Final video

Particles, Memory, Limitations

This is probably the highest level of complexity and quality I can get a single asset too without overloading my physical memory. The buffer on the physics combined with the partcles uses alot of the computer's memory. To get this 9 sec footage I had to use up 3 gigs of ram.

Getting the assets to this stage took alot of debugging. The physics and particles clash when combined, and the DOP network(physics-solver)creates issue with the materials associated with objects. Having particles drop off shattered objects crash houdini when the object also has disintergrating particles.

Assets

For the final scene I plan to create an overall scene which houses all the geometry, with some parts animated. The details of the geometry will be animated seperatley to maximise their quality.

Final Quiz

In typical fashion I checked blackbaord to late to find out there's another quiz due yesterday. I looked at blackboard to find the presentation order and didnt expect to find that extra quiz. It may be too late to do the qiuz but I may as well do it just in case. The only artist I can remember is Natalie Jeremijenko.

Quiz: Natalie Jeremijenko

Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist who uses technolgy to critique society, people and nature. One of the works shown in the lecture is the footage of a spy plane flying over an area that is restricted against filming . The model airplane was flown over silicon valley, using a loophole in the information protection law to avoid prosecution. The work raises issues about surveillance and the freedom of information in modern society.

Also covered in the lecture was robtic dogs rewired to go beyond their intended commercial use. This makes the commercial robot dogs into open source material and promotes a community of free use and participation by comsumers. A read/write culture allows for the free use of the products and ties into the freedom of information ideas raised with the spy plane work.

Apprentice HD

I upgraded to the next version of houdini, apprentice HD, so I could render the particle effects inside houdini. This is my only option at this point, due to my inabilty to export the particle effects to other software programs. This means the final video has to staged inside Houdini as an animation. It could simplify some aspects of the finalisation but it also means I have account for large rendering times.

Problems with Houdini

I started looking at exporting from to other platforms for the final product. It seems that the apprentice version of houdini that I'm running doesn't support the fbx export system, which is the only way of exporting particle system. By doing this I also found out that this version can only render out small renders(720*576) with a houdini watermark. This has been a large set back as I've had to find a way around the exporting of the object and I have find a way to render the particle effects if I cant export them.

Upgrading Houdini to the Master version costs roughly 6 thousand dollars (USD) but is the only option for the particle exporter. My only option is to render the particles and thread them through my video by upgrading to houdini apprentice HD, which allows to me render properly. That will cost me $99 USD which might be difficult for me to pay with my limited budget. At this point I have little choice, and hope it works out.

Physics and particles

Turning objects into particles so far only works on full objects. A shattered object can be disintergrated as well but complications arise when the object is put in the physics engine.

Object to Dust

Going off what Doug suggested I started looking at particles to create a more procedural deconstruction of the object. Disintegration of the object didn't take too long to create and managed to get simple objects breaking into dust reasonably quickly. I may not have a full object with disintegration ready for the progress report document but with this I can show where Iam heading towards.

Shattered obect with Particle

Here I was able to able to apply particles to objects when shattered to mimic dust.

Controlled Model Shatter

I finished my silo model and tried to create a controlled shatter effect. Still somewhat in the testing phase the edges are not as refined as I'd like. To get to this level of control and detail took some time seperating objects and re-fractructing. Getting it perfect will take some time but is very possible.

The image shows the selected breaks ones falling to the ground. I havent added the other parts of the model to the solver but that should be easy.

Breaking Problem Solved

I had a problem with the breaking of objects with the voronoi shatter where the pieces would shatter correctly but the origanal object remained. Trouble shooting the problem was difficult due to the lack of relvent froums and resources.

I managed to work out that the copies were extra groups made with the shatter sop. Houdini wouldn't allow me break the groups without deleting the object so I spent some time trying to work around it. I couldn't change the group but i was able to add a group mask to filter the groups in the physics solver and remove the copy. With this I can complete the model and be in control in the breaking of the object.

