Because of the hurricane class cancellation, we have moved the presentation from last week to this week. Unfortunately, this will mean we will only have one class on Fantastic Beasts and the preparation time for the first project will be shortened. This week we will have our first guest presenter, Howard Hochhalter, Manager of the Bishop Planetarium in Bradenton. Howard will attempt to present a crash course in basics of planet formation and astrophysics. This week and next week we will be preparing an assignment in vizualizing an exoplanet (a planet outside of our solar system).
I redone the reading for the second week and have added several new ones under week two. Your assignment before coming to class on Sept. 10 is to read one of the books on planet building I have under Week Two resources. Read this book as a resource before coming to class.
During the next class we will explain in more detail the Planet Visualization Project. Here are some of the details in advance, but the assignment for next week is to read the background book.
This Planet Vizualization project will extend over the next three weeks. This coming week we will prepare specifications for the planet we intend to build. Next week we will look at the basics of how to build an ecosystem on the planet you have designed. These designs will be output in two images: one to form a skin to wrap on the wire frame model of an existing exoplanet; the second, a panorama representing the 360 degree view from the site of our "landing." All outputs will be as png images.
When you have finished the two images you are to write a description of your planet, its name and something about life on the planet. Post this description on your blog. Record the description into a .wav file of one minute or less.
Here are some of the basic instructions:
Planet textures wrap around a 3D wireframe sphere. The sphere/planet can be placed in orbit around one of the stars with known exoplanets that we have mapped into our system. We’ll just replace the texture of an exoplanet. This will allow students some control over the characteristics of their planet/solar system (type of star, planet’s distance from star, etc.)
The panorama (the “long skinny” format) will be displayed when we “land” on the planet. If the graphic is transparent above the land features (in other words, if the sky is left transparent) then stars, the planet’s sun, and other features will be visible exactly as they would appear from the surface of the planet. For example, if this is a planet around a star other than our sun, our sun would be visible in that planet’s nighttime sky as a star. Use a transparent canvas when you set up your image.
The first image should be at a resolution (image size) of 8192 x 4096. This image we are calling the planetary texture. Then, you should make a "long skinny" panorama, in an 8:1 (width to height) ratio. The center of the panorama will be at the front of the dome and what we are directly looking at, the rest of the image will wrap to either side. I recommend the "long and skinny" 8:1 image as probably producing the best result. A possible pixel set up might be 4096 pixels in height and 32,768 pixels in width. This file size might be out of hand is you go with a color depth over 8bit, but you may a deeper color depth might be ok. All images png file although that is recommended for all the files. The examples are jpgs. If you make a png, leave the sky of the panorama transparent so that the night sky or daytime of the location of the planet can be visible over the panorama.
After you have completed your images, put them in google docs box and email an invitation to Howard at the planetarium so they can pull the files from the box and mount them in the system. Don't try to email them. FYI the planetarium projects in 4k resolution, so file sizes will be big for best results.
Writing Assignment: If you haven't done so yet, post the map of your part of Oz on your blog. Add a brief travelogue description of your area of Oz including some of the important sites and some of the characters that live there. One character should be imported from one of the canonical books by L. Frank Baum but the other characters should be of your own invention. Where do your characters live and what do the live in. Mention any other significant structures or natural points of interest.
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