The Showcase...

Well, that was a long day!  I think in review, we have to say that the day went really well.  We got some great feedback from Tutors and students alike and it was nice to see Paul Emery, Paul Thompson and Simon Thomson all really like it (At least i think they did!)  Not only did we get some nice comments we also got another contact who is interested in taking the product to their school in Middlesbrough.  This is really encouraging and is something to talk about in the presentation.

As far as the presentation goes we are going through all the material tomorrow and running through it several times so we are really up for it come friday.

Nearly there guys...

Review of the 'DVD' weekend...

Over the weekend Jon D and Jon C worked on the DVD.  As predicted Adobe Encore CS3 gave us quite a few scares but we got through them in the end.  We ran into the problems with regards to getting the footage into the project but they were overcame through creating a new timeline and dragging in the footage separately.  It took all of Sunday, literally! And the best part of Monday.  I then burnt ten DVDs thinking I had ironed out all of the problems only to find that I had overlooked the Menu authoring which I checked a few weeks ago.  I discovered that they weren't looping due to the Overrides i had set up.  So a few more hours were spent ironing out all of these and a second lot of DVDs were then burnt.  The only positive to come out of the whole thing is that I now have lots to talk about it the Report with regards to problem solving!

Review of the week commencing May 4th...

Just thought I'd do a review of the week.

Monday

Today both Jons went through all the raw footage and exported onto the computer.  This took quite a lot longer than we first expected.  With this footage on the computer we could begin editing it further in preperation for the DVD.

Tuesday

Today work was divided between working on the promotional posters, hand-outs and fold-out guides.  Some extra footage was captured of the new colour-tracking system which gareth had been working on.  With all the footage tied up editing could begin in earnest.  Jon C worked pretty late on all the hand-outs and things, ready to print the following day.

Wednesday

Today was spent printing out the posters and other promotional stuff.  whilst Jon, Gareth and Tom were doing this Jon D was busy editing the footage.  Later n the afternoon Jon C began the arduous task of putting together all the promotional stuff, cutting and sticking, etc.  Gareth and Tom continued to work on the website, adding more content and making it look nicer.

Thursday

Today was more of the same, more posters needed to be printed out as Jon C managed to much up the mounting!  Jon D continued working on the DVD content and Gareth and Tom carried on working on the website.  Jon d worked well into the night on the DVD content so respect needs to paid his way! Hats off and all that...

Friday

Sorry to sound like a broken record but today followed a very similar pattern to the last.  The website is almost there and just needs video elements added to it.  Both Jons worked well into the night once more, working on the DVD.  The footage is about 80% there so hopefully we can meet up on sunday and finish it all.

Jon C is buying blank printable DVDs, more ink for printing and DVD cases on Saturday.  So, hopefully we can meet up on sunday afternoon and sort the rest of it out.

Pretty much finished the patch

Today I've been sorting the final touches to the patch, ironing out bugs throughout the whole system and making the audio a bit more exciting. There is still a lot more that could be done but I'll see what you think tomorrow as I really really really need to start working on the report and put the audio patch down as it's really taking control of my life. Some samples could however do with mixing but it would take an age to get it working to a reasonable standard so may reconsider that once I get going with the report so it's ready for the final presentation next Friday.

Any road I'm waffling now...

I've also put the colour tracking system into a patch so there are now two different patches "Welcome to SeeZen WiiMote" and "Welcome to SeeZen Colour Tracking". It is basically a stripped version of the Wii Interactivity. Features include - Video Crossfading, Video Rotation, Video Zoom (or whatever it is) Interactive audio pan and Interactive sample playing. I'll demonstrate it tomorrow as there is a lot to explain.

Thats all guys

Gareth's Work this Weekend

First of all I've put the SeeZen website online, I've not touched it in ages and looking back it's pretty ugly so if there is anything that anyone would like changing I'll be more than happy to. You will be able to find it at www.garethmead.com/seezen/ (it's obviously nowhere near finished but shouldn't take too long)

Working on the colour tracking
I came across a Jitter tutorial for colour tracking which I've tweaked to suit interaction from the webcam on my computer. It seems to work really well with blue paper and at long distance gives plenty of scope for movement and therefore increased interactivity. This would be a great addition as an extended method of interactivity as the ability to tweak the numbers to match pretty much any physical ability and get a wide range of values, making it possible for even the smallest movement to have a large impact to what happens on screen. I've not yet implemented this into the system as I've been focussing my attention more on the audio system and rebuilding the sample players...

