Planning

In the professional world it is vital to organise your time and money in order to satisfy clients as well as turn a profit. In order to get a job completed by a deadline, we must first plan how we will spend our time based on the requirements of the brief. Provided that you have been in the industry long enough, it should be possible to easily allot time for certain tasks based on past experience. At this point it is also important to take the client’s budget into consideration with how much time you can afford to spend on each stage of the project and whether or not one stage costs more than another.

In terms of visually organising your time, charts are a great means to do it! There are programs available which are dedicated to producing time organisation charts such as Gantt charts that help to address how certain parts of the project are linked and whether or not one part needs to be completed for another to begin. While you are working through your planned project it helps to have some idea how much progress you have made compared to how much is left to do and how little time is left. Perhaps the best means of doing this is setting goals or milestones which give you a shorter time frame to work in and help to break up tasks. It is also easy to forget what is still left to do so regular audits assist you in deciding when to well and truly panic.

Unfortunately our group has not been planning our work within a long term time frame and instead, have been going on a week by week basis. On one hand this method doesn’t warrant any disappointment since there have been no set milestones. However with the lack of milestones we also have little idea of how much we have done compared to how much is still left to do. This week our group performed an audit off the top of our heads of what we still need to work on for the following weeks. We managed to come up with a decent sized list which seemed to shock us all but gave us direction and renewed vigour! I do believe that when we put our model together in week 13 that we will have a lot of unpleasant surprises in things which are yet to be completed.

Context

Context is generally used to describe the circumstances under which an object, notion or text was created[1]. It can also be described as the background information as it can explain the reasoning behind certain things. There are several types of context which we tend to use when we analyse context:

• Social – trends and the like.
• Political – Who was in power and where? What values did they promote?
• Historical – What was happening around the world?
• Personal – General upbringing and experiences.
• Geographical, especially when dealing with buildings.

While most texts, buildings and the like can be taken for their face value, we obtain a far clearer understanding from looking at the contexts under which it was created. A great example of context is the Lord of The Rings trilogy which seems like any other fantasy story. However when you look at what was going on in the world when it was written, new concepts emerge! These books were written during a time of global upheaval, around the same period as the Second World War. After seeing this it is possible to draw parallels between Hitler’s advances across Europe and Sauron and the orc hordes ravaging middle earth. Also when looking at Tolkien’s personal context we see further links as he fought in the First World War and knew the horror of the trenches.[2]

Our group is modelling an unbuilt design which has a very real site and a real architect. In order to accurately follow the architect’s intentions and give a realistic feel to the map, we need to study the site to give the right sort of feel. The Dam Theatre itself relies heavily on its context as it connects to the dam wall itself and not to the ground in any way. However the drawings and images we are working off do not resolve how the building and supporting trusses are actually attached to the wall. In order to fabricate a footing system which at least appears to work as well as similar in style to the theatre, I will be looking at the architect’s previous works to see if he has a particular method or material he uses in all or some of his designs.

Since the site is in a different continent, we will be primarily looking to the internet for images of the dam and surrounds on sites such as flickr.com as well as Google Maps to see the overall forms of the terrain.

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[1] Macquarie Concise Dictionary, The Macquarie Library, 1998

[2] http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/influences.html

Conflict

Conflict occurs when there is a collision of contradictory or incompatible notions which cannot co-exist. When a conflict does rear its ugly head, a resolution should be sought in a manner which retains as much of the opposing ideas without creating issues. This usually means both entities making concessions in order to achieve a solution. In an extreme case, this can mean one of the ideas being discarded in order for any resolution to occur.

In a real practicing environment, conflict can be very expensive and possibly bankrupting. Conflict from inadequate remuneration is a frequent situation. Depending on how much money is at stake and how large the companies are will determine how long the conflict will last!

As anticipated, our group has had quite a few conflicts ranging from reading the drawings we used to construct the model to more personal matters such as agendas and time tables.

Our first conflict was simply finding a suitable time and day to meet which we argued over for about a week when we came to the realisation that we would all have to make concessions of coming in on a day off, staying later or coming in earlier.

The drawings which we found for our unbuilt building were limited which meant that we were unable to clearly interpret the details of the design. The 2 sections which we found had discrepancies which conflicted with our understanding of the space. After talking about the design as a group, our combined architectural knowledge thrashed out our idea of how the space might work and justified it with the fact that this is also a fabrication exercise.

