First Draft: Virtual Pets (Reinforcement Learning) Uni Assignment
First Draft: Virtual Pets (Reinforcement Learning) Uni Assignment
Well the first draft is there. The assignment says approx 1500 words, I’m currently sitting at 1190, excluding footnotes and such. I’m not sure if I should add more, cause I think the next thing is to talk about Markov Decision Processes, Dynamic Programming, Monte Carlo Methods, or Temporal-Difference Learning.
All of which are quite large topics and I worry would bulk up the essay to much, it feels quite clean and complete at the moment.
The marking guidelines say for full marks you need to demonstrate the following.
That dreaded question, does it satisfy all the markers needs?
Applications of Artificial Intelligence
Write a short essay on the topic approximately 1500 words.
Describe an example of an artificial intelligent system.Identify as precisely as possible that aspect of the behaviour that makes it ‘intelligent’. Explain how that intelligence is achieved. Include references to the original research where possible.
So I’ve chosen the system of artificial pets or companions as used in these games.
- Fable: Dog
- Black & White: Pet
- Eye-Pet
- Creatures
Looking at
- Reinforcement learning
- Belief-Desire-Intention model
- Motive systems
All very shallow its only 1500 words. Currently hunting down some good papers, but I need to go into University to use the Google Scholar account to get some papers.
Lets put a pin on it
Lets put a pin on it
Well the animation on the screen, I had ideas of really complex animations and stuff but it doesn’t really need it an time is short. So I just made a quick avi of scrolling code, it seems to fit.
Also the cuteness of Frank is in the tube. Considered modelling the cute features so the Final Gather worked better and the highlights were more relevant. Again time is short and it would be hard to reproduce exactly.
So all done, lets put it to bed until I can throw hours and hours of render time. Then compose the video and link audio to it.
The pipes are cleaned up
All done
The pipes are cleaned up. I’m not cleaning the IK pipe as its a messy mangle, but I’m leaving it in because its educational and this is a university assignment. I’ll just make sure the camera avoids it.
Tried making the red lights wash more to the nearby materials. It works nicely on the top light with the pipes and the stair lights but the angles aren’t quite right for the down lights on the base unit. Also the tube light doesn’t have much to bounce off. So I’m leaving it as is.
The Goo falloff diffuse shader works well I think. I just need to compile the 2D animation for the big screen TV and the scene will be complete. The 3D work for this shot is all done.
Overnight
Overnight
Okay so some serious progress with texturing, cameras, materials and the like. The render times are getting silly though. I rendered an overnight job at full quality every 45th frame (not all included due to Tumblr limit).
- The big TV screen is going to have some pre-rendered animation on via animated texture
- There are one or two intersecting wires which need cleaning up.
- The Green Goo and bubbles I’m going to introduce some colour difference based on camera facing normal if I can. Maybe up their emission in lumen.
This is the longest continuous, and most complex shot. Other shots include.
- Some initial close-up fly bys of machinery and screens, finally doing full reveal of machine in frame. Lots of small bitty shots which will need compositing.
- The green lights change to red
- After this long shot one quick look at some screens.
- Some shots of the red lights switching back to green.
- Walk up, stairs, camera using walking bob animation for first person feel. To reveal cute frank inside.
- Meep Shot.
Sounds like loads but its mostly camera animation so no biggie there. The only thing that worries me are my render times are silly numbers. Which means I might need to postpone the final render to when I’m back at work and can leave my computer running a 30+ render.
Please comment below or tweet @EvilKimau for your thoughts if you have any.
Good to be making progress 
Success!!!
Success!!!
Doesn’t look very different but its VERY different.
- The wires animate around the pipes
- The second pipe is in using spline & loft (animates nicer than my messy IK)
- Everything without a proper UV map has been mapped
No full blown render as it takes too much time out of my productive cycle
Animation Task List
So I’m focusing on the Multimedia module if you haven’t noticed.
I’ve updated the task list and crossed off a few. Still no good way to export or print off Google tasks. Hopefully the animation work should be finished by Wednesday.
Wire Solution: Snap, Tweak, Loft
Wire Solution: Snap, Tweak, Loft
So after having headaches trying to think how to do wires I am reminded by how much familiarity increases speed. Be it a familiar language, setting, project, or 3d modelling package.
The solution for the wires was really simple to anyone familiar with modelling, which makes me feel a bit silly.
To construct wires
- Find Start and End point on model
- Turn on 3D Snap to faces
- Draw Line
- Tweak and Polish lines
- Use Loft and circle to construct the pipe
Soooo simple. *facepalm*
They do seem to add a bit of nice detail, quite happy with the result.
Distractions Away
Distractions Away
Got a bit delayed today, power ran out so my alarm didn’t go off. Anyway got to it.
After some initial worrying about multi-materials, UV mapping, the list goes on… I said, “Away with thee Daemons!”. So anyway I brought up the classic old checker pattern and threw it on everything. Also trying to relax and not worry so much about vert counts.
Wasted about an hour trying to work out how to setup a bunch of wires and hanging cords. Several quick pencil strokes tend to be become much more complex. So that’s the challenge now to create the mess of wires, while not getting in the way of the sliding and moving pipes. Not to mention it would be nice to get a gentle sway on the wires.
Glass Glass Glass
Glass Glass Glass
Wrapping my head around the materials system again. I think the work will need some great texturing and lighting to come alive. Also I think the quality of the green goo and smoke will have a high impact.
I still want to keep things light though.
Having some trouble getting out of game mode into render mode. I’m so used to game assets that every vertex and edge counts. Hard habit to break. I did most of my modelling, texturing and animation back in the Quake 2 days. Making maps and new characters. Hard to get over the strict texture and vert limits of those old days. I keep finding myself welding verts and lining things up on a minute level. *shudder*