Adding Rigid Bodies to shatter

Managed to add the other objects into the rbd solver so the shattering object can break off other ones.

Asset Shatter

This is the shatter effect extending onto the beginning of one of my detailed assets.

Voronoi Shatter

Here is a working shatter on an object in houdini. Somehow there is a duplicate object which becomes visable after the break. I am working on a seperate file for the detailed mesh which will have a detailed break. This file will be used for working out the way I can break the object and how they can be connected with other objects.

September 11

Over the holiday I tested out alternate methods for making a game to illustrate entropy. I started with the flash box 2d physics engine to see how it could be used visually. I found out I could make shapes with co-ordinated edges which I could use to make puzzle like forms and skin them so when they were together they could make a structure that would decay. With this I could have make an interesting 2D game but I felt that a 3D game would be more interesting aesthetically.

It took me a while but I finally got the script to compile properly and the game now recognises my mod. I may have spent too much time on it but now I have ability to make a wider range of changes to to the map I can create. At the moment however the mod only effects normal UT deathmatches I need to move on to getting it to effect a saved edited map. I also now have to find out what else I can do with modding my game. Im planning to increase the time I spend on working on this project because i still have along way to go.

At the moment the script mod changes a weapon but there are lots of resouces for thing I can change. I'm still getting an error with the "classes" pathway but the compiler still gets it despite what it says.



I've connected my Unreal script Mod to the test map I created in the UDK editor. With this I now have the foundations to create my map with modified interaction with the main character. Now I need to build my map and explore my options with the mod.

What to do next:

1. Map: create a map structure
2. Material: create transtional materials for the meshes that activate on approach
3. Mod: setup and refine the interaction with the map
4. Meshes: Create the collapsable meshes for the game map


+Recording physics reaction to an animation sequence

August 5

I handed in my essay 600-700 words over the specified limit. The topic of entropy and emergence together was too broad a topic to wirte about in a 3000 word essay. If I were to do it again I would limit it to only entropy, and not show how it links with emergence. I just figured it was important to show how entropy connected with emergence. At the end of the essay i became a bit limited to amount of words I was able to write about entropy.

August 3

The topic of my essay is on emergence and entropy, and the deeper human need for meaning in life and death. I plan to explore both emergence and entropy as stages to existence and try to find what science lacks to fully acknowledged the need of people in the pursuit of knowledge.

July 30

In this essay i plan to redefine emergence and entropy to show that they are part of the cycle of all thing in existence. I will argue that evolution and the systems of the life are the function of emergence, the building up of rules and complex systems over time to create form and life. Entropy is the dissolution of these systems and rules due to the impossibilty of perfect sustainability.

Entropy is a broad topic if you consider all the scientific information regarding its properties, plus the application of the term to information and cosmology. Early in my Essay I will have to define what is intended when entropy is discussed in order to clarify what ideas I'm talking about. I plan to stay away from the scientific definition of entropy and focus entropy as a concept in life and death, and the cycle of things in existence.

July 28 (2)

Im okay with my alotment into the game design method group. Im not entirely certain about using game design for my project however, only because Im unsure about my ability and skill to create a unique and functional game. I have only worked in creating simple games in flash and have not done anything technically unique. I have worked in a group for a unique game but the technical aspects were given to someone else.

FIRE ALARM JUST WENT OFF. edit later

July 28

Entropy

The sub-topic that I am focusing on, branching off emergence, is entropy. I consider entropy to be the end or opposite to emergence. Emergence is the build up of life and rules of existence over time, wheras entropy is the degredation of those things, a divergence. This divergence breaks apart the things created through emergence, and spreads those parts. This is evident in nature and in history, with many precedents in literutre and science. Entropy means the inevitable death of all things, the anti-emergence or divergence. In life there is a rate of loss in things that builds up over time. It’s this rate of loss that will eventually lead to a point that no life can survive. Negative entropy is considered to be the place where life develops.



