FINAL BLOG LINK

This class is an Immersive Education class at Boston College; it was taught by Aaron Walsh a professor at Boston College and one of the founders of ImmersiveEducation.org

In this class we leared about immersive education through class participation in virtual worlds such as Second Life. In addition to having class in second life we learned to how to create builings, characters such as Santa by using such basic shapes and manipulating these shapes to get the desired effect you want for your 3D object..

We also used Google Sketchup which is another 3D content buiding site; in there we created a house, an astronaut, rocket; a lion, and a santa. In addition to building these things we learned to put them in Google Earth and Project Wonderland. You are also able to get items from a Sketchup warehouse that can also be incorporated into your own building.

We played Lord of the Rings and Army 3; I am not a very good gaming and was unable to level up in either game.

One of our last assignments we that we learned to manipulate faces in FaceGen, and change the appearance of VRML character using eiter Gimp or paint.

Thanks for the class.

Happy Holidays to all!

Here's tonight's roll call:

SL Santa

santa in sketchup

I cannot create under pressure; so since we had an extension, I spent a little more time revising my santa; here's the newer version.









































FINAL SKETCHUP SANTA:
A LITTLE BETTER THAN THE FIRST TRY; AT LEAST HE'S NOT WEARING A DRESS NOW!















FIRST TRY; UNDER TIME CONSTRAINTS!

Army game

Well, I could not complete basic training in time; first time it took me approximately twenty five minutes to complete the obstacle course; I kept falling off the balance beam. I did get down to a little over five minutes, but still did not pass, also, I lost the screen shot of that five minutes but here's the first one:












I did manage to get service ribbon, not sure how, maybe just for showing up:

FaceGen, Modification

With this exercise we had to customize a synthetic human head; a lot easier than VRML character. First picture, plain character, then added an expression and lighted her skin tone.
























Added some color to her cheeks and lips.















Here's my female version before I figured out how to change her hair. I originally could only add short black hair that was more appropriate for a male. With the help of my friend, Isaac, he pointed out that in order update the face, you need to add the female hair to the left side of the column; Originally I thought you would move objects from the left column to the right column in order for them to work on the model but in this program the items you want to appear should be in the left column. I then deleted the short hair from the list.















FINAL version, with female hair.

VRML Character

Our assignment was to modify the face image texture for the facegen.com "john_hi_vrml97". I used Gimp to edit John's appearance. Again I want to thank Isaac for his help in refreshing my memory on how to use gimp; it has been a while since I took Discovering Computer Graphics and Issac was kind enough to meet with me to go over the steps again! Thank you,

Here's John's appearance in the beginning; I started with changing the color of his eyes.









Weird expression but then removed it; it was too freaky.












Not sure if you can tell, but I removed his blemishes; who needs those!












Back of John's hair; pretty cool design don't you think?










Top of John's head:












I went a little radical and gave him a tattoo; he is not in a gang!









Added earrings as well!

Roll Call, December 6th

Roll Call:








I lost audio at the end of the night in scribbler but I think we had to post a screen shot of the lion on scribbler, if so, here it is:










I then went back to SL; Aaron was there so I took a final sreenshot there as well:

Lion, after mentoring

Isaac and I meet again on Tuesday in person. He help me fine tune my lion. I learned how to use the tools in Sketchup much better than I was utilizing them. We worked on scaling, using the rotate tool, which prior to that meeting I had no idea how to use it. I learned to move along the axis lines which help when putting pieces together for the lion.

Here's the final result; my family thinks his face looks like a turkey but all in all I think I have improved tremendously.

November 29th, Mentor and Mentee

Tonight I met in SL with Isaac so that he could tutor me so that I will be able to make a lion much like the model. We met at about 3:00 today and I had Isacc look at my first attempt at starting a lion from last week. Gary joined us for this session. While waiting for students to log on; I took a look at the lion we are to use as our guide; I discovred if I right clicked on it I could sort of see how it was put together.












I was not using the tools as I should be for creating this lion. I had Isaac take a look at my very basic model on Blogger; seems as though I needed some work on the lion's mane:



After reviewing my blog, Isaac came back with some suggestions and gave me some lessons on how to use the tools better. After we talked for some time; I went off to produce my lion.


I started practicing with developing the lion's mane.








We came back about 1 1/2 later. Since I am extremely slow at this; I didn't have much to show him at that time; just more of the basic more defined.














I had the basics down for the body but today's lesson was a great help in developing the shoulders, mane, tail, legs and the face with forehead, snout and nose.

We plan on meeting again later in the week to go over what I have practiced so far. After our final meeting in SL; I fed my family and went back to creating my lion; here's my progress so far.








All things considered, I think I have come a long way. Today I learn how to manipulte the basic tools, such as scaling circles for different sizes, using the follow-me tool to help develop the tail; creating a number of spheres for use in the face; using the geometry view to see all the connected parts of a piece of the lion. Anyway, still a work in progress; but at least now I am making some progress; here's what I have so far.