Proj3
PROJECT 3: COLLABORATIVE BRIDGING
DUE: THURSDAY 13 OCT
ASSESSMENT WEIGHTING: 30% (50% Individual, 50% Collaborative)
PROJECT OUTLINE
TIMETABLE: 22 Sept – 13 Oct (3 Weeks)
DIGITAL DESIGN ISSUES: Real-time Spatial Interaction | Materiality | Placement | Component | Physics
DIGITAL DESIGN CHALLENGE: Recycled Kinetic Transportation
PRECEDENTS: Len Lye | Alexander Calder
SOFTWARE: Half-Life 2 | Garry’s Mod | FRAPS | EditStudio | Webapp
TECHNIQUES: Inserting | Constraining | Relations | Movement | Interaction
OUTPUTS:
1 GROUP Blog with Group intent and Quicktime showing build process and use of "bridge" and "elevator" with additional links to team members Blog intents (Movies should be limited to 320 by 240 resolution)
1 INDIVIDUAL Blog Intent and link to Quicktime showing your "component" of the contruct with associated build process and use.
PREMISE: Gaming environments offer massive potential in terms of collaborative and spatial environments for designing. The use of ‘in-game’ modelling tools allows designers to quickly put together and test scenarios and designs, and critque in real-time. The use of physics and material properties for each element or ‘building block’ used presents designers with further possibilites as objects take on materialistic and force dependent constructs.
PROCEDURE
Groups
First of all divide yourself into groups of 4 members. Choose a group leader. This will be your group for the remainder of the project and who you will collaborate with. This project will work on both individual and group outputs. Your "bridge" and "elevator" will be made of a number of components. You will have to organise yourself and as a group in what components you will be responsible for, and how it will fit into your group’s overall construct.
Research & Tutorial
Response to the idea of a "kinetic" sculpture requires research into other artists work who deal with movement, interaction and using physics in order to create sculptures and constructs that respond to materiality and physics.
Start by researching the precedents above. Put your research into your own Blog Post and describe how these artists have engaged physics in order to shape form, space and associated interactive and moving constructs. Describe how and why they have done so. This will give you a starting point in shaping your own constructs individually and as a group.
Concept Generation
Brainstorm as a group about what holistic ideas you will bring into the overall construct. What precedent/s will be your main inspiration throughout the project? Start developing ideas and sketching possible design solutions in creation of a "bridge" and "elevator", or how to transport your whole group from one place on the site to another. Challenge the idea of what a bridge and elevator can be, and how you can use digital physics in order to transport load.
Break your overall construct into a series of "components" and give each member of the group a component to develop, build, and tie in with the other components the group have made.
Put these design ideas, sketches and outline the delegated components into a GROUP Blog Post and present on the Friday 29th Sept.
This presentation should include:
– The Groups general plan in creating a kinetic bridge and elevator
– Identification of which components each team member will build
– Links to 4 individual design intents (Blog posts) with research as covered above
Concept Development
You will each be responsible for the development, construction and integration of a component in the overall group construct. Development of this component will consist of integration and expansion of design ideas identified in the concept phase. You will create a number of prototypes that test various ways of applying physics and a sense of materiality within the virtual space provided and start to record them with FRAPS.
In addition, you will have to constantly critique and collaborate with your group in order to test whether the components work in harmony to create your overall group construct. Use email, SKYPE, meetings, saved game files and online gaming in order to facilitate communication and collaboration.
Final Presentation
- You will present as a group your final construct in a Group Quicktime movie linked off your groups Blog made through the use of FRAPS and EditStudio.
– You will also have an individual Quicktime movie linked off your own Blog post that covers your experimentation into creation of your component.
(These will be hosted off your own domains and be of resolution 320 by 240 pixels, sorenson 3 codec high quality. You will also hand in a 640 by 480 copy of these movies to the R drive. All videos should be a max of 2mins long)
You should show how your design ideas have been integrated, your group’s creative manipulation of materiality and physics, a summary of the build process of your construct, and use in getting the group from start point to elevated platform.
You will hand in your own research and component development as a link off your group’s website.
KEEP THINGS SIMPLE AND CLEAR!
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
• Experimentation, creativity and the expression of clear design intentions as an expansion of original research
• Composition and overall aesthetic quality of your spatial experience / exploration
• Extent of effective transformation from concept to final design as individuals
• Extent of effective transformation from concept to final design and collaboration as a group
• Ability to utilize computing technology to produce an interactive 3D experience using real-time physics
• Quality of craft in computer models, Quicktime and presentation of project work on Blog