Friday, April 24, 2009

The Domino Effect

Articles can be found at : http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1638
http://digg.com/politics/10_Years_Ago_Bush_Was_Against_Iraq_War_Predicted_Guerilla_War\

Object Name: Destruction
Title: The Domino Effect
Creator: RL Name: Cameron Church and Charlie Chavez
SL Name: Jim Wellesley and Viti Capelo
Date: 4/20/2009
Summary: The Destruction (tank) demonstrates the article chosen that proves the 10 most important economic events leading in a path (domino effect) to destruction. The user can interact with rezzing the objects inside the tank to discover what events happened potentially transitioning to another world war. A petri net was chosen show we could depict the transitional events leading up to this path of war. The denotation and connotation of our design was respectively the events leading up to the downfall of our economy, and the direction we are heading from this economic crisis to a path of distruction.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk37-LZckeg

Interaction: The model depicts a tank like structure (Object-Destruction) which will initally give the user a sense of power, authority, and justice in a war-like setting. The user interacts with 'Destruction,' by entering through the top of the structure, placing the user at the control center of the vehicle. From the control center, the user can rezz the transitional events representing major occurances to the economy in the last 10 years ending with a potential war.

Motivation: The motivation for this project was the design and implementation of transitional states leading up to another possible war. Many major events have happened which have damaged our economy majorly in the last several years, however the article used selected 10 major events which have contributed to the greatest effects on the economy. The design of a tank was one fascinating aspect as well as combining the design to our implementation depicting our particular article.

Description: Initially a tank was designed using several square prims, follwed by creating curvature through modifying several circular prims. Textiles used were mostly comouflauge and tank iron colors, giving the user an object which appears to be a war-like tank set out for destruction and war. The scripting implemented was the trasitional states leading up to another possible war, beginning with the user interaction from entering the vechicle (Symbolism towards 10 years ago when the president at the time predicted a Guerilla war. The transitional events are all linked for more information in which the user can gather (tokens). Once all objects are rezzed, the transitions lead to another possible world war, demonstrating the particular path to destruction which our economic decisions have lead to.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Bracketology

Articles can be found at : http://www.ncaa.com
sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology
sports.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/bracket


Object Name: The Coliseum
Title: March Madness 2009 Bracketology Flow
Creator: RL Name: Cameron Church and Charlie Chavez
SL Name: Jim Wellesley and Viti Capelo
Date: 4/1/2009
Summary: The Coliseum gives the user a well understanding of bracketology and how NCAA College Basketball teams advance through the tournament tree in hopes for a National Championship. The user is able to interact with the coliseum by watching the bracket advance through a state machine which advances from the 'Sweet 16' to the 'Final Four.'

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stqjnvp_7q4

Interaction: The model depicts a Coliseum structure which inside the arena you will find two basketball courts representing the final four games which are to be played 4/3/2009, with the championship game soon to follow on 4/6/2009. The user interacts with the Coliseum by controlling the state machine as the control of information within the tournament tree advances to the final four. The user can also click on any the schools from the initial 16-team bracket and will be directed to the universities website allowing the user to find more about each team/school while interacting with the coliseum.

Motivation: The motivation for this project was design and implement a tournament tree allowing the user to discover more about bracketology as well as information regarding the different universities and flow throughout the tournament. The bracket can be updated when final scores have been reached allowing the user to 'interact' with the news rather than witness it on TV. March madness is a very exciting topic to cover and we hope that fellow avatars/classmates will enjoy interacting with the coliseum.

Description: The textiles used were mostly wood/concrete/and textures for teams/schools. The scripting was implemented as a finite state machine allowing the user to control the states throughout the bracket up to the final four. Basketball hoops were made and given backboards showing which bracket side the user was looking at (16-team vs 8-team) as well as chrome bars to give it a 'realistic' look. Wood structures were designed to depict the actual bracket turning the tournament tree into 3d!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Automotive Retailer & Parts Revenue

Elevator Script Help : Note to Zach and Professor Fishwick : If you relocate the object you must reset the stackpointer script for the correct location in order for it to work properly. Edit the stack dial which goes up and down. Inside the script I left notes in which values you need to modify. Please update X,Y,Z values for the current position of the stack dial elevator and the script will work perfectly!


Article can be found at : http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/snapshots/175.html


Object Name: Automotive Retailer & Parts Corporation Building
Title: Automotive Retailer & Parts Revenue for 2008-2009
Creator: RL Name: Charlie Chavez
SL Name: Viti Capelo
Date: 3/02/09
Summary: The building itself represents a Stack-based data structure representing the top USA based corporations within the automotive business. Each floor displays a different stack of information with the elevator itself used as the stack pointer. Information is displayed incremental in the sense that the highest revenue company is located at the top of the stack (or index 5.) Also the higher index you point at, the more revenue the company acquired hence the better features/objects each level has.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaBYBr_Fpb0

Interaction: The model depicts a corporate building allowing the user to use the elevator or stack pointer to retrieve a section of data which in this case is displayed by each room/

Motivation: The automotive business is suffering however according to revenues, they are almost equal to years prior. However since the economy is in a rough situation, a good revenue does not necessarily suggest that your company was profitable. Many of the companies contained inside the stack had negative profitability including GM and Ford. Also the fact that I just bought a GM car, I figured i feature GM at the top of the stack!

Description: The textiles used on the building itself were trying to display a reflected mirror giving the user a feel or a real corporate office. The tiles within the building consist of diagrams/pictures used to demonstrate how each company attains revenue.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Boat Company Continues to Profit

Article can be found at : http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/02/02/daily22.html



Object Name: Southwestern Dock
Title: Boat Company Sustains Profit Through Harsh Economic Times.
Creator: RL Name: Charlie Chavez
SL Name: Viti Capelo
Date: 2/12/09
Summary: The dock represents the largest boat liquidation company in the U.S. Exceeding profits of 82 million this year (20.5 per boat displayed) with more room to sell. The boats depicted for sale represents potential profits for the future.
News Sources: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/02/02/daily22.html

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMT9ErDoNvs

Interaction: The model depicts a boating dock company with several boats sold as well as for sale. The connotation and annotation is demonstrated according to a boat dock, and the amount each boat represents.

Motivation: I figured boats would be an exciting model to implement in second life therefore I attempted to create my structures as realistic as possible.

Description: The textiles used were mostly wood with a little added chrome for various rails and a simple rope textile. No animation was scripted except for the BLOG itself. Also the sail flags featured flexibility with wind resistance creating a more realistic view.