NASA spacesuit - unable to do the assignment

Saturday, Aug 6, I am not able to connect to Rocket World EMMS to complete the assignment before the finals are due tomorrow, Sun, Aug 7.

I wanted to get into Rocket World and I could not log in. I tried novice and builder modules, I even downloaded the builders module again. I got the error message each time.

Final #6 (Future of Immersive Education)

This is my view of the future of Immersive Education.
Please visit Immersive Education web site: ImmersiveEduction.org 

Immersive Education enables people to take a course from wherever they are in the world provided they have an Internet connection. How I see it, in future students will be able to take classes at any university or college that will join the Immersive Education initiative. Boston College students will be able to attend Penn State University, University of California, Berkeley students may choose some classes from Harvard, and so on. Ultimately, Immersive Education will let students study overseas without leaving their homes. A student from Delhi, India will be able to take classes at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Through Immersive Education students will be able to get the best classes from the best schools over the world without leaving their home. Gradually, elementary and secondary schools will be connected through Immersive Education and pupils and students of all ages will be able to work jointly on projects, share ideas, help each other and compete. 

Chatting with a classmate while we were both doing the homework in Rocket World EMMS.

 

 Tutoring a classmate - we communicated through Yahoo chat and Whiteborad voice.

That leads me to the second important aspect of Immersive Education: students are able to get help from other classmates as they communicate and interact through various platforms. During Immersive Education classes at Boston College we could hear and talk with one another. I am sure that in the nearby future video element will be added and students will see one another as well, esp. that video capabilities already exist. Through Immersive Education classmates can exchange ideas, give each other feedback or work collaboratively on a project. The best feature for me was that the classes were live and I felt like I was attending the real class even though I did not leave home. 

Collaborating with classmates on a group project.

As technology progresses very fast, new platforms and applications will be added to Immersive Education. We already created avatars that had our face features. I am convinced that in future Immersive Education students will be communicating using their own Avatars and other applications expressing each student’s individuality. 

Gaming and multi-media consoles let you interact with your friends and I believe that as you can use your entire body to control the game, in future Immersive Education you will be able to participate in virtual classes using the movements of entire body.

Last but not least, Immersive Education will make a lot of classes much more interesting. Students will be able to explore Amazon Jungle or Sahara Desert during geography classes or go on an African Safari. And I can only imagine how exciting it will be to see a 3D model of human genome, a chemical compound or a molecular formula in a biology or chemistry class or see in 3D what a bridge or a building will look like when you study architecture or engineering.

 Astronomy class, anybody?

'Rocket World 'Earth, Moon, Mars, Stars'

It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

Final #8 (Course Evaluations)

This is a Discovering Computer Graphics summer class evaluation form. I downloaded the form from the Course Lecture Notes and saved it as a .jpg image. I used GIMP text tool to fill it out. I saved it to email it to Boston College. Then I used the Rectangular Tool and Edit -> Fill with color to redact it.

It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

Final #7 (Cindi in Space)

Cindi in Space (Cindi Comic in Spanish)

Here are the steps I took:

I opened the template in GIMP. I downloaded the pdf file with Cindi comic to my desktop, then I opened the pdf file. I selected the page I wanted to use and imported it to GIMP. I cropped the images on the page to 'extract' the image
I wanted to use and then re-sized that image to fit onto one of the spots on the template.

I created a new layer for the first image and I pasted the image into the layer. Then I moved the image to fit exactly in the given spot.

I opened the pdf file again and selected the page I wanted to work with and chose the second image. 

I repeated the steps from the first image: I re-sized the image using Scale Image tool - the tool gives you the option to adjust the image size perfectly.

I took the same steps with every image. As you can see on this screenshot,
I pasted every image into a new layer, which enabled me to move and fit every image very precisely.

I anchored each image to a new layer after I pasted it and positioned it.

You can see 5 layers altogether: the background and 4 layers - one for each image.

And here is the outcome once again:

Click on the image

This comic is available free of charge through the Immersive Education Initiative’s Rocket World curricula.

It is a midterm exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

ROLL CALL 2, CLASS #11

Click on the screenshot

ImmersiveEducation.org

ROLL CALL 1, CLASS #11

Click on the screenshot

ImmersiveEducation.org

Final #4 (Monocular Depth Cues)

Here are the examples of Monocular Depth Cues that I found in Rocket World 'Earth, Moon, Mars and Stars'. The definitions are exerpts from Core Web3D, an online Boston College textbook.

Size Differences

"Objects that are further away from us appear smaller than objects that are closer."
The prims that I circled are all the same size, however the ones in the background seem smaller and thus they appear to be further from my Avatar.
I found those shapes on the Moon.

Occlusion

"Objects that are closer to us can block, or occlude, objects that are further away."
The big beige triangular object on the right seems to be situated in front of the grey wall because it occludes parts of the wall. Bt the same token, the rocket on the left blocks the view of the smaller grey and blue object on the ground as well as the red vehicle with black wheels, which makes the latter seems positioned farther away than or behind the rocket. I found those shapes on Earth.

Lighting and Shading

"When the light strikes an object that has depth, the surface of the object that is hit directly by the light appears to be the brightest, while the sides are shaded progressively darker."
The various sides of the brown structure are different shades of brown, which gives the impression that some parts of the object are closer to my Avatar, and some are further away - it gives the impression of depth. I found this example on Earth.

