Project Assets: uploaded files, images & documents

how to build a treadmill — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 10:31

i'm putting these in for the folks/friends who are not familiar with second life. on my last project i realized that my building pictures didn't really show HOW building is accomplised in SL. likewise, explaining that, 'a saxophone begins as a plywood box' doesn't really explain very much. like every place, you really have to have been to SL to 'get it'. but for those who haven't been, here are some snaps. proviso: anyone already familiar with SL will find the building here ... let's say... underwhelming at best.

treadmill 2 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 17:15

everything starts with a basic prim, which is short for 'primitive shape'. i like to be right on top or inside of the things that i am building to make sure that they have the right size and feel. so here the cube that you saw in the first image has been flattened and moved, and i am currently stretching it. to my left is what's known as the 'edit window'. it contains the tools that we use to make stuff. the nice folks at Linden Labs made sure that each and every avatar gets 'born' with this incredible tool kit.

treadmill 3 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 16:23

i sometimes make different parts of an object different colours so that i can see what i'm doing while i fit them together. (nice boots eh?)

treadmill 4 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 14:08

here i have worked out the incline for the base and applied some textures. the treads are animated to look like a moving belt on a treadmill. my (or my avatar's) animation is provided courtesy of a pose ball into which i put a walking animation.

treadmill 5 (allow me to introduce Hg Beeks) — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 14:42

a pause in building the treadmill to explain to the scripter i hired what's required for the treadmill to trigger simulated films. Hg was brilliant!! without the script to actually make the triggering possible, i would only have had a rough mock up in 3d. scripts bring the simple 3d objects to life by giving them actions or enabling them to perform tasks. yes, Hg is a small white rabbit/squirrel hybrid, which as i said at the start, is a fact that won't seem odd or impressive to people already familiar with SL, but is maybe kind of amazing to everyone else.

treadmill 6 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 10:54

the physical treadmill is now finsihed except for the control panel, so i'm moving it over into the exhibit dimensions frame to make sure that it's a good fit for the space. note that avatars can be ON things and also moving and buildng things at the same time. i wish RL was more like this aspect of SL.

treadmill 7 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 10:59

the control panel is actually the trickiest part of this build. it has to be the right size and shape to feel like a treadmill's control panel, but the buttons have to be big enough so that avatars will intuitively want to touch them to see what happens. yet, i don't want it to be so large that it inteferes with the screen, which is why i've gone back to working on an unfinished treadmill copy in front of the (still plywood) screen.

treadmill 8 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 14:46

each button has separate touch activation that triggers its own 'film' on the screen.

treadmill 9 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-09 06:31

ultimately i settled on 6 control buttons. this means that i also have to go take enough snapshots for 6 'films'. here are the buttons with the shoe pictures applied. touch selecting a button will immediately trigger a timed sequence of images of various walks in SL in an attempt to simulate a real life version with different walking films available.

treadmill 10 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 11:10

but before i went out to take the snapshots for the films, i decided to test the equipment by running some other pictures. here i am testing the treadmill trigger and screen with a succession of fractal textures. it works!!

how to leave a sky platform — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 11:15

well, that was a very productive first day. when i decide to call it quits on the sky platform, i like to just jump off. (i have an emergency parachute that opens automatically)

how to leave a sky platform 2 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 11:17

weeee

walk a mile (the black box) — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 14:50

this shows the 'black box' exhibit space. i decided on a black box to suggest the way that in RL this treadmill as trigger, visitor green screened into a movie... omg WOW thingie would seem. it would seem utterly mysterious and magical at first: hence black box. but even before i put the roof on, it felt so claustrophobic, that i eventually made the sides a bit transparent. this will make it easier for other avatars at Parkside Exhibition Hall to see into the exhibit space as well.

building the cameras — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 11:29

in RL the cameras that capture the video for the green screening would likely be hidden (to add to the mystery). but since this prototype is supposed to show how the exhibit would work, i'm going to make them obvious in the SL version. but first i have to build a camera.

camera 2 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 11:31

as before, everything starts as a plywood shape.

camera 3 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 12:04

then the basic shapes get 'textured' to look more realistic.

camera 4 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 12:06

but as with drawing, directly mimicing nature isn't usually the best way to get 'realsitic' results. i doubt that video cameras have anything like a glowing green ball just behind the lens, but somehow that seems to suggest a camera in a way that the mere shapes didn't.

