Day 33 (8/19)

Today, I spent the morning in the 3D Labs with Ethan and Sando working on finishing our Star project. I calculated how far in, Maya units, the Earth and Mars will be from the center of the Star/Sun. Ethan began working on a black hole simulation and Sando continued to create a Set Driven Key for the transition of the star. In the afternoon all of the Interns got together and had pizza for lunch then ran through our presentations. I am so nervous for tomorrow.

Day 32 (8/18)

Today, Sando took Ethan and I back over to the 3D Labs to work more on our Star project. While we were there I decided that Ethan and my presentations were too similar and had to completely re-make my presentation. With help from Sando I created a new presentation that will take Ethan's explanation of Maya and apply it to the projects that I did this summer.

Day 31 (8/17)

Today we had to disassemble the SCUBE because they are going to be cleaning the class room we have been working in. We took all of the pieces and put them in boxes and a suitcase and brought them up to the Insight Lab to be stored. Then in the afternoon I continued to work on my presentation for Friday.

Day 30 (8/16)

Today I created a Mars surface based off of an Earth texture Sando had previously created and taught me how to make. These planets will be incorporated into the Life cycle of the Sun project! I also spent a while working on my final presentation.

Day 29 (8/13)

Today was the Undergraduate Symposium. I spent the whole morning watching the Insight Lad's undergraduates give their presentations. Then I went back to the lab to try and work, but I couldn't do anything because I didn't know what Sando wanted me to do, and I couldn't find him anywhere! Finally, I just went back to the Symposium and watched a few more presentations, including a few Interns!

Day 28 (8/12)

Today I worked with Ethan to try and make the color transitions between phases work. We keep running into a problem where the star looks purple instead of blue and yellow. We are working on finding a solution to this problem.

Day 27 (8/11)

Today my morning consisted of fidgeting with the animation portion of the Life cycle project. I can not wait for this project to be finished. In the afternoon all of the interns went to the George Eastman House to see the 'behind the scenes' of looking at pictures. It was really interesting to see the work they are doing to preserve and study pictures that are extremely old.

Day 26 (8/10)

Today, I worked on making the "Red Giant" phase of the life cycle project look better. We had to scale the model up a lot and the size difference messed up the textures that were applied to it. We had to manipulate the size and color of all of the textures to make it look more like a sun. I also worked some more on my final presentation for the Internship!

Day 25 (8/9)

Today I did a lot of work on my PowerPoint for my final presentation. I am trying to figure out how to make it last ten minutes! There is only so much that I can talk about, but hopefully by the end of the week we will be done with the Sun project and I can add that to my presentation.

Day 24 (8/6)

Today I worked quite a bit more on the shaders for the Sun project. Sando found a way to create a more realistic looking surface and we had to apply that to all of the shaders. Also, I started working on my final presentation. I am getting really nervous for next friday!

Day 23 (8/5)

Today I spent most of the day working on creating the Red Giant phase of the Star project. I worked almost all day on making it look realistic. This is really hard because every time I think it looks good, I find a way to make it look better!

Day 22 (8/4)

Today Ethan and I continued to work on our Sun project. We worked on getting the textures of our Sun to move like the gas of the real Sun. We made some progress, but I had to leave at noon so I didn't get to see if it worked or not.

Day 21 (8/3)

Today we went back to work on the Life Cycle of a Sun project. We worked on the different textures for each phase and worked on making the transitions more realistic. We still need to work on the shading because it doesn't look as good as we would like it too. Also we need to fix the sizes, right now they are all the same size sphere, but we want the size to be to scale. Making the different phases the right size and keeping the texture realistic is going to be a tricky task.

Day 20 (8/2)

Today, we spent time away from the Star project. I did some research into all of the moons for the planets in our solar system. I found the radii of and orbital radii to be used later in the project. Then I spent some time helping Ethan with his Mars Rover model.

Day 19 (7/30)

Today, we worked more on our Life Cycle of a Sun project. It is difficult because we keep thinking of different ways to make it better, but that also take us back two steps. We are going to not make it exactly the time scale of a real stars life, but instead we are going to just show each step and leave time for a verbal or written explanation.