Tips for a Successful Semester End

In your work I will be looking for what you have imagineered (imagined+engineered) individually. Some features that I will be looking for include:

interactivity
scripting
particle systems
animation (motion, avatars, camera)
machinima (videos)
conceptual depth
quality of documentation
visual appeal
complexity of models
overall class/project effort
quality of textures

It is not necessary to earn high marks in (or even include) every category. Since each project is very individual, I will be looking for your personal style, your SL tech smarts, problem solving skills, vision as well as completion of what you set out to do.

If you sent a large part of your time modeling in Maya, or scripting, please state so in your documentation or during your presentation.

As stated in the syllabus, you will be “graded” on your

4 writing samples
4 images
4 videos
in addition, much can be revealed in your inclass demo/presentation on December 13.
Your "final project" can and should supercede some or all of the previous assignments. I will base my opinion on the aggregate effort you have made in class, but focussing on your final presentation plus your documentation.

All final documentation will be due on the blog (or linked from the blog) by Dec 20, 2010, 4pm. For due consideration of grading, please leave your things on Second Life and ont he blog until January 1, 2011. We will have use of the land through February for those of you who want to show and tell or if you need more time to archive your projects.

The presentation is also part of your grade for participation; this is required. You should show most, if not all of your completed work. In preparing for your presentation, please practice it. Make sure your videos, images, objects and build are accessible and ready. While you are not required to do a powerpoint-like presentation, per se, it can be a helpful tool for you to organize your thoughts. At the very least, have an outline of what you are going to demonstrate. Your video documentation can be shown as part of your presentation.

Here is also a tip: please do not call attention to the things you didn;'t do, or planned to do, or didn;t have time to do. Your presentation should be about what you DID do. Even if yours is a work in progress, please spend the majority of your time talking about what we are looking at, not something else that isn't finished yet.

Good documentation of a scaled-down project can be just as rewarding as a large project, given the time, and shared resources (or lack thereof) we have at our disposal.