Case Study (Introduction)

 In this case study, I will talk about the dangers of online social media platforms and how to avoid them. Social media is created using computer graphics and causes health issues for many audiences and people of different ages. This topic is essential to my major project because around three billion people which is 40 percent of the world's population uses social media and are also exposed to graphics at the same time due to reasons such as the aesthetics of graphical user interface is more appealing  (Brown, 2018). 

References

Brown (2018) Is social media bad for you? The evidence and the unknowns. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns (Accessed: June 14, 2023)

Academic Paper Summary

Aesthetics++: Refining Graphics Designs by Exploring Principles and Human Preference

Above is an academic journal with the main title, "Aesthetics++: Refining Graphics Designs by Exploring Principles and Human Preference" written by the authors Kong et al. (2023). Computer Graphics and Visualization focuses on the designs and visuals that focuses on the audiences' preferences that will be displayed through the screens of devices. The process of creating graphics that the audience would find pleasing and visually entertaining is a challenging work. This "requires repetitive edits and relies on good design knowledge" which consumes too much time and energy (Kong et al., 2023). This journal will give suggestions on how to go through these challenges more easily by giving suggestions on how to improve the aesthetics of the graphic designs. This can be implemented by using an existing design as the input to create a new graphic design as the output. There are two challenges to achieve this goal: using the designs given by the users to create a better and more "refined" design and also to check whether the new designs are aesthetically better than the old ones. To overcome these challenges, they created two stages: principle-guided candidate generation stage and data-driven candidate evaluation stage. In the principle-guided candidate generation stage, they use design principles as the guidance to annotate or change the existing design. In the data-driven candidate evaluation stage, they used "ranking models" on "datasets" to list all the aesthetic preferences of the audience and chose the most pleasing ones chosen among the candidates. They use "prototype system" in presentation slides and evaluate the results through "quantitative analysis, sample results and user studies (Kong et al.,2023).

References

Kong, W. et al (2023) Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. Vol. 29, No. 6: Aesthetics++: Refining Graphic Designs by Exploring Design Principles and Human 

Preference. IEEE. 

Software Example

I will now execute a simple task in Blender. I will show you how to add basic objects and shapes and drawing in them with different colors. 

First of all, I start by selecting "Annotate" with the red circle so that I could draw on the screen. 

Then I click "Add" with the yellow circle and I click "Mesh" with the green circle.

Then I click on "UV Sphere" to add a spherical object to the workspace area. 

The result would come out like this. I clicked on the colored rectangle circles in red beside "Annotation:" and chose a color.  

Now I drew a heart inside the orange sphere. When I changed my perspective of the sphere, the heart will also move around. I used 2 fingers to drag across the touchpad. The image above is the first perspective.

This is the second perspective. 

Software Functionality

(Default startup Blender window)

After closing the splash screen, 

 the Blender window should look similar to the first image shown. 

(Default startup Blender window)

Blender's interface is divided into 3 main parts: Topbar (blue), Areas (Green) and Status Bar (Red)

Topbar

Blender Logo

Opens the Splash Screen and information about Blender such as the Version, Date, Hash, Branch, Windowing Environment, Release Notes, Credits, License, Blender Website, Blender Store and Development Fund. It also opens an option to install a new application template. 

File

• Clears and loads current application template
• Opens a blend-file
• Displays list of recently opened blend-files
• Revert current file to its last saved version
• Recovers last work session and automatically saved file
• Save and copy file
• Link and append data from an external blend-file to the current one
• Data Previews
• Import and Export
• External Data
• Cleanup 
• Defaults

Edit

• Undo, redo, history
• Menu Search
• Operator Search
• Rename Active Item
• Batch Rename
• Lock Object Modes
• Preferences

Render

• Render the active scene at the current frame.
• Render the animation of the active scene.
• Mix the scene’s audio to a sound file.
• Show the Render window.
• Playback rendered animation in a separate player.
• Lock Interface

Window

• Create a new window by copying the current window.
• Create a new window with its own workspace and scene selection.
• Toggle Window Fullscreen
• Next Workspace
• Previous Workspace
• Show Status Bar
• Save Screenshot
• Save Screenshot (Editor)

Help

Provides help to the user.

