being assertive, we work hard to create mutually satisfying solutions. We communicate our needs clearly and forthrightly. We care about the relationship and strive for a win/win situation. We know our limits and refuse to be pushed beyond them just because someone else wants or needs something from us. Surprisingly, assertive is the style most people use least.

Aggressive Communication

Aggressive communication always involves manipulation. We may attempt to make people do what we want by inducing guilt (hurt) or by using intimidation and control tactics (anger). Covert or overt, we simply want our needs met - and right now! Although there are a few arenas where aggressive behavior is called for (i.e., sports or war), it will never work in a relationship. Ironically, the more aggressive sports rely heavily on team members and rational coaching strategies.

Passive Communication

Passive communication is based on compliance and hopes to avoid confrontation at all costs. In this mode we don’t talk much, question even less, and actually do very little. We just don’t want to rock the boat. Passives have learned that it is safer not to react and better to disappear than to stand up and be noticed.
Passive-Aggressive Communication

A combination of styles, passive-aggressive avoids direct confrontation (passive), but attempts to get even through manipulation (aggressive). If you’ve ever thought about making that certain someone who needs to be “taught a thing or two” suffer (even just a teeny bit), you’ve stepped pretty close to (if not on into) the devious and sneaky world of the passive-aggressive.



References


wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/communicn.html

http://leehopkins.net/


What is culture

Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behaviour; that is the totality of a person’s learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behaviour through social learning. A culture is also a way of life of a group of people; the behaviours, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include a group’s skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions. Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action. Culture is the sum of total of the learned behaviour of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation. Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.

References

Definition of Culture. Eastern Oregon University. accessed 13 May 2009. http://www2.eou.edu/~kdahl/cultdef.html
Hofstede, G. (1997). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGraw Hill

Progress and Week 11

Week 11

Today we had lecture in ICinema Centre of UNSW. The iCinema Centre was established for Interactive Cinema Research into digital interactivity for benchmark applications across the arts, culture and industry. It brings us in new media, aesthetics, cinematic theory, multimedia design, computer science, cognitive science, software/hardware engineering and mining virtual reality. We had the priveledge of watching some amazing video's that the researchers had made.
I found it to be quite an experience, and i think it would be really rewarding if you were to design or make innovative movies such as the ones showed to us today.


Started researching on the screen text overlay,
Not much luck so far. So just did some research on the other two topics that were not given to us, but i would like to do them anyway. The topics are Communication and Culture, i think they should be interesting topics, im going to chose to define the different types of communication that exists, since it is a very broad topic.
In regards to the definition of culture, that also is very Broad, but i will see how it goes.

Week 10

Since i have not been well, i have not been able to action any of the tasks, that i planned to complete. Hopefully this week i should be making some progress, my individual specialisation is On Screen Overlays (Text, information, etc.). So Im very excited and hopefully will get my tute started for those who want to use it :)

Studio Wk 9

We had a guest lecturer Shilo Mc Clean come in and gives us a talk about digital story telling, I found her talk to be very interesting and insightful as i enjoy seeing Computer graphics used in such instances. Then As she wrapped up, we were briefed with our next task of the final assignment and the requirements. We then were given a topic for our tutorials that we have to create for crysis. I chose to do text pop ups. That should be interesting and hopefully i can use it in my team fabrication.

Peer Review

After the presentation on thursday, it was really impressive to see everyone's fabrications, which have improved so much.
Just a a few thoughts on each teams Strengths and weakness's

Digilism:

Strengths: The building they choose was not a traditional sky scraper and that brought a sense of intrigue, to actually what is the function of this particular structure?

Weakness: The spaces within the building should have been further developed and the audience was not sure of the scale of the building as such. Even though they had produced a city, but we cannot judge scale from an aerial view.


Orange:

Strengths:The building is an interesting choice, the AI and the sense of scale was exemplified well as we were able to see the interior of the structure and judge for ourselves.The lighting also was integral to the building, as it showed the texture of the exterior of the building at night.

Weakness:I think the map of the city could have been more similar to the original as they are using a real city, im sure shanghai must be more lively than what they portrayed.

Urbans:

Strengths: The space is unique and has been much improved since the last time they presented.

Weakness: Some elements outside the building looked out of place and its integral they use A.I to give a sense of space, scale and time.

Omega:

Strengths: They had a lot of info for the external environment, which they capitalised on.

Weaknesses: They could have improed on the internal feature of the building.


Atlar:

Strengths:The model itself and the site placement is excellent.


Weaknesses: The rooms within the house look a bit bare and this can be further improved, by just adjusting the furniture.

