I was reading Google’s Sketchup Blog recently and came across some interesting news. Google is planning on having a 2010 3d Basecamp.
3D Basecamp 2008 was integral in my training on Google Sketchup. I taught myself the program completely from playing around and watching Youtube videos. Recorded videos from 3D Basecamp 2008 allowed me to see someone using the program live and demonstrated skills and techniques not readily available. Whenever I teach a Sketchup class I tell all my students to immediately go to the 3d Basecamp website and watch the videos. There are over ten and they are all over an hour. The benefit I say is that it will answer plenty of questions you have and bring up things you didn’t even think of.
Sketchup has so many shortcuts and multiple ways to accomplish one task. 3d Basecamp helped streamline my process. This first Basecamp was aimed at more of the beginning side. 3d Basecamp 2010 is aimed more at the Sketchup Power users. There is an application for attending! I actually had to send the registration team an example of something that I modeled.
Sketchup Blog describes “This time, we’d like to welcome SketchUp experts – ninjas, gurus, fanatics, la crème de la crème – to join us. We want to see what will happen when everyone in attendance is a SketchUp master.” They are hoping for an “unconference” in which there is tons of user participation and discussion.
I applied. After closely reading the guidelines of the application I failed. I was supposed to send a link to an Image’s direct URL. I sent them to one image on my Flickr page. Oh well. The conference is in Boulder, CO. I live in Washington, DC. Also it is the first 3 days of September. I am getting married August 21st. A lot of variables that don’t add up.
Either way I am sure Google will be recording these sessions for future use and learning goodness. I hope to see some really great tricks that I can incorporate into my workflow. For those that are interested in the 2008 library of knowledge go here.
Google Sketchup is a big portion of my life. I use it every day at work and has gotten me to the position I am in. I am certainly an advocate of the program and I hope that more people open their eyes to how powerful it is.
If you are up for the challenge and want to go to the conference, applications start here
I saw this post the other day from Autodesk. They have created a new plugin called “Project Helix” which will allow users of 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design to import Cloud Point Diagrams (.ptx files). Now this is interesting to me because it involves two programs and disciplines that I am very interested in but do not know how to use at all!
I have been attempting to learn 3ds Max for about a year. That program is pretty daunting and I keep putting it aside for too long. When I try to jump back in I have to learn all over again. Recently I have been going by Direct Dimensions in Owings Mills, MD. This a premiere laser scanning company that is at the top of the industry. They describe themselves: “Direct Dimensions, Inc. (DDI) provides unique solutions to complex modeling and manufacturing problems. We specialize in the on-site application of digitizers, laser scanners, and the conversion of complex three-dimensional data into 3D computer models.” I must say that with all the historical projects they do it is right up my alley.
I was there yesterday and I found that they have about Four Programs they use inside their workflow. Pointools, Solidworks, Z-Brush, it is a little scary. Their team is made up of mostly hungry 20 somethings who seem eager to put the time in the office. I am hoping that Plugins like this for 3ds Max will allow me to learn a workflow that can actually be in one program! This is unfortunately not reality. I am using only the lowest level of modeling in Sketchup. I still need Kerkythea and GIMP to give me any hope of having realistic models.
One promising thing that I did learn is that 3dx Max 2011 can directly import files from Sketchup. At the very least I can now skip the modeling portion in 3ds Max and jump directly into Rendering and Animation. This is a big step for me and I expect everyone will start seeing some high quality stuff in the near future.
I read a really fun post over at Gamesradar entitled, “The Top 7 Historical Figures Defamed by Video Games.” Most of the references were obscure or really bizzare. A lot were Asian warlords. Go ahead and check it out. It got me thinking about the time I wasted playing the game Caesar in Elementary School. I have a feeling this was a really key moment for me in starting to like Ancient History.
I was brought onto this game after I had mastered Sim City. I had created the ultimate city and was now ready for a new challenge. Let’s create a city in Ancient Rome. I had a blast. I wasted countless hours developing the ultimate city state. With a little help from some online gaming websites I had figured out the perfect formula.
Soon I branched out to other games like Sid Meier’s Civilization. I am currently working with Rob Cloutier, a 3d designer who worked on the game. Please visit his website www.3dhistory.com to see some of his work. He’s very talented. Civilization took the history angle to a new level. Now I was starting multiple cities and managing entire military campaigns. Beneath the framework of fun, a lot of educational building blocks came into place. You had to elevate from the stone age to the bronze age, by discovering certain aspects of science. You could only progress in your building by collecting more natural resources. Pretty tremendous all around.
Eventually you can find a way to reshape a lot of the historical landscape. I actually conquered the planet Earth with the United States. It was pretty awesome. USA! USA! USA!
