saving our stripes project brief

Striving to preserve an endangered species.

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TEAM

WE ARE THE BLOODTHIRSTY SASSY CATS.

DESIGN

Lindsay Cangialosi

Devin Caskie

Roger Clark

Jared Rutnik

3D MODELING

Vickie Angie

Jordan DiSanto

DEVELOPMENT

Amy Fairbrother

Joshua Hutchins

We are a team of eight individuals with a passion for creativity and technology.

BLOODTHIRSTY SASSY CAT

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PROBLEM

BENGAL TIGERS ARE APPROACHING EXTINCTION

HOW CAN WE HARNESS THE CULTURE OF THE RIT TIGERS TO PROMOTE TIGER CONSERVATION?

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WHAT’S HAPPENING?Wild tiger population has dropped by 97% in the last century. There are less than 3,200 left worldwide, occupying only 7% of their historic range.

1900HISTORIC TIGER RANGEWild Population: 100,000

2012CURRENT TIGER RANGE

Wild Population: 3,200

PROBLEM

PROBLEM

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WHY ARE TIGERS DISAPPEARING?

POACHING

Tigers are hunted for nearly everypart of their body.

Pelts for status

Claws & teeth for jewelry

Bones for medicine

HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT

Growing populations impede on tigers’ natural territory.

Retaliatory killings

Competeing food sources

DEFORESTATION

Tigers’ natural habitats are being destroyed.

Expanding agriculture

Illegal logging

PROBLEM

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WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

TIGERS ARE CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT

Tigers are admired by people all over the world.

If considerable action isn’t taken, this iconic animal could only exist in books and photographs.

TIGERS PROVIDE HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS

As a large predator, a single tiger protects 25,000 acres of forest.

Tigers play a key role in protecting ecosystems and other species.

TIGERS BENEFIT THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

Tigers draw awestruck tourists to some of the poorest communities in the world.

Tiger conservation projects also help make these communities more sustainable.

THE IDEA

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WHAT WE PROPOSE.

WHAT WE HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH

Enlighten our audience about issues concerning Bengal Tigers’ population.

Engage the RIT community through an immersive experience.

Promote empathy for conservation efforts.

Inspire people to help tigers.

CREATE AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE THAT EVOKES PERSONAL INTEREST IN TIGER CONSERVATION.

HOW WILL THIS HELP TIGERS?

EDUCATE

Through interaction, the user will beinformed about the specific threats tigers face today.

RESULT

People will learn the specific behaviorsthat impact tigers, and what they can doto support tiger conservation.

SPREAD THE WORD

Twitter is a mass-communicationplatform that allows the message to spread beyond Imagine RIT.

RESULT

People worldwide will see tweetsfrom someone they know, and cause them to question their impact on the lives of wild tigers.

INSPIRE PEOPLE TO DONATE

Our project will create a connection with wild tigers that continues as an online experience.

RESULT

Through donations, WWF will be able to fund an agressive approach against poachers and can helpmonitor tigers in their habitats.

THE IDEA

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OUR TARGETTigers are visible throughout RIT campus on t-shirts, banners, and statues. They serve as a reminder of our mascot RITchie, and school pride.

Students, faculty, and alumni,owe it to themselves, RITchie, and future RIT students to helpprotect wild tigers.

Tigers unite us and give us something to fight for.

If tigers become extinct, what will being an RIT tiger mean?

WHY RIT?

Photos property of RIT

THE IDEA

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CAN WE INSPIRE AN ENTIRE CAMPUS?It has been proven to work in the past.

In 1963, a group of RIT students adopted a tiger by selling 50-cent shares to students.

Having Spirit was “the best thing to end student apathy” and it greatly improved school spirit. (David Page, ‘66)

RIT & TIGERS

Photos property of RIT

THE IDEA

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PROJECT DIRECTION

NATURAL

Our tiger will be life-size and will have realistic movements. We want users to feel the presence of a wild tiger, and experience awe, fascination, and a little bit of fear.

SOCIAL

We want to accommodate groups of visitors at once. We’re going to encourage ouraudience to tweet to our hashtag and spread the word about tigers being endangered.

EDUCATIONAL

We want users to learn about the dangers that wild tigers face, the severity of theirthreats, and feel inspired to go out and save tigers.

THE IDEA

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Tiger moves on screen. Pacing, ear twitch, lick paw, etc.

On-screen hint shows how to start interactions.

User interacts with the tiger and is shown various facts.

On-screen twitter tracker with handle and hashtag.

Audience tweets and spreads the word about tigers.

Stickers are handedout with URLs for anonline experience.

Online website offers more informationand oppurtunity to donate to WWF.

For each milestone,a twitter bird flies on screen.

