Sunday, April 27, 2014

Progress on Importing Model Correctly

At the moment my task is to make sure the model is imported from SketchUp to Unity correctly. To do this, I first turn the face style to monochrome in the View menu and checked the all the faces in SkecuUp Model to make sure there is no reversed faces.





After this step is the importing. I've tried several methods including export to .dae file directly from SketchUp. But the Unity dosen't seem to support the dae file directly exported by SketchUp well. There some faces displayed incorrectly in Unity but the the origin texture and color code are correct. Failed to find out the reason and fix the problem I've tried to use the Pro version of SketchUp to export the model into .fbx file. This time it works well. It s said that export into dae file by use the Playup plug-in also works well. I didn't have a go on that.
Exported .dae file

Exported .fbx file

Then I got another problem that the character can walk through walls. After researching and advice by Anthony, the solution to this is to explode everything in SketchUp model and make all of them one component. The switch on the COLLIDER in Unity. It works.


Saturday, April 12, 2014

Individual Tasks during Holiday

We are on two weeks holiday until April 27. At the last studio we have assigned each other individual tasks to do under the guidance of Stephen. Which are:

Anthony - Create a demo of walking in the environment and bumping into things.

Lauren - Change shaders and textures in Unity cartoony than SketchUp.

Theo(me) - Make sure the model imports correctly with no reverse faces and prevent the character walking through walls.

Benjamin - User Interface.

Bassel - Develop a list of results that pop up when clicking on the UI.

Lorrain - 3D environment in Unity.

Notes taken by Lauren Seif

Friday, April 11, 2014

Reflection: Group Presentation 2: Communication

Gothic Group (Our Group): Anthony Constantinidis, Bassel Wannous, Benjamin Hur, Xiaodong Fan, Yaoyu Xiao.

I think we did a good presentation. We had a good try on prezi and a interesting and highlighted video. The problem is the use of references, we could have make it clearly. And my part 'communication with clients' could be improved a little bit more. I'm not trying to listening is more important than talking. They could have the some weight, both are important in communications.

Motorcycle Group: Andrew Thantronng, Marina Hanna.

They have a good video which was said been made based on a software. They should have referenced it. I like their concept about Driver & Navigator. Where they are only two members in the group so the Driver will do the real things and the Navigator will support guidance, feedback, and recommendation. They are more focused on their project which I think it should the topic - communication. After all they still need to careful with the overall references.

Bus Stop Group: Anthony Chami, Daniel Olivera, Darren Weinmam, Kerre Skarparis, Martha Masli.

A good presentation also covered everything about the topic - communication. Video is good. The problem is still the references.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Video and Prezi File for Group Presentation

These works are participated and finished by all group members and final digital edited by Yaoyu Xiao.




Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Preparation for Group Presentation: Communication

We are assigned to do the Group Presentation 2: Communication.

The structure of the presentation will be:

  • definition of communication 
  • critical identification of communication 
  • types of communication 
  • spoken vs. written communication 
  • synchronous vs. asynchronous communication 
  • verbal vs. nonverbal communication 
  • communication with clients 
Where I was assigned t finish the last part - communication with clients.

Communication with clients

Communication is essential in all aspects of life. Without effective communication there can be no mutual understanding between individuals, exchange of information, nor expression of true feelings thoughts or ideas.
We communicate with our clients to ensure services are delivered in effective and responsive ways to meet customer needs. If we have problems communicating with our clients, this could result to serve loss of clients. Of course, this will have a negative impact on our project. 

Communication failure is often cause by factors such as:
• Cultural barriers
• Communication anxiety on both ends
• Lack of feedback from the clients
• Poor quality of information
• Poor timing of messages being relayed
• Information overload
• Technological issues 

Ways to effectively communicate with clients 

Arrange regular meetings – our weekly studio. The personal contact is the best way to effectively communication with our clients. It helps us directly learn our clients’ demands and requirements. It is important to listen first then speak. Ask question to ensure that we know our clients completely but beware of interruption.

Make the communication count. Put questions in one email in a regular time rather than sending several different emails in several mornings with one question each. Our clients are busy and value their own time. It is effective if we can maximize the time we have in communication and if it requires them to respond less emails or take less phone calls. 

Feedback – Provide regular feedback to inform our clients of what’s going on with the project and require feedback from our clients to know how we are doing and take changes if needed.

Notes 

http://designm.ag/freelance/communication-with-clients/
http://www.imanageperformance.com/pdf/How05.pdf
http://www.wahm.com/articles/how-to-effectively-communicate-with-your-clients-and-employees.html

Above is my initial work on this part and below is the final edited version I'll speak tomorrow.

We communicate with our clients to ensure our services are delivered in effective and responsive ways to meet their needs. In our case John James has communicated with the team his goals for this project, they are:

* To integrate the model with Unity
* Provide intuitive controls to move inside and out (of the building)
* Link the database "campaign + course" to the model
* create a routine for importing other models into Unity

If we have problems communicating with our clients or meeting their goals, this could result to the trust of the client and the possible eventual loss of the client himself. To avoid the event here are actions we can take:

* Arrange regular meetings for Personal contact - face2face meet up best way of effectively communication
* Listen to the sender to ensure information is understandable
* Question the client if there is any misunderstanding
* Make communication count, busy, value own time, put Qs in 1 email rather than sending 4 different emails in one morning with one question each
* Show the progress to inform clients what’s going on
* Ask for feedback from the client to ensure we on right direction to the final destination

Due to the busy nature of John James, we have Russell and Steven as the 'middle men' and it is to them we communicate with as they provide direct feedback based on the understanding of John's vision of this project.


Saturday, April 5, 2014

Reflection: Group Presentation 1: Planning

Aerial Rope-way Group: Bethany McMohon, Daisy Parto, Iqra Hoda, Maria Park, Matt Portokalli, Yen Ngyuen.

This presentation is easy to follow with such a clear structure. The  gantt chart is impressive  to show the individual roles. The video they show is really cool and interesting. While it seems they need to include references in their slides.

Bus Stop Group: George Alagah, Kangyi Tang, Jason Lo, Michael Naumovski, Ruoqi Gan.

They have a good understanding of planning and explained clearly. Compared to the first group, I think their Wiki page scrolling instead of a presentation slide file and text-reading in the video felt a little bit boring.