Shawn Graham at Electric Archaeology has taken this to a new level. Many of these games allow for modification of your own campaigns. Shawn has added campaigns to Civilization IV and Caesar IV and began using them as teaching tools for his students. He believes that he can edit parameters of the game to help teach his students different aspects of Roman History.
“I want to use Caesar IV as a simulation to explore Roman economics. The idea is, I’ll get my students to play this scenario, and in playing it, it highlight/contrast game mechanics with the current understanding of how the Roman economy works (if you think modern economic thought is dry, you ain’t seen nuthin’ till you’ve read the ancient version… gaming economics ought to be way more fun for my students!)”
As great as it is to use Video Games to teach history, it is also fun to just ride around cause havoc. My friend Doyle just bought Red Dead Redemption. The game is Grand Theft Auto set in the Wild West. I played for about 10 minutes and was immediately hooked. Correlating with all 3d history, video games give us not only a chance to see the past, but to interact with it. Due to the lowering attention span of our youth and the increasing amount of technology in schools, I would not be surprised to see video games being used as a teaching tool 10 years from now. Educational games are already out there, let’s just bridge the gap.
All of this has gotten me wanting to play some games. I am going to dust off my copy of Age of Empires!
CG Digest just put up a great post on the “Best 45 free 3d Models that you can find”. There is a large array of the types of models that are included. Nothing is screaming history but it always nice to find free models when you can get them.
As you might notice from the Flickr sidebar, I work in the hospitality industry. My day to day includes a lot of creating models of ballrooms and event setups. I am happy to add this nice chair to my collection. Some rich bride will love to see this around some banquet tables!
So free models on Memorial Day. Thanks to all our armed service members past and present!
I just read an excellent post over at http://heritage-key.com on Malcolm Jack’s Blog. Malcolm broke down the Top Ten Places to see King Tut.
King Tut or Tutankhamun (1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled c.1333 BC – 1323 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. King Tut was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter.
Recently it was discovered through DNA evidence that Tut was the son of Akhenaten and his sister/wife. Exciting and gross, but hey that’s Egypt! Certainly not as fun as Ramses II having over 100 children.
Malcolm’s List is as follows
1) KV62 (Actual Tomb: Valley of the Kings)
3) Luxor Museum
4) Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs (Traveling Exhibit – NY)
5) Highclere Castle – Hampshire, UK
6) Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs (Traveling Exhibit -Denver)
7) Tutankhamun Exhibition Dorchester
8 ) Hull Hands on History Museum – Hull, UK
9) Las Vegas Natural History Museum
10) King Tut Virtual on Heritage Key
There are some really excellent places on here. Unfortunately as I have previously posted about…..I have not been to Egypt and have no idea when I will be able to go there. Just as much, won’t be making it to England anytime soon. A great alternative is the traveling exhibit here in the United States. I know a few people who saw it and they loved it. It is going to be at a few new places before it is gone for good.
One cool site is the new Exhibit in Las Vegas Natural History Museum. This exhibit is utilizing EON Reality’s touchscreen technology. Here are a few clips
“EON Reality, Inc., the world’s leading interactive 3D software provider, today announced that Las Vegas Natural History Museum in Las Vegas, NV, has selected EON Reality’s burial chamber of king Tutankhamun simulation and touchscreen technology for their interactive Treasures of Egypt exhibition.
Visitors have the unique opportunity to explore the burial chamber of king Tutankhamun in a 3D 21″ touchscreen environment. The Treasures of Egypt exhibit is a permanent exhibition.
“We are thrilled to be able to show the burial chamber of king Tutankhamun in a 3D environment where the visitors can interact and walk around in real-time. This gives the visitor a much better understanding of how it actually looked like inside the king’s chamber,” said Marilyn Gillespie, Executive Director at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.”
If you want to try to see the 3d Environment from the get go, check out the recreation at Heritage Key. http://heritage-key.com/king-tut-virtual .
King Tut’s treasure trove is one of the greatest wonders our world has today. One of way or another I will see it before I die!
Recently I had Justin Barton, Production Manager for Cyark, answer a few questions about himself and Cyark. As you might have noticed, I talk quite a bit about Cyark and have been partnering with them on some volunteer projects. I am about to jump into one of the best yet; helping to restore the Kasubi Royal Tombs in Uganda. Expect this to be a new featured portion of 3d History Blog with more short interviews to come.
What is CyArk?
CyArk is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. We partner with service providers (surveyors, engineers, architects, etc.) and heritage professionals (site authorities like the National Park Service, university researchers, conservators, etc.) and help the two work together to provide accurate digital preservation data that can be used to create professional deliverables such as architectural drawings and structural analyses as well as public dissemination deliverables such as virtual tours, videos, and immersive panoramic photographs.