Our group has also had some personal conflicts involving differing priorities between student classes as well as difference in intents. The difference in class priorities has served in creating frustrations in some members of the group since those who prioritised our group over another engagement made key decisions in splitting up the tasks for the next couple of weeks.

There is also a conflict of attitude in the group with some members volunteering for more work whilst others doing the minimal efforts being made by others. This is frustrating for those of us who want to do the best we can for this visualisation. In order to have resolution, a full effort must be seen by all!

Remuneration

Remuneration is the general idea of receiving proper payment for the amount of work completed based on factors such as skill, time constraints and other costs. Remuneration can create problems in a teamwork environment because more often than not at least one member of the team will feel that their work has not been properly rewarded. Often this is justified through the logging of worked hours and the use of pay guidelines put in place by the Federal Government.

It is also important for the client to feel like they’re getting value for money which is also helped through the use of the aforementioned methods. Even with work logs, the end result can still appear to be worth greatly less than the amount of money paid for the services as was the case in a recent set of graphical work commissioned by the university which left people wondering where the money actually went in the final product.

As a group we have discussed the potential value of our model in its present state and have determined it to be worth a couple of thousand dollars in terms of selling it to a client. However it could be said that the model is more of an investment which grows in value during the approval process as well as a potential tool during construction. The end value of the model could be as high as $20,000 based on our average hours per week so far as well as the increasing work hours as the deadline draws closer. However this project could also be seen as an investment in ourselves since most of us are facing a steep learning curve in how we create the forms and work with the Unreal engine. Consequently we are faced with the possibility of charging less for the work since our skills are not yet honed to a professional level and a large amount of our weekly hours have gone into learning new skills.

Hierarchy

Hierarchy in computers is necessary in order for us to have easier access to what we want and also for the programs to find files. It could be said that there are 2 primary types of hierarchy in the general computing world; Mac and PC organisation. This is primarily to do with how the data is arranged on first glance of the operating system. Initially windows has shortcuts on the desktop with folders existing in a file system accessed by explorer, however it appears to be a trend in Mac OS that data and shortcuts and everything is stored whereby there appears to be a greater sense of order on the PC system. In viewing a set of files in either Finder (mac) or explorer (PC) the sense of order is more obvious but represented in 2 different manners. Finder tends to display a greater horizontal hierarchy where decisions are displayed across the window. On the other hand explorer shows folders in a vertical hierarchy which expand downwards and gives a better sense of where a file sits in the system; how deep into the rabbit hole it lies!

Our group’s hierarchy is similar to a planer or parallel approach with one defined organisational head. We seem to work on our own disciplines and make key decisions whilst also communicating with other group members on what they need done in order to progress their work. There is also a figurehead of the group who helps to co-ordinate what needs to be done and how these jobs are divided up. Unfortunately there are sometimes cases when the leader has to chase up unfinished work. On top of the leader, there is our tutor who makes sure that the leader and everyone else is doing their part and ensuring effective communication is taking place. Generally it feels that our group is function reasonably well as we are making adequate progress, albeit a little bogged in some places due to a limited understanding of what is required or how to complete the task.

Intent

From the beginning of this project intent has played a huge role in our work since it affects every part of the project. For instance as a group we have the combined intent to pass the subject and others intend to do much better, consequently we already have the drive and the need to work however we do not know the effort which other members intend to put into the project.

If a person’s intentions are not directly verbally communicated, they can still be perceived through their actions and body language. In our group’s case we can get a rough idea of each other’s effort intentions through message board posts and attendance.

Design is a key area involving intent as clear communication is often required in order to accurately the purpose of specific features. Our group discovered the hard way that an architect does not always communicate well as the program of our Dam Theatre was quite heavily debated amongst us due to a lack of drawings and textual information. Through our debate, we were also able to determine the intent of some members of the group as the inclusion of part of the building came into question.

A person’s intent, especially in the corporate environment is particularly influenced by their chosen discipline. Perhaps the best example of differing intents exists on a movie set whereby a sound engineer’s intent differs to the cameraman which potentially differs to the intent of the director, producer and movie studio! This is where hierarchy also comes into play as the success of the film is dependent on the disciplines coexisting and someone taking charge and using their knowledge and authority to move the project forwards.

In the fabrication of the Dam Theatre, we have determined our intentions to be utilising the amazing graphics produced by the Unreal Engine, especially in the creation of environments. This intention was not immediately revealed but can be interpreted by the majority of the group focussing on the environment and surroundings of the building with three out of five working on the terrain and associated variables. Akin to a movie set, we have had conflict in regards to aspects of the map creation process which have been frequently resolved through the compromising and combining of intentions.