Texture Density

"Real-world textures (such as the repeating tiles of a floor, shingles on a roof, or the stones in a wall) appear to become more dense the further away they are".
In this screenshot you can see the ripples, i.e. the texture of water really well close to my Avatar, but towards the background the ripples become progressively less visible until you cannot see any texture in the distance. I found this example on Earth.

Linear Perspective

"Lines that are parallel to our line of sight, such as railroad tracks, appear to narrow as they recede, eventually converging at a point in the far distance known as the vanishing point."
The two lines of pegs are farther away from each otherclose to my Avatar and the space between them gets smaller or narrows the farther away from my Avatar they are. This gives the impression if distance.

I later noticed that my classmate Heather found the same example,
so I proceeded to look for another one:

Here the straight horizontal lines of the side of the wall get progressively closer to one another and the wall gets narrower the farther from my Avatar it gets. That gives the impression of distance and 2D depth. I found the two examples on Earth.

Atmospheric Perspective

"Objects that are close to us generally appear very sharp and detailed, while those in the distance are less detailed and often fuzzy. This difference in appearance is a result of light traveling through atmosphere; the further the light travels, the more atmosphere it must pass through."
In this screenshot you can see the objects in the foreground really well, but the farther they are, the less sharp they get. The shapes, i.e. the mountains, get more hazy and obscure and less visible with distance - you can almost 'see' the air.
I found this example on Earth.

It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc



 

Final #5 (http://evolver.com/)

After you sign up at Evolver, you need to upload a photo of your face. I found it very difficult to find the right photo - none of the vacation pics had the right size - kilobyte-wise. Fortunately, I had a professionally taken photograph that met the requirements.

Once your photo has downloaded, you can customize your Avatar: the face, skin, eyes, hair, body and clothes.

Once you have customized the look of your Avatar, you can chose how to animate it.

Last, you can email your Avatar or post it on Social Media sites.

And here is my Avatar:

Oh no, creating Avatars is addictive!

It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

FINALS

Final #1 (Flash / Powerbullet .swf files)

Final #2 (Building Basics in Rocket World)

Final #3 (Group Building Project)

Final #4 (Monocular Depth Cues)

Final #5 (http://evolver.com/)

Final #6 (Future of Immersive Education)

Final #7 (Cindi in Space)

Final #8 (Course Evaluation)

Creating NASA space orbiter

Creating a NASA space shuttle (orbiter)

I started off by creating the main body of the orbiter. I chose Hemicylinder, a shape that is flat on one side and rounded on the other.

I created the top of the orbiter with a Cone shape and placed it on the body.
I needed to fly all the time while creating the orbiter because of its height -
I could not shape or position the parts while standing on the ground.

I added two wings made with Prisms and two engines made with Spheres that
I stretched. I did a lot of flying around to position all the elements right in the 3D space. Using the Position and Size coordinates for all the parts was essential for me to do the assignment.

I changed the color of the top and the engines.

Here is my Endeavour orbiter.
Almost like the one below :)

It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

ROLL CALL 2, CLASS #10

Click on the screenshot

ImmersiveEducation.org

ROLL CALL 1, CLASS #10

Click on the screenshot

ImmersiveEducation.org

Final #3 (Group Building Project)

We used the Audio Whiteboard to diagram in 2D a basic plan for what we would create in Rocket World. Each team chose an assignment. Team Incredible is building a garage.

Team Incredible is gathering at the spot where our garage will be built.

I can't believe how fast it went to get the structure and the roof raised!
The garage is made out of brick and has a tiled roof.
I was the one building the roof.

It is important to position the roof on the body of the garage, so it sits right on top of it and is not floating somewhere in mid air. I walked around the garage as well as flew around to make sure the roof was positioned right. I asked O'Dane, who built the body of the garage, to read the garage coordinates to me and that helped to get the roof situated.

As my teammates carried on with the construction (door, windows, driveway),
I was thinking what else I could create and I got an idea: a weather-vane!

As I was creating the weather-vane from little pieces, I needed to position them to make one object.

Again, the XYZ coordinates were very helpful.
It was a lot of work to shape, re-size and add texture and color to each piece.

I asked my colleagues how to link objects, so I could move all the little pieces making up the weather-vane together - as one structure. I can't remember who told me to use the Shift key (Hey, come forward to get the credit!) but the tip totally rocked! I was able to move the weather-vane as one shape and position it at the top of the garage roof. I am flying around the roof to make sure the shape sits on the roof and is not floating in mid-air when seen from a different viewpoint.

As I was done, I looked around.
I can see Team Super Mario and Team Pandora are nearly done too.

I am checking out the inside of Team Super Mario's house. Awesome!

They even have bookshelves and a fireplace!

And Team Pandora did a great job with the yard!

Here is a screenshot of the entire project: Team Incredible's beautiful Garage, Team Pandora's Yard with a trampoline! And Team Super Mario's house in the background.

And my weather-vane sits perfectly on top of the tiled roof of Team Incredible's awesome Garage!
I am flying around the roof once again to take the screenshots from different viewpoints.

 

I hope you enjoyed looking at our project as much as we enjoyed doing it!

Hope to see you in Rocket World "Earth, Moon, Mars, Stars"!

It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc