OpenGL VR Video Player
This project was a optimized real-time rendering challenge that I gave myself to be able to playback the videos that I record in 360. I had means of capturing fully spherical footage, but I had no means of actually watching it back afterwards. Most solutions either did not work or cost too much money. So I built my own software solution using C++ and OpenGL. The main library I used to program was OpenVR along with some smaller libraries to handle some of the frame processing. Right now the implementation only exists for SteamVR and the HTC Vive, with controller input enabled. Future development challenges would be to expand this application to multiple VR devices.
VR Voice over Network
This project is a networked virtual reality environment using a custom VoiP for 3D positional voice chat in VR. The development for this project was handled solo and occurred over several months. This program was then used to capture data in a social VR experiment to test interpersonal distance, limitations of communication, and cross-cultural collaboration in a remote virtual space. The analysis of this data and future development of this project are still in the works. I used C# and Unity to develop the application and voice solution.
Greenspace AR
For this project, I built the augmented reality portion of a project to help visualize orbital paths of satellites. In the other modules of the project, we explain the properties of specific orbits. My contribution was taking the 3D point data from Avizo, exporting it into excel, and then re-importing that data as a 3D mesh in Maya. From there I could light and texture the models in the visualization. I used Vuforia for image-tracking. When a user opens the app and the camera captures our branded logo on a piece of paper, the orbit will render and the user may interact with the visualization to look at it from all angles. Built using C# and Unity.
AViRT Project
AViRT stands for Augmented Reality in Real-time. My team and I built a cheap and mobile pre-visualization system for indie filmmakers using Google's Project Tango's motion tracking and 3D mapping technology to place actors into a virtual scene. I fulfilled the roles of Project Leader and Lead Developer for this project, learning the basics of team management and Android app development. This project was built in the Unity game environment and required learning a mixture of C#, OpenGL (GLSL), Android apks, and the Project Tango SDK.
This project was designed and built over the course of a semester and required a cohesive team of designers and developers to reach a functional product that works in a green screen environment.
In addition to creating a working graphics product, this project included performing extensive usability research on participants to test our application. This involved the scheduling of participants for 20-minute usability sessions including a cognitive walkthrough of the application and a quantitative post-evaluation questionnaire. Participants were tested at Purdue and Ball State green screen room locations. Subjects were set-up to complete a list of tasks that involved using our application on the Project Tango tablet. Through our observation and statistical analysis of our results, we were able to determine our applicants saw our product as a positive technological advancement to the film industry.
*At the Ball State Telecommunications Department in house green screen
Augmented Virtuality in Real Time
Separate from the above project, members from the AViRT team aided me in writing a publication about the research we performed and the implications for the device on the film industry. This paper used the usability statistics gathered during our subject testing, but most of the work went into describing our methodology for a scientific audience. Here I learned about how the revision process requires multiple revisions and reviews to have a solid draft that could be potentially published. Our paper has officially been published by IEEE 3DUI 2016 where I presented the work to the VR community.
Click here for the complete PDF!
* First page of the publication
System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality Animation
This project is a result of the work we do at the Envision Center. This project involved a 2-man team. The animations we created were for a client who wanted an entertaining visual to explain their medical tele-mentoring system. I fulfilled the roles of compositor, editor, and audio processing where my counterpart focused on animating the characters and creating the 3D models. For a large project such as this, organization is of utmost importance: not only to map out the scenes, but to constantly have progress updates so that scenes can be worked on cohesively. Because my work came after the characters were animated, my partner and I had to develop a pipeline that allowed us to continually work at the same time to maximize productivity.
Aldrin-Purdue Mission to Mars Animations
This project was a Computer Graphics department-wide collaboration with the Aerospace Engineering department to develop conceptual animations for Dr. Buzz Aldrin's Mission-to-Mars proposal. Because the Envision Center works closely with the Computer Graphics department, I fulfilled the roles of lead compositor and visual effects superviser. While my initial position was not to be visual effects superviser, I learned that a department-wide collaboration cannot function without a proper organizational system and a practical communication structure. Due to these issues, the end of the project resulted in most of the department dropping the project, leaving the final VFX and compositing to be completed by myself. All special effects were rendered in Houdini and composited using After Effects.
ISEEK Learn Animation
This project was created through working at the Envision Center. The goal of this project is to empower women in India and give them the tools necessary to learn basic business practices and to allow them to better care for themselves and their families. The task of this project was to produce a video that could help describe how a future educational mobile application would look once developed. The interesting aspect of this project was considering game design elements, animations, and flow for a project that previously only existed in text. I worked with clients to bring their vision to life.
Outbreak Short Film
This was a student film produced for a compositing class project. I was voted by the class to fulfill the role of Project Manager, and I played a major role in the final compositing and editing of the project. I lead and organized a team of 25 3D artists, visual effects students, and cinematographers to achieve this final product over the course of a month. Some of the biggest hurdles that I overcame included learning the best method to communicating with and organizing 25 people at any given moment during the project. This became very difficult during filming days, where all actors' and filmers' presences were mandatory. Here I also learned important project manager skills such as dealing with team members who did not contribute effectively to the project and how to incite them to continue to do good work. I also learned the value of hard work, having to work/(not)sleep in the editing room over a 3 day period to make sure the product was completed in time.