Shiny New Trees

Just a few trees that I developed recently:

Paper (White) Birch

I tried to construct the scene a bit more in the way I imagine it for the final version. I think the rocks are a nice touch, and I'd like to try a fallen log or two in the scene as well as some more varied ground cover. I still want to look into a more dynamic sky. Moving clouds would heighten the realism.

White Pine

This tree needs some work. For some reason the smallest branches ended up coming off the thicker ones in a spiral. I also need to refine the texture for the needles. It just doesn't look needly.

The more I think about it the more I like the idea of presenting each tree separately, filling a frame in the style of some of the older tree references out there. Anyway, sleep is needed for healthy bones or such and such...

Pretty Flowers

Finally rendered out an image of the Trillium model I made last week. It could be better, but it will mostly be filler for the undergrowth.

Breezy, Windy Gustamajiggers

I was messing around with creating a tree in the wind sort of movement last night. I think it was mostly a success...The only issues seem to be that I rendered from a bad angle to see what is happenening and the branches seem to dip down maybe a little too much. Also, I used some sort of procedural to define increasing rustling of the leaves but they don't seem to rustle at all. If seen from the right angle you would notice the tree bending in the direction of the wind and then winging back past its original location because of its elasticity. Oh well, good for an early effort.

Here's the link to a .mov

Sugar Maple Close Up

Just a detail of the sugar maple. I think it is by far the best tree I've made so far.

In with theLatest

Here is where I'm at with tree modelling/texturing right now. The rest is just temporary filler. Hopefully I'll have a render of a plant or two up soon too. From left to right: Sugar Maple, Alder, Mature White Cedar, Young White Cedar.

The Latest

Things are starting to shape up in the tree department.

Northern White Cedar: young version to the left and mature to the right. I also have animated versions of both which simulate blowing in the wind. Hope to have a video of that sort of thing up soon.

Refinements

I've further refined my workflow and created a new tree to do experiments on. Should be able to make better looking trees faster with this new method. My biggest obstacle will be keeping poly counts low enough for animated renders. Roughed out some lighting...

Leaves n' Stuff

I've gotten to the point of modeling leaves (using clip maps) for the Striped Maple. I'd like to see if I can further improve the look of things by using specific geometry for each leaf. It could look a lot better. As of now the textures, lighting, etc are all place holder till I master my tree building technique.


I also successfully ran a displacement texture through the leaves to simulate rustling as well as having the trunk sway. Still needs some work and time to render out an animation but it's getting there. Holy hell I have to do this for around 13 trees and plants!

Updates Updates Updates

So I've been considering what I'd like to include in this environment. So far the list is as follows:

Trees:
Striped Maple
Sugar Maple
White Pine
Hemlock
Aspen/ Poplar
White Birch
White Cedar
Beech

Plants:

Sphagnum Moss
Chokeberry
Arrowwood
Ostrich Fern
New York Fern

These plants are native to the adirondack region of NY. Whether my ambition exceeds my capabilities is yet to be seen. I plan on collecting leaf samples and take pictures of bark on my backpacking trick in a few weeks. Here is a rough draft of my sugar maple sans leaves:



More to come very soon

Field Sounds

Considering trying to record some relevant field sounds on my upcoming backpacking trip to the Adirondacks. I'd have to convince my backpacking instructor that a field recorder and 2 mics are not 'unnecessary weight' first though. If this plan goes through I'd most likely have to stick with the Adirondacks or at least the North east as my intended environment for recreation since accuracy is important.

The Hard Stuff

Looked into what it will take to accomplish the hardware aspect of this project. There's a nifty little costly gadget called the TripleHead2Go by Matrox that seems like a great solution to a real time implementation of this project. Instead of trying to harness multiple cameras rendering to separate outputs this makes much more sense, instead widening the screen resolution and FOV of the application and splitting it 3 ways. The drawbacks I see now is that it seems to distort the image a bit on the sides (fine for periph) and probably wouldn't be able to give a full 180 degree view like I'd be aiming for. (maybe modifications to the software are possible) Finally, the cost at about $270 is pretty steep but it's definitely cool shit and probably would come in useful for future projects.

I'm still looking at using Unity if a real time solution is pursued, and of course finding multiple projectors to use and configuring them correctly will be tough. I'm beginning to think that the installation aspect will be best to put off and concentrate on for the spring semester and that I should focus on the software end of everything for now

Multi-Screen Layout vs. Body Sway Paper

Found this cool paper on multi-screen layouts and their relation to immersion. In this case they related body sway (induced movement) to immersion and although I'm not sure that's the best way they did find some interesting things. Mostly that 3 screens are better than 1 (Duh) and using more than 3 screens doesn't help much. (As in using the vertical axis for display). This is pretty much what I was planning as an ideal solution and this was great in reaffirming that decision.

HERE IT IS!

I also watched The Lawnmower Man (on laser disc thank you very much) for inspiration and discovered the wonders of VR. The freaking dumb guy became smart and gained not only ESP abilities but telekinesis as well! Can't wait to see Lawnmower Man 2 where the viewer will witness what is "beyond cyberspace".

Proposal

Immersive Digital Environments for Applied Use

Luke Mazza

Immersion is an aspect of media arts that many digital artists seek to utilize in their projects, especially in those that are interactive. Anyone wishing to involve their audience in their vision completely, in the process eliminating the 4^th wall, can find a healthy understanding of immersion useful. One technique for triggering immersion in an audience/user is to create an environment that is as close to indiscernible from the real world of that person that they feel present in that environment. While there is much more to immersing a user/audience, (control, willingness of participants, atmosphere, etc) fabrication of realistic environments is worth having an understanding of. As a case in point one might wish to recreate a forest in a game world. In order to carry out such aspirations an artist must have a thorough understanding of the real world surroundings they intend to replicate, pursuing the essential knowledge that is required to digitally simulate a leaf on a tree found in Thailand, for example.

For this project I hope to investigate methods commonly used for creating digital environments for applied applications, as well as come up with some of my own. I will focus on producing a computer generated mock up of a particular natural landscape, ultimately appropriate for interactive purposes. The user/viewer will use visual cues as well as an accurate sound-scape to immerse their selves in this environment. After selecting a setting to simulate, the necessary research involving that place will be conducted as well as that relating to software and techniques that might be useful in accomplish this. Ultimately, I hope that this will lend greater understanding to others and myself as to the relation between environmental realism and immersion.

The full thing can be had here