Updates for 3D AR

 We have established a spot where we would like to make our piece from. We are using the corner of 4th and Sierra due to its great view of a multitude of ads and some its very nice iconic architecture to model things differently from. Below are base models of how the intersection will be built in 3D, as well as pictures of what the audience will be looking at and which ads with be altered and changed.

Project Shift - Augmented Reality

Alrighty, so the whole evolution project thing, as I moved farther along with it, turned out that the details I was going to attempt to represent would be too subtle to get people to recognize. Though it lead me to the next project idea! Mason and I have joined forces to work on an Augmented Reality project that will bring augmented reality to a corner of downtown Reno. I will be turning that corner into a post apocalyptic Reno, an overgrown and broken down not to distant future. Mason will be taking the advertisements on these buildings and altering them into things that could be advertised in a not too distant future.

We are using a program called Layar. Joe showed us a workshop here and we are using that as our foundation on how to achieve our goal.

We had some issues when following the workshop because it required us to use some backend website stuff that was way over our heads, but with some persistence we got it working.

Some issues we are expecting to run into is that the model render isn't staying in one place and its rather jittery, so setting up a way for to present this for the user and allowing it to be the same experience every time is going to be tricky.

We will be going to downtown this week to get photos and look at reference points and plan out where the user should be to experience what we want them to.

Augmented Reality 2D Examples

My partner Mason and I have been working with Layar, an augmented reality app. For a demonstration of its 2D AR capabilities, we have done some things to the following pictures. So download the app and scan these photos to get a taste of the 2D world of Augmented Reality.

In progress wolf project

I decided to tweak the project just a hair in how I was going to present it. Instead of showing one wolf in a standing position, I have decided to go with a render of a pack taking down a caribou. I figured this would give the audience a more exciting preview.

Wolf Pack Caribou by dustmittens on Sketchfab

Speculative evolution project

The idea behind this project was to take an easily identifiable animal of today and use its evolutionary history to project what might happen to it in the future if we do not fix climate change. The first animal I chose was a dog, but I very soon realized there isn't just one dog I could choose. I then went back to all dogs first know ancestor, which brought me to the gray wolf.

I then began to look into its habitat, diet, and evolutionary history to determine what changes it has gone through over its time on earth. With habitat in mind, the research on where climate change would effect lead me to read that the tundra will began greening, directly contributing to a rise in caribou and deer. Wolfs do not hunt caribou as often as deer, if they are going for a caribou then it will be weak or sick. If there is a rise in large caribou, nature is going to need something to keep that population in check so I applied the evolutionary history of the wolf to this scenario. Wolfs will need to get bigger to take down more of a such a large animal, their teeth will need to grow larger due to the way a pack hunts, loss of fur density due to the warming climate, fur color change due to the greening environment, and larger paws for hunting larger prey.

I am still getting the hang of Zbrush and Maya, so reaching the level of detail I have in my head has proved to be a great challenge.

WOLF Poly by dustmittens on Sketchfab

Exhibition, Space, or Theme

I like the idea of taking art out of the exhibition space and putting it somewhere else, an idea I was playing around with was using the forest or lake scenery we have so accessible to us. Or finding a place to show our work that is very odd and out of place, I believe it could bring a nice contrast to our digital projects.

First Individual Project Idea

I have always been fascinated with evolution and the way it alters things. I would like to push my 3D modeling to a new level and attempt to do two renderings of two different species based on two different directions the earth's environment could move: If we fix our impact on climate change and if we do not fix climate change. 

I would use the animals previous evolutionary history to base my speculation from, taking into account what changed in the environment to emphasize the changes the animal underwent. I would like to take animals that have an easily identifiable form to really push the evolutionary changes that would take place. 

I believe this could pull some attention to how our environmental impact doesn't just effect humans. I've considered looking at how humans could potential evolve or where our genetic engineering is going.