MOCAP Suite 5 - 13th March 2009

A few sessions had been booked before this, but these had both been unproductive, as the two computers in the MOCAP room could not connect, losing valuable time for the group. An email was sent to Alex Counsell to fix this, and by this session, it was completed. Since the group did not take any pictures or remember where each of the markers went on the suit, it made it very difficult to place them. It was found out in the end, by loading ROM test data from another group, and finding where the labels went. This cost us time, and meant that we could not clean up the data in time. Since it had been a while since we had cleaned up data, we had forgotten what settings to use, to fill in the gaps, but this was to be solved by simple practice. Because of the little time we had left, Greg had to email the MOCAP room managers and book in more slots. We had found out that one of the other group's had booked in monday's and fridays up until the 30th March. This meant that we'd be left with little time and would almost mean the group would fail the presentation. It was found out that Tuesdays and Thursdays could be booked in, only in certain circumstances, and these were explained as little time left, and due to technical problems. Permission was also given by Alex Counsell, and the group managed to book in another 3 sessions on a tuesday and thursday.
Because we only have 3 hours in the MOCAP room, it gives us little time to setup, capture the data, clean the data then work in real-time. To get this to work, alot of practice would have to be put in, so that by the end of the 3 hour session, we would be able to have a real-time character in Motionbuilder.
Alex had finished the ropebridge level, and showed us. The group approved of this, and would make a perfect level for the game. It would be that if the character was to walk on a certain plank of wood, it would crumble away and the character would have to go another way. This would be done by using an animation trigger. Since Frances was in charge of the animations, she had preferred to create them in Flash, so this may have to be done in Flash, but it will be sorted soon.
Simon had completed the first cave level, and now matched the original design/layout of Frances's original concept designs. If possible, we would have pieces of a key to collect in this level, for the door at the end to open.
Tasks for this week involve:
Alex - Work on creating the mine cart level. Greg had already practiced the animation of a platform to move in Motionbuilder, and should be simple to get it working.
Jack - Learn to texture in motionbuilder, create textures for the character, and advance on the rigging of the character.
Frances - Work on the flash animations (Start, End, Between levels (maybe) and animation triggers (if character fails etc)
Helen - Continue on website
Simon - Help with cleaning up with data in MOCAP room
Greg - Help with cleaning up with data in MOCAP room and continue production process