In Science: A measure of energy that is not available to work in the transfer of heat in objects. The variables that contribute to this rate of loss are based on factors of temperature, composition, pressure. This means in heat changes there is a rate of loss in energy due to the impossibility of a 100% eficient heat transfer. It is also a level of randomness in a thermal dynamic system.

Cosmology theory: A hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a uniform temperature also known as heat death. It is considered as the end of the universe and could possibly come from the loss of energy that occurs in thermal dynamics. With an overtime loss of energy there is no energy left for heat transfer and the universe becomes a unform temperture of absolute zero. It could also come from the overall spacing of the universe after the expansion of the universe reaches the point where its parts are too far apart to get heat and attain uniform temperature.



Data: loss of informational data in a transmitted signal or message.

Information can be lost in translation when transfered different forms as evident in snow crash with the changes in commnication. Information in the digital age can last longer now but, information requires an observer to survive. There can be many forms of degredation overtime for information depending on varying factors. Information overload can also create a loss of information or an bundance of irrelevent information that make revelent information harder to observe.



Loss of potency through repetition (photocopies), thw law of diminishing returns.

July 18 Post

EMERGENT AESTHETICS

Emergence and post production(or game)



The options for the topic of the Project can be linked together through a recurring theme. Looking over them I found an undercurrent of thought, where each topic challenges the concept of what it is to be human and whether the human experience has any true value. Some ideas illustrate that human responses to the world are inherently empty of anything deeper than the natural responses gain through years and years of emergent programming.



I know some things regarding the topics, which could lead to many possibilities. I found that can be linked together. Below is what I know or think about the topics without researching them.



1.1. Emergence: the accumulation of form through a set of rules which add up to create complex systems. With this concept it can be argued that all life stems from some form of emergence, created by the system of rules that have been developing with the planet and the universe. What this means is that life and all things that are held as meaningful to life, is actually the recognition of overall forms created by rule sets. The most conspicuous of forms is the product of more complex systems and rules.


If all things in life can be traced back to a set of rules that make it up, it is therefore emergence and has no design or intended meaning to its form. Without design, the form is incidental suggesting that the meaning that we put into what we perceive is false.



1.2. Conspicuous Consumption: The consumption and use of material goods by individuals to produce a sense of status for others to perceive.


The human identity and individuality of thought is said to be key to the true meaning of being human and a sentient being. A society however that encourages using goods to create identity undermines this individuality. The current market place for goods heavily encourages the use of goods to create identity as a tool for selling goods. This in turn creates a proxy identity for the individual without any real substance or accuracy. The mechanism of trade is possibly taking away the identity of the human race with a prescribed identity that holds no true value.



Using material goods to produce an identity can be traced back to primal instincts, further illustrating the idea that life stems from emergence. The fact that the individuality of people is challenged by baser instinct to create status and money suggests that the human race is gravitating towards a comfortable future over one with meaning.



1.3. Neuro Magic: This topic is all about perception much like the other topics. This however deals with the perception inside the mind. Neuro Magic is basically sensory phenomena which typical not easily explained away through common knowledge. The term magic suggest that there is hidden mystique to the origins of the phenomena but like magic it can be also explained by an examination of the rules the make up the perception. Neuro magic is illusory emergence, as it also is made up of a set of rule that create an experience.






I think that emergence can be linked to the other two topics and is therefore the most adaptable.

Emergence isn’t just for forms created in nature it’s also a common theme that unites all things in life that we perceive. I believe it goes beyond forms and can connect to all forms of perception and other parts of human behaviour.



I would define emergence as: A set of rules which create a perception of form or an idea of form.



I need to refine the definition of emergence as the project progresses to coherently express the connectivity amongst these topics.



My production method for this topic would have to be post production or computer game design. Post Production seems to be the most likely at this point of the project but I don’t want to rule the others out yet until I either know more about the topic or production possibilities.