Procedural Modeling
Me this weekend with Houdini:
Over the past few days, I have been hard at work finishing up my car generator. With the crashes with Houdini and Unreal, it was frustrating to say the least. Luckily, I swap over to Unity, and fix some code which saved time as it was not crashing as much. Besides the craziness, I believe the experience was worth it. I finished the project and got to learn Houdini in the process. Here are some Screenshots and Video:
oh Houdini…..
I have been working on my procedural course final. I decided to go with creating a procedural generated car. As I dug deep into the nodes and more complex everything got, the more the crashes. I ended up re-working some of the networks. It seemed to help but I still got some crashes. Along with those issues, I noticed the rand() method is weird. It always gave me the same number even though I generated another number from that rand. It seemed to be pulling one number and not re generating a new number. The work around I found was to re-write the code using python. Using python’s random, it was randomly generating new numbers every time and worked for my needs.
In studio, we are progressing nicely. Although the end of the semester is coming, we are finishing up a few things before we have to stop and record for presentations. There is still a lot that needs to be done – art, adding content, and messing more with the Kinect. I do believe the hard part of creating all the methods for the dictations and keywords are done. I am looking forward to break and finally get back into modeling all the parts I need for the project.
Lipsync and eye controller added. All blendshapes are done. I wish to add wrinkle maps but currently that has been put on the back burner. Head turns, eyes blink, and lipsync shapes is about 50% done
Working on a procedural car generator. Although I will be reworking the concept to incorporate multiple curves and use sweep or rails.
Background
Theme parks are places where families go to let loose and be entertained. They are full of creative art pieces from the overall themes to the attractions themselves. Many artists, designers, and engineers has spent years working on designs to immerse audiences. A great an example is at Universal Orlando Islands of Adventure. There is an area that is dedicated to the Harry Potter universe. As soon as you walk through the entrance, you are immediately immersed. Everything from the ground, the buildings, the shops, sounds and the rides are designed in a way to mimic the books and movies. Places like this can ignite and spark creativity. For me, was the place that inspired my project.
Anyone who has visited any amusement park or resort will agree waiting in line is part of the experience. Knowing this, creatives who build the attractions, design sets that try to distract you from the wait time. One environment that stood out to me was in the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride at Universal Orlando. As you make your way through Hogwarts Castle, you come to a room with a tall ceiling. Within this room are paintings that are assorted on walls above the visitors. If one stood and observed, they would notice these portraits are not ordinary paintings but are animated. They move and talk among themselves. Fooling the visitors into believe they are alive. Seeing this I was amazed. Not only by the presentation and immersion but how people, including myself, were reacting. Visitors were standing around watching and interested in the character, but as they returned, they already knew what to expect. They have lived the experienced. The immersion fell apart because of the repetitions and limited interactions. This problem led me down a tunnel of questions. What would take this concept to another level? What if the paintings saw a person? Or if they responded back to the visitors? What if they would drove a story so each person would have a unique experience every time they visited? How would the audience react? Would they feel for the character? These questions brought my project to life.
Designing my project, I knew I desired to have a painting that could interact with the audience. I wanted a character that would be able to seek and determine the presentence of a person and try to communicate with that person. My curiously lead me to see if I could develop an interaction that could allow individuals to emotionally connect with an artificial being. This was a challenge considering the scope of the programming requirements needed and the limitations of the hardware, but I knew it was possible. As I progressed with the project, I started to see something interesting that happened. Each element of the character became more like me. Visually, the character is an old man, but his personality, intentions, expressions and message are mirror of myself. This discovery encouraged me. It gave me the freedom to communicate a message that could directly affect a person emotionally. As well as giving an individual a unique experience with this character. Although I was startled how much of me is within the piece, I have accepted the result. It brought my own mentality and personality to my attention. In turn, allowing myself to design an experience were the audience can create their own thoughts about the character without knowing they actually met a part of myself.
This week I reworked some A.I responder code for project frame. Some of the update:
Finished procedural project. My goal was to create a procedural rope bridge that can be extended and modified in UE4.
Here is some screenshots and video:
In Procedural modeling class, we ran into issues with assigning materials in UE4. I created a quick image that should help:
I also noticed with auto seams, it can be buggy. I used it a bunch of times because I could not find a way to cut uv seams proceduraly without using the SOP. Sometimes UE4 would crash because of the complexity of the mesh and I had to tweak the settings a bit to avoid this issue.