camera 5 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 14:20

on the other hand, some meaningless RL details become important for a realistic effect. here i am adding rivets and screws so that it will look as though the camera is bolted to the wall rather than just floating in space. even though we all know that things DO just float in space here, it somehow doesn't feel right if they look that way.

camera 6 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 16:34

well i did say that i was going to make the operation of the green screen cameras obvious in the prototype, so here i am building a beam or ray of eerie green light that will hopefully seem to emanate from the wall mounted cameras. but like everything else here, even beams of light begin as hunks of plywood.

camera 7 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-06 14:54

and since the light beams are actually objects, i have to make sure that they don't get in the way of avatars using the poseball. without an avatar using the poseball on the treadmill, nothing will happen.

walk a mile exhibit layout — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 16:36

this is the basic layout of the exhibit. you can barely read the words on the screen in front at this resolution, but that's ok, because in SL the screen will be black and therefore hidden until an avatar actually starts walking on the treadmill and selects one of the buttons. ok, that's treadmill, cameras, light beams... now all i need is some action. now it's time to go take the snapshots and turn them into simulated walking films. if you're bored out of your mind by the building pictures, or dying to see if it all actually works, come see the whole thing and run some of the films at The Tech in Second Life.

walk a mile installation at Parkside Hall — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 09:03

well, i put the exhibit up and gave it a test run... and decided that i will have to make some changes. the best thing about being able to prototype 3d designs in SL is being able to test them and then revise as necessary.

walk a mile adjustments 1 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 09:08

the biggest problem was that i had to resize the exhibit booth, which threw everything else out of whack and meant that the beams got in the way of the poseball... a big no no since the poseball cues the whole operation. here i am making the camera's beams smaller

adjustments 2 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-09 06:35

another problem was that the first 2 other avatars to use the exhibit had difficulty seeing and touching the control panel. not sure what i'm going to do about that just yet. i can make it quite a bit larger, but it has to stay at the front of the treadmill, because it has to come AFTER the poseball.

'completed' installation of Walk A Mile — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 20:02

well, on the bright side, at least it attracted attention right away. but i will need to make some changes. the walls are too transparent, allowing in too much visual 'noise' from our jam packed exhibit hall. conversely the ceiling may need to be more transparent so that the films don't look too dark. and all of a sudden a blank black back wall seems like an especially stupid idea. so i will reconfigure the films to begin and end with the main message. that way the whole exhibit will be a little less opaque when it's not actually running. in fact, now that i think of it, a printed message is actually a better disguise for a hidden movie screen than a blank wall that looks as though it needs something on it. DUH (!)... shakes head in amazement, wonders how she ever thought that a blank wall would attract attention, let alone entice someone onto a treadmill.

resizing the control panel — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 16:52

originally i said that this was the trickiest part of the build, and as it turned out, the control panel is just too hard to see. so here i am making a succession of adjustments.

resizing the controls 2 — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 16:55

besides making it larger, i made other adjustments as well. there are no shadows in SL, so in order to make the buttons 'pop' out more, i used a faux painting technique and made the sides of the buttons medium grey. i also changed the angle of the controls so that the panel is a bit more perpendicular to the treadmill. ... crosses fingers, hopes that this is enough to satisfy avi-ergonomics

new lighting for the screen — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 16:59

by far the easiest and most effective adjustment was improving the lighting inside the booth. i simply made the camera mounted at the back into a light. note to nonSL folks, that's right, any old hunk of plywood can ne made into a working source of illumination by simply selecting this feature in the edit window. how cool is that?

signage (heavy sigh) — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 17:09

but by far, the hardest change to make was to admit that the exhibit could benefit from some signage. the SL version just can't do what a RL version could, so i put up some signs with a brief description of how the exhibit would function in real life. i even succumbed to a small 'how to' for avatars who might be having a bad day intuition-wise. ...but look how dejected i look :(

the still not completed installation of WAM — by l garvie — last modified 2008-03-07 17:13

as feared, i was being a bit hasty declaring the installation finished last night. the latest tuneups are definite improvements and i will continue to revise as more avatars test it and comment. i like the new bigger control panel, but now i have to redo the opening and closing texture in the films because the control panel blocks part of the message.