Knowledge

All humans have some form of knowledge, that is, we have the ability to recognise and process information on a particular subject or situation.[1] However, just by going through our day and talking to people, it is possible to see that not everyone has the same level of knowledge in every discipline or even everyday tasks. In order to share and spread humanity’s acquired knowledge from thousands of years, we have created records and resources of what we know and communicated in four primary methods:

• Textual
• Imagery
• Demonstration
• Aural.

Perhaps the earliest methods of knowledge sharing are through demonstration and verbal communication which is also experienced at a childhood level where we learn basic things. In regards to the storage of knowledge, while books and online resources may appear to provide reliable knowledge, we must look at how likely the information provided is true!

As a group we have already encountered limits of our knowledge as well as times of situated knowledge. Since we have various technical backgrounds we are used to different shortcut hotkeys as well as different modelling techniques, consequently our application of some knowledge has produced unexpected results, leaving us searching for greater knowledge. Working together on a single project with various learning curves has meant that we’ve also had to share our knowledge on particular areas. In collaborating, we have imparted knowledge through the demonstration of certain skills such as manipulating a terrain and animating a pdf so that it performs like a power point presentation.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge

Week 5 - Record

In group collaboration communication is vital, the records kept of any communication is even more important. Our group’s primary form of record keeping was initially in the form of emails. This was fine in the beginning as the discussion was small enough to keep track of who said what when and it was an immediate form of record with a set chronology. Fortunately Matt discovered Base Camp which improved our records as we now had a method of recording who said what as well as what’s left to do and when it needs to be done by.

A major flaw in our group’s record keeping is the lack of formal minutes during face to face meetings. When an issue is discussed such as job delegation it was recorded individually in our own way, either typing directly into a document or writing in our books. Unless either of these methods are stored with some logical structure then the records are just about useless.

In a wider scope record keeping record of every dialogue related to the project between team members the client is important as it is needed for the progression of the project and potentially for legal defence. While it is important to record what progress has been made, one could argue it is almost more important to record what is yet left to be done, especially in a top-down approach of task distribution which leaves a lot of smaller tasks.

Other methods of record keeping can include general work logs to record which changes were made and when, as well as time sheets since we all like to get paid for the time with spent working. Change logs are perhaps the most important record for both architects and general computer users due to the unreliability of computers and the opportunity of mistakes being made whilst working on a file. Some authoring suites such as Dreamweaver offer built in modules which record who worked on what file when called Check In/Check Out which also provides protection from two people working on the same file at once.

Once a project has been completed in the developer’s eyes, it must be shown to the client that all of the outcomes outlined in the brief have been accomplished. In my own design work I tend to have email dialogues which are a mini brief with a set of outcomes to be achieved. When it comes time to bill the client, I also include a copy of my timesheet as well as a list of what I have been working on in order to reassure the client that they aren’t paying me for wasting time which so far has been successful with no qualms or financial disagreement.

Week 4 - Discipline

In the first week of this collaboration task, we discussed in groups the skills we had to offer which would assist in the production of the model and the presentations. It was apparent to me that a lot of people mentioned computing skills instead of other typical group work skills such as leadership and research. Like leadership, it could be said that disciplines are intrinsic to the person based on their thought processes for example some people are especially logical and some are more creative.

A large project in most work environments require a selection of disciplines in varied strengths. For example an architectural project requires at least 3 disciplines: architectural knowledge, engineering, construction and perhaps legal. In larger scale projects such as the development of the Olympic Park in Homebush required the assistance from scientists in various fields such as analytical chemistry and biology in order to protect the surrounding wetland.

For the development of the UT3 level our group has went through each other’s skill sets and worked out who is strongest in each particular area involved in the production of the level. In terms of the development of levels in general the key disciplines are:

• Texturing,
• Lighting,
• Modelling static meshes,
• Character design,
• Level design,
• Sound; both music and effects,
• Terrain generation,
• AI programming, and
• Event programming.

Since we most likely won’t be incorporating any AI characters into the map we can at least avoid path creation. To an extent everyone in the group could no doubt handle working in each section since we determined that to some degree our skills overlap in the primary construction areas of 3D modelling and working with Photoshop. However in order to optimize our time and production quality, we have sorted out the discipline with which we are most comfortable.

