Presentation at ESTS 2015

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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I recently attended the European Society for Textual Scholarship's 2015 conference held at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. At this conference, I gave a presentation entitled Beyond Google Search: Editions as Dynamic Sites of Interaction. The focus of the presentation was a discussion around some of the common UI tropes and metaphors we rely upon in Digital Scholarly Editions and an examination of how these elements are applied.  The presentation consisted of a discussion around the subject of interaction
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Modeling Maynooth Castle Part 7 – The Final Product

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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The castle is finally complete! Since the last post, I've added some trees to the scene and cleaned up the last of the materials.  Unfortunately, exporting the scene into sketch fab is not quite as successful as the rendered version in the 3DS Max.  For some reason, the materials used on the roofs of the various buildings do not export and neither do the materials for the trees.  However, I think its important to be able to move the
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Modeling Maynooth Castle Part 6 – The Story

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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One of the things I thought that might be interesting in discussing the creation of the model is to show a sort of breakdown of how the model was built.  So I've taken screenshots from 3DS Max (the software I used to create the model), that shows the model as it moved through various stages of creation.   [caption id=attachment_340 align=alignnone width=200] Building the Walls[/caption] [caption id=attachment_341 align=alignnone width=200] Adding the South Gate[/caption] [caption id=attachment_343 align=alignnone width=200] Adding the bend in the south
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Modeling Maynooth Castle Part 5 – Woe to Materials

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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I've decided that Materials in 3DS Max are not my favourite thing.  In fact, I think they are my least favourite thing.  I've been playing around with them for the past couple of days, trying to get a stone material that looks just right.  While I've had some minor success with a material for the buildings, I have yet to make it look like individual stone work (currently, it looks like each building is carved from a single rough-hewn
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Modeling Maynooth Castle Part 4 – Materials & Lighting

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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Since my last post about Modeling Maynooth Castle, my progress has been solid but largely uneventful.  I haven't encountered any major issues or problems outside of the normal day to day frustrations of modeling, such as paying extra attention to that one polygon that doesn't seem to want to be shaped the right way or fixing an accidental extrusion, etc. After making significant progress on the model itself, I decided to start applying some materials and lighting.  The lighting itself was
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Modeling Maynooth Castle Part 3 – The Keep

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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I started modeling the keep a few days ago and felt I was making good progress.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  However, I've learned a very important lesson:  when doing extrusions on an object, always zoom out to make sure you didn't accidentally destroy the geometry.  Sadly, this lesson cost me about 3 hours' worth of work.  Thankfully, I started making regular backups of my saves; otherwise this could have been much worse. The Process I started the keep with just a
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Modeling Maynooth Castle Part 2 – Crafting the Walls

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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In my first blog on modeling Maynooth Castle, I discussed the goal of my final project for AFF621 and a little bit of the background regarding the castle itself.  As I began the process of modeling the castle, I decided the first place to start would be to model the walls, which is what I intend to discuss today.  However, before I get started, I'd like to take a few moments to discuss the planning of the model itself. A
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Modeling Maynooth Castle Part 1

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
maynooth-castle
For my final project for AFF621 - Remaking the Physical, I was tasked with creating a 3D model of a cultural heritage object.  After considerable deliberation, I selected Maynooth Castle, which is a castle that once stood in the heart of Maynooth and was a major seat of power in Ireland from its construction in the latter part of the 12th century until its seige and destruction in 1534.  I selected it for two primary reasons: my love of
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Perils of Project Planning

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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For my contribution to the Woodman Diary, which is the project we are creating for Digital Scholarly Editing, I took on the role of Project Manager.  I thought I would take a few moments to discuss something that is often discussed but overlooked in any software project:  project planning. What is Project Planning? Project Planning, as defined by Rouse, is a discipline for stating how to complete a project within a certain timeframe, usually with defined stages, and with designated resources.
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Explorations in Photogrammetry – Part 5

Posted on by Shane A. McGarry
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In the 5th and final part of my series on photogrammetry, I will discuss the process of 3D printing. For those unfamiliar with the process, 3D printing involves taking a digital object stored in a specific file format and creating a three-dimensional, solid object. Typically, the object is printed using some kind of plastic, although more expensive printers can utilise metal alloys.[1] The process involves creating a StereoLithography file (or STL for short) that contains a 3D model. This
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