Week Nine
Design Field Trip: the Creative Process with David Levine at NASA JPL
This week started with an informative lecture and discussion with David Levine, who works for NASA JPL. It ended with an introduction to Adobe Aero and the beginning of Project #3: Collaboration with the CMA and A.R Experience. To kick off the week, creative and visual strategist David Levine joined our interaction design class on Zoom to discuss his creative process and how he combines visual storytelling with scientific data and information. In his role, David collaborates with scientists and engineers to communicate the stories and missions behind NASA's projects in innovative and visually engaging ways. Examples of David's work include mission artwork, immersive art installations, and integrated campaigns that bring the wonders of space exploration to life for the public. His artwork has been showcased in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Tribeca Film Festival, and CES.
Before joining NASA, David worked as a creative director in advertising. He focused on experiential marketing campaigns for major brands such as American Express, Google, and Nike. His interest in a creative career began during high school/college, where he contributed to marketing and visuals for artists such as The Verve and The Chemical Brothers in the music industry. During his time at JPL, David has created numerous impressive and inspiring projects. These include his Psyche poster series, his Earthshine installation, Atmospheric River artwork, and his Nintendo installation in Times Square. Overall, I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to talk with David, and I cannot wait to see what else he comes up with in the future.
Adobe Aero Learning Module: Importing Assets into Aero
Adobe Aero Learning Module: Importing Assets into Aero
This week, we met with two clients at the Columbia Museum of Art to discuss creating an augmented reality experience for the museum's collection and various exhibits inside and outside the museum for their crafts event in November. To accomplish this, I'll need to learn how to use Adobe Aero, which I've never used before. For our required reading this week, I chose to watch a video and read an article about importing assets into Adobe Aero, as this will be an essential part of the scavenger hunt for the museum.
Aero is a tool designed to assemble assets and add interactivity for augmented reality (AR) scenes. It is not where you create assets, but a platform to bring together 2D, 3D, and animated elements. There are three main ways to import assets: first, select a file and then hit the import button; second, select the import button icon to import an asset; third, drag and drop from the desktop window. These methods are similar to other Adobe applications, making it easier to navigate compared to other applications such as Figma. Adobe Aero supports various file types for importing, including PNGs, JPGs, Photoshop files, SVGs, TIFs, animated GIFs, and animated PNG sequences. PNGs are common for images with transparent backgrounds, while JPG is the standard format for compressed images. Photoshop files retain layer information, useful for animations and complex scenes, and SVGs are ideal for logos or simple illustrations. TIF is a high-quality image format, and animated GIFs are great for quick animations. Animated PNG sequences must be imported as a zipped file. In terms of 3D file types, Adobe Aero supports GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJs, 3DS, and Collada (DAE). GLB is the preferred 3D file type due to its compact size, fast loading time, and support for textures/materials. GLTF is similar to GLB but involves multiple files (model, textures, animations) within one folder. FBX must be imported as a zipped file along with the textures and materials. OBJs require zipped file import with MDL or MTL material files, and 3DS is a common 3D format for simple models. In our case, we are more likely to use the first set of file types, as our goal is to highlight certain elements of the art piece in the museum and make it stand out, rather than create moving sequences. However, we may change this decision as we progress further in the design process.
When building the AR scene, I chose this article because Aero allows users to create immersive, interactive scenes for mobile-based AR experiences once the assets are imported. For mobile compatibility, it's important to use small, optimized file sizes and textures for faster loading on mobile devices. To ensure a smooth experience on mobile devices, it's important to keep textures and images at 1080x1080 pixels or smaller, which is essentially the same size as an Instagram post. Following these guidelines on supported formats and file size optimization will ensure a smooth user experience for members of the museum's event, especially for mobile-based AR applications.