Topbar - Workspaces

Default Workspaces

• Layout - to preview your scene and contains the following Editors: 3D Viewport (yellow), Outliner (green), Properties (blue) and Timeline (red).

(Blender's 'Layout' Workspace)

• Modeling: For modification of geometry by modeling tools.
• Sculpting: For modification of meshes by sculpting tools.
• UV Editing: For mapping of image texture coordinates to 3D surfaces.
• Texture Paint: For coloring image textures in the 3D Viewport.
• Shading: For specifying material properties for rendering.
• Animation: For making properties of objects dependent on time.
• Rendering: For viewing and analyzing rendering results.
• Compositing: For combining and post-processing of images and rendering information.
• Geometry Nodes: For procedural modeling using Geometry Nodes.
• Scripting: For interacting with Blender’s Python API and writing scripts.

Status Bar

Keymap Information

The left side of the Status Bar displays mouse button shortcuts and the keymap of the active tool.

Status Messages

• Displays information about in-progress operations.
• Running Task - shows the progress of the currently running task
• Report Message - Informational messages or warnings, such as after saving a file

Resource Information

• Collection - Name of the active Collection.
• Active Object - Name of the active selected object.
• Geometry - Displays information about the current scene depending on the mode and object type. This can be the number of vertices, faces, triangles, or bones.
• Objects - Number of the selected objects and the total count.
• System Memory - Estimate of Blender’s RAM consumption.
• Blender Version - The version of Blender that is currently running.

Areas

(Area boundaries are indicated by rounded corners (yellow highlights))

• Resizing -  resize areas by dragging their border

• Splitting - Splitting an area will create a new area

• Joining - Dragging from an area corner outward will join two areas

Regions

(Header (green), Main region (yellow), Toolbar (blue), Sidebar (red) and Adjust Last Operation panel (pink))

• Main Region - the most prominent part of the editor.
• Header - a container for menus and commonly used tools.
• Toolbar - contains a set of interactive tools.
• Sidebar - contains Panels with settings of objects within the editor and the editor itself.
• Adjust Last Operation - a region that allows tweaking an operator after running it.

Tabs and Panels

Tabs

(Top: Horizontal Tab header in the Topbar. Bottom: Vertical Tab header shows tab icons in the Properties)

It is used to control overlapping sections in the user interface.

Panels

The panel header shows the title of the panel. It is always visible. Some panels also include subpanels.

Software Overview

Blender

(The Blender Foundation, no date)

Among all the software, the software that is most relevant to my major project theme is Blender. The general purpose of this software is to provide necessary tools, functions and access to the market for free for everyone to use to create 3D CG content. It contains all the factors needed to create 3D content which are "modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation" (The Freedom to Create, no date). Most advanced users use Blenders API for "Python scripting" to "customize the application and write specialized tools" (The Freedom to Create, no date). 

Blender can be run on computers such as Linux, Windows, and Macintosh and uses OpenGL interface to provide a better experience. It is a free software and can be used for any purposes such as entertainment and education with over 18 million downloads per year (External Mirrors, no date).

There are many software competing with Blender in this type of area such as Unity, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max Design, Modo, Adobe After Effects, Animaker, Maya, Adobe Premiere Pro, SketchUp and Camtasia (Top 10 Alternatives & Competitors to Blender, 2023).

The minimum requirements before using Blender is to use "64-bit quad core CPU with SSE2 support, 8 GB RAM, Full HD display, Mouse, trackpad or pen and tablet, Graphics card with 2 GB RAM, OpenGL 4.3" and the system must be less than 10 year old (Requirements, no date). However, it is recommended to use "64-bit eight core CPU, 32 GB RAM, 2560×1440 display, Three button mouse or pen and tablet and Graphics card with 8 GB RAM" (Requirements, no date).

References

The Freedom to Create (no date) Blender. Available at: https://www.blender.org/about/ (Accessed: June 14, 2023).

The Blender Foundation (no date) Blender[Logo]. Available at: https://www.blender.org/about/logo/ (Accessed: June 14, 2023).

