blogforfinalproject

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Critical evaluation

The project called A Chinese ghost story. It has been designed as a mobile application which ran on Android. In this application, users can use Augmented Reality to enjoy an ancient Chinese story. ‘Augmented Reality (AR) refers to a live view of physical rel world environment those elements are merged with augmented computer-generated images creating a mixed reality.’ (Furht, 2011:7) My intention to use AR is to give audiences a close look at the story, like having the god’s eyes. Because the scenes are small and audiences can look at it at different angles. It is like to have virtual models on the table. The reason that I want to create this feeling is because the story is from ancient China and the buildings, the appearance of characters are unique and worth a close look. And I think I did a good job on the modelling.

 The first time I have the idea to do AR project is inspired by a game called Onmyoji (2016). In this game, there are nearly hundred Shikigami have been delicate design and origin from old Japanese tales. And players can appreciate these characters with Augmented Reality. I think I also can use AR to show some beautiful design from the past. Those designs present the culture and history. After having this idea of using AR show things from the past, I watched a TED video on YouTube called Augmented reality storytelling how it will change the way we play forever. (YouTube, 2017) So I decided to tell a story by AR.

 The start of creating this project is tough. Because the original story I chose is famous for the strange and bizarre plot. It is from a book called Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Songling, 1740). So it is hard for people who are not familiar with Chinese culture to understand. I discussed with my supervisor and my language teacher about the story several times. Finally recomposed a story that makes sense.

About the technical part, it also not easy. I spent most of the time working on the modelling. And ran out of time when I start to build the AR application. I have to use lots of my sleeping time on this project. Review the whole process of making this project, the most regret thing is I haven’t manage my time very well. I can add my animation and interaction if I can manage my time better.

 This project is the most difficult and satisfying work I have done in my time at university. I learned many things from skills of software, ancient Chinese cloth and architectural design to communication with people and manage my time. I want to thank my supervisor Dr Ian Willcock and Ben Salmon, I cannot finish my work without their help

 Furht, B. (2011). Handbook of augmented reality. 1st ed. New York: Springer, p.7.

Netease. (2016) Onmyoji. [DISC] Mobile. China.

YouTube. (2017). Augmented reality storytelling how it will change the way we play forever | Devon Lyon | TEDxSalem. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYl9wI3jnms [Accessed 4 May 2017].

Songling, P. (1740). Strange stories from a Chinese studio.

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The text

04/05/2017

The animation cannot work will in the work. I felt like audience cannot understand the story without text. I wrote the story in words and Ian help me with the language.

Once open a time, there was a poor tourist who found a house to stay for a night. There was no one there but the doors were not locked. In the room, a book lay on the bed, which contained writing about confronting ghost and monsters in this area. It looked like someone's journal. The journal said that there was a graveyard and an old tree beside the house. A ghost from one of the graves helped the tree monster kill people. The person writing the journal had found a way to kill the monster, but there was no ending in the book saying whether he or she succeed or not. At night, a beautiful girl appeared in the room. The girl tried to seduce the tourist, but he accidentally saw deep despair in her eyes, just a glimpse. Thinking about the journals he sensed something was wrong and he refused the girl. The girl then admitted that she was the ghost and said that the tree monster forced her to seduce men so the monster can kill them while they would not notice. She wanted to Rest In Peace and to reincarnate. The tourist felt pity for her and followed the instruction in the book to kill the monster. Afterwards, they found they were falling in love with each other. But the girl started to fade away to reincarnate. The tourist felt bad because he had caused her to seduce disappear. She said 'thank you, see you in another world' in the last moment and vanished...

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Adjustment

03/05/2017

When I tried it on the tablet. The sizes of each scene are various which is annoying. And the lights are also different.

The notes I write down when I adjust them:

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Build the application

03/05/2017

I downloaded the Android SDK package first. And put it in Unity. Then I can build the application. It takes a long time to build. After I copy it in the table I borrowed, I can install it on the tablet and then done. 

Android sdk (2017). 下载 Android Studio 和 SDK 工具 | Android Studio. [online] Available at: https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html?hl=zh-cn [Accessed 3 May 2017].

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Tutorial with Ian Willcock

03/05/2017

(Willcock, 2017)

Now I need to prepare to exhibit it. I design these target image with the traditional Chinese character for numbers combine with the English words of numbers. Because the target image needs to be complex enough for the system to recognise. But the Chinese Characters of numbers we use today is 一 二 三四五六七八. The structures are too simple for an AR target image. And the English word is for people who do not understand Chinese.

Willcock, I. (2017). Project Realisation Tutorial notes. [email].

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Tutorial with Ian Willcock

02/05/2017

(Willcock, 2017)

I can tell he was worried for me due to those spelling errors in the notes. I think I need to give up the EasyAR Unity package. Because it is too complicated. I used vuforia instead. I used this tutorial online: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-build-an-ar-android-app-with-vuforia-and-unity/ . (SitePoint, 2017) And I start to do the AR thing from begainning

SitePoint. (2017). How to Build an AR Android App with Vuforia and Unity — SitePoint. [online] Available at: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-build-an-ar-android-app-with-vuforia-and-unity/ [Accessed 3 May 2017].