In studio, I worked on finalizing the code for A.I. responder. Nothing to complex but it is exciting to see the character interacting with us during testing.
Defense 4: Technopomorphism/Technomorpism
As we know what anthropomorphize and the reason why humans tend to use it, there is another term worth noting – technopomorphism. Originally coined as mechanomorphism by Linnda R. Caporael, (Lum) Technopomorphism/technomorphism is the tendency to project technological characteristics to humans. (Hurley) This term has rarely been fully researched but as it relates to anthropomorphism, it has been indirectly studied. (Lum) Earlier in this paper I talked about the use of anthropomorphic terms, Technopomorphism is also used to describe and communicate human traits that we are uncertain of. A great example from Denis Hurley is the description of the “thought process like cogs in a machine or someone’s capacity for work may be described with bandwidth.” (Hurley) Unknowingly this term has been used in scientific studies to explain our bodily functions, but it can be used in other communities. In 3D animation, humanoid skeletons are reduced to nodes that are used to control and animation characters. Designing A.I., like in my project, we must transcode human social interactions or expressions and make algorithms to mimic and respond to the input. These are just a handful of examples that are technopomorphic. I believe we anthropomorphize and technopomoprhize for the same reason. That reason is to help us predict and comprehend the unknown. The only difference is in which direction the projection is going too.
Works Cited
Hurley, Denis. “Technical & Human Problems With Anthropomorphism & Technopomorphism.” 25 March 2017. <https://medium.com/emergent-future/technical-human-problems-with-anthropomorphism-technopomorphism-13c50e5e3f36>.
Lum, Heather Christina. “ARE WE BECOMING SUPERHUMAN CYBORGS?” 2011. <http://www.personal.psu.edu/hcl11/blogs/lum_597blog/Lum_Heather_C_201108_PhD.pdf>.
This week, I worked on my studio project. My task was to start the blendshapes and get most done. I got most created and have about 12 left. I plan on working this week on wrapping it up and importing it into Unity and attaching LipSync. Also reminder to me: both top & bottom teeth are not UVed. Copy UVs from the combined game mesh for the final piece.
Here are some tests:
ROUGH ROUGH DRAFT of defense 2: Social cognition
Defense 2: Social Cognition
Anthropomorphism and theory of mind intertwine with one another. As noted earlier, they trigger the temporoparietal junction in our brains highlighting the connection between, but anthropomorphism goes further than theory of mind. The phenomena can affect our cognitive function that processes how we perceive others, and how we view the surrounding world. (Cherry, Social Cognition in Psychology) Psychologists who study this process called it social cognition.
Social cognition is the “mental processes that (are) involved in perceiving, remembering, thinking about, and attending to the other people in our social world.” (Cherry, Social Cognition in Psychology) These processes influence how people behave, form impressions, and react to others. Simply put, it is the way we store, process, and interact with other living and non-living entities. Many things can encourage the develop of our social abilities such as culture, ideologies, experiences and so on. With anthropomorphism in mind, this cognitive ability grants humans an efficient way for our minds to process social stimulus that engulfs us every day. Predicting, and comprehending is important to us hence why we anthropomorphize the unknown. It puts the current unknown entity into context reducing uncertainty and allows for a simple way to communicate and socially reason to others about them. (Atherton) Therefore, anthropomorphism allows for an efficient way to socially predict and comprehend. Unfortunately, this mental efficiency can come at a cost.
Visually, we are highly sensitive to humanlike characteristics. (Agnieszka Wykowska) Our awareness of the difference between living and inanimate is impressive. As earlier, I explain how we naturally favor smooth human-like movements, called biological motions and how we are born with facial recognition but even with those traits, we make assumptions on what we observe. (Susan R. Fussell) When we interact with entities, we assign categories based on stimuli such as facial features and shapes, body shapes, gender, etc. When humans cannot understand the actor, we unknowingly rely on stereotypes we have learned to process their behaviors, and traits. (Susan R. Fussell) As the actor becomes more similar in appearance to oneself, the more we are likely to reference ourselves and anthropomorphize the non-human entity. (Atherton) Either anthropomorphizing or not, we judge because it allows us to create make assumptions. This assumption allows for forecast of behaviors of the entity and the environment that we are surrounded in. Another important aspect of social cognition is the need for connection that we draw from when we interaction with others.