Twitter tracker barrises, and approachesa milestone.

40/50

EXPERIENCE FLOW

After 4 gestures, tiger gets bored and walks away.

THE IDEA

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THE IDEA

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C4D TIGER MODEL

Model, textures and animationswill be built within Maxon’sCinema 4D.

CUSTOM KINECT GESTURES

Custom gestures will be createdthrough Omek’s gesture recognitionand body tracking technology.

UNITY REAL-TIME ANIMATIONS

The Unity engine is idealy suited toaccept Kinect gestures and havethe tiger respond to the interactions.

SPREAD THE WORD WITH TWITTER

A Twitter hash tag will be displayedon our screen to invite our audienceto spread the word for tiger conservation.

WHAT’S NEEDED

VISUALS

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OUR SCREEN SETUP

TIGER

An active, life-size tiger dominatesthe screen, and reacts to a user’s specific gestures.

FACTS

For each action, specific factsappear on screen, next to the tiger.

THREATS

Threats relevent to the tiger’s action,are displayed on screen to educatethe user.

GESTURE HINTS

Subtle gesture animations aidthe user in discvering new actions.

TWEETS

While guests wait in line and spreadthe word about tigers, they can see their tweet on screen.

PROGRESS

As tweets accumiulate, a progressbar indicates new milestones as they are reached.

56/75#savingourstripes @sassycats

Toni Carlson @titicarl52Loving this @sassycats! Can’t believe some of these facts. #savingourstripes #tigers #imagineRIT

Allan Noisewater @babblingbrooke@sassycats inspired me to donate to the WWF. Well done guys! #savingourstripes

Sharon Newman @newsharHelp save tigers! There’s less than 3,200 left in the world. #savingourstripes #wwf

LARGEST CANINES OF THE BIG CAT FAMILY.

Tigers teeth and bones are sold and used for traditional Chinese medicine.

POACHING THREAT

HUMAN

TIGER

LION

ROARS CAN BE HEARD UP TO 2 MILES AWAY

1.2CM

6.0CM

7.2CM





TIGER’S CAN JUMP DISTANCES OF UP TO 30 FEET

AND CAN JUMP UP TO 10 FEET HIGH

30 FEET





TIGER’S MAIN SOURCES OF FOOD:

People living near tiger habitats compete with them for food. Tigers eat community livestock since prey is limited in the wild.

HUMAN WILDLIFE CONFLICT

ANTELOPEDEERWILD PIG





Tigers are considered a conservation-dependent speices. It is incredibly difficult for them to survive in the wild. Becuase of this, most tigers live in captivity.

DO TIGERS STAND A CHANCE?

TIGERS PLAY WITH EACHOTHER BY STANDING ON THEIR HIND LEGS AND BOXING

9FT

4FT





Tigers’s natural habitats are being destroyed, which makes their natural sources of food more scarce.

ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT

TIGERS TAILS ARE USED FOR BALANCEAND COMMUNICATION.

3FT





Tiger claws are used collected as decoration or used as trade items.

POACHING THREAT

TIGER CLAWS ARE 4 INCHES LONG AND USEDMAINLY TO LATCH ONTO THEIR PREY.

4IN

VISUALS

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CHINESE INK STYLEPROS

ElegantEmphasizes motionUncommonRelates to tiger’s homeland

CONS

Particles need to be created in UnitySlow render timesQuestionable 3D interpretation

VISUALS

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MECHANICAL STYLEIntenseEye catchingMemorableLess organicWorks well with all blackConveys wonder and fear

CONS

Could be too frighteningToo unrealistic?

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LOW POLYGON STYLEPROS

Simplified model Simplified textureInteresting to look atApproachable

CONS

Used too oftenMay be out of place on blackToo disconnected from a real tigerCan we get fluid, natural motion?

VISUALS

LIGHT FIBER STYLEPROS

GorgeousWorks well on blackUniqueCaptivatingAllows for detail

CONS

Difficult to recreate in 3DPossibly too reliant on Unity

VISUALS

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PRELIMINARY STYLE TESTING

VISUALS

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OUR FIRST ATTEMPT

There are several methods for creating a model. Our initialmodel was created by placing each polygon point by point.

This method was promising but showed limitations in correcting overall form.

FIRST TIGER MODEL

CREATING A TIGER ONE POLYGON AT A TIME

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3D

MODEL CREATION

By creating the model in this waywe were able to match the correctproportions of a tiger before refiningit’s form.

BOX MODEL

A TIGER OUT OF THE BOX

3D

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BOX MODEL

3D

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SCULPTING THE DETAILS

3D

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MODELING

SWITCH TO LOW POLY

Attempting to model, rig, and animatean organic model was proving to be too time consuming for this project.