Willcock, I. (2017). Project Realisation Tutorial notes. [email].

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Terrains

01/05/2017

I used the terrain in Unity. It is convenient to carve and paint in Unity. But I cannot find a way to adjust the size of it. It looked like it is built to fit a size of a city. But mine is just the size of a room. So I decided to build the terrain in 3ds Max.

And make the texture in Photoshop.

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Optimize the model

30/04/2017

Those models I build are too complicated so I have to optimise those models. The characters do not need to be too delicate, due to they are small in scenes. And because those animations are just slight movement, the bone system can be simplified. Otherwise, it will be slow for a tablet to load those models. Those models I download have a fair number of face and they are all right as triangles. But there are rat nests in some places that I have modified. I have to rebuild some model with fewer structure lines. Add those models I built and carved in ZBrush are worse than the models I downloaded. They are way more complicated and elaboration for an application on mobile or tablet. I found few ways online to reduce the number of faces and I did it by tutorial online

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Try out how AR worked

29/04/2017

I tried how to do the AR things before. I used a Unity package of Vuforia I can download achieve the effect without coding. (Developer.vuforia.com, 2017) But I used another one from EasyAR that can make the work interactive more. (Easyar.cn, 2017)  It is a software by Chinese, so all the tutorials are in Chinese which is a lot more easy for me to understand. But it still harder than before. I followed the tutorial online, but I still ran into over 10 errors in Unity when I try to play. I solve the errors one by one. And I still struggle with those errors.

Developer.vuforia.com. (2017). Vuforia Developer Portal |. [online] Available at: https://developer.vuforia.com/ [Accessed 22 Apr. 2017].

Easyar.cn. (2017). AR引擎/AR SDK - EasyAR官网. [online] Available at: https://www.easyar.cn/ [Accessed 22 Apr. 2017].

[blogforfinalproject]

More trees

23/04/2017

I added one tree at the first scene and it did make the scene prettier.

 Then I want some leaves floating in the air. When I looked up online of how to build the particle effect I found there are the floating leaves. 

(Manew.com, 2017)

It is orange leaves, so I found a green leaves image online:

(Hutufan.com, 2017)

There are so many parameter need to be adjusted in the particle system. I change them randomly to see how things changed and found the best numbers. Although the floating leaves looked slightly different from the leaves on the tree model, it is hard to tell.

There is one more tree I added, in the indoor scene of Qian try to seduce Caichen. I use the same tree model to be the tree monster and also added root by tree maker.

Manew.com. (2017). 【Leaves Particle System 叶的粒子系统unity3d插件模型UNITY3D】-模型-【游戏蛮牛】-ar增强现实,虚拟现实,unity3d,unity3d教程下载首选u3d,unity3d官网. [online] Available at: http://www.manew.com/thread-20678-1-1.html [Accessed 20 Apr. 2017]. 

Hutufan.com. (2017). 一片树叶的结构_用树叶做一幅画 - 湖涂范儿. [online] Available at: http://www.hutufan.com/cm0mgvkfjty.html [Accessed 22 Apr. 2017].

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Tutorial with Ben Salmon

18/04/2017

I met Ben Salmon this week and he told me the software called speed tree that can build high-quality trees. And I do need more trees to make my scenes more beautiful. But after the tutorial, I found this software need to pay and cannot try. I think I can only use my tree models that downloaded. Ben also told me how to make the scene lit. That really helped my scenes look more real and pretty.

[blogforfinalproject]

The Ghost of Qian

15/04/2017

In the graveyard, I need Qian look more like a ghost than before. I make an animation that she swaying her body. I tried to make the model translucent at the lower half. And it will look like she is floating in the air. But I failed, I cannot find a way to make Qian's material translucent. Finally, I found a translucent material from the model package of gravestones, it is a material for the smoke. I adjust the tile number to 100x100 so it won't make Qian look like covered with smoke.

Manew.com. (2017). 【unity3d 游戏模型 Cemetery Starter Pack 骷髅场景墓地 开发 卡通资源包】-插件-【游戏蛮牛】-ar增强现实,虚拟现实,unity3d,unity3d教程下载首选u3d,unity3d官网. [online] Available at: http://www.manew.com/thread-41629-1-1.html [Accessed 13 Apr. 2017].

[blogforfinalproject]

The graveyard

14/04/2017

I tried to look for the model of the graveyard. But I cannot find the right scene I can use directly. So I have to build the scene myself. I need a tree in this graveyard to be the tree monster. I know the tree maker in Unity, but I haven't used that before. I looked up online to find the right way to use that. And I found someone shares some tree models already built. I don't have special requirement for my tree, so I download the tree models. 

(Manew.com, 2017)

Apart from the tree itself, I also need lots of root of the tree monster which can kill. Now is the right time to use tree maker. I found it is very easy to use. I can draw how the root goes and add branches at ease.

And the texture picture I use:

(Sc115.com, 2017)

Although the colour of this texture cannot fit the colour of tree I download. I can edit the colour on Unity. It is convenient.

