MOCAP Sessions 9, 10, 11

Since the group were struggling with writing their dissertations at the time, workload had lessened with the RTGROP unit. The group now realised that they could have worked more towards a final piece. There were still many other tasks that could be done. These involved, adding a prop to the level to make the character have to pick up a key before finishing the level. Because the group were more focused in getting the levels and the character working in real-time, this idea had been forgotten about. Having a prop involved in a level would require alot more work, and because the group members were already busy with work, and had other problems, this could not be done. If there were more time, and if the group members did not have their dissertations to write, then time would be allocated to doing this. The other tasks that needed doing were animations of the levels in flash before they appeared in motionbuilder, and this was Frances's task. Functions were also needed, so the grid in Motionbuilder could be hidden, and the markers could be hidden on the actor. These were put as priority as they were needed for the presentation, which was in a month's time. The solutions to these were added to the MOCAP documentation.

It was Greg's role to research into how to get the platform to move with the character for the mine cart level, but it was then realised by him and the rest of the group that instead, the level was simply animated, to look like the character was moving through. When playing this animation, it was shown that the level was not big enough, and the animation was over quickly. This meant that the mine cart level would have to be made bigger, but with Alex's other deadlines, it simply meant he did not have enough time to do this. If this project was done again, levels would be made much sooner and tested much early on to avoid this happening. If more time were available to the group, then this task could be completed.
It was decided that there should be 10 seconds showing the mine cart level before the animation should start as it would give the actor (Alex) the chance to get ready. A countdown could be added to help improve the performance side of the project and to provide entertainment to the viewers.

Looking at last year's group performance, there was no showing of the group sorting out the next level ready for the actor to start, and they had animations inbetween the levels. This was this group's idea, but it was not known how to change input so the DVD player output would be shown. Jack would research into this by asking a member of last year's group.

Tasks for the next few weeks were:
Alex - If time, work on the mine cart level more, and provide textures for the rope bridge
Jack - Research into finding a way to switch to a DVD player input so preparation can be done ready for the next level
Frances - Work on animations inbetween levels
Helen - Finish website ready for hand in on 8th May
Greg - Continue production process

MOCAP Session 8 - Friday 3rd April 2009

Since the group now knew how to get real-time working in an efficient time, it meant that the group could now work faster, however since Alex was an hour late to the meeting, it meant that time became limited, and not much work could be done.
A problem was discovered when merging the levels in with the character in Motionbuilder. Since the levels had been properly scaled to the right size in length, they had no been built in size with the character, so it meant that the levels were too big for the character to navigate in. Since the character had already been rigged, it meant that it could not be resized, and this was warned to us by our client, Alex Counsell. It seemed the only thing that was possible, was to scale down the levels. When the group tried descaling Alex's ropebridge level, it seemed to work fine, but when trying to descale Simon's level, it became a challenge. Firstly because he hadn't grouped the level as one object, meant it became impossible to do so, and also when it was scaled down, it didn't fit in proportion to the character, and this made the group confused. The solution maybe, was to get Simon to group his level and try again. If the descaling would not work, the group would not be able to use his level, and this would be a waste of time, so research would need to be carried out to get this to work.
Frances had finished her animations and had uploaded them to Youtube for the group to see, and it was agreed that they were useful for the start and end of the performance. Animations would still need to be created at the start of each new level to tell the user what to do in the level (a brief description/aim of the level).
Jack had finished texturing the character, and the group agreed that the textures were suitable for the character, and that it had matched Frances perceptions of the character she originally drew.
Alex had half completed the mine cart level. The group discussed how long they wanted the mine cart to last. Since the specifications of our task was to create a performance that lasted at least 2 minutes, it was decided that the mine cart level should last about a minute, half of the performance, since it was to be the last level and the most important level. It was then Greg's job to research into attaching the character to the moving platform so the character would follow the platform when it moves along the level. Since Motionbuilder was a new program for everyone, this could become a tough task.
Tasks for the easter holidays:
Jack -
Alex - Finish off ropebridge level, bring textures to next mocap session, and finish off mine cart level.
Frances - Think of ideas for aims of the 3 levels of the game, and start working on animations
Simon - Group the cave level together, and rotate so it fits the size of the mocap room, ready to be scaled down next time.
Helen - Continue updating website
Greg - Continue production process, and research into attaching character to moving platform in Motionbuilder.

The group have a month and a half before the performance on 20th May.