Final progress Update

Following the late nights and last minute glitches, im hoping that we have covered everything, at the end i ended up doing the lighting three times and did a simple video showing the single dwelling at various times of the day, this put alot of time constraints on me, as my part was all last minute basically, and feels like more of load , then i had to get inspired to finish off my blog and complete some of teams Blog things completed. I guess i have learnt that its very difficult working in a group and there are various dynamics in the group, the lectures during the semester have also helped us understand the collaboration topics a lot better.

Planning

Planning


‘Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal.’(1)
A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next.

Purpose of Plan
Just as no two organizations are alike, so also their plans. It is therefore important to prepare a plan keeping in view the necessities of the enterprise. A plan is an important aspect of business. It serves the following three critical functions:
• Helps management to clarify, focus, and research their business's or project's development and prospects.
• Provides a considered and logical framework within which a business can develop and pursue business strategies over the next three to five years.
• Offers a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured and reviewed.


1. http://www.time-management-guide.com/planning.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning

Progress update

This are some still shots after my lighting hit and misses, i thought it would be the easiest task out of everyone, but it is painstakingly time consuming and by the end of it i wanted to rip my hair out. It also doesnt help when the other group memebers are not happy with the design, as then you have to start over bu then again that are the perks of workign in a group, other than that i will be working on the wikipedia, the video and just bits and pieces wrapping things up.

Collaboration topic 3

Remuneration

‘The principal aim of remuneration packaging is to legitimately restructure the way in which employees receive income so as to maximise disposable income. This is usually done in such a way that it doesn't impose any additional financial burden on the employer.’ (1)
‘Remuneration is defined as payments made to or for the benefit of a worker; but it's not just wages or salary you need to include in your annual reconciliation statement. Benefits to workers include items such as superannuation contributions, fees or bonuses, footwear, uniform, clothing and/or dry cleaning allowances and living away from home allowances. Then there's accommodation, motor vehicle and travel allowances, annual leave loading and holiday pay, back pay, call out or call back allowances and dirt money.’(2)
‘An employer may refer to remuneration as payroll. In this case, it commonly includes items such as wages, overtime pay, commissions, holiday pay, sick leave pay, meal money, and other expenses.’(3)
“Remuneration is the process which takes place after functions have been ranked and through which a salary structure will be established.”(4)



1. http://www.apesma.asn.au/adviceonline/remuneration/salary_packaging.asp
2http://www.workcover.com/Home/Employers/RegisteredEmployers/Reconciliation/Remuneration.aspx

3. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=remuneration

4. Job Evaluation and Remuneration Strategies: How to Set Up and Run an Effective System

5. http://www.hrkpartners.pl/en/images/ef_wyn_en.jpg

Update on final submission

So far the Work on the final submission has been going well, the textures and the importing was a problem at the last submission, but it has been successful. One of the only hiccups was in my part which was the light placement that didn't go too well.
The geometry was moved out of place and the lights were not lighting up properly. but that can be solved, also the sound needs to be put in place.

Update

After a few weeks of forgetting to post up progress, or actually being lazy, i realised i had a heaps of blogging to do, so hopefully in the next couple of dys i can post up most of the work that has been completed :)


Collaboration Topic

Hierarchy

Hierarchy is an pyramidal arrangement of items, (objects, names, values, categories) in which the items are represented as being "Above" or "below" or "at the same level", the word derives from greek word "hierarchia" it means the
'rule of the high priest'

Hierarchy could also refer to the categorization of groups of people. This separation is based on the ability or status of the people. The group so classified is also called hierarchy. For example: she is high up in the management hierarchy. Hierarchy could also mean a religious s rule set by a group clergy. Ancestry, genealogy, family, position, status, sect, and social rank are some of the synonyms for hierarchy.

An Example of hierarchy is Maslows hierarchy of needs,Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, which he subsequently extended to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. The lower four layers of the pyramid are what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "D-needs": physiological, safety and security, love and belonging, and esteem. With the exception of the lowest (physiological) needs, if these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense. With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take over and dominate their behavior. These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like.Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs , or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression.All humans have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby.




Knowledge

Knowledge is defined by the oxford english dictionary, knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes, perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning.

-Communicate knowledge
-Situated knowledge
-Partial knowledge
-Scientfic knowledge

Knowledge management comprises of a range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences.

Sound tutorial

Just an update on my personal progress, i completed the sound tutorial, so i can apply some sound to our draft environment, even walking through a space in crysis, its good to have some sound as its a real time environment.

The steps in the tutorial were:

1. Objects-> Area -> Shape
2. Snap to terrain ( choose the area that you would like the sound to be in)
3. Add an ambient Volume Area
4. Objects->Sound->Ambient Volume
5. Select pick
6. In ambient Volume properties click on name, then on the little folder
7. Select the sound that you want
8. Click Ok
9. Then have a walk through of your environment to double check the area that was
Selected.