Human beings desire and crave for some type of interaction that has the potential to produce a connection, emotionally and/or physically. From infants to adults, the social connection between others is a survival instinct. Plucking a person out of their social life, or rather, banish an individual would be a “death sentence for one’s genetic inheritance”. (Atherton) This type of punishment can have an enormous effect to an individual. Lacking or being withdrawn from social connections can influence and trigger the same neural functions that can induce physical pain. (Atherton) This pain may lead the individual to seek for a connection elsewhere. Requiring the person to seek a social connection and will start to anthropomorphize nonhuman entities to satisfy their lust. This basic motivation has been researched and found out that the lonelier a person is, the more they have connected with anthropomorphize objects. (Adam Waytz) Satisfying our need for a connection is important whether its fulfilled by living or nonliving entities. We need “someone” to survive.
Anthropomorphizing has its benefits. It allows us to be able to predict, to comprehend, and to make assumptions about the uncertainty. Lonely individuals that are deprived from social connection and interaction will anthropomorphize and feel at ease. Anthropomorphizing, to me, is about efficiency. This efficiency enables us to expect future actions from others. Removing the uncertainty that we as humans try so hard to unveil and learn what lies within.
Works Cited Adam Waytz, Nicholas Epley, and John T. Cacioppo. "Social Cognition Unbound: Insights Into Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization." Psychological Science. 19 February 2010. Agnieszka Wykowska, Thierry Chaminade, and Gordon Cheng. "Embodied Artificial Agents for Understanding Human Social Cognition." Philosophical Transacations B, 19 February 2016. Airenti, Gabriella. "The Development of Anthropomorphism in Interaction: Intersubjectivity, Imagination, and Theory of Mind." (2018). <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6231421/>. Atherton, Gray and Cross, Liam. "Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind." (2018). <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932358/>. Cherry, Kendra. How the Theory of Mind Helps Us Understand Others. 26 July 2019. <https://www.verywellmind.com/theory-of-mind-4176826>. —. "Social Cognition in Psychology." Very Well Mind, 13 August 2019. <www.verywellmind.com/social-cognition-2795912>. Drubach, Daniel A. "The Purpose and Neurobiology of Theory of Mind Functions." Blanton-Peale Institute, 18 December 2007. Online. Karolina Zawieska, Brian R. Duffy, and Agnieszka Spronska. "Understanding Anthropomorphisation in Social Robots." Pomiary Automatyka Robotyka. November 2012. Leslie, A.M. "Theory of Mind." International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier Ltd, 2001. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/theory-of-mind>. Nauert, Dr. Rick. PsychCentral. 15 June 2019. Nicholas Epley, Adam Waytz, and John T. Cacioppo. "On Seeing Human: A Three-Factor Theory of Anthropomorphism." Psychological Review. The American Psychological Association, 2007. Susan R. Fussell, Sara Kiesler, Leslie D. Setlock, and Victoria Yew. "How People Anthropomorphize Robots." Carnegie Mellon University, 12 March 2008. Thompson, Brittany N. Psychology Today. 03 July 2017. Website. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/socioemotional-success/201707/theory-mind-understanding-others-in-social-world>.
This week I worked in Unity. We have been testing PlayMaker plugin. Below is a video capture of a basic movement, using Animations, to an gameObject, wait and then move to the other gameObject. The goal was to get mover to determine if it has reached the spot and let the state continue along the line.
SciFi Decal Panels is a procedural material created in Substance Designer. With so many features, the material can be used in numerous applications and environments such as space stations/ships, futuristic environments, Decals for ceilings, floors, or walls, etc. The texture is using PBR metalness/roughness workflow and was created with realism in mind.
The goal of the project was to create a “kit” that could be used to help designers speed up detailing a environment with a many different panel decals in a instant. As well as exploring and understanding the use of procedural kits using Substance Designer.
This week I have been focusing on finishing up my substance kit. Currently, I am finalizing the color maps but I have been running into constant issues. For example, I work on a certain shape setup then turn on another and it does not work or a switch does not turn off. Trying to debug this rat’s nest is horrible but I am making way. I am planning on tomorrow as the final day to work in substance designer. The rest will be in Unity using the kit.
Here are the current graph and in editor 3d/texture:
After finishing this project, I will move onto working on the character as I am going to create a proposal presentation. I am going to focus more on the sculpt and what references I will follow. Other information I will be deciding: back story, style, time period, and final render for the sculpt. I am also hoping I find some time to do a few more sketches to help my direction.
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.