Simplifying our model to a low-polygon allowed us to move on from the model and focus on the tiger’s movements.

3D

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ANIMATION

TEXTURING THE MODEL

MAPPING

To create the UV map, strategically select whereyou want the edges of the UV map to be. We foundit beneficial to cut up the center of the stomach up to around the edges of the face.

TIPS:

“Cut” the seams in places that won’t be seen as often such as

the down the belly of our tiger.

Making separate cuts to the face and feet gives you a larger area

to paint for the more detailed features.

Use a combination of different projections and the relax UV option

toachieve the most pelt-like UV.

PAINTING

To paint the tiger, each separate polygon was filled with a different color. For each main section of color (i.e. orange, cream), three different shades of the main colors were used to fill in the polygons.

3D

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CUSTOM RIG

We created a custom rig for our modelbased off of the preset quadruped template in Cinema’s Character Object.

The rig is color coded to simplify the animation process.

MODEL RIG

SETTING UP THE CONTROLS

FINAL RIGFIRST RIG

RIGHT CONTROLS

LEFT CONTROLS

BODY CONTROLS

HEAD/FACE CONTROLS

MASTER CONTROL

ROOT CONTROL

RED

BLUE

TEAL

YELLOW

ORANGE

PINK

3D

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MODEL RIG

BINDING THE MESH

WEIGHT PAINTING

The model requires some additional weightpainting in order to move naturally.

TIPS:

Changing the auto-weight mode to “Visibility” produces

more accurate results.

Make sure auto-normalize in enabled so all of the

mesh stays 100% weighted.

Absolute weight each of the bones first, then go in

and smooth/partially weight.

3D

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ANIMATION

USING THE RIG

CONTROLS

Only the rig controls should be usedto animate the tiger. All bones and meshesshould be in separate layers and locked.

All four foot controllers have additional user data attached to them represented in the form of the following sliders.

Toe Twist Foot Side to SideKnee Twist Toe WiggleStretch AnkleBall ToesHeel

NEUTRAL POSES

The tiger should start and end in the same default position in the breathing animation.

TREADMILLS

The tiger should always be animated in place andappear as though he were moving on a treadmill.The root null should remain at (0,0,0).

USING NULLS

To move the tiger of his spot, place the character object into a new null at (0,0,0) and move the null appropriately. Make sure the feet do not appear to be sliding on the ground.

3D

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ANIMATION

PREPPING THE ANIMATIONS

BAKING

The animations must be baked in orderto work completely in Unity. The rig wemade requires a unique baking process.

When you are done, your keyframes should look like this:

Select all children of the character object and view their frames in the timeline.

In the “view” menu, turn off all options under the “show” tab and turn on “Link TL/OM Selection”under ”link.”

Under “functions,” select “Bake Keyframes.”

In the pop-up window, tun on “Bake Expressions” and turn off “Create Copy” and “Clear Tracks.” Under “Include”turn on everything except “PLA.”

In the tools tab, turn off “Use IK” and “Use Constraints” under the “Execution” menu.

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3D

SEAMLESS ANIMATIONS

2.

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SWIPEFRAMES 20-247

A SINGLE MESH

Each animation was created with it’s own mesh in separate C4D files. In Unity, a single mesh took on all of the animations by calling their names and frame numbers.This allowed us to seamlessly switch between animations.

RUNFRAMES 20-41(LOOP)

STANDFRAMES 0-217

POUNCEFRAMES 20-311

ROARFRAMES 20-271

JUMPFRAMES 20-161

3D

ADDITIONAL ANIMATIONS

BREATHING/ AMBIENTFRAMES 0-293, 400-531, 600-750

The breathing animation is what thetiger always defaults back to.

There are a series of three ambient animations that are called when thetiger is not performing a gesture-called animation.

SLOW DOWNFRAMES 0-233

The slow down animation is usedat the end of the “Pounce,” “Jump,”and “Run” animations after the tiger had left the screen.

TURNFRAMES 0-77

The turn animation is used everytimethe tiger moves off of the screen.It happens at the beginning of the“Jump” and “Run” animations.

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5. 6.

3D

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DEVELOPMENT

GESTURE

Our gestures are chosen fromintuitive motions that are largeenough to be picked up bya wild animal.

ACTION

The actions of our tiger are intended to imitate themajesty of a real wild tiger.

INFORMATION

With so much information toshare about tigers we will display one of a variety of tigerfacts and the related threat.

OUR GESTURES

GESTURE STORYBOARDS

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

TIGER FACTS

- Tigers can jump over 30 foot distances.

- Tigers can jump up to 10 feet high.

- Bones in their feet are tightly connected by ligaments to absorb impacts from landings.