10. Smile and Sigh a breath of relief :)

Progress update

Since Saturday most things have been running a bit too smooth to be quite honest, the modelling in revit has been completed, and the major issue is getting the textures into crysis, but hopefully that can be actioned, by doing it up in sketch up and then importing it crysis should solve the problems.

Our group is meeting tomorrow before submission, the challenge particularly for me is that im the last one to get the full project file, i have to complete the lighting, sound and the video's, as well as the basic requirements. I think its particularly challenging, as there are time constraints and basically having any hiccups in that time frame.

Week 3 update

Just a progress report on how the studio classes and how the team is progressing
I believe that everyone is contributing an equal amount of work towards are collaboration, we execute our tasks to the best of our abilities and enjoy working together as a team.

In the Studio Wirada created a schedule for our team, i think this was an excellent idea as we will actually try and keep to the schedule, and this also shows us our time constraints.




Also because my tech tests were easily solved, i thought that it would be best if i contributed more of my abilities to the project, i will be participating in the making a video for the draft environment, also exploring the sounds and putting in sound for the draft environment. I will also compile the collaboration for our group wiki. :)

Asynchronous Messaging

Week 3 studio


What is Asynchronous Messaging?

Most People in an asynchronous messaging system don't have to wait for a response from the recipient, because they can heavily rely on the messaging infrastructure to ensure delivery.

This is a vital ingredient in loosely coupled systems such as emailing, faxing and even on blogs because it allows participants to communicate reliably even if one of the persons is temporarily offline, busy, or cant get on contact with.

Modern e-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems, accept, forward, or store messages on behalf of users, who only connect to the e-mail infrastructure with their personal computer or other network-enabled device for the duration of message transmission or retrieval to or from their designated server. Rarely is e-mail transmitted directly from one user's device to another's.

tech tests

During the course of the wee, some how i magically found some time to experiment and perform tech tests, importing objects into crysis

I found some reall help ful video tutorials, this particular one showed how to
export 3D's max into crysis.


The second tech test was lighting, this was very simple all we had to do was click on entities, click on lights, then indiredt light and then place the actual light.

Very Simply Solved

The 8 Potential Problems

The potential problems that my team "evolve" thought would be a challenge were the following:

1.Creating water within the buildings
2.Drilling a perfect rectangular hole
3.Lighting of the rooms
4.Importing materials to Crysis
5.Importing miscellaneous objects to Crysis
6.Creating the cave for the well
7.Recreating the space (scale) with the information available
8.Correct flow of water (well to pool)

Each of these problems were allocated to each of the team members in the group, the two that were allocated for me were the lightingof the rooms, and the importing of miscellaneous objects into Crysis.

Technology and Conflict

A couple of words that come to mind when thinking of the word "technology"

mobile phones , laptops, digital cameras etc

These are some of the sites i came across when researching:

http://www.nae.edu/nae/techlithome.nsf/weblinks/KGRG-55A3ER

http://www.pa.ash.org.au/tefa/wite.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/technology.html

When thinking of the word conflict, the ideas that naturally spring to mind

are discord, opposition of values and interests, even words like conflict resolution.


http://www.teambuildinginc.com/tps/031a.htm

http://tilz.tearfund.org/webdocs/Tilz/Roots/English/Peace-building/Peace_Esection1.pdf

http://www.eruptingmind.com/what-is-conflict-disagreement/

Unbuilt architecture

The second building of my choice is the called Holiday Skyscraper in Sentina,
Sentina is an abandoned and degraded place situated in Italy’s west coast. The space dimension of this almost uncontaminated landscape which needs a new construction that takes into consideration history and nature.

The basis of this particular project traces a track of this landscape, a linear axis, a mixture of history and contemporary life: a route that highlights the presence of ancient country houses and an axis that ends unavoidably at the sea.

As it meets the line of the sea, the road bends, transforming into a skyscraper, which is one hundred and fifty meters high. It creates a conflict between nature and artifice, between ancient and modern.

What appealed to me about this particlar building were the conflicting qualities with in the building. Because of this i think this building is also very easily adapted into different environments

Unbuilt Architectures

The first unbuilt architecture i choose is known as "Well City", i found this particular building from the Evolo housing competition 2007. (Evolo is also a new york based magazine)

The designers were inspired by s. patrizio's sink, which was characterised by a flight of steps, that turns into a central space that contains water, and that has many openings, where is possible to observe a central space.

It is based on a semi-hipogen space; a visible level that contains a living room, a kitchen with spaces.

Another level contains a swimming pool, with different platforms. In the courtyard we can observe a series of volumes that contain aquarius.

What appealed to me about this particular architecture was the exterior, which i believe can be easily adapted to any environment and also the fact that it is underground.Its architecture is very simple and has modernist undertones through it.

I believe building this particular building will be a challenge as it is underground and has water in the central areas of the building.

SandBox Tutorials

A few snap shots of the tutorials that were to be completed so we can get get started with the program: