Lab 8- Final Project Update: WillisReconstructed

Progress:

So far, we have started to construct the timeline, website, and have taken all the 360 panoramas. Professor Mason informed us that the main renovations to Willis will be focused on the interior, so we decided to slightly adjust our project based on that. Details about the exact tools and processes are included in the tools and materials section (as well as in the personal messages section). We have gathered all of our sources, got licenses for the software we need(such as ThingLink, which is on Jackson Reade’s computer), and put together a final plan for our projects. We haven’t directly gotten together to build the final product yet, but we have all the building blocks in a saved folder in the drive and the whole plan with everyone’s part mapped out.

Problems:

The initial project of modeling we had in mind did not quite capture the aspects of Willis that were the most important since the renovations are mostly focused on the interior, and we were originally more focused on the exterior. So, we made some slight changes to a few different aspects to paint a new picture that is more focused on the inside, while still making sure to include history about the building in general. We took some inspiration from a few different projects to help lean into this idea. For example, the previous Weitz model project (https://hhfinals.dgah.sites.carleton.edu/networking-arts/index.html) that we looked at utilized an interactive floorplan feature to showcase the different events and functions within the space, and we wanted people in the future to have a more interactive experience having a virtual tour of this space. This is why we also decided to combine aspects of another project we were shown that helps showcase the interior. This project offered a virtual indoor tour of a historical Faribault house(https://medhieval.com/classes/deepmapping/inside-the-faribault-house/)that gives viewers an interactive experience within the building. We have decided to follow a similar route, hoping to offer a visual tour that includes information about the different sections of Willis Hall.

Tools and Materials:

For the interior spaces (which are the focus due to the upcoming renovations), we used the panorama feature in PolyCam(https://poly.cam/) to create indoor 360 degree models. This will allow viewers to virtually look through the interior layout in an immersive way, seeing information about different rooms and being able to click to check out different areas of the building. We are using ThingLink(https://www.thinglink.com/) to add these “hotspots” to these panoramas, which will display extra historical information and descriptions within the 360 degree model. We are also connecting the Willis Hall’s floor plans to ThingLink as well, putting the hotspots onto the plans so that users can click specific rooms from there as well. The final ThingLink product will be embedded directly into our WordPress site. 

For the exterior of Willis Hall, we used a Scaniverse (https://www.nianticspatial.com/products/capture) Splat model. This outdoor model gives an accurate and detailed representation of the exterior. Like the PolyCam panoramas, this model will be embedded into the website for interactive viewing.

For the historical timeline, we are using Flourish(https://flourish.studio/) to design and publish an interactive timeline. Historical information from our sources has been manually structured into date-based entries and uploaded into Flourish’s timeline template format. The completed timeline will then be embedded into our WordPress site.

All of the different materials (information docs, panoramas, splat models, images, and PDFs) are stored in a shared Google Drive folder for shared access.

Deliverables:

Updated Timeline

Week 1 of Project (Week 8):

• Looked through Carleton sites/archives to retrieve historical photos and information
• Organized all materials in shared folders
• Decided on modeling tools (PolyCam, Scaniverse, ThingLink, Flourish)
• Took note of dates to make a timeline
  • Did so in Flourish
• Set WordPress website theme and structure
• Took most of the PolyCam indoor panoramas
  • Some rooms not completed yet
• Created the Scaniverse splat model of the exterior

Week 2

• Finish remaining PolyCam panoramas (excluding professor offices)
• Upload panoramas into ThingLink and add interactive hotspots
• Connect floor plans to ThingLink with room-based annotations
• Finalize and embed the Flourish timeline
• Continue refining website 

Week 3

• Embed final 360 panoramas and exterior splat into website
• Ensure all interactive components are working properly
• Add annotations a descriptive website write-up
• Final edits before posting final version

Project Status:

Yes, the project is still on track. We adjusted our process to focus more specifically on interior panoramas and an indoor interactive model(which we hadn’t really considered initially). We did this because we learned about the renovations to Willis being more directed towards the interior. This shift did not hurt our project; it actually clarified our priorities and made our project more structured. It did not really delay progress. The remaining work primarily involves putting all of our materials together in a structured format that makes for a good interactive site.

Personal Messages: 

Zander Kim: I have done a lot of initial work with the website (laying out the theme and beginning to work on a few elements) and also captured a lot of the panoramas. This is my role on the team charter, and I have done most of what I can before the other elements are finished. The other parts we expected to be more work than for just one person, so that’s why I helped out with those. 

Ronan Thomas: Alongside my main responsibility on the original team charter of maintaining the pace and deliverables of our project(making sure everything is posted to WordPress on time), I have also assisted in 3D modeling. I took a Scaniverse Splat model scan of the Willis Hall exterior. I will be working on making sure this gets successfully embedded into our website. I also obtained the pdf floor plans(from https://www.carleton.edu/map/) for each of the Willis Hall floors. I will be assisting Jackson in setting up the Thinglink by helping with the linking of the floor plans to the panorama pictures.

Jackson Reade: On Thursday, I assisted Zander, Ronan, and Eli with scanning Willis. I couldn’t scan anything myself because it wasn’t working on my phone. Over the weekend, I have been watching tutorials of Thinglink, and will start the process of making an interactive map of each of the scanned sections of the interior of Willis. Since our plan shifted to focusing on the interior of Willis, my responsibilities changed a bit, but I still have the same main focus of working on bringing the interactive model together, which we have decided will be on Thinglink.

Eli Allen: As planned in our charter, I took on the role of getting multiple scans of rooms within Willis with the Polycam app using the 360 function. I had to retake my scans multiple times, as there was a learning curve to keeping the phone steady as I rotated around the room in the same position. Zander helped as well because this was one of the most time consuming parts. I think the finished and final scans I took alongside Zander (and Ronan’s exterior model) turned out great and should make for a very interactive final project once we put them together in our final model. 

Kaden Becker: While the other members worked on the 3D models on Thursday, as planned in our team charter, I spent class creating the timeline. I transferred information from Carleton’s website(https://www.carleton.edu/economics/overview/willis-history/) to the interactive timeline feature in Flourish, paraphrasing the information about the history of Willis Hall. I also looked into the Carleton Archives to get photos of Willis to include in the timeline feature. This should make for an informative, interactive addition to the website.