Testing A Web 2.0 Application

Can voki.com Be Used For Educational Purposes?

Voki.com represents itself as an 'educational tool' that allows their uses to create and customise their own talking characters to look however they like, whether it be based on an historical figure, cartoon, animal or even on his or her self. The characters are completely customisable, whereby you can even use your own voice for your character by using a microphone, using the dial-in number feature or uploading an audio file. Once you are happy with your character and it is complete with its own voice and background you can share your voki character with the rest of the web by means of embedding it onto a website using the HTML code, sharing on social media or even emailing it to a friend! Here is a funky character I have created using the site:

This is Caspar, a friendly ghost in a top hat with a passion for teaching history to young children.
Voki.com is completely free, although it does require you to register and create an account in order to use the features of the site. As an educator voki.com can be a very interesting and creative way to manage lessons that children will find much more enjoyable through using Voki Classrooms. However, this area of the site require you to pay a subscription fee of $29.95 for one year and $49.95 for 2 years. Although it requires a payment, Voki Classrooms are extremely useful as children can see clear instructions on the tasks they as an individual must complete, as well as tasks the class as a whole must complete. Teachers can also place children into a number of different classes, which would be beneficial for comprehensive children as it removes the use of homework diaries, and instead makes it much more easier for children to see what work needs to be completed even when they have missed school. 
In addition to these reasons, voki is also extremely beneficial as it is a much more fun way to learn. Children can prepare for exams in a stress free environment whereby they can read out their notes to their character and have them repeat their notes back to them, which is a much more efficient way revising for oral exams or written exams because the children don't realise they're learning while they're having fun with their voki characters. 

Adding a Texture To A 3D Model (Part Two)

After creating a UV we opened it in Photoshop, making sure that the document dimensions were the same as the UV that we exported. We used a Bamboo Tablet and pen to draw the detail onto our UV and create a texture. The Textured UV can be seen below:

I personally found working with a Bamboo Tablet exceptionally difficult as I didn't understand how to line the tablet up with the computer monitor to draw. The task took a while for me to grasp, although I feel that the equipment would be much easier to use with a bit of practice. However, I can now understand why game designers prefer to use this tool to create textures and concept art as it is much easier to define shapes when drawing them rather than using a mouse, which seemed much more clumsy to use.
Notice how the feet, whiskers, tail, ears and bow do not fill the UV space, which is because the image will be saved as a .png file extension. The reason for this is because .png images stores transparency information meaning the black background will be see through when it is applied to the model.
After the texture was finished, we then had do go back into Maya and create a material, apply our texture to that material and set it to allow transparency. This was then applied to the model and 'rendered'. As seen in the previous model the ears, whiskers and tail were block shaped, whereas now they are more detailed due to the texture we created. The final product can be shown below as a result:

MEET CUBIT THE KAT!

Creating a 3D Object Using Maya (Part One)

As a fun little project, I set myself the task of learning how to create a 3D model within an application called Autodesk Maya with the help of Daniel (a link to his portfolio can be found here) , a second year student studying Creative Computer Games Design. The design of my 3D Model has been based on the creations found on the PopAPup website as shown below:

After opening the application we started with a basic cube shape, taking this shape we were able to insert 'edge loops' which would allow us to sculpt more detail into the model. Taking the newly created faces from the edge loops we then selected them and 'extruded' them outwards to create the feet of the PopAPup Model.We repeated this process in other areas of the model to create the ears, whiskers and tail. This was the outcome of the model:

As you can see the ears, whiskers and feet are not clearly defined and are shown as blocks, however these will be drawn onto the model later using a 'texture'.
For the next step we had to prepare the 3D model by projecting the 3D image into a 2D space by 'unwrapping' it so that it could be drawn on using a photo editing program, this basically resembles folding a paper block into shape. This process can be shown below:

This was done by taking each side of the model and 'planar mapping' it onto the UV Texture Editor. Taking these pieces we then 'sew UV's'  together to create a shape that looks like it could be folded and put together to represent the 3D version of the model. This is called a UV and can be taken into Photoshop that can be drawn on to then create a texture for the model.

Lego Digital Designer

So during the Christmas break I thought I would get a little creative and build a VIRTUAL LEGO MODEL using an application called Lego Digital Designer (LDD), which is a completely free computer program created by the LEGO team. The aim of the program is to allow users to use their imagination and build LEGO models using virtual LEGO bricks designed within a computer-aided manner. It is designed to run on Mac or Windows platforms, where the screen loads up with a clean LEGO board as shown below:

The beauty of the program is that it isn't age-based, and therefore means children and adults alike can share in the building experience and follow their interests. Children can also use this to develop their imagination in a way that is not lead by adults, without the stress of mess, while also developing their computer skills. Using the different range of tools building becomes easy and using the Save Tool allows you to close the program and come back to it again later, allowing you to add more and more to your model until you are completely satisfied with the outcome or want to start again on something new!

You are also able to share your mode with the rest of the world once you have finished, as stated on the LEGO website 'when you are finished with your amazing creation, you can upload your LEGO Digital Designer file to the MINDSTORMS Community. Other LEGO MINDSTORM fans from around the world will have access to your instructions to build your new robot! You can also read comments and feedback'. This is an interesting feature as those who share a love for LEGO can easily go online and view what their friends have created and then get ideas from their designs, or can proudly show their models to others as well. 

I myself have tried using the program and decided to build a simple red brick house with a white picket fence. At first I found the program rather difficult to navigate and needed my more experienced friend, Archie (a link to his portfolio can be found here), to show me the ropes and find my way around the LEGO board so to say. I would therefore suggest children who want to use this application be supervised by an adult as it can be quite mindboggling to a new Virtual LEGO Builder! Its fair to say that I'm far from becoming a Master Builder, but I am rather happy with the overall result of my house design as shown above! 

Using A Wiki Website

Today in our VisCom lesson we were asked to try out a new website called http://es1a2014.pbworks.com, which we used to create a WIKI page within a group of friends in order to test out whether we could easily share and edit ideas within our group successfully. I personally found the website very interesting and easy to navigate!

Here is our WIKI page, that we created all by ourselves, and answered a series of questions on the subject of how will technology affect education in the future. The website was particularly useful as we could focus on different questions, which meant everyone could equally contribute to the task instead of one person typing while the others huddle around one computer. However one thing we found particularly annoying was that when one person was editing the page they would 'Steal Lock' which meant that no one else would be able to edit the page without overwriting someone else's work.