Week 5: First Parametric Pavilion (Lunchbox)

Theory: Terminal Line

 Benches scattered across the site for people to use

 The glass panels allow sunlight to pour through

Incorporated in to the pavilion and in the site is an extended deck with a locker room and shower area underneath. 

Preston Scott Cohen’s terminal line can be described as a surface with a temporary loss of smoothness. Coupled with my census data of ethnicity, the following pavilion was designed. The panellised rippling roof provides a smooth surface that shelters people from sun and rain. This is then interrupted by the straight walls which also act as barriers to create privacy. The juxtaposition of curvature and shapes creates a simple, yet dynamic form.

The walls are positioned to connect to certain locations on the ground. Each location represents a country, extracted from the top six ethnicities in Woolloomooloo. With Australia in the centre, the walls branch out to New Zealand, the UK, Germany, China and Vietnam. The roof hole sizes are dependent on the percentage of each ethnicity wall. The bigger the ethnicity percentage the smaller the hole and a bigger area is affected. 

Week 5: PC Gen

To see a HD version of this clip, click here.

The PCGen project file enables you to create meshes in Grasshopper and make changes that can be seen in the UE4 game play. The changes should be simultaneous and easy, however something during the process forces UE4 the crash and Grasshopper as well when making any changes to the parameters. If vertices or edges of the triangular meshes are touching, they seem to disappear and not be present in the UE4 simulated game play.

Week 4: Online Tutorials

Things Learnt From Tutorials 24 - 32

Blueprints:
- Visual scripting
- Uses nodes which have unique coding 
- Class blueprint is used for a self-contained actor

Level Blueprint:
- Right Clicking can be used as a short cut to call an event or add an actor
- Red line = boolean
- Blue line = integer
- White line = execution
- Green line = float
- Click Compile to update blueprint, then save

Toggling in a Level:
- Requires a proximity base relationship which can be created with a volume or a trigger volume
- You can see  the data move through the blueprint in real time
- Can delay an action using "Delay"
- To trigger you must add an event > Collision > OnActorBeginOverlap / OnActorEndOverlap

Creating a Class Blueprint:
- ALT + Click disconnects lines to nodes
- To create your own class blueprint, go to blueprints folder, Right Click > Blueprint, or Blueprints Tab > Class Blueprints:Create

Setting Up Initial Class Blueprint:
- 3 modes within the blueprint: Default, Components, and graph
- You can drag components from editor window directly into blueprint window

Adding Class Blueprint Functions:
- Construction script = active change in the editor 
- Event graph = changes in gameplay only
- When making blueprints you can reference your actor by selecting it under the "My Blueprint" panel
- Hold CTRL + drag a variable to "get"
- Hold ALT + drag a variable to "set"

Using Inputs to Control a Class Blueprint:
- If you "Unable Input" or "Disable Input" you must reference a player controller
- Tapping "C" key puts all selected nodes in to a comment box. This box can be moved and colour changed.


Software Comparison - 
The blueprints used in UE4 are similar to Grasshopper Scripting for Rhino. Both use visual scripting and have "nodes" that contain code. The way in which you add events or functions is similar and some parts of the user interface are also similar.

The way in which you can create class blueprints to be specific to an actor is interesting and will become very useful in the future. The customisation of those blueprints is also beneficial to creating a unique function.

Phase One: Final Submission

DropBox File
Data Particle System
Particle Exploration
5 Images

Phase One: Data Particle

The data set I chose to visualise through my animated particle was ethnicity.I focused on the top six ethnicities in Woolloomooloo. LocalStatsAustralia reports that in 2011 "45.1% of people living in the suburb of Woolloomooloo were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were 5.6% England, 4.0% New Zealand, 1.7% Vietnam, 1.5% China , 1.5% United States of America.. [and] 1.3% Germany..."

I chose to visualise this through the vector field particle because it could be used to represent a community in the way it clusters and flows as an entity made of smaller particles.

The smaller the particles are, the high the population of that ethnicity, and the bigger the particle the lesser of that ethnicity.