Week 3 - Social Networks and use in Collaboration

I think I can safely say that most remotely tech savvy internet users have their own MySpace or Facebook account or some other spawn of the same line of thought. In fact just ‘Googling’ “social networking” returns a large number of results for sites where you can create your own online presence in and add all of your RL or OL friends. What separates these sites are their various motives and agendas, for example in the early days of the popularisation of the internet, one would frequently see annoying flashing ads for “Find your classmates”[1] which would appear to have the intent of reuniting you with your classmates from 1972, however being the wary user; I never clicked the flashing banner. Other online communities are there to help people find true e-love such as RSVP and matchmaker.com, both of which have nothing to do with online collaboration.

The major players in the social network league are MySpace and Facebook with MySpace being the alternative for the angsty teen who wants to dabble in terrible, gaudy and downright bad web design. Meanwhile Facebook appears to be the thinking person’s network with its inability to change the colour scheme, once unique live feed as well as friend relationship map. It is the latter two points which are particularly interesting in relation to collaboration where a ‘live feed’ could help members of a larger development team inform each other on a mass level without having to send an email to groups of people. Letting the file jockey know that you need to get them to move the latest version of your model into the reference folder would simply mean opening a web browser and typing your message leaving a worklog for both the employer and workmates to keep track of what is left to be done.

In a CNet News article on IBM looking at adopting social networking as a means of internal communication, Michael Rodin of IBM said

“The real phenomenon of Web 2.0 is the concept of community."[2]

This supports the notion of a collaborating team being there to support one another as a community where everyone shares their skillset with one another which is vital in today’s corporate environment where specialisation is essential. The social network approach to corporate communication makes more sense to me than emails or phone calls which interrupt your thought process as well as being unable to transfer lines of code, 3D models or images. In terms of messaging one another versus emails, the benefit is in the nested response of comments or wall posts which exist all on one page instead of having individual replies or forwards from everyone you emailed which is less efficient and doesn’t show the logical thought progressions which could occur in comments.

In terms of a company the size of IBM, a social network site could be very handy since there are offices across the globe. A networking site could connect these offices thus bringing even more people and skills into the scope which is what Karen Hober, a CMS Analyst of the Burton Group, was referring to when she said:

"We think that's a pretty powerful concept--you've just gotten 10 experts together, that may not have known each other, to collaborate on a business problem. That's a powerful tool."[3]

Thanks to the internet, we live in the age of the global community and outsourcing, thus having social networks connecting team members, it is no longer mandatory for development teams to work in the same office, although from experience it is still easier to develop ideas.

In terms of group A and our collaboration, at least five of us, Matt, Derek, Sam, Graham and myself seem to be primarily communicating through synchronous messaging using primarily MSN Messenger and occasionally Gmail Chat which is much better than our original dialogue via partially anonymous emails due to some people using their student email account. As of this week our team is now using BaseCamp which is an online collaboration suite which allows for tasks to be handed out as well as task scheduling so that each member of the team knows roughly what over people have done and what’s still left to do!

Other Links

• Collaborative Thinking
• BBC News|MySpace & Google Deal
• Social Networking
  

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[1] Wikipedia - Social Network Service Accessed 1/4/08

[2] IBM Warms to Social Networking Accessed 1/4/08

[3] Ibid

Meeting Notes

Scope

Multiple spawn points

• one on dam wall
• one in garden

Include a fair bit of lake

Interior shot - image or modelling

Start on thinking

• water
• trees
• texture sets available
• terrain modelling - engine or max
• sounds
• boats
• ambient
• water falling
• kismet performance
• lighting in the theatre
• control the environment (night and day)
  

LAYERS of the model

Discipline

• area of study
• approaches
• designer vs engineer
• specialisations which work together to produce Awesomeness (^^,)

Break Blog

UT3 Tutes
I started on my 2 rooms last week and found the program fairly easy to use, the primary difference being the manner in which forms (voids or solids) are created. This entails the use of a brush to dictate the size and location of the form which then needs to be built. This is far less intuitive than say a program like 3DS Max, whereby one drags a form at will!.

Through the tutorials I've come to the realisation that we will be primarily dealing with static mesh creation in Max and using instancing (multiple versions of the same mesh in the map) in order to make our map run smoothly. This means making objects which can be easily scaled rather than making several sizes of the same object. Another problem using the UT3 engine is that a lot of the included static meshes that I've seen have heavy Asian influences or bizarre and futuristic which means we will probably have to make a lot of our own stuff. However I have seen some reasonably contemporary textures and meshes within the game!

