Box of Life’s Rhythm

Box of Life’s Rhythm

 

Description

Box of Life’s Rhythm is a self-reflection interaction with a box containing a beating heart. The interactor opens and holds the box. As they hold the box, their index finger will lay on the pulse sensor that is located on the left side. Once the pulse is detect, the heart within will began to beat matching the interactor’s own heart rate. Four red LEDs will light up. Two LEDs are static. They illuminate the box and heart. The other two LEDs will pulse to the rhythm of the interactor’s pulse.

*This piece is merely part of a larger idea. There would be two boxes on display facing one another. As the interactors hold onto the boxes, each heart would beat to the other person’s heart rate.

The emotional response expected from this piece would be the feeling of being disturbed but some individuals might be excited and interest. The personal value of the piece was the physical build. Trying to piece together all the components into the box was a challenge. Redesigning the heart to beat with a servo motor. Wires breaking over and over again. The rubber band in the heart not sticking until adding massive amounts of hot glue. A faulty pulse sensor. Even with all those challenges, the build was completed and works as planned.

Sketch

Components

  • 4 330Ω Resistors
  • 4 Red LEDs
  • 9 volt battery
  • Arduino Uno board
  • Black cardstock
  • Cardboard
  • Duct Tape
  • Hot Glue
  • Jewelry box
  • Pulse Sensor
  • Rubber heart
  • Rubber Bands
  • Servo motor
  • Wires

Links to parts

Wooden Box

Heart Prop

Pulse Sensor

Arduino Uno

 

Concepts

The concept of the piece originally bigger scaled interaction that required two people to complete the “circuit”. Once the “circuit” was completed the wavelength would be displayed on the wall along with LEDs that would change color and brightness based off of the signal.

Original Description of “Coupling” – It takes two to be one…

2 people lay their hands on two metal plates. There is one in the middle between them forcing them to “hold hands”. Once their hands are touching the plates, a frequency or current would transmit through them both to the middle column. While this is happening, a picture/video of their unique wavelength is show. Based on the wavelength, LED panels would changs colors based off that signal. The resulting expressions would be curiosity, excitement, and Unity.

 

Concept Description

 

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #13

This week I have been working numerous projects. First project is my human interaction final. As of now, I am struggling to get an heart rate from skin conductivity. I believe I will have to redesign the project to simulate the heart rate when the box is touched and held. Although I do have some time to develop it before the need to redesign it.

The other project I worked on this week was the 3d digital art final. I finally got a character that “fits” my requirement for the project. Here is a screenshot:

I am going to do a polish pass of the face and detail it out with wrinkles, defects, and to make the face asymmetrical. Also the character’s face has multiple layers that allows me to remove the beard and make the face fuller or not but the only thing I am deciding on is the clothes.  I haven’t figured out the style yet but I am feeling something Victorian or Gothic suit.

 

Tutorials/Interesting Videos:

 

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #11

This week, I have been working on more shapes of the head for my 3d digital art course and my thesis. This character will be fully sculpted so I am trying to find a shape I like. As of now, I am leanings towards the second head. (longer skull, and droopy chin) I do like the fourth one day as well but I believe it is too close to Picard from Star Trek. Nevertheless, I will find the shape and go along with it to finish the project.

Spotter #7

Spotter #7

 

Hardware Components Used

  • 1 Photo-resistor
  • 2 Green LEDs
  • 1 Cardboard cutout
  • 2 330Ω Resistors
  • 1 10k Resistor
  • 1 Servo Motor
  • Arduino Uno Board
  • Breadboard
  • 5-volt power
  • 11 wires
  • Light

Concept

 

Description:

Spotter#7 is a little cardboard robot endlessly sweeps 180 looking for a friend.  When it finds a friend, it stops and blinks to show that it has spotted the person. If the person moves away fast, it will continue with its path and keep sweeping. If the person remains for longer time and then moves, the robot will shake back and forth in disapproval. After the reaction, it will begin sweeping endlessly to find a friend.

The emotional response expected from this piece is compassion towards the little robot. The personal value of the piece was the challenge of designing the interaction. Originally, it was designed to use a temperature sensor to detect the interaction. Plans changed when the only sensor I had was damaged and I had to rework the piece. I decided to swap out the sensor for a photo-resistor. Even with the redesign, the piece is enjoyable.

Other Technical Information:

This interactive piece is using a servo and a photo-resistor. It requires a spotlight to light the “friend”. Since the lighting is important with this piece, the photo-resistor can be set for either, back lit or front lit, to make it work correctly. The servo motor has a sweep from 0 to 180. The speed of the sweep is randomized after every completed rotation to break up the repetitions of the piece.

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #7

This week I focused on completing my substance designer project. After a week of working on it, I realized that designing the concept for the “kit” should have been my first task. Designing on the fly with a node base system…….makes a mess.

I tried using other graphs which helped clean stuff up a bit but I ended up using one main graph so I can expose more parameters. Maybe with more time, I can figure out a way to reference other graphs’ parameters.

