Motion Capture

I've spent about 10 hours so far working out some motion capture solutions for TAFE.  Over the Xmas break I created a pipeline for my own business to put mocap into my Solitairium game.  I thought the students might like to know how I did this so I rigged up a computer at TAFE made solely for mocap work.  I did a few tests on the last few days of semester 1 2014 and came up with a slightly ok version of mocap.  Pretty lossy, but the work flow allowed me to add any moves I wanted to a street fighter game we are working on within about 10 minutes.
This is great for students who aren't that great at animating.
Today I experimented with Brekel Pro and getting it to stream into Unity for real-time use.  I got the streaming working but the avatars are stretched - need to work out why.
Also being able to capture with only one camera causes shadows in the action like where to arm goes behind the back, meaning a lot of cleanup.
I think I'll use Brekel Pro for this semester and look into using iPiStudio next year which supports many camera.
If a camera is set up on one side at 45' and another on the right, iPiStudio can blend the two and pick up all the movement normally missed by just one camera. However it's costly - $300 for two kinects and $500 for the 2 cam version of iPiStudio.

Programming research

Just watched these tuts on programming in the C# language

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/intermediate/scripting/statics
http://www.digitaltutors.com/lesson/16745-Dynamic-and-static-typing

Researching language here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namespace

(1 hour )

A rather good review of character look

Saw this on good game and thought it would be good for the Animation and Games students
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s3784334.htm

Unity Links I just found that are of use

2D games in Unity
http://www.rocket5studios.com/tutorials/make-a-2d-game-in-unity3d-using-only-free-tools-part-1/

300+ tutorials on making a Hack'n Slash in Unity
http://www.burgzergarcade.com/hack-slash-rpg-unity3d-game-engine-tutorial

Using Texture Packer with Unity + misc. tutorials
http://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker/start-download?os=win32#unity

Flat out on 2D
	If you’re making or considering 2D games in Unity take a look at Unity Evangelist Brett Bibby’s handy workflow tutorials.They take you through the process of authoring 2D content in Photoshop, exporting it and importing that content into Unity. All the files you need to complete the tutorials are available here.

Unity Research

1 hour
Reading through articles on the net, checking out FPS Control and reviewing plugins with a view to build some tutorials for student for next semester when we launch into their massive 3rd person 3d game.
Stealth: (framework for Artificial Intelligence / enemies can track you if they see you - but you can outwit them by running away and hiding - Free)
http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/stealth

FPS Control (framework to build first person shooter - free)
http://www.fpscontrol.com/?aff=assetstore

Probuilder:  Seemless level building tool - $95
It's like Hammer, CartStudio and 3dWorldStudio - a constructive solid geometry editor to allow users to build their scenes directly in Unity, with the ability to clone, model, light, bake shadows and texture.
http://www.probuilder3d.com

Mega-fiers
Various toolsets including morphing, terrain creation, lofting objects (racing, fences, roads and tank tracks) and scatter (easy environment object randomisation - trees, rocks etc)
http://www.west-racing.com/

Unity research

3 hours.

While I have a free few hours I'm reading a new book called "Creating Games With Unity and Maya", for the sake of covering some new ground in scripting and state management to help the students make their games more marketable.

I'm going through GUI, Object instantiation, inventory systems, winning/losing the game and then triggers and ray casting so the students will have a good grasp on interacting with their environment.

Update 21st April : added GUI hint triggers so as player moves through scene they get hints come up at the bottom of the screen explaining what to do next.  Also converted the code in the book from JavaScript to C# as that's what the students need to learn right now.  Finally the hints are attached to scene objects using triggers so as the player moves through the triggers the hints come up.  I need to implement a flag so that the hints don't come up again once th eplayer has seen them.

Adobe Audition PD

3 Hours

Working through tutorials provided by CIT at Lynda.com on using Audition CS6 in preparation for the sound classes I will be delivering in Semester 2 2013