In terms of the Dam Theatre, how we fabricate the unknown will largely depend on the look we think the interior should have and from that point it will be how advanced our modelling skills are. While we have floorplans for the building, I believe that the exterior of the model will be where the UT3 engine and its effects come into play with the use of fog and water as Matthew mentioned.

Matthew has mentioned basecamp as a tool for our collaboration which seems as though it could be very useful as I have only seen Graham, Matt and Derek on MSN. I also signed up for a Twitter account which allows you to immediately update your status on what you have done with a limited description field which can then be received by your workmates via RSS.

For work roles within the group:

• Craig: I know has a lot of experience with architectural models so I believe he should be our primary interior modeller.
• Matt: In the first week he said he had a lot of Photoshop experience which will come in handy for the creation of textures in our fabrication! However we will also need to work on such things as bump maps for materials
• Derek: New to the 3d modelling scene but is no doubt capable of producing some larger scale scenery.
• I'm an all rounder and quite comfortable in the UT3 editor I have worked in the development of a 3d model scene and movie before and know the difficulties and ways to manage group model development using referencing in 3DS max.
• 5th guy (Sam?) no idea! will find out today!

In terms of our key word discipline, I don't have much to say but I believe a lot will be sorted after our group meeting today!

Weekly report

South-West elevation of the Coledale House

For our group's fabrication project, I believe that we should attempt the Coledale House by Kennedy Associates Architects. Firstly this design is a viable choice as it is a decent sized residence which means that the model would be a manageable size to work on as a opposed to a triple storey mansion. The design itself is quite interesting with a split level whereby the garage is separated from the rest of the house.

Diagram of the environmental considerations of the design

The design of the bush residence has taken care of so many environmental considerations. Kennedy Associates have utilised all methods for creating a thermally passive dwelling. For example they have sunk the living level into the ground instead of raising it to the road level, which helps to regulate the internal temperature, as well as providing a huge amount of privacy. Coledale house also has aspects of solar passive design with the roof slope and glazing are arranged in a manner which allows for the winter sun to penetrate whilst restricting the harsh summer sun. In order to reduce the carbon footprint of the building, the roof is mostly covered by a garden which means that any plants possibly displaced by the construction of the residence would be made up for on the roof! Also on the roof is an array of photovoltaic cells which power the home.

In terms of aesthetic qualities, the design has some possible Glenn Murcutt influences with the use of corrugated iron as a building skin and the way the building mass sits as part of the landscape instead of hugely altering the topography of the site. A bonus for this design is the amount of information available on the design whereby the linked pdf contains a floor plan, sections and elevations which would help us determine the layout and make scaling the model easier. Both of these reasons mean that we can spend more time modelling internal features and the surrounding environment!

Structural model of the house

After exploring the UT3 engine, I found that it can produce spectacular graphics through a mixture of dynamic lighting and high quality textures. I feel that since this project is not some giant structure, that we too could produce high quality textures in order to improve the user’s experience in the map. From the elevations, it would appear that we’d have to create a highly detailed corrugated iron texture as it covers most of the house. Perhaps in the interest of lower polygon counts to reduce lag, we would create a bump map to give the corrugated appearance instead of physically modelling the corrugations.

Screen shot from UT3 demonstrating the amazing graphic ability

In terms of creating an audio environment, we would need to create or locate sounds which would be present in the Australian coastal bushland. Some possible sounds to include in the final model would be some distant ocean sounds as well as some native birds and eucalypt leaves rustling in the wind.

Here's a video I dug up on YouTube of someone who's attempted what we are undertaking, except they used the older UT2004 engine. It's a pretty amazing little video



It's a pretty amazing little video which concerns me about how we'll cope with UVW map unwrapping as I have done it in Maya but not 3Ds Max!

Unbuilt archi!

I've been poking around Zaha Hadid's site because I remember either Paul Hogben or Harry Margalit saying that a lot of her designs were not built. Nonetheless she creates some awesome designs!
I've also been thinking - how little is too little information for the model? Understandably, the more information the better but what could we make do with? Perhaps lots of images of the proposed design - both internal and external. Or are we attempting to go straight out for mad floorplans and elevations and all that jazz?

Update guys ok it's a smaller residence but here Coledale House - has plans and elevations!!

Some others that look goodo from Derek's AA link:

• Corb V2.0
• Unbuilt on the unbuilt <<>

First Post

Woo arch1392!
I stumbled upon this article Graham had already dug up on his blog about unbuilt architecture available here! Architecture Ideas For Collab Studio