CUSTOMISATION MOCKUP

A plushie can be seen as a soft toy, but it can be seen as much more than that. They are also perfect for gifts for family, friends and loved ones. Sometimes these gifts can hold significant sentimentall value.
Although these toys are extremely aesthetically pleasing, they are usually produced in mass amounts, which means that just anyone can buy one from the shop, but they will also have the same toy as many other people out there. This is why I wanted to create a tool where users can generate combinations of facial expressions and fabric textures that cannot be recreated, therefore creating a one of a kind plushies, resulting in a more deeply personal and sentimental gift.

I had initially thought of basing my customisation on a common online customisation tool, the South Park Studio. I liked the simple interface and the large seperate interview. I also considered the idea of customising every single part of the plushie in a similar way to how it is done is this studio, but it wasn’t as generative as I wanted, and I found it was a very different graphical style. In the end, the only idea that I implemented was the seperate preview window, which I would have implemented regardless.

http://www.sp-studio.de/

I have chosen to use a largely graphical interface, with very few words. This makes sense as the appeal of the product being produced is purely visual. I have chosen to predominantly use sliding bars and visual examples in the early parts of the interface, adding to the simplicty of the cuatomisation tool. This gives a user a good look and feel of the character in its initial stages. However, in the later stages, the character becomes more personalised and more options become available. This is when more words are brought in to explain what options are available to the user.

Because the aim of this tool is to create a toy, I have decided to keep the layout fairly simple, with large buttons and a straightforward timeline for users to follow. There are 5 steps the user needs to follow in order to complete their customised plushie design, and they can skip forwards and backwards through the steps although it works most logically when used in chronological order.

Step 1: Colour

Users are presented with a silhouette of a plushie with no details on it. A they select colourd along the 3 slider bars, the character comes to life as the corresponding body parts change to the colour that the pointer is located on the slider. I decided to put this step first as it gives the user a feel of the toy before giving it any form of personality.

Step 2: Arms and Legs

This page is all about angles and dimensions. Users are able to change the length, width and angles of the arms and legs, to a specified range. This is useful when users want to achieve a stance or a certain body shape in their characters.

The width and length of the arms and legs are altered using a slider, similar to the ones on the previous page, except they aren’t linked to a colour. The angle of the arms and legs are altered simply by clicking and dragging a part to the desired angle. They will always have the same pivot point.

Step 3: Head and Ears

This step is similar to the previous step in terms of layout and making alterations. The only difference is this time its regarding the size of the head and ears.

Step 4: The Face

This is when the fun really starts. Now that the shape and colour of the figure has been established, we can start to generate patterns to be sewn and printed on to the plushie. This starts off with the face.

Users click on ‘generate more faces’ and that asks context free to create 4 face shapes. Each face is made by combining grammars for the eyes, nose and mouth. Each facial feature is given basic shapes to follow, showing different emotions. Within the different shapes, they are assigned a range of values that they must meet, so that they can always be different.

Then users can drag the faces that they like into another section where they are previewed on the plushie. They can drag numerous faces into the holding box at the same time. They can either use the faces that have been generated, or they can choose to mash all the facial expressions together similarly to the parametric evolver that we have explored in class. Users can keep generating, dragging and mashing faces together until they have found a combination that they like.

Step 5: Patterns and Textures

I realised that simply customising the face just wasn’t enough for an artwork to be unique. I was looking through the Context Free website and was reminded of the power of the program. I then decided that the users should be able to overlay the fabric with patterns that have been generated. I found 3 different grammars that I thought were interesting and wondered how they would work with the design of a plushie. The idea of this page is that when the users click on ‘generate patterns’ 1 possible image is created for each grammar. Their ability to evolve would be maximized as the grammars are compatible with Processing, and work in the way that the parametric grammar randomiser that we explored in class does.

Users have many options when they reach this page. They can opt out of creating a pattern for their plushie, or they could generate patterns they like and just overlay them on the plushie. They could just choose 1 pattern or a combination of more that 1 pattern. If they wish, they can also select more than one patern and then mash them together so the patterns chosen seamlessly blend into eachother.

Once they have  chosen the pattern, users are given the opportunity to choose the fabric that the plushie is made of. Possible choices are felt, cotton or polyester. I have implemented a drop down menu of a very few options as there would be very few fabrics suitable and it would not be feasable to give the user full control here.

At an stage, users can go back or skip forward in the process if they suddenly feel inspiration in a particular field.

Once they have chosen their fabric, users finalise it by clicking on the button that takes them to the checkout where they choose the size of the plushies that they want.

While creating this customisation, I hit many obstacles. I wasn’t sure how I was going to implement a generative element to this customisation, as I had gotten the idea from a gift that I had recieved. The toy was so simple that I wasn’t sure how many ways it could be customised. I also didn’t know how many parts of the toy I wanted to be be altered. I first thought that I should just have a customiser for colour and the faces, but I realised that I could make this much more broad and come up with some extremely surreal effects. I really enjoyed how we explored the parametric randomiser and evolver and thought that the patterns created in Context Free were quite phenomenal, so I decided that not only could the faces be randomised, but the patterns on the fabric. I was hesitant at first because it is so different to my initial idea, but once I made a mockup I realised that the patterns were actually quite aesthetically pleasing and decided to work towards a customisation tool that achieves just that.

