Thesis Blog - Week 11

April 9th

31 Days until Showcase

4/8

This past week had many ups and downs. The ups were focused on more direction on the paper and how to approach it. The downs were in the timing to effectively create a scene translated into touchdesigner.

I got some direction on how to best approach the paper and I’ve concluded with a simpler ToC here:

1. Thesis Objective

2. LBE - Narrative Environments Workflow

3. Personal Research

4. Design & Building Process

5. Conclusion & Next Steps

This feels more appropriate given the IDM examples and guidance on how to document and discuss the thesis projects. This past week I struggled with coordinating media items in file storage, planning, and transferring to Touchdesigner. I laid out my scene in Davinci Resolve, a video editing platform. This helped visualize the elements, SFX, and voiceovers in a time-based format. It helped quickly work and map the scenes in a fun and engaging way. The issue was translating this to TD. It came from several rounds of exports, file management, and ensuring my scene was close to 100% in before exporting. I made the mistake of forgetting an important line from the party host and that gave an extra chunk of work to redo spacing.

This week wasn’t without issues, I struggled with networking issues for NDI that I believe are connected to NYU firewalls and Touchdesigner. I also struggled with 3D printing multiple versions of the body for my clock. I had issues with projection mapping the size of the canvas and getting the proper outputs from TD into the system. I feel as if I’m ordering bits and bobs every day on Amazon to bring this to fruition.

Overall I feel good because one scene is @ 95% in TD for showcase day. I can breathe a sigh of release with SOMETHING to show. But now I need to focus on content production. This is good in two ways, I chose the second hardest scene to do (22 cues!) which means 20% of the work is (near) done. But it also allows me to engage and be prepared with all the components I can expect in the scene. Multiple audio, video, crowds, interaction, etc.

I have 3 distinct paths set forward from now for the 30-day countdown.

1. Create Media and program 8 other scenes.

2. Write the paper

3. UX and Accessibility planning.

These are achievable, and I know now what and how they will be accomplished. If I can rough out my paper this week and get video timelines of 3 scenes I can spend all weekend in the space translating them to TD. I’m energized, focused, and hungry to finish this project.