For Milestone 6,  imagine you are helping a smart but non-technical stranger understand and appreciate your work. Assume no prior knowledge.  I’d like you to focus on the following, though any of these items can be brief, most are critical for a deep understanding of you and your work:

1. What is the  “story of my project”?  This includes:
   • who am I in relation to this project and how/why is that important?  eg. If I’m an amateur brewer, with an interest in local ingredients and markets, that might explain my project about local brews
     1. I am a New Media student at the University of Maine with an interest in Arduino and animation.
   • what is my project?  what does it do, what format is it in (website, mobile app, ),
     1. I am creating an educational animation device with the intent of teaching young students about the mechanics of a keyframe. Its final format would be a 3D printed physical puppet with concealed wires and electrical components.
   • how did I create it? what were the main tools and processes I used to make this? what software/hardware did I use? perhaps mention major challenges and how you solved them IF it sheds light on your final product
     1. I cut out the arms, legs, hands, feet, and head of my wooden prototype and used potentiometers in all the joints of the limbs to measure rotational value to the Unity program. I soldered wires to the potentiometers and completed the electric circuit for the project. Using an Arduino mega, I transmitted the rotational values of the potentiometers via serial communication between the Arduino and Unity. Using an open-source unity project called WRMHL, I was able to get my Arduino to talk to Unity with relative ease.
   • why is this project important to me? to my ideal audience? to larger audiences? what social/cultural/economic need does it fulfill? how does it make the world just a little better and for whom? here’s where you might mention your initial research, with links to sources.
     1. K-12 Students have little to no exposure to the creative potential of the Adobe suite prior to College. A large portion of Adobe products utilizes keyframes in order to carry out actions based on the user’s decisions over a segment of time. If younger students had a tactile, interactive method of animating for school projects and for leisure, not only does that open new avenues of creativity, but it could inspire kids to learn more about the keyframe animation software, and get a head start in the world of animation at a young age. This kind of preparation is vital if a student should suddenly show interest in keyframe animation software. Certain college classes cover the basics of animation through the Adobe Suite, but if a student comes to this class with some form of prior knowledge, then the potential for growth in their skills increases dramatically.
   • when am I making this? what is the context and how does my work fit into this time period?
     1. My wooden prototype of this project is my final version for capstone, as I lack the resources to 3D print a final version. Currently, my wooden puppet is complete, and I plan to design a rough draft of what the 3D printed version would look like.
   • where is my project deployed? where is it best used? does it require a special location or structures or gear to work?
     1. My project is deployed in the classroom in order for students to practice keyframe animation. Gear required: computer and puppet
2. Visuals of project—5-6 photos/video/demo
3. User testing (Roommates)
   • what did I learn?
     1. Controller is fragile, wires can short causing data loss. Because this is a prototype of a 3D printed version, the feedback I was looking for was purely the interaction between the user and the digital humanoid through the controller. Increasing the Baud rate for serial communications makes the movements of the
4. What’s left to do? challenges?
   • A challenge I have run into with Unity is creating an animation program capable of storing and recalling the specific rotational values of my puppets limbs. I need to experiment further with Unity to be able to create an animation program from scratch, or I need to find someone who is versed in C# and Unity in order to collaborate with them.

Most of this information should also help you outline/storyboard your 5 minute final presentation video.

For sample New Media project videos see NMD Capstones