For the past few weeks I’ve been digging through archives worth of magazines, childrens books and encyclopedias to complete my Mixed Media major work.
What I did was collect cartoons and other non-photographic images from anywhere I could, and arranged them in onto old book covers.
At first I had a very childish theme, but then I decided to make it a little more risqué with adult themed content in almost all the pieces.
What I ended up with was 9 individual artworks on old book covers, all with little visual themes on each.

I don’t know what’s gotten ito me, but I actually somewhat understand MaxMSP and quite enjoy it!

Here’s my patch so far, you can control the volume, tempo and the sequence of notes played.

Sample Sound

Max Patch

Just a quick mock up to see what this application would look like.

I’m going to go about re-creating this in the form of a web page soon, and design all the subpages in the time line.

This week in Generative Design Systems we were exploring how emergence can be implemented into our mass customisations.

Although I don’t think that I will use these ideas, I had a little look at the use of flocking boids, which was created by Craig Reynolds in 1986.

I had looked into boids last semester as part of Advanced Interactive Multimedia Design, and I thought that it was quite spectacular how objects were able to move around in groups with no leader, and be able to direct themselves and find their way around obstacles.

I found it intereesting how boids were able to apply the concepts of separation, alignment and cohesion, with the ability to avoid crowding local flockmates while steering in the same direction of the flock, toward the same average location.

Separation: steer to avoid crowding local flockmates

Alignment: steer towards the average heading of local flockmates

Cohesion: steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates

This week was fairly challenging in terms of my art subjects.
For Mixed Media, we just had time to think about our major works.
I was short of inspiration for the most part of the class, but I’ve settled on my artwork. I’m creating a whole bunch (50+) of little pop art inspired artworks on the covers of old books.
Artist that have inspired me on this include Ben Frost, Winston Smith and Barry McGee.
I was also playing with paint and flicked quite a large amount onto sheets of acetate for future use.

For Life Drawing, we had our most difficult subject yet - the hand!
I personally found it really difficult to draw the hand especially at a large distance from the model.
Here is my favourite from the night.

Over the past 3 or so years, I’ve really become a fan of Sydney based artist Ben Frost.

I like his style of pop art, he somehow makes horror happy!

For my Mixed Media major work, I’m thinking about using textiles, and I find his clothing range an inspiration.

Spatial Auditory cues for the visually impaired

I’ve created sound alerts for people who are visually impaired and simulated these sounds in use at a beach.

Sounds:

proceed

proceedwithcaution

changeofsurface

stop

water

finalsimulation

documentation

Small plushies are so adorable, and they can become so personal when they are given as a gift. I’ve been in the situation where I have wanted to buy one for a significant other but was haunted by knowing that out there, other people will have the exact same charm as me. That doesn’t sound all too personal anymore. This is why I like the idea of creating customisable plushies. To have a generative system in place, the user also gets the feeling that they contributed to the exact look of the plushie, not just choosing parts that were created by somebody else.

So it seems as though the idea I have come up with isn’t as advanced as ones other people have created. I’ve had my eyes set on customisable toys for a while and I’m sticking to it. There is only so much you can customise in a toy, and to create them on a mass scale it would only seem logical to create them based on a template, with tiny features customised by the individual user. I have devised an online interface where users are able to generate facial features one at a time, with these features being placed onto a template so they know what they all look like together. That way the user has the chance to generate and design their own toys to the size that they desire.

The way that the system works is a user is required to create an account on the website that the customisation tool is on, so that all of their ideas and generated images are saved. This is good for future reference by the user, but it is also handy at the manufacturing stage, when the template is loaded and can be understood by a computer.

As of now, the features that I have decided to be customizable are:
- Face shape
- Face Colour
- Body Colour
- Ears
- Eyes
- Nose
- Mouth

This however isn’t saying that I’m limiting the design process to only these features. I may possible add other features to this interface, such as:
- Arms
- Legs
- Body shape
- Head Shape

The generator that the user sees is a screen with 2 panels on it. On the left panel is an example plushie that has clickable features. When the user clicks on this, it generates a preview of a generated facial feature on the right screen. The idea is that the user keeps clicking on parts of the image to the left until they come up with a combination that they like, which they then render, to create a 360° view of the plushie.

On the next page, the user will be able to choose the size and possibly the type of fabric that they would like their plushie to come in.

I have decided to implement a rule based system, confining the options of shapes that the user has. This is necessary to make sure that all the facial features generated still resemble what they had intended to be, and the finished product looks recognisable as a face.

I’m really interested in using a program similar to the grammar randomiser that we explored in class a few weeks ago, generating advanced shapes by allowing a range in the paramaters. However, as facial features on toys aren’t as advanced, I would be looking at generating single lines and basic shapes individually, which can in turn be pasted onto a template.

As the name context free suggests, the shapes that are generated in the program are not in any context. This means that generated shapes may be disproportional to how they are intended to be used. Because of this, I have decided that the shapes generated are then resized to fit within a template, which is then previewed on the panel to the right. That way, the scale of the face and the body are all in proportion.

As of now, users are limited to the same basic shape of the body, but I may possible change that in the future. The reason that I have limited this is because I wanted all the plushies created to be similar, yet personalised in the face, which is where all the emotional signs of a character are shown.
Users will be able to choose different sizes plushies, whether it be for a keychain or a larger hugable character, but they will not be able to change the length of the arms and leg separately, as there is a large chance that it will lose its sense of proportion and the character created will not be as strong. Another limitation is the colour that can be used as the colour of the plushies is restricted to the colour of fabrics available, and how many the manufacturer has the capacity to stock.