The small blue particles = 45.1% Australian

The medium red particles = 5.6% English

The medium yellow particles = 4.0% New Zealander

The large green particles = 1.7% Vietnamese

The large pink particles = 1.5% Chinese

The large light blue particles = 1.5% German

NOTE: During my data particle recording UnrealEngine began to seriously lag and crash. I was unable to record any high definition recordings without serious lag or software failure. I have worked with what I was able to use, and so the only way I could record anything was to reduce all resolution settings to the lowest possible. I have made a low quality on site recording and a clearer separate recording of the particle itself. 

The particles in the site were supposed to randomly flung and bounce off surfaces and interacting with the environment. This can be better shown in the separate recording.

If you would like to see my real particle system you can see it in my file. It is placed under Effects > Particle Systems > P_Vectorfield2

Data Particle: To see a better version click here.

Separate recording: To see a better version of this click here.

https://youtu.be/_Txrz5GujPw

Week 3: Particle Exploration

Particle One: Vector Particle

Lowest Range: To see a HD version click here.

Medium Range: To see a HD version click here.

Maximum Range: To see a HD version click here.

Particle Two: Water Particle

Lowest Range: To see a HD version click here.

Medium Range: To see a HD version click here.

Maximum Range: To see a HD version click here.

Particle Three: Fire Particle

Lowest Range: To see a HD version click here.

Medium Range: To see a HD version click here.

Maximum Range: To see a HD version click here.

Week 2: Landscaping

Experience word: Openness

                                                 Experience word: Exploration

Experience word: Discovery

Experience word: Growth

Experience word: Community

Week 1: Independent Study

Things learnt from the tutorials 12 - 23

Stages:

• Prototype - blocking
• Meshing Pass - finished assets, simple lighting
• Lighting Pass  - Place lights, tweak materials and post processing
• Polish Pass - add effects, reflection actions, blocking volumes, audio etc.

Geometry Layout:

• Ctrl + "N" key snaps to the grid
• Alt + drag to copy
• "N" key snaps the selected object to the below surface
• In geometry mode you can push and pull
• Hold "L" key + click to bring up a quick light
• Alt + Shift + drag to move camera as you copy objects

Applying Materials to Objects:

• BSP > adjacent wall surfaces = enables you to select all the walls.
• select brushes > BSP > alighntment surface planar = makes the tiles seamlessly line up

Building:

• Ctrl + "G" key to group objects together
• Tap "T" for transparent selection
• Shit + "G" to ungroup
• Changing the brush type to subtractive negatively booleans objects

Level Blue Print:

• Right click to add an event or timeline
• In the timeline select start and end points + Ctrl + Right Click + select Cubic Auto to create a smooth ease in and out.
• Physics > simulate physics so that objects are in real time and physically move.

Software Comparison - 
The building tools are very similar to SketchUp. Both programs enable you to push and pull objects with they vertices and edges. 

The level blueprint is very unlike anything I've ever used. Although it resonates with Grasshopper, both  create different results.

Week 1: Online Tutorial

Things learnt from the tutorials 1 - 11

Mouse Navigation:

• The camera speed can be changed.
• Navigation can be done through the WASD Keys. 
• Alt + left mouse = pivots camera
• Select object + "F" Key = pivots camera around selected object
• Alt + mouse scroll = tracks camera
• hold Shift to move with the camera

Placing Objects:

• Click and drag to add objects
• "W" key to move objects
• Right click to place the last placed object

Moving objects:

• "E" key to Rotate
• Click between axis to move between two axis
• Clicking the globe in the top right corner will allow you to move things on the object space. You can switch between world and local.
• You can change the grid snap and the "smoothness" of the snap
• 1 UR unit = 1cm
• The white dot in the middle of the red, green and blue axis can be used to move the object in all 3 axis.

Rotating Objects:

• "E" key to rotate.
• You can rotate on a local and world space
• Numbers can be manually entered for precise rotation.

Scaling Objects:

• "R" key for Scale
• You can click in between two axis to scale in both directions.

Customisation:

• You can move and delete panels
• Right clicking can hide the tabs. An orange triangle means there's a hidden tab

Software Comparison - 
Unreal Engine seems to have some similarities to Rhino, but there are a lot more short cut keys for the numerous actions you can do. Putting the actions down to keyboard keys makes things simple and easy to use, but there is a lot to remember in terms of which key belongs to which action.