Work on the audio system
As we have been working through the project this week we've all addressed a few small issues with the audio system, specially the amount of samples sat in the RAM which may only play for a few seconds over a 10 minute session. This is obviously quite wasteful of the resources so I've built a completely new system to eliminate this happening. It works by simply loading in the samples as they are needed. Both the interactive and ambient elements have 4 temporary sample players where samples are dynamically loaded and cleared as and when necessary.

In addition to this there were a few issues with some samples which were set as interactive sounds but would probably work better as ambiences and vice versa. Those changes will be made tomorrow.

I'm also not keen on the way the samples play for only five seconds and fade out leaving some gaps in the overall ambient texture to the sound. Again this will be hopefully sorted by tomorrow and make the audio sound and feel a lot more natural.

Thats pretty much everything I plan to do for the audio system, other parts may include trying to eliminate some crackles if I can understand where they come from and pairing ambient samples together for a stereo image. Such as if waves1 plays waves2 is forced to play too and they interactively pan around each other. It can be done I just need to get my head around how it might work in my new system.

Thats all for now folks.

Monday 4th April

Today both Jons have gone through all the footage we have collected over the last weeks, exporting it onto the computer.  It all looks great, but will obviously need some editing. Unfortunately some of the audio is a bit poor but we can have a stab at editing it with Audition.  Tonight Jon D is going to go through all the photos, editing the colours and exporting them as tiffs.  Jon C is going to work on the fold-out hand outs.  Tomorrow we aim to finish the posters, ready to print in the evening as they take three days to print.

A Review of Week Commencing 27th April...

Last week was the toughest yet! The group turned in some serious hours and completed a lot of work in the process. Here is a review of the week day by day.

Monday 27th April

This day was our first at Lumen Exhibition Space. We got our head around the space, the set-up and equipment we had access to.  It took us more time than we would of liked to get used to the projector, and setting the colour up correctly.  Once this was completed we got on with the tasks that we had arranged to complete during our stay there.  This consisted of integrating the two systems and working how the audio would complement the visuals.  All of the Max work for the day was spent on this task.  As well as this we began documenting the installation and our work for the DVD and promotional material.  This included time-lapses of us setting up and down, carrying out the work and the visuals.  Once we had finished at Lumen other activities were carried on separately at home.  Jon D worked out which audio samples would play with which videos.  Gareth worked on the foundations of the interactivity side of things and getting the wiimote to work effectively with the Mac. Finally Jon C worked on promotional material, including info sheets to hand out to the school, and t-shirt designs.

Tuesday 28th April

This day was almost a copy of the previous with almost all the time devoted to calibrating the audio with the visuals and creating a system which would allow them both to be used together.  Tentative efforts were made with regards to the interactive nature of the installation but the majority of the time was spent integrating the two systems.  Once we had completed our day at Lumen more tasks were completed separately at home.  Jon C mixed music for each season which we could choose to play or not depending on what the user wanted.  This was the same music as the DVD but with the ambience's removed.  Jon D worked on the visual patch, working out how to make the visuals merge more smoothly and the boundary mode.  Gareth continued to work on the interactivity side of things and also making the ambience's work more smoothly and sporadically to achieve a more natural sound.

Wednesday 29th April

This day was long and intensive! Our time at Lumen was dedicated to making the patch interactive.  With the audio and visuals working nicely with each other would could concentrate on the interactivity.  We created the basics of our system deciding what actions and buttons would control what.  As well as working on the wiimote system we worked on the infrared system with our newly purchased infrared illuminator.  These tests were unsuccessful and ultimately fruitless.  Whilst these tests were being carried out Jon C worked on the info sheet and questionnaire which would be handed out at the school the following day.  Once our day at Lumen was complete we travelled back to uni where we printed off the info sheets.  Once this was done Jon C, Gareth and Tom travelled over to Halfords to get reflective tape and stickers!  We then travelled back to Jon C's house and worked on the interactivity which carried on into the early hours of the morning.  By the end of the day we were we needed to be but only just!

Thursday 30th April

Today we travelled to the Dales School and tested our product with the children. We documented the whole day with video and photos including the product in action with the children and an interview with Alayene, the head teacher.  We also recorded a review of the day after in a pub on the way home.  Overall it was a long day but well worth it.  We were all a little quiet on the way home but i think that was due to how tired we all were after the previous days work.

Friday 1st May

This was our final day at Lumen Exhibition Space.  The day was devoted to filming the product in action and various demonstration videos.  This day was a little shorter than the others as we had flogged ourselves during the week. 

Over the weekend Jon C worked on some of the hand-outs and Gareth worked on a light-sensing interface which we could use instead of the wiimote system alone.  Overall i think we earned a well earned rest as we are on track with what we need to achieve.