External Mirrors (no date) Blender. Available at: https://www.blender.org/about/website/ (Accessed: June 14, 2023).

Top 10 Alternatives & Competitors to Blender (2023). Available at: https://www.g2.com/products/blender/competitors/alternatives (Accessed: June 14, 2023).

Requirements (no date) Blender. Available at: https://www.blender.org/download/requirements/#:~:text=Minimum%201%2064-bit%20quad%20core%20CPU%20with%20SSE2,OpenGL%204.3%206%20Less%20than%2010%20year%20old (Accessed: June 14, 2023).

Initial Project Plan (Gantt Chart Update)

 Below is the update gantt chart:

Primary Research (Demographic Questions Analysis)

 Demographic Questions Analysis

Among all 25 responses, based on the pie chart, the results show that 48% of them are female while 52% of them are male. All of them are clear of their own gender identity and none of them are uncomfortable about it.

The pie chart shows that 28% of the responders are between age 14 to 17, 52% of responders age between age 18 to 24, 8% of the responders age between age 25 to 30 and 12% of the responders age that are 30 and above. None of them are aged 13 and below. There is a much higher percentage of responders that are between age 18 to 24 which are most likely students while the rest are most likely from teachers, family and friends from outside of school.

As I mentioned before, it was highly likely that most of the responders are students either from DMU or other schools or universities. The pie chart above shows that 76% of them are students which is proof of my assumption. However, 12% of them are manual workers, 4% of them works in management and 8% of them has other professions which are not among the options of professions.

The above rating from all the responders shows their satisfaction of this questionnaire. Most of them rated 5 which was the highest rating, while the others rated 4,3,2 and none of them rated 1. In conclusion, most of the responders were very satisfied with this questionnaire. 

Primary Research (General Questions Analysis)

General Questions

Results show that most of the responders have engaged in activities related to graphics which is 64%. Most of them might be students, teenagers or children who loves playing games, scroll through social media and are all students. 20% of them says that they have not done any activities related to graphics before and 16 of them shows that some of them are unsure or that they can't remember any activities they have done related to graphics. I believe that some of them are still unsure about the definition of 'Graphics' when they answered this question.

The above results are definite proof that all of them have engaged in activities related to graphics and that my assumption is correct. Some of them are unsure of the definition of 'graphics' and answered 'no' but all of them have encountered graphic related activities before.

Most of their opinions says that young adults are most likely to indulge in graphic related activities in their daily lives as I believe, most of the young adults are students who goes to high school, college, university and work. 36% of them says that children are most likely to indulge in graphic related activities in their daily lives and 12% of them chose babies. For children and babies, I believe the reason might be because they are at an age where they are very playful and need fun activities to entertain them such as games and televisions. There are also educational television shows that most of them must have been exposed to by their parents. None of the responders chose middle-ages adults and old adults.

76% of the responders says that computer graphics plays a huge role in the entertainment industry while 8% of them disagree, 4% of them are not sure and 12% of them says it is balanced for them. 76% of them have most likely exposed been exposed to graphics many times and has been on social medias. The other responders are most likely adults or a few students with a different opinion.

Most of the opinions of the responders neither agrees, nor disagrees with the question and says that it depends on the situation. I believe this might be because although it will definitely affect your health, there are still chances that it will not if you control the amount of times you have been exposed to computer graphics. 28% of them are not sure might be because I believe, it didn't affect most of their health at all but still heard of some occasions where people would be affected. 20% of them are very sure that it will affect their health and 12 % of them disagrees.

Most of them chose game artist, web developer, animator and computer graphics designer. I believe it is because since the improvement of technology, graphics have also improved and so are the games, animations, the internet, social medias and apps. 

64% of them thinks that computer graphics are one of the important factors in the current developing technology in the present and future while 28% of them has a balanced opinion on this. 8% of them completely disagrees with the question. 

Most of the responders have opinions around 4, 5, 6 and 7 which, I believe, might be because some of them are unsure of what they think and some of them thinks that might fall but it will survive with the endless knowledge that humans gained. Few of the responders are very sure of their opinions and says that it will either definitely fall or it will definitely survive.