MD318 – Blog 8

We have just over a week until our Project is due and it’s all finally coming together. Javad has been a huge help this past week. He has given us lots of guidance and allocated his free time to helping us. I began the AfterEffects animation on the new 3D map design for our video. I video chatted Lucy and Niamh on Tuesday to show them exactly what to do. We all want to do our part, which is great, but our work needs to be consistent with each other’s progress so we don’t alter the flow of the animation. My part of the animation went smoothly, however we ran into some issues when I tried to send them the AfterEffects file…

Above is what Lucy & Niamh encountered when they opened the file. I did everything correctly – Javad had reminded me to send all the dependencies so it would work. We seemed to try everything; zipping the file, sending the folder etc yet it still wouldn’t open properly. We quickly emailed Javad who assured us it is a simply process which only confused us – What was the problem? Javad thankfully offered to call us the following day and walk us through it. Everything was how I had done it the previous day yet, Ta-Da, it works this time! None of us knew what the issue could’ve been but we don’t care as long as it works now.

Lucy has began her part of the animation and I walked her through it step by step as she asked for my help. All that is left to be done regarding the animation is Niamh’s part and a segment to show what the map will display whilst not in use. The girls and I played with the idea of projecting fun facts and news about Maynooth University while the map isn’t being used. However, after some research, there isn’t a lot of resources regarding the University News. This may be due to the current Pandemic but the three of us agreed there isn’t enough substance there. Instead, we hope to display a loop animation of the building colours and names. It is a simplistic idea but we have put much thought into the choice – The map would be located in the Library, a busy hub for students. The projection of colours and building names on the map can intrigue them with minimal distraction. It will also seem more interactive and appealing. We will probably add a ‘Touch Here’ feature while the map is not in use, inviting users over. We also put a lot of work into the colour choices and design of the whole map. It would be nice to show this in our Project video within this feature.

I worked on the virtual room over the weekend. I positioned everything and added colour to the new projector. I have tested out many materials in the scene for the wall and floor – concrete, wood, brick, plastic and tile. However, none of these seem to fit nicely into the space. Therefore, I reevaluated the materials and have decided to use a more simplistic and not as realistic material. The realistic textures take away from the focal point of the room – the map. I have a meeting with Javad on Friday evening to examine the Maya scene and hopefully put together the clip for the final video. Hopefully he can show me how to incorporate subtitles/text bubbles into the scene to explain our layout and overall design idea. We have just over a week to put this all together, I really hope we don’t run into any major issues between now and then.