Study of Professional 3D Modelers
5.5 Data collection and analysis
5.6.4 Group project or collaborative work
The participants were also asked to share their experiences relating to group projects or collaborative type of work (questions 30 to 38). The purpose of these questions was
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to find out any problems which may occur specifically in this type of collaborative work, that may not be related to performing modeling tasks in a single user environment.
In response to Question 30, the participants generally agreed that the size of the project and the quality of 3D models required are often the main reasons for working in a team. The number of team members varies depending on the scope of the project, and may range from 2 to 20 members. It was also noted by one of the participants that the completion time may influence the size of the team, with larger teams needed when the project has to be completed in a short period of time. In response to Question 32 on how to manage team work, the participants said that they generally believe good communication and well structured and organized teams with disciplined members are important for success of a project.
One of the participants noted that teamwork requires members of the team to strictly follow the “entire project’ schedule and timeline”. She also acknowledged that a “proper pipeline must be well-defined that communication breakdown between team members can be avoided”. A similar point was mentioned by another participant who stated that “cooperation and good communication are very essential, or else the project might fail”.
In a related question (Question 33), all the participants who had experienced group work noted that there is often no single individual who decides on the scale or textures of the model. Any proposals or ideas are generally discussed and agreed by the team members.
In Question 34, the participants were asked to describe some of the most common problems when working in a group. Several cases were identified during the interviews in response to this question. A case was highlighted by one of the participants who pointed out that he often faces “both human (e.g. communication) and technical problems” when working in a group. A similar point was mentioned by another participant who claimed that “bad communication may cause a duplicate task or job not being done at all”. He further explained that “different visual preferences among project members have also caused an unexpected outcome that increases the cost”. The same concern was stated by another participant “for a group project, arguments are always happening because some people cannot agree with someone
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else’s ideas”. These clearly show that good communication plays an important role in managing group projects.
The results of the interviews in response to Question 35 show that usually an individual team member is assigned the task of the final arrangement of objects in a model or scene. However all the participants pointed out in response to Question 36, that this particular individual usually has no right to modify or amend the objects. The task of improving the objects is undertaken by the owner or creator of the object. The objective of this question was to understand the difficulties (if any) that were faced by an individual when modifying someone else’s model.
Furthermore, in a related question (Question 37), all the participants stated that the individual responsible for assembling the final scene performs the task of placing the 3D objects at their designated locations in the 3D space. While performing this task, the individual involved often faces problems caused by the quality of the 3D models failing to meet the scale or standard of the project. For instance one participant highlighted that the difficulty of placing objects at the designated area occurs “if any of the submitted or completed models do not follow the measure (scale) specified at a very early stage of the development”. Similarly another participant mentioned that “a problem happens when a finished product placed in the library does not meet the specified standard such as the scale is not been followed by modeler”.
Study participants also noted that they often experience some difficulties in placing individual objects in a 3D space due to the problem of recognizing the relative position of objects as discussed earlier.
5.7 Discussion
The results of this study have further highlighted and clarified issues related to the four categories of problem associated with maintaining focus and context awareness in 3D modeling tasks, as identified in the pilot study of Chapter 4. These issues are summarized as below.
1. Maintaining position awareness.
This category of problems refers to modelers’ difficulty in maintaining awareness of the position and orientation of objects of a model when performing manipulation and navigation tasks. Findings from the study
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show that modelers often rely on techniques such as opening multiple viewports, hiding, and changing model display mode to solid or wireframe when performing these tasks. These techniques enable modelers to maintain their understanding of context and recognize what they are looking at in terms of their focus. However, none of these techniques is able to fully support maintaining position awareness. For instance when using multiple viewports, the area of focus and context are separated, which requires modelers to switch their attention from one viewport to another. In addition to this problem of discontinuity, the objects being viewed in each viewport are often displayed in different zooming scale or from different viewing orientation. These two problems occur because in most 3D modeling software viewports are treated independently of each other. Furthermore, using multiple viewports also divides screen real estate into a series of smaller section which reduces the amount of information that can be displayed in each of them and condenses the size of the graphical data (i.e. model) on the screen. Consequently, modeling tasks tend to become more complicated because the objects and components of the model overlap each other even more.
2. Identifying and selecting object or components of interest.
This category of problems refers to situations where modelers face some difficulties in selecting objects or components of interest correctly. As discussed earlier, overlapping objects and components is a factor that causes this type of problems to occur. In a cluttered 3D model viewing situation, modelers have to rely on different techniques such as hiding to overcome this problem. The hiding technique reduces the amount of clutter and therefore increases the accuracy of selecting objects or components of interest. However, the hiding technique tends to eliminate modelers’ ability to maintain their awareness of the relationship between the objects or components of interest with the others (i.e. context). As a result, modeling tasks which are constrained by these hidden objects can become difficult. Therefore the hiding on its own is not very effective in facilitating focus and context awareness while performing 3D modeling
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tasks.
3. Recognizing the distance between objects or components.
This third category of problems relate to recognizing the location of objects or components in a virtual 3D modeling space. It includes the difficulty of recognizing the near and far objects or components. This type of problem often takes place when models are displayed in the wireframe mode. As discussed earlier, modelers often use multiple viewports to overcome this problem by viewing objects or components of interest from different angles or orientations. This reliance on multiple viewports, however, leads to break down of focus and context awareness as discussed before. The discontinuity of information between multiple viewports distracts modelers’ attention from objects or components of interest. This forces modelers to take other extra steps to regain their focus.
4. Realizing the relative position of objects or components.
This category of problem is related to the difficulty of placing or aligning objects in a virtual 3D space. Findings of the study, as discussed earlier, indicate that modelers often have difficulties in performing this type of tasks using conventional 3D modeling software. The study showed that modelers usually need to view the model being manipulated from various angles (e.g. as top, side, and front) in multiple viewports. This, once again, leads to problems associated with relying on multiple viewports.
5.8 Summary
This chapter has presented an interview type study of professional 3D modeler, with the aim of better understanding issue related to the four categories of problems caused by the lack of focus and context awareness in 3D modeling tasks. Findings from this study suggest that modelers often rely on using multiple viewports and hiding techniques to deal with these problems. It is however also clear from the study that these techniques are not sufficient on their own, and that other new tools and techniques are needed. The next chapter introduces a new set of techniques designed to assist with maintaining focus and context awareness in 3D modeling environments.
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