This week our assignment for the blog was about time management, and more specifically keeping track of the time we spent doing.. anything? I just kept track of my time in regards to school, and it was interesting to see just how much time I have been spending on the work for this program. If I were to actually track everything I do in my life, outside of school included, it would likely be depressing to see just how little free time I have right now. It’s good to be busy, but also I like to be in charge of my workload. Anyway, here a visual representation of the data:
At least this week, I’m spending significantly more time working on schoolwork at home than in class. I knew I’ve been spending a bunch of time doing homework, but I’m not sure I thought it was THAT much. 12.5 hours of homework in a day has to be abnormal right? Anyway, the data doesn’t lie. Was this helpful for me? I don’t know. Not enough that it will be a practice that I continue. It was an interesting experiment!
For the final project for my new media module (AR) we were creating augmented reality panels through EyeJack creator. As a group, my team chose to create our panels on Seattle neighborhoods. I created panels for the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
I created the media to include in my AR panels using mostly Photoshop. There is also a gif showing a simple animation of a line following the curves of the skate structure featured in the center panel that I made in Procreate. The assets that I used in my projects were either a png or gif file. The transparency of these files works well for creating a more immersive augmented reality experience.
For this weeks blog assignment we made videos incorporating AR 3d models created with the application Polycam. Here is my video:
It was very interesting to see just how quick this application could create a 3d model, and how that model could be used in video. I can only imagine all the other uses available for 3d model assets and it’s fascinating just how easy it is to create them using an application like Polycam.
The assignment for this week in my new media breakout group (AR) was reviewing a VR or AR experience application. The app that I chose was Tracing Projector.
Tracing Projector in use
I was honestly incredibly surprised at how well this app succeeded at its goal- being a tool to assist people with tracing any image. I feel like so many AR experiences are gimmicky or don’t have any legitimate functionality. This app felt useful.
The company that creates Tracing Projector compares the app to being like a modern day camera lucida- a tool that would direct light from an object through a prism that you could look through and trace
Basing the app off of an existing but dated technology is an interesting idea, and potentially set this app up for success. The idea was already proven successful, but the technique was antiquated. This app shows its usefulness when you compare it to other tracing options available. The app is much more portable and cheaper than a light box, more flexible to variable light conditions that taping paper to a window, and allows multiple canvas options as opposed to tracing paper or other tracing methods.
Cat drawing made with Tracing Projector
The app isn’t perfect. It advertises being able to be used while holding the phone, but I found a tripod or stack of books is necessary. The phone needs to stay still for best results. This was annoying at times even when using a stack of books; any movement of the paper or camera would require you to readjust the alignment so that the projection matched the tracing.
The app is free, but the free mode is quite lacking, you are limited to three minute tracings, which I only had success with simple images within that time frame. The full paid version is only five dollars, which I think is a pretty reasonable price for an interesting tool.
Tracing Project in use
Overall this was one of the most interesting uses of AR that I’ve seen so far, and it made me excited to learn about creative ways of using AR that I’ve never considered. It seems like there are so many pointless AR gimmicks, and it was refreshing to see an idea with a legitimate function.
This week in my New Media break out group (AR) we created immersive AR “card” experiences. The tool we used for this project was Adobe Aero. For my project I decided to create an AR chess game. While it doesn’t actually function as a game of chess, it gives a good idea of what AR chess could look like, and highlights that games are a pretty interesting use of AR.
AR chess game on my living room floor.
I got the idea to create a mock-up of an AR chess game while walking through Cal Anderson Park the other day. There is some permanent chess board installations in the park, but there is not permanent chess pieces. I thought it would be an interesting use of AR if you could pull up pieces on the board simply with a QR code.
Cal Anderson Park Chess Board. Pieces were not there the day I walked by. Photo from Cal Anderson Park on Flickr.
The AR experience that I created works this way: 1. Scan QR code to open Adobe Aero on mobile device. 2. Begin AR experience and display AR on a surface. 3. Click the thumbs up to play. 4. Click on pieces to interact with game.
Images of what the AR chess experience I created looks like.
An unfortunate drawback of this project was that you can’t actually play chess in this AR experience, it is simply a mock-up. The limitation was likely a combination of my skills and Adobe Aero’s capabilities. Adobe Aero lets you click on a 3d object to have it begin doing an action; in my version clicking on the pawns moved them on the board to show how pieces could move in this game. I don’t believe that you can click and drag 3d objects around the scene at will. If that were to change it likely wouldn’t be too hard to get this up and working.
Overall I think it’s a cool idea that would allow people to play this game while also involving the environment. For the time being, the best solution is probably bringing chess pieces with you to Cal Anderson Park.
I was assigned to create a poster for Rebecca Black. I thought this was funny at first because I only knew of Rebecca Black from her famously terrible song, “Friday.” She has since grown into a pop singer hardly reminiscent of her early viral debut. “Worth It for the Feeling” is one of her recent hit songs.
I used Procreate for the iPad to create my poster. I used Rebecca Black’s official Capitol Hill Block Party promotional graphic as a reference photo, and drew a portrait of her for the background. I used a watercolor style effect to add color to the poster. The typeface I used was Avenir. I wanted to keep the color palette relatively small, and used pink as the primary color of my design. My design really emphasizes the analog (looking) mediums used, but clearly harness digital technology to further add visual interest. The portrait is duplicated and flipped, and the text is assembled with symmetry heavily considered. Originally I had only intended to have one portrait on the poster, but the negative space did not create a good space to insert text that was interesting and easy to read. I couldn’t not take the opportunity to emphasize Black’s last name in bold black text.
