Week Summary: Oct 22 - 26

This week we:

- Made the Tree Model
- Have a working version of the script
- Got most of our hardware in
- Got part of the software working
- Made storyboards
- Kept the blog up-to-date
- Planned out art tests for kids

Next Week:

Brendan will:
- Determine if we can do our animation in MAYA - By Tues
- Determine if MAYA can export to CAD - By Tues
- Detailed-model the tree - By Fri

Anuja Will:
- Test the owl models @ Children's museum - By Tues
- Work with Staque to set up Music creation - By Friday
- Finalize Script - By Wed
- Work with Language Departments to get script translated - By Fri

Karin Will:
- Finish Details on Tree Model - By Tuesday
- Finish Owl Char - By Friday

Rob Will:
- Get 7 channel sound working - by Friday
- Get DMX working - by Friday
- Figure out a way to optimize the computer's processing power - by Friday
- Make video playback work - by Friday
- Tree Model support

Rich Will:
- Finish Room Art - By Friday
- Detailed story boards (including motions and tweens) - By Friday
- Determine what's going on with Candy Land - By Friday

Evan Will:
- Work with Tim Hearman (VO Guy) to get him into studio - By Wed
- Find Language Voice actors - By Fri
- Integration
- Video Compression
- Audio SFX
- Figure out payment schemes for VO and Music composition

Phone Call with Bob's Space Racers

Today we had a phone call with Bob's Space Racers. We talked with Jack Mendes along with a couple of their engineers. Here are a few notes from the meeting:

- We cleared up a lot of our design with them. They are comfortable
with construction of the tree as we designed it, including the leafy
'cap', the stations of spindles and needles, and the tree itself. They
imagine the construction to be a combination of wood, fiberglass and
coating.

- We need to do more work on the pillow delivery system....

- They are cool with DMX and Phidget systems for the show control. For
the actual control of the delivery system, they want to use their
electromechanics, and interface with our computer via RS-232. Rob is
cool with that.

- For the 'shaking branches', they suggested something like a wooden
wind chime.

- Their schedule for production says that they can't really begin work
on this until May/June 2008.

1/2 Presentations Over

Our 1/2 presentations are over! The faculty seemed to really like our presentation. Check out the stream here:

mms://wetc.tv/stream/semester3_2007/project/etc-pgh_half-semester_presentations_semester3_2007_day1.wmv

or download it here:

http://wetc.tv/download/semester3_2007/project/etc-pgh_half-semester_presentations_semester3_2007_day1.wmv

1/2 Presentations

We have 1/2 presentations tomorrow! It's at 2:30 PM ET. We're going to be the 4th (and last) team going. They decided to save the best for last this time! Be sure to check it out at:

mms://broadwave.etc.cmu.edu/live

Wish us luck!

Orlando Trip #2: Meeting with GKTW and Bob's Space Racers

Today we had our second meeting with GKTW. Jack Mendes from Bob's Space Racers was on hand as well. We presented our new ideas for the Pillow Tree and Rusty's Machine, as well as possibilities on how to combine the two.

In the end we decided to go with the Pillow Tree. A majority of the people liked the feel to it, as well as the story. We did get a lot of feedback though, including making sure it was interactive. We also learned that we can't really use cloth in the creation of the tree, as it can get tattered or dirty really easily, as well as fading. We want to make sure that what we give to GKTW is as good 10 years from now as when we initially hand it off.

Unfortunately it was a short trip this time, but we still had enough time for ice cream! Kathy always makes sure of that! We're back in Pittsburgh for a while now so we can focus on our project without travel fears. It was quite a long week, and we're all tired out. We're a little sick as well. Hopefully we can recover this weekend!

Orlando Trip #2: TEA / SATE, Day 2

Today was the second part of the conference, which had the technology and experience parts of the conference. The technology portion was very interesting. One person talked about a lot of projects he was working on involving his shadow recognition system, which is similar to the PlayMotion system we use here at the ETC in our Building Virtual Worlds class. He's also worked with the ETC before on a fountain in Atlantic City. There was also someone from Thinkwell who talked about a lot of new and interesting technologies he found through viral videos and other places on the web. Finally there was someone from Electronic Arts who talked about their development phases for video games.

The afternoon session this time was about experience. Yves Pepin was the focus of this part, and he showed off a lot of his work, including his production of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. It was interesting to see all of the different experiences he had created.

The day concluded with a trip to Give Kids the World Village. 14 people from the conference came over to the village and we gave them a quick tour. We showed off all the past ETC projects that we had done for GKTW. We also showed them the pillow machine and talked about how we're redesigning it this semester. They all were very interested in what we were doing and they said that they had a great time. I'm glad so many people came out and visited, because GKTW is an amazing place.

In general, the SATE conference was a nice start in trying to get a basis and a general understanding of what everyone in the industry is doing, and why they perform their jobs in certain ways. Hopefully next year's conference will be even better!

We stayed at GKTW for Village Idol, and the children that performed were amazing! They're all so adorable and doing their best, and we are inspired by their effort. We hope tomorrow goes well.

And what day would be complete without some mini golf?

Orlando Trip #2: TEA / SATE, Day 1

Today was the first day of the SATE conference. SATE stands for Story, Architecture, Technology, and Experience. This is its first year, and it is run by the Themed Entertainment Association. It is a conference that is designed to bring together leaders in the themed entertainment industry and try to get a better understanding of all the different parts required in order to make a good experience.

The conference was split up into two days. The first day contained the story and architecture sections. For the story part they brought in Bill Lepp, a "professional" storyteller who told us some tall tales. His stories were hilarious and they were a great way of showing how to keep people entertained in one of the oldest forms imaginable: oral tradition.

We then had different speakers talk about different projects they were working on and how they tried to create a story in order to market it to consumers. This included someone who had created stories to market for events such as the Olympics and the Pan American Games, and someone who tries to create stories for Coca-Cola. It was a nice way of allowing different people in the industry to explain some of the stories they had created and why they did it in that fashion.

The afternoon portion focused on architecture. In this section leaders in architecture talked about different projects they were working on or had created in the past, and why they had chosen a certain layout. One of the speakers was a former Imagineer and showed some of the past creations he had made for the Disney parks. The day ended with a charette in which we had to create a ride based on one of the stories Bill Lepp had told us. There were certain constraints on throughput and budget, and so it was interesting to see what ideas different people had.

There was also a mixer tonight in which we were able to relax and talk with people from different areas of the industry. It was a nice way to settle down and chat with leaders from vastly different fields. They all seemed interested in our program and what we were doing. We all had a great time and we met a lot of nice people.

On a side note, a lot of us now have colds. I'm guessing that the cruise made a lot of us sick. Hopefully we'll get better soon. One day down, one to go!