THREATS

- Poachers sell tiger bones for use in traditional Chinese medicines.

TIGER FACTS

- Their claws are an average of 4 inches in length.

- The main use of claws is to latch on to prey.

- A dewclaw is a specialized claw located further back on the foot that aids in climbing.

THREATS

- Tiger claws are collected and used as decorations or trade items.

TIGER FACTS

- Tigers can reach speeds of approximately 35 mph for short intervals of time

- Their tails are about 3 feet long, and are used for balance and possibly communication.

- Unlike flatfooted humans, tigers walk and run on their toes.

JUMP

SWIPE

RUN

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DEVELOPMENT

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3 THREATS

- Because of proximity with humans tigers will kill farm animals and open themselves up to retalitory killing.

TIGER FACTS

- Tigers are about 4 feet tall while standing on 4 legs.

- Tigers are about 9 feet tall while standing on 2 legs.

- Tigers play with each other by standing on their back legs and boxing.

TIGER FACTS

- Long hind legs enable them to pounce on their prey from a distance.

- Tigers attack their prey by pouncing on them and pulling them down with their claws.

- Tigers mainly prey on deer, antelope, wild pigs, and anything else they can outrun.

TIGER FACTS

- Tigers have the largest canines of the big cat family.

- Roars have a very low frequency inaudible to humans, and are warning signals to any competitors.

- A tiger’s roar can be heard up to 2 miles away.

THREATS

- Teeth are collected as trophies or jewelry.

STAND

ROAR

POUNCE

GESTURE STORYBOARDS

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DEVELOPMENT

TIGER SCRIPT

Animations

NULL SCRIPT

PositionGLOBAL SCRIPT

Starting callsSoundsKeystroke animations

BECKON SCRIPT

Gesture call animationsPull sounds from global scriptCustom gestures

TIGER SCRIPT

Play and destroy planes

UNITY CODING STRUCTURE

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DEVELOPMENT

SETTING THE SCENE IN UNITY

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LIGHTS

Our scene is lit with flitered lights to create canopy-like shadow effects on the tiger as he moves around.

ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS

The infographics and gesture hints are displayed on planesthat are created and destroyed at the beginning and endof each animation. These planes are on a new layer andare lit separately from the rest of the scene.

SOUNDS

Each animation has its own sound sequence added to it,which is called at the beginning of each animation.

DEVELOPMENT

ANIMATION

ANIMATING THE INFORMATION

INFOGRAPHICS

The infographics have been stylized to mirrorthe low poly style. The graphics include a fact that corresponds with the specific animations as well as an environmental threat.

Stylize your vector infographic.

Create a new texture in Cinema 4D and put yourvector graphic into the “alpha” and “color” channels.

Using the “knife tool”, slice up a plane object into your desired pattern to be shattered.

Apply the new texture to the plane object.

Keyframe an “Explosion FX” to travel through the plane object.

Render out as an .mov and combine with additionalgraphics in After Effects.

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DEVELOPMENT

02

INTERACTION

OUR WEBSITETIGER

A mini-version of our tiger reacts to a user’s specific keyboard clicks.

PROJECT INFO

An explanation of our purpose.Photos and videos of ourshowcase of the project.

PROMOTE FURTHER ACTION

Additional facts about tigerpopulation concerns.

Information about WWF’sefforts to help save the tiger.

HOSTING

savingourstripes.cias.rit.edu

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BRANDING

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THE SAVING OUR STRIPES LOGOAccepted uses.

COLOR CODES

Orange: #ee8121R-238 G-129 B-33C-2 M-60 Y-100 K-0

Gray:#6d6e70R-109 G-110 B-112C-46 M-41 Y-47 K-6

BRANDING

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POSTERSSPECIFICATIONS

Size 11 x 17

There is a total of four variations -each containing a different factabout tigers.

BRANDING

02

INTERACTION

ANIMATION

INSTALLATION SETUP

SPECIFICATIONS

Position the portable projector behind the 10’ x 8’ screen. Adjust the distance, so that the picture fits on the screen.

Position the computer behind the screen, and runthe project from it. The computer should connectto the kinect.

Place the kinect in front of the screen about 2’ offof the ground.

Run the sounds through a separate sound system.

TIPS:

Make sure that the room is dark, and that the bystanders don’t stand anywhere that may

disrupt the kinect from the main user.

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INTERACTION

02

INTERACTION

...JUST DON’T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR EARS!

-The Bloodthirsty Sassy CatsTWITTER:

@SavingStripes

BLOG:

SavingOurStripes.cias.rit.edu

saving our stripes project brief

Design

rit tigers

help tigers

tigers benefit

helpmonitor tigers

tigers disappearing

bengal tigers population

lives of wild tigers

tigers natural territory