This week was quite productive. I was able to dive into several areas of my project that had been put on hold, due mostly to the IRB Application process. I finally faced 3D model AI generators and am happy to say that I am feeling much more at peace about these emerging tools than I was beforehand. I found that, to date, more direct human input is still very much needed when producing 3D models. I also discovered that, while it is true that there have been more advancements in this area since this past summer, that we aren’t too far beyond just wrapping 2D textures around 3D objects. Current available tools seem to have a database of basic 3D models, which don’t really change very much based on given prompts, and it really comes down to the 2D textures that are wrapped around these models. Clearly, AI generated 3D modeling itself is still at its infancy.

I also went ahead and finished my 3D character models that I had started (and then put off completing because I wasn’t sure if it was worth my time anymore to work in this manner due to AI advancements). I have now placed some of these into my ticketing/bagdrop area airport scene and I feel like they fit the scenery pretty well. I also made a new chatbot that acts as a ticketing agent. Next steps are moving the two created chatbots (social story and ticketing agent chatbots) into Unity.