The final look:

Then I found some models of gravestones and coffin online.

(Manew.com, 2017)

The final look:

Manew.com. (2017). 【unity3d 游戏模型 Cemetery Starter Pack 骷髅场景墓地 开发 卡通资源包】-插件-【游戏蛮牛】-ar增强现实,虚拟现实,unity3d,unity3d教程下载首选u3d,unity3d官网. [online] Available at: http://www.manew.com/thread-41629-1-1.html [Accessed 13 Apr. 2017].

Manew.com. (2017). 【unity3d 游戏模型 Fantasy Tree Pack 老树 unity3d行为树 行为树 unity3d】-模型-【游戏蛮牛】-ar增强现实,虚拟现实,unity3d,unity3d教程下载首选u3d,unity3d官网. [online] Available at: http://www.manew.com/thread-19157-1-1.html [Accessed 13 Apr. 2017].

Sc115.com. (2017). 牵牛花摄影图片-素彩图片大全. [online] Available at: http://www.sc115.com/tupian/369787.html [Accessed 14 Apr. 2017].

[blogforfinalproject]

The second scene

12/04/2017

The package of ancient Chinese buildings has only the exterior of buildings. I have to download another model to build the second scene. I found some retro style interior decoration models I can use. 

(家装室内农家土房做旧3dmax客餐厅卧室, 2017)

And I download few some. I deleted any pieces that can reveal this is a contemporary design. And moved something to make space looked fair. I will use this interior model in more than one scene from more than one angle. So I have to cut those walls and ceiling to let the audience see the things happened inside the room.

 I found the bed in another model package.  (家装室内农家土房做旧3dmax客餐厅卧室, 2017)

家装室内农家土房做旧3dmax客餐厅卧室, 复. (2017). 复古农村风格3d模型源文件 家装室内农家土房做旧3dmax客餐厅卧室. [online] 淘宝网全球站. Available at: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.ojXj7F&id=535442500338&_u=4m7fgo99da0 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2017].

客厅餐厅卧室, 最. (2017). 最新中式风格3d模型 家装别墅室内设计3dmax模型库 客厅餐厅卧室. [online] 淘宝网全球站. Available at: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.j9Jvig&id=44186959208&_u=4m7fgo93ed7 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2017].

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The first scene

10/04/2017

The first scene is at the front door of the haunted house. I used a 3D model which I was given by one of my teacher in China. He gave me a huge amount of 3D models of ancient Chinese buildings. I spent a lot of time just pick the right one for this haunted house in my story.  

(何, 2016) 

This is a group of buildings. I only need the front door. Then I painted and carved a piece of terrain to create the pathway and grass ground in front of the door. Finally, I put the model of Caichen, the front door and terrain in place.

何, 伟. (2016). 古建筑设计素材-33. [3ds Max].

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The model of Caichen and bones to the models

08/04/2017

I found a male ancient looked like how I think of Caichen. I used the same source as Qian's cloth. 

The look in the film A Chinese Ghost Story (Ching, 1987):

(A Chinese Ghost Story, 1987)

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I add bones to both of my characters. I used to learn how to create CAT bone system to help the model have animation.But I heard my teacher Jie Zhao said, CAT bone is good for characters with more than two legs. (赵 and 董, 2016) And biped bone system is more physical. My characters are both with two legs and their cloth is long and will have different movement with the human body part. So I think biped bone is more suitable for my characters in this story. The tutorial I use is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3S3pqV5boY and   (YouTube, 2017)

The CAT bones I build at the start.

The biped bones for Caichen and Qian:

赵, 杰. and 董, 海. (2016). 交互动画设计： Zbrush + Autodesk + Unity + Kinect + Arduino三维体感技术整合. 1st ed. 北京: 化学工业出版社.

YouTube. (2017). Part 1. Create Biped in 3DS Max. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3S3pqV5boY [Accessed 8 Apr. 2017].

YouTube. (2017). Part 2. Adjust Biped to Character in 3DS Max. Rigging. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtkap98CsuI [Accessed 8 Apr. 2017].

A Chinese Ghost Story. (1987). [film] Directed by C. Siu-Tung. Hong Kong: Cinema City Film Productions.

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The cloth and hair model of Qian

06/04/2017

I decided to download cloth and hair from Internat. And I bought models on Taobao.

(3D模型带绑定动画三维游戏美术素材, 2017) 

(淘宝网全球站, 2017)

There are loads of ancient Chinese style model and design.

After I combine body, cloth and hair together, it looks like this:

3D模型带绑定动画三维游戏美术素材, 唯. (2017). 唯美古代人物角色 3D模型带绑定动画三维游戏美术素材. [online] 淘宝网全球站. Available at: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.RPs2fq&id=544460720380&_u=3m7fgo9c8ab [Accessed 6 Apr. 2017].

淘宝网全球站. (2017). [3D模型]角色头发发型3D模型合集发型设计参考3dsmax游戏美术资源. [online] Available at: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.ojXj7F&id=525574666860&_u=4m7fgo98ea6 [Accessed 6 Apr. 2017].