After this weekend’s grind, I am at the final stretch. With the project due date being extended, I can put more time into coloring and give it a polish pass. A major issue I am having is with the height depth. Everything looks flat even after the tessellation. I might have to go in the beginning of the graph where I declared the basic shapes, and create a basic bevel to give it some dynamics.

Here are some screenshots from unity – displaying the kit:

My other projects/journey, I have not had the chance to drop the lipsync plugin into Unity. The instructions seem intense so I will dive into that this week. I have a feeling I will have to import a character with a facial rig (using blendshapes) to make sure it works in my Unity project. I think if I can get it imported Unity and working (or seem like it is working), I need to get it interacting with the kinect. From there, I should be in a good place to start sculpting the character. Although…..

I am worrying a little at this point. It is already HALF WAY through the semester!

I have to start shifting my time into the semester paper. I have an idea about the paper. Something along the lines of color and the affects on humans but I am not sure. I need to create an outline or proposal first.

Simon Says…PhotoResistor

Simon Says … Photo-resistor

Hardware Components Used

  • 1 Photo-resistor
  • 1 RGB LED
  • 1 Yellow LED
  • 4 330 Ω Resistors
  • 2 10k Resistors
  • 1 Switch
  • 10 Wires
  • Arduino Uno Board
  • 1 Breadboard
  • 5 volt power

Concept

 

Description:

Simon says…Photo-resistor is an interactive game using a photo-resistor as the main input for the experience. As the user presses the button, the game begins. The RGB turns white and begins the blue blinking a randomized sequence. The number of blinks is the required number of times the user needs to flash a light towards the photo-resistor to win the game. During the “input” phase, the RGB led light blinks RED and GREEN indicating the time left. If the player fails to complete the sequence, the RGB LED will turn RED indicating they failed. If the player completes the sequence, the RGB LED will turn GREEN indicating they have won.  After the complete phase, either win or lose, the game will reset and idle until the button is pushed to start again.

As this piece resembles a game, the emotional response would be excitement, panic, and joy. The personal value of the piece was the challenge of coding and using a photo-resistor. As it was the first time I would have worked with one, I ran into some issues with calibration. Ultimately, I believe this piece was sacksful. It allowed me to push myself and try something different that was out of my comfort-zone.

The Taken House on the Hill

The Taken House on the Hill

Software

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Autodesk Maya
  • Blender
  • Pixologic zBrush
  • Allegorithmic Substance Painter
  • Unity Engine

Concept

Description:

The Taken House on the Hill is a game ready art piece involving a tiny house on a hill with a dead tree. All of which is contained within a glass bottle on display surrounded by darkness. The art piece contains 17,316 faces, and every texture is 2048 x 2048.

I decided the style of the art piece early on as I wanted to experiment and shy away from realistic modeling. The goal of the style was to mimic the style of Tim Burton, Gothic, and LucasArt games. Using this stylized resulted in creating a story that is not written. The viewer might feel there is more to the piece in which they might explore and create their own story around the piece.

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #4

This week I completed my 3d project. I had to finish up texturing, UVing, and setting up the scene in Unity engine. Software I used was Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, Blender, Pixologic Zbrush, Substance Painter, and Unity.

Enjoy!

Also Instant Screenshot is an awesome plugin for Unity for anyone looking for hi-res screenshots. – https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/instant-screenshot-24122

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #3

This week I worked on my 3d digital art classes work and some sketching for the character in my project. Tiny house is the project name for the 3d class. I decided to create a house inside a glass bottle. So far, 95%  modeling is done but I am having scaling issues. I scaled down the house but I have to reorganize and scale the windows to fit but here are some screenshots:

Looking forward, I will be working on texturing the models. I decided to go for a modular, and tilable approach to texturing. This should help speed up the whole process.


As for sketching a character, I am still feeling out the style but I like the eyes and eye shadowing I sketched. I am going to mess with this more and try to incorporate the design into the character. Here are some images:

 

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #2

This week I began my research of art styles. As this semester is focusing on character art, I will have to decide on what interests me and what will work the best for the outcome of the project. 3 areas of focus for this week was creepy, study of styles, and sketching. While I had limited time to sketch, I did sketch for the 3d art class’ project. That style is the Tim Burton gothic look. Sketching out houses (the main focus of the 3d work), I enjoyed the craziness. Not caring for perfect lines. Not caring about perspectives. I have always enjoyed Tim Burton’s style. With that in mind, I entered a rabbit whole of reference search. Collecting as much reference to help me get started, I believe I have an idea for a look – dark/gothic, Disney-ish/Tim Burton faces/bodies, Victorian era clothes, and wet plate overlay/distortion. Combining them all together should create a unique and “creepy” look. Next week, I will be focusing on sketching up at least a few faces, and maybe a few bodies.

Here are a few links:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/286471226268779511

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/412572015838010536/

https://www.pinterest.com/ReneeRossBooks/gothic-romance-art/

http://cvicworks.blogspot.com/2013/06/retro-gothic-dark-romance-paintings.html

An Analysis of Art & Design in the Films of Tim Burton