Week13/Individual Process - New Terrain

Week13/Individual Process - Collection of the Project Process

dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0qjr0oia1u15wmg/The%20Gothic%20Architecture.pdf

Here is a collection of all group members work, in order to show group members contribution and project processing.

Week12/Individual Process - New Terrain

After collected all information and requirements from client, tutor, and other group members, I decided to create another environment with new terrain as well.

This time, I will have to carefully naming and numbering the package files in Unity with terrain and other materials so that I can simply export the environment and  share it within the group easier. Also, I have to flatten the whole terrain to make it as reality as the real world landscape. Which means I have to considering the location of the church with surrounding farmhouses and rivers.

I tried to use World Machine again to get the realistic terrain.

birdview of the testing terrain in WM
(image capture by myself in World Machine)

the detail of my terrain setting procession
(image capture by myself in World Machine)

I tried to lower the whole terrain into plain and basin so that I can set water into it. The setting in World-Machine is quite limited because of the free version.

top view of the testing terrain without texture
(image capture by myself in World Machine)

top view of the testing terrain with texture and water level
(image capture by myself in World Machine)

After the editing in World-Machine, it have to be export as .RAW file so that can be import to unit as heightmap. The import is plain without any texture.

 testing terrain import to Unity
(image capture of myself in Unity) 

 Then I paint the grass and rock texture on the terrain. Also I have use the 2D normal map on the grass.

 testing terrain with textures
(image capture of myself in Unity)

terrain with riverway
(image capture of myself in Unity)

 The free version of Unity can not add water in normal way, I create another plan and assign water texture on it.

import a plan to the terrain and set on water level
(image capture of myself in Unity)

final testing terrain with water plan and skybox setting
(image capture of myself in Unity)

Week11/Individual Process - Site analysis

Since John came to join us this week, we all have got some new specific requirements as feedback. 

For my part, which is the environment, John is satisfied with the current environment I have done. But some more details needed:
1 considering the lights setting inside/outside the church;
2 take look with the landscape in real world location (Laon, Chartres);
3 no people in the game environment but some animals is needed such as cows;
4 no background music or sound to make the environment too fancy;
5 keep the environment and daytime in sunny;

Also I have got some information from other group members, Lauren(texture) said the texture of the church is fine but he just want to keep the whole building plain in colors. Which means I don't have to spend time to put texture on the surrounding buildings, just keep they with default texture and in white color will be fine.

To get familiar with the real world location, I search them on google map in different views.

Laon, France (image capture by myself in Google Map)

Laon, France (image capture by myself in Google Map)

Chartres, France (image capture by myself in Google Map)

Chartres, France (image capture by myself in Google Map)

Rivers in Chartres is very impressive. And from the geomorphic map, I learned that the landscape for the environment should more flat and wide with some farmhouse.

I have also found a heightmap mainly of France to well understand the landscape.

heightmap view of France
(image from online: http://archive.forum.simutrans.com/topic/00098.0/)

Week10/Individual Process - Light

In order to develop the terrain, I tried to have some Light setting in Unity. Lights will bring personality and flavor to the environment as well as the whole scene.
( Online tutorial about lights setting:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/class-Light.html )

image capture by myself in Unity with test terrain.

In my previous Unity environment I have used one directional light, it's not as good as I expected because of the free version limited, I can't to any further shadow or shader setting to make it more reality.

Also, inside the church, lights might needed to illuminate the scenes and objects to create the perfect visual mood. The other group member Anthony tried to use some spot lights inside the church. It looks much better than before.

Week9/Individual Process - Nature Elements

Before I start with terrain, I did some research of Cerseuil in France with landform. These are some images I found:

(http://jeanjacques8420.fond-ecran-image.com/blog-photo/mes-clochets/)

(http://amicarte51.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/cerseuil-brocante-le-18-aout-2013.html)

From the images, I have noticed that the surrounding buildings are not very tall and the terrain ground is very sandy. So I search a dirt path texture to detailed the terrain.

    Texture of dirt path.                          Normal map of sand.

Texture: http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/293565

Normal map of sand:http://www.filterforge.com/filters/1829-normal.html

Terrain editing inspiration tutorial video:

This is the close view of terrain with three different textures in Unity as final out come:

Then I have started add natural elements, trees and grass.

 Images of 2D grass have been used in environment.

2D grass .png images: http://www.lenagold.ru/fon/clipart/t/trav.html

Close view of the draft environment with testing models and natural element.

Top view of part of the draft environment with testing models.

In next few weeks, our group is going to work together to make sure everything going well. Personally think environment edit should keep developing during the work all the time, since all members have done their own parts, then it's definitely a new start of environment edit when we put everything together.

Week8/Individual Process - Buildings

After this weeks studio, our client John James cames join us together then we have got some new requirements and also some feedback.

For my part, which is the environment, is required to have some typically buildings around the church, and natural elements such as trees should included as well. And the terrain don't have to be the exact same as the real one, but the landform have to accord with the actual of the church to make sure it fits in our terrain.

I have also been required by tutor that, do not make the environment too fancy because the main role is the church. Based on these informations, I have done some processes.


-Surrounding Buildings:
I have got some Sketchup model from group mate Anthony, in order to test with the environment and to have path within the environment.

Firstly I separated each building as single .skp file then exported them as .dae file, which is fitable to Unity.

After exported from Sketchup, I imported them as custom assets package into Unity.

Then I have done directional sunlight setting try to create some soft shadow with the building.

And in order to get better view during the edit, I play around with the camera setting for a while to get familiar with it.

Week8/Presentation Feedback - Intellectual Property

/The Creation of Gothic Architecture
Ricky, Dorothy Kar Yan, Maki, Stefan, David, Alan.

/The Last Suprematist Sculpture

Marina, Andrew.

/The Bus Stop of the Future
Martha, Anthony, Kerre, Darren, Daniel.

From today's presentations by three different groups, I have learned a lot about Intellectual Property. It's about how can we protect our design idea by law, as a final year architecture student, it's very important and useful knowledge for further work. 
One of the group's cartoonish video is  very interesting that combined the topic with the story.

Week7/Individual Process - Skybox

Before I start to edit the skybox, I did another texture to development the terrain detail.

The rock texture makes terrain looks more reality.

Then I started to edit the skybox by following this video from Youtube:

Basically I edited the sky texture in rendering setting in Unity. 

Then assign the default sky texture into the skybox.

For the next step, I'm going to do with the plants and surrounding environment of the church.

Week7/Individual Process - Texture & Shader

For this week, I basically doing lot of research about how to make cartoonish style of environment and realistic natural terrain. And start to do our own environment in unity with textures.
Heres are some reference image I found during the research. Personally like this kind of cartoonish architecture and environment style. I would like to try to set up the environment like this image in the following steps in needed. 

Cartoonish style shader of the building.

Reference image found online. 

Before to have further process of terrain making in World-Machine, I try to play around with terrain settings in Unity as tutorial. Here is the link of the tutorial I found online.
(tutorial of the terrain making)

Grass texture and normal map are found online.

Texture: https://www.filterforge.com/filters/4739-normal.html
Normal map of texture: https://www.filterforge.com/filters/4739.html

To make own texture in Unity, I firstly have to imported new Assets, then assign the texture to the terrain. Here is the screenshot of how the texture is worked with the terrain in Unity after imported.

In order to make the texture more reality, I did some shader settings. I made a new shader instead of the default one to make sure every setting going well with my own texture.

Here is the final outcome of the terrain texture. It's much more realistic with texture that have normal map and much better with specific shader setting.

In the next step, I'm going to have some more details setting of the terrain with plants and also the skybox.

Week6/Presentation Feedback - Communication

/The Creation of Gothic Architecture (my group)

Anthony, Bassel, Benjamin, Lauren, Lorrain, Theodore.

/The Bus Stop of the Future

Martha, Anthony, Kerre, Darren, Daniel.

/The Last Suprematist Sculpture

Marina, Andrew.

Though we do well for the video, but for the presentation content we have to be more careful with the referencing. Endnote have to be located within the content.

After other two groups present, I have learned some different parts about the Communication than our presentation didn't cover. Such as what can we get from good/bad communicate and what is the best way to communicate within different situations.

Week6/Group Presentation - Individual Work

Final presentation slides edit finished by me within Prezi.



For the presentation, I'm going to talk about 'communication within collaborate':

"It is crucial to identify the key factors of communication within collaboration for effectiveness.

-

Synchronous Communication

Initially (in our team), synchronous communication (verbal and non-verbal) takes place, where team objectives, roles and other information is shared directly – face to face in real-time. Communication within collaboration can be extended via messaging whether it’s throughout social networking such as Facebook or contacting the members directly to their personal phone number these are all tools of communication.

/Advantages

• Verbal, synchronous communication allow the group to understand what is happening at that very instant. (How to use Unity, What Creation of Gothic Architecture is about)
• It allows an immediate answer to a certain concern or issue a group member raises. (Something within Unity or Sketchup isn't working, Where the database is located, Images or historical facts of Cerseuil)

/Disadvantages

• Team mate can feel pressured into giving an answer on the spot. (This coincides with language barriers, where some of the members are uncomfortable with the common language, which is English in our case)
• Answer not necessary prepared well and not given at best potential. (At times, words may fail us and a more visually engaging form of communication is used to illustrate an idea across)
• Might not have the correct resource with.

​

-

Asynchronous Communication

On the other hand, an asynchronous form takes place; this refers to a later reply. For example, sending an e-mail message; where one sends an e-mail and possibly gets a reply 1-12hours later. Which has time lag in between, whether it was an hour or twelve? Another example is where the reader has time to complete them.

/Advantages

• Asynchronous communication is flexible. 
• There is less pressure and can be completed at a more convenient time.
• Allows the recipient to digest the information given, so the final response is improved in relation to context and perspective.  

/Disadvantages

• It can lack a sense of immediacy so no immediate action given.
• Crucial information being out of date once viewed.

In our case, we have touched on multiple forms of communication to complete our given tasks by the tutor as well as between the group and group designated tasks. It has made it more efficient and easier to comprehend. "

(content collected by group member)

Week6/Individual Process - Terrain

As the requirement of our clients, we need to build a 3D environment for church in Unity. In order to get better terrain(more detailed, more natural), I'm trying to use some different program to achieve better out comes.
 
I'm currently use a program named World-Machine, it's a powerful and flexible tool combines procedural terrain creation, simulations of nature, and interactive editing to produce realistic looking terrain quickly and easily. Here is the capture of what I currently have.
 

 
The way to use World-Machine is kind of like what I used to do with Flowchart in Cry Engine, so it's not very hard and won't spend too much time on .

 

 The final terrain could save as .RAW file then easily import to Unity.

Week5/Process - Group Presentation

-
After 3 hours group meeting today, we have done some part of the presentation slides. It's not finished yet,we'll keeping adding new content to improve it. I advised to use Prezi as present tool, here is the screenshot of the draft slides:

-

And we also finish record some videos about our project topic, though It's still need some more editing.