What is your mission?
Officially, our mission is:
CyArk is a non-profit entity whose mission is to digitally preserve cultural heritage sites through collecting, archiving and providing open access to data created by laser scanning, digital modeling, and other state-of-the-art technologies.
I am the Production Manager. I oversee aspects of field data collection as well as the production of final deliverables that meet (a) CyArk’s standards for accuracy, collection, and control, (b) acceptable content for public dissemination, and (c) any specific needs/requests outlined by our partners.
What were you doing before you joined Cyark?
I’ve been with CyArk in some capacity since 2005. Before that I was an undergraduate in Anthropology at UC Berkeley. It was there I met the former Director of R&D who was teaching a course at UCB on how to digitally capture and represent place. It was after graduating in May 2005 that I did my first field work with CyArk over the summer in Peru. Later, in December, I was officially contracted to be a member of the deliverables production staff. Even when I “left” CyArk from 2006-2008 to pursue my MA in Field Archaeology at University College London, I was still involved with CyArk. I did occasional telecommute work for website maintenance and my MA research focused on using laser scanning in heritage to monitor erosion. That research work was then contributed to the CyArk archive and again I worked with CyArk to produce many of the deliverables found on the webiste. It was in 2009, after my return from the UK, that I came back to CyArk full time and entered the position of Project Manager (which was recently transitioned into Production Manager).
You can find a lot of Justin’s work at www.cyark.org and follow him on twitter @amen_ra
UPDATE: THIS WAS MODELED BY SCOTT OLSEN
CHECK OUT http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=pmolsen&scoring=d
He used the data created by University of Arkansas
I found this via the Google Earth Blog
“In 2005, researchers from CAST used the Optech ILRIS-3D laser scanner to scan the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. To read more about the survey, please visit the section on Machu Picchu Project Details. Three data sets from the Machu Picchu survey are available here as point clouds in the Polyworks PWK format (as IMInspect projects). Data are currently not available in polygonal mesh format. Be sure and visit the Free Data Viewer section to download the latest version of Polyworks IMView that allows you to not only view and interact with the data but also perform different types of measurements.”
I recommend everyone take a look at their site and watch this nice Youtube Video Below. GREAT JOB!
Recently my final product of Temple II at Tikal was posted at Cyark.org. As I have previously mentioned Cyark “is dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage sites through the CyArk 3D Heritage Archive, an internet archive which is the repository for heritage site data developed through laser scanning, digital modeling, and other state-of-the-art spatial technologies.” I was lucky enough to get into contact with them last year via twitter after reading an article featuring them in Archaeology magazine. You can read more about it in the About section of this site.
This was my second project for Cyark and I much more proud of this than my last attempt, Monte Alban. The main difference between the two models was that all of my textures I used for this model were from actual pictures of Temple II at Tikal. Justin Barton and the team at Cyark has been extremely patient and let me work at my own pace.
My work flow begins with utilizing the cloud point diagrams found on Cyark’s website. Cyark gave me access to a user account where I was able to take individual measurements of all aspects of the model. The models I am working with only hold a fraction of the million cloud points taken by Cyark’s 3d scanners. 
The process is always very slow at first. After working in Sketchup and being completely used to the work flow, going back and forth between this unfamiliar 3d viewing program was a little difficult. Thanks to the MONTHS it took me to do Monte Alban, I have gotten the hang of it.
Throughout the process of measuring the features of the model, I began creating the model. Google Sketchup has my been my most used program on my computer for the last 3 years. For a free program it does some amazing things. I never had a background in CAD or 3d modeling and learning this on my own was not intimidating at all. Unlike learning 3ds Max, which I am doing right now.
Once I was finished with the base model of Temple II, I began texturing it. I took pictures of Temple II from Cyark’s website and began to slowly crop parts of the temple and resize them to fit their individual parts. This is one of my favorite parts of the modeling procress. This is where the model really begins to come alive.
After the texturing process I was able to convert the it into a .3ds file to send off to Cyark so they could add it in the 3d Viewer. Please go check it out here. I am not really sure what project they are going to have me do next. I think I might jump ahead and start to work on the Temple of Jupiter at Pompeii. Cyark is slowly filling out its ranks with new and exciting things. I hope to have a full feature on them with an few interviews as well.
This is a video from a collection of 3d Renders created by Bernard Frischer and the Rome Reborn Project at the University of Virginia. This is just a taste. I am going to create a whole feature on this project in the near future.
For a little more information on the man himself, he was interviewed for a podcast over at Educause
Just wanted to show everyone the progress coming along on my recreation of Temple II at Tikal. This project should be finished by the end of the week and a full post will run through my whole work flow. Thanks again to CyArk for all cloud point data and support
