Atiaia the Jaguar is totally snaaaarly (puns sure to get better)
over 8 years ago – Sun, Aug 06, 2017 at 02:44:38 PM

I'll admit, when we first started looking into augmented reality to be part of our games, I didn't quite get it. Now I'm hooked trying to make fun videos to promote our campaign. I'm a 4/10 on the creativity scale - so I can only imagine what everyone out there could come up with!  We can't wait to let you try. Here's my attempt at intimidating our product lead Jake, with Atiaia the jaguar.

Our project is now 50% funded, which is truly awesome. Now we're about to start the dreaded doldrum middle section of crowdfunding campaigns that everyone warned us about. So we really have to work hard to get the word out.

I struggle to promote our work, let alone asking others to do the same. But I'll start by asking you to think of 3 people you think would really love what we're all trying to do. And then ask them to join our herd.  If we do that, we'll plow through this next stage and go beyond the 8 additional animals we set as the goal.

Bringing more animals into the game means a richer game and more conservation organizations supported. We're going to make it happen!

Thanks so much

Gautam (Founder)   

Rhino Ready! The making of Lola
over 8 years ago – Sun, Aug 06, 2017 at 02:44:18 PM

While we're busy crowdfunding for the next 8 animals, we’re on track to bring you the first six in our “preview” of Safari Central this August. While we make the finishing touches to Beby the Indri, Ethyl the Grizzly Bear, Mweturia the Elephant, Atiaia the Jaguar, Rockstar the Ground Pangolin and Lola the Black Rhino, we thought you might enjoy a glimpse into how we bring these animals to life in augmented reality... starting with just a picture.

We won’t get tooo technical here, but if you’re curious to learn more, leave us a comment and we’d be happy to share some more of the gory details. Let’s use Lola the black rhino from Ol Pejeta Conservancy as an example:

Step 1: A photo of Lola  

We start by talking with our partners and using photographs of the animal we want to model, to discover defining characteristics of that individual. In Lola’s case the nick in her left ear, the scar on her right side and the size of her horns are the identifying features we really want to capture. 

Step 2: The basic 3D shape

Just as when you're sketching a picture, we start by getting the overall shape right by just using simple 3D shapes known as primitives.  

Step 3: The fine details and normal mapping  

We then start sculpting into this basic shape to create photographic realism such as muscle definition, skin wrinkles and facial details. Here you see we’ve already added Lola’s distinctive scar on the right side of her body, and the nick in her left ear.  

While all the details are essential for realism, they are very hard for the app to process as 3D information. So at this stage we store all that lovely detail into a normal map; a 2D representation of 3D detail, a bit like a topographical map, which our AR engine can make look 3D, without having to treat it as such.

Step 4: Low-poly!

Computers struggle to render high-detail models in real-time, so it is essential to simplify our models into a form that's easy for a computer to process. We do this by making them ‘low-poly’ – i.e. reducing them to a ‘small’ number of flat polygons, which all join together to form our overall 3D model.  

Step 5: Applying the detail  

The low-poly model in step 4 clearly loses loads of the lovely detail we created in step 3… and this is exactly where our normal map comes back into play! We apply the normal map back over this low-poly model, to achieve a high level of distinguishing detail from the real Lola, but in a form the computer can process without destroying your phone.  

Step 6: Finishing touches  

We finish the modelling process by painting the detailed skin coloring onto the model and getting the lighting just right.  

Step 7: The skeleton  

Once the model is complete, it’s time to study Lola's movements so that we can bring her to life realistically. The first step here is to recreate a simplified version of her real bone structure, so that we can mimic how she moves in real life.

Step 8: Rigging 

With our ‘bones’ created, we can now rig the model. A rig is a set of deceptively-simple controls which the animator uses to move each part of the body independently. The lines in this image signify how each body part can move in relation to the others: 

Step 9: Animation  

We then go on to find footage of rhinos which give us a good indication of how a rhino moves, and use those as reference points to try and get the subtleties just right. Notice in this clip how we carefully match the animation to real footage:

Our animator Joris uses Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max, and pays special attention to subtleties such as the rhino’s independent ear movements, and the understated rotation of the head and neck as it moves around. Many of these intricacies are very hard to spot… but you certainly notice when they’re not right!  

Ultimately, this entire process results in a set of animations that can be integrated into the AR engine:

You can see that as she's a black rhino, she walks typically with her head up, raising it even further every once in a while. This is as opposed to a white rhino who is typically found with its head down, given that it grazes on grass most of the day.   

Step 10: AR Integration  

Now its time to take the model and bring it into augmented reality. This is a technical process, but involves a few steps to get some things working:  

• 1. We import into the AR framework that we’ve built in Unity 3D  
• 2. We link the animation states together, so our animal naturally transitions between its walking and idle states.  
• 3. We light it in Unity so that it has naturalistic shadows and highlights, which change as the model walks around the virtual space.  

And voila! Lola is in your phone and walking around in your world.  

All of this is a lot of fun for sure, but also requires a lot of painstaking attention to detail, which we admit we don’t always get exactly right. Certain animals are much easier than others. For example, furry animals like the lemur are much harder to make realistic than thick-skinned animals like a rhino. (See here how even Pixar struggle with this challenge!) And animals with complex limb movements like primates are also much harder than simpler, larger movements like an elephant.   

We’re very excited to bring these first six animals to you so soon in August's Safari Central preview release, but we need to create more, and really thank you for your help in bringing the next set of wildlife to you... which will be even better as technology advances and we perfect the process!  

Stay tuned to our Kickstarter for more behind the scenes glimpses!  

