Intro
The assignment for me started with a few hurdles: I figured that my MacBook charger was overwhelmed with the Unreal Editor in the first place.
However the good thing I didn't know about yet: The first assignment will be with A-Frame, a JavaScript-based framework that runs in the browser. I like lightweight applications that are able to run natively in the browser without prerequisites.
Assignment 1: A Frame (JavaScript)
The framework of A-frame seemed quite intuitive from the beginning - playing around with numbers, seeing the changes instantly.
As editor I chose to use Visual Studio code. With the web server plugin it is possible to see changes live - both in the browser and on the phone (when navigating to the local IP address).
However as it served using HTTP and not HTTPS, A Frame is not fully functional in this mode on mobile (sensors won't work) and thus it is required to either install a HTTPS certificate or use GitHub Pages for testing.
I like being able to see the direct effect on changes without e.g. waiting for the machine to render / compile - although exactly that happens in the background.
But the more elaborate the animations became, the more my computer started to become noisy as
"When I change "dur" (spinning interval) to lower, my laptop's fan starts going crazy. Are they mining Bitcoins in the background?"
How satisfying when the wood blocks meet each other pixel perfect. Physically impossible but Aframe does not care at all. Yet another proof, math actually works.
Focus on A-Frame
As you can see in my A-Frame repository, I put my emphasis on A-Frame in this assignment and continued my exercises there, as I preferred using a framework that does not require extensive hardware specifications but yet provides cross-device framework.
Assignment 2: Unreal Editor
Sometimes, the Unreal tutorial was out of sync, which was then slightly hard to follow, as you expect certain functionality to be in place
To follow or not to follow the tutorial
During the ongoing quarantine I am under constant starvation, my parents are used to a different, less structured eating schedule, which is not for me as I try to structure my day. But well, my routines are destroyed anyways - I want to return to The Hague, care for myself, surrounded by an appropriate working environment. 3D modelling requires focus which I can't bring up right now.
But anyway - I was there sitting on the couch at 8:30 pm with my glowing hot MacBook, fully starving, with the assignment to model a 3D banana.
I do like bananas in general but as we all know, we should not eat them on an empty stomach. To avoid this sugar bomb for now, I imported a different texture - more appealing for the temporal context
The result
But this is not everyting
At a certain point, dinner actually happened. Right after the dinner I was ready for the actual banana.
The process actually was quite straight-forward
