ENG 308: Introduction to Radio Storytelling

imm2Leave a comment

ENG 308 leads students through an introduction to the ever-expanding medium of podcasting, specifically radio storytelling. In the process of exploring the various techniques and trends in a wide variety of audio media, students are expected to develop both an understanding of and proficiency with the basics of audio media creation. In support of this goal, the DMC provided in-class tutorials to learn audio editing techniques with Garageband and Audacity, as well as proper use of the Zoom H4N audio recorders that they rented from the DMC for their projects. Additionally, some students used the DMC’s audio studio for their projects to record high-quality narration. With the aid of these tutorials and the borrowed resources, students created podcasts, developing a storytelling style and identity of their own in the process.

The class website with the final projects can be viewed here.

Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Virtual Campus Tour

imm2Leave a comment

With much of the world still shut down due to COVID-19, traveling to tour college campuses has become infeasible for many prospective students. Seeking instead for a way to bring Rice to the student, the office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies reached out to the Digital Media Commons to create a virtual tour of campus that offered more immersion than a standard video. The resulting project produced a 360 degree video made up of panoramas of places of interest around campus, which when paired with Google Cardboard headsets allow a prospective student to pan around the scene and take in the sights.

.

Ian produced the video by shooting a series of photos of each location, taking multiple passes rotating around a stationary point to create a sphere. Then, those individual photos were organized, aligned, and stitched using Agisoft Metashape, resulting in a 360 degree panoramic output. Finally, the completed panoramas were compiled into a single 360 video using Adobe Premiere Pro, adding in the narration and background music.

Material Science graphics

men3

Assistant research scientist Jinho Hyon collaborated with the Digital Media Commons for the creation of this graphic. Depicted is a meandering network of multiwall carbon nanotubes impacted by a projectile. Visit “Extreme Energy Dissipation via Material Evolution in Carbon Nanotube Mats” for full article.

Can be found in “Extreme Energy Dissipation via Material Evolution in Carbon Nanotube Mats” in Figure 4, part C. Illustration by Mario Norton.

The above graphic was created using the 3D software program Blender. This particular graphic was challenging because many different features such as bundles and interconnected tubes needed to be portrayed in one image. By creating a 3D model, Mario was able to receive direction in order to position the key features accurately. 3D also allows more flexibility in terms of a more iterative workflow and different camera angles. Below is an animated rendering of an earlier iteration of the model. Please note that the color key is different.

Ethnography Studio/Anthropology project in VR

men3Leave a comment

This Interdisciplinary project with students from Anthropology, Religious Studies, Visual and Dramatic Arts, Mechanical Engineering, History, and Bioengineering is a VR experience assembled in Unreal Engine. 3D models were created using photogrammetry from photos taken on 3 location: Rice tunnels, Natural Bridge Caverns, and the Houston Cistern. This exercise was part of the Ethnography Studio/Anthropology project taught by Andrea Ballestero with Johannes Birringer and Marie Saldaña.

The DMC assisted with loaning out cameras, audio recorders and projectors through its checkout program. After the media was captured on location, the DMC assisted students in processing the photos using photogrammetry software and editing the audio and video. Students collaborated to make a multimedia installation with their final edited multimedia and a VR experience.

Virtual Reality assistance for ARCH 650

men3Leave a comment

In Spring 2019, the DMC helped students in ARCH 650 visualize their architecture models in a virtual reality environment. Students exported their models from Rhino to Unreal Engine where they added textures and lighting. The exercise was part of the Design Studio “Existenzminimum” taught by Juan José Castellón. Student models included: 0:00 Ling Sha, 1:43 Kejia Lu, 3:28 April Zhang 5:04 Denise Yee.

Visualizing 2018 Library Survey of All Students Data with Tableau

janezhaoLeave a comment
  • The 2018 Library Survey of All Students Data includes three surveys: undergraduates (SAS), exiting seniors (SES), and graduate students (GRSAS). Users are able to filter responses by the three groups.
  • Since all of the multiple-choice questions had a five-point scale, we assigned values of 1 (most negative response) to 5 (most positive response) to each student response to assign average values to each option. This helps us show what in Fondren is most and least important to students.
  • The open text responses were coded into general categories (i.e. positive, neutral, and feedback), which can also be filtered and browsed.

If the embedded Viz doesn’t work well, click on the following link to view it.

https://public.tableau.com/profile/jane.zhao#!/vizhome/FondrenLibrary2018SurveyofAllStudentsReport/Fondren2018SASReport

 

ELEC 305 Spring 2017 Videos in Rice Digital Scholarship Archive

jar15Leave a comment

The DMC staff had the pleasure of assisting the Spring 2017 “Intro to Physical Electronics” (ELEC 305) class in creating instructional videos! In the “whiteboard animation” videos the students created, you will see various clever utilizations of software and hardware available in the DMC. Examples include our AverVision document camera, Nikon DSLR, and using Microsoft OneNote in conjunction with screen capturing software. All the videos have been made available in Rice Digital Scholarship Archive.

The “Thermoelectrics” video was made with AverVision document camera and can be viewed here.

“The Ugly OLEDuckling” video was with OneNote and OBS screen capturing software. It can be viewed here.

Click here to see the rest of the videos deposited in the Archive!

Please refer to the previous blog post to get more information on how to create whiteboard animations like these!