$1 = $2
over 8 years ago – Sun, Aug 06, 2017 at 02:43:08 PM

Big news from Internet of Elephant's crowdfunding headquarters: we have received an incredibly generous offer from a wildlife philanthropist! For every dollar that we raise from today, she will match it until we reach our goal of $80,000. This means that every new contribution will be doubled!! When a new backer puts in $25, we raise $50. When someone puts in $100, we receive $200 (you get the point). 

Remember, the project gets nothing if we don't raise the full target. So, think of it this way.  Every $1 from this point gets us $2.  So, $5,000 gets us to $10,000.  And $10,000 gets us to $80,000 and unlocks everyone's pledges. 

The deadline is August 8th...yikes! 

If you have not backed us yet, consider doing so and doubling your impact! If you have already backed us, would you be willing to share our campaign with this incredible one-for-one offer to a few people you think might love what we are working on? 

Thank you for all your support so far...

Gautam!

How Safari Central Benefits Wildlife
over 8 years ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2017 at 01:50:53 AM

Heyyyy wildlife lovers - we're getting close - 73% of the way there, but just 10 days to go.  We're feeling the tension, but feel confident that we're all going to make it and catalyze change for animals all over the world.

Speaking of which, we have been getting feedback from a number of people, that while Safari Central seems cool, they're not 100% sure how the game will help wildlife. If you're interested in that topic, then this update was made for you!

The mission of Internet of Elephants is to make wildlife a global phenomenon.  One where people want to know what is happening with wildlife every day, not just when they are told a sad story.  If we can do that, we can have 'game' changing impact in three areas.

1. Changing consumer attitudes towards wildlife

If our games can get millions more people to think about wildlife for even 5 minutes a day, think about what that could do for where wildlife conservation is placed on the world's agenda!

Thinking specifically about Safari Central, what if people are out every day trying to find bears and rhinos and lemurs in their city and can get closer to their lives by doing that?

We think animals like Ethyl and Beby and Lola can become worldwide celebrities, and people will celebrate their life, rather than just mourn their death.

2. Create a new income stream for conservation

Wildlife conservation is currently reliant on primarily one income stream, and that is charitable donations.  And while that works, it is also very transactional and un-engaging, meaning that only the most die-hard wildlife people get involved.  

By creating games that make it fun for everyone to get involved in conservation, we can create a new income stream that will funnel directly back to our conservation partners.

 We create a virtuous circle where conservation organizations work with us to give us great data and expertise, we turn that expertise into products that the world loves and are willing to pay for, and then we can drive that revenue back to the same organizations that provided us the data in the first place.

3. Create a window between consumers and conservation

We don't yet have a fancy picture for this, but basically what we're saying here is that there are a lot of people that don't know the great work that conservation organizations are doing all around the world, and there are lots of conservation organizations around the world that aren't able to reach all the people that actually care.  Our games and products create that two-way window to create that connection, so that all sorts of great stuff can happen even outside of our games.

We can write on and on about this, but that's it in a nutshell. Use fun products about a subject matter everyone loves, animals, to make it a lot more fun to learn and get involved with conservation.

We'd love to get your comments and reactions - do you think this model could work? What other ways can we get people more involved in conservation?  Let us know what you think.

Gautam!

Gnus Flash: Snow Leopard retains lead in latest Safari Central Animal Poll
over 8 years ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2017 at 01:50:34 AM

 NAIROBI, KENYA: With two weeks to go in the Safari Central Kickstarter, the latest Safari Central Animal Poll shows the Snow Leopard from the Himalayas maintaining a slim lead over the Green Sea Turtle from Oman and the resurgent Orangutan from Borneo. Rounding out the top 5 are the Polar Bear from the Arctic and Siberian Tiger from Russia.  The winner of poll, voted on by backers of the Safari Central Kickstarter campaign, will be the next animal the Internet of Elephants team animates and brings into the game, while also directly contributing back to its conservation.

Backers of the campaign are currently voting amongst 20 different animals including a Poison Dart Frog from Costa Rica, a Spectacled Bear from Peru, and a Wolf from North America. Write in votes include a Mediterranean Monk Seal, a Honey Badger, and the Loch Ness Monster.

Only backers of the campaign can vote, and voting privileges come with a number of other perks including the choice of great rewards such as sound and animations from the game, wristbands made from the GPS collar once worn by Salma the elephant, and the chance to have one's name etched in a rock which is geocached in the wild.

With two weeks to go until polls close, the campaign stands at 70% funded. Should it reach 100%, the Internet of Elephants team will be able to create the next version of Safari Central, bringing 8 more animals into game and benefiting 8 more conservation organizations that protect those animals. But fall even one dollar short and none of those animals get created, including the winner of the poll.

"It's a pretty harsh system, all or nothing.  But we set the target based on what was really needed to do justice to the animals we create, and we know we can reach it with everyone's help," says Gautam Shah, Internet of Elephants founder.  "We have no choice but to try new approaches if conservation stands any chance.

Conservation organizations seem to agree, based on the number of collaborators in the project, which include Space for Giants, the Chicago Zoological Society, Conservation International, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Tswalu Foundation, and WWF-Brazil.

"We are absolutely thrilled about this project because it is an extremely clever way to get a lot of people interested in conservation really quickly," says Richard Vigne, CEO of Ol Pejeta Conservancy, one of the Safari Central partners and beneficiaries of the program.  Ol Pejeta Conservancies is one of few safe havens for the black rhino, of which one, Lola, is part of the first Safari Central Preview app.

Vigne continues to say, "The fact that this App features real animals that have real stories will make a huge difference in raising interest in our projects," 

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