For the second week I set out 2 goals. I wanted to find a way to begin modeling buildings in Unity and I wanted them to be interactive in my project. I decided to use Blender for my modeling platform. While I am still unsure about the best way to approach this project, I decided to begin with a modeling program. As mentioned in the previous post, the other option would have been to generate a 3D model using photogrammetry software, which would have been done by taking many pictures of the area and auto generating a model from that data. There is a good chance that the photogrammetry option would have been more accurate than hand making a 3D model, but even with lots of data and strong photo generating, the models made from photogrammetry usually have many distortions from a close distance. Considering that my project will put the user at the height of an average human, the distortions will be very apparent from such a close distance, which would take away from the experience in my opinion. Secondly, one of the goals of this internship is to develop skills for myself as well as skills that the college can use to assist students of faculty wishing to learn that skill. Photogrammetry with drones and 360 cameras have already been used a lot in past projects and I also feel like it is easier to learn than hand making 3D models from scratch. It is likely that I will still attempt photogrammetry in the future because I am curious to see how the two versions of penn hall compare with each other and which is better suited for VR.
Days 1-2
First thing to do was to learn how other people created their objects in unity. While it is possible to create things in unity, many of the people I watched online were developing the objects in a modeling platform. I chose blender because I noticed it was very commonly used with unity and a lot of the tutorials I watched when learning the basics of unity implemented blender models into their projects. I started a blender tutorial with Blender Guru. The tutorial was very long. There were 8 segments of 40 minute videos. The goal was to create a mug on a table with a donut. I didn’t finish the entire tutorial but I completed all the parts that would be useful to my project. I learned how to work the interface of blender and many of the shortcuts to make the work smoother.
Days 3-5
After this I completed a second tutorial on modeling an anvil so I could refine my skills at modeling before I took on my own project. While I feel like I am currently proficient at modeling, I am still learning how to apply textures to models and properly unwrap them using the UV unwrap tool. For now I have enough skills to start the cornerstone of my project: Penn Hall.
I started with a reference image to lay out all of the details. I used a mirror tool that automatically applied edits to the x and y direction. This allowed me to only do a fraction of the work because Penn Hall is symmetrical on 2 axis. It still took roughly 2 days to get to the image below. It is not complete yet and I will continue to edit it throughout the week but for now it is good enough for me to begin interacting with it in Unity.
Going into week 3 I plan to go back to learning Unity so I can properly implement this model. I would like to add a door that takes the user to the inside once it opens and have rooms that the user can explore. The second Vive was set up at my work station so I am finally able to use it for my project. A lot of this week will be spent transferring what I have learned the first two weeks through Unity and Blender and implementing them into VR. Wish me luck.
