Based on the idea we talked in the meeting , Cal Lin and I started to orgainse the storyline and the interactivity we possible will have in this experience.
First of all, we have the brain storming of all the members and collected some ideas.
We still wanna start with the most famous one with the seagull.
And then we organised the rough storyline of these whole story. First we start as the player’recognize’ themselves as a seagull. And found there’re two seagulls characters standing they talking about to get some fries on the pier and once move to the pier connected to the next scene.
Also meanwhile, we combined the funny meme while a bird standing on the anther bird. I think it’s a really good idea to use as transfer.
Then we are thinking to have a mini game while they grabbing the ice cream in kids’ hand. A little bit like the mini game in the Wolves In The Wall.
Meanwhile we have divided the different job to each other. Lin is doing the script based on our ideas. Cal and me are trying to find the asset for this unit.
In these week our work basically just to find the collaborators to working on this project and make sure what to do in this unit.
On the gathering meeting , we find two collaborator from 3d animation. In this unit, we are planning to make an adaptation of <False Knees.>.It’s a webcomic written by Joshua Barkman. The comic has grown popular with its existential humor often featuring dialogue between birds even to all kinds of animals.
book cover
As you can see, there’re not so many comedies in Vr environment. So when Lin came up with this idea I joined the team immediately .Also I am quite interested in how this comic asthetic can be adapted in Vr environment .We came up with idea to choose the most famous one. Using two seagulls as main character to develop the story a bit.
And in this teamwork, the 3d animation team will help with build the main characrter and rigging them. We taking care of the vr build and interactivity.
We have a meeting every week to discuss about the progress and every week’s work.I make this timeline and miro board for us
One of the Salient features of <False Knees> is, the illustrator uses humanized animalsa to tell jokes having philosophy meaning inside. So in this term, I wanna keep this vibe in VR environment. So I organized the main characters of these two seagull.
The character design references many classic comedy combinations，like menzai or chinese xiangsheng, even Laurel and Hardy.
According to J. Morre saidMorre, Humor has a visual dimension. “Aesthetic to the extent that it arouses the viewers’ imagination, gives them insights into human existence, and inspires them to think more critically and creatively,”Because Vr is a visual medium, aesthetics have an important role in their delivery of humor, either to tell visual jokes, or prepare the player for comedic experience, this also applies to our character design. On the top of that, seagull A utilizes all these visual elements, asymmetrical size eyes, shorter stature to shape the eccentricity character. With its behaving and animating in a comically distinct manner, the player gets an instant visual image of this experience.
With the help of Marianna and Esme, we have the character design immediately .
In this unit, I am gonna work with Xuan and Rita on this project. When I understand “nonlinear “this word, the first thing came into my mind is to build a world with 2 two different version. Then we came up with the idea, that we can assume two world of vision impaired people, one is how we imagine what they will see, one is based on how they actually feel about the world.
Ideation
On the top of that we did some reasearch.
There are various physiological definitions of the degree of blindness. They all represents different level of visions. Like the people lost their visions when they were borned, they don’t have the visual image in their whole life, So it’s hard to transfer in Vr environment . At beiginning, we defined the main character who was normal people but lost vision because of some accident.
Character:An artist who went blind for 30 years. And his visual memory has faded to the point where it is just “an illusion” to him.
The main conflict in “I think, therefore I see” revolves around a man who became visually impaired at an early age.
MoodBoard
In case to develop the idea, I tried to find some reference .
Eternal Return is a choreographed mixed reality exhibition exploring the future of memory. The whole experience is a really good example. The immersive performance unfolds within a visually striking exhibition space. The staging gives a fragmented impression of the hidden virtual space that appear inside the headset. With the visitors body and senses as active medium, triggered through VR, hyperconnected objects and the unseen touch of a performer, the artwork reveals how memory allows for a string of data to be passed through matter, across time.
Also for the anther vision.
I kinde wanna this utopia feeling to describe how dramatic their imaginary can be.
Last post I explained how I came up with the concept. And now I would like to introduce my process of my “city trip”.
First of all , I made an 2d animation on an image target . Exactly same from the originally illustration .
It’s looks not bad but I feel not fun enough. Since the topic is about the city construction. I can’t help thinking it would be better if can play in the real life. But there’s also a problem of it. If still play a 2d animation it only can be watched in a certain area.
so I decide to made a 3d version of the little monster.
And I tried on this image target.
Which worked ! So i tried to use the plane detection.
I
It worked but due to the screen size, the scale and distance is really matter for the experience. After I adjust few times.
Based on the content and the rough drawing in the last post I detailed a bit of the storyboard to shape this story.
It has been iterated many times in the storyboarding.Start off with some simple sketches of little people.
scene1scene2scene 3
But this was clearly not enough as, unlike film or ad production, there is no way to show a 360 degree angle view, so I did the next step of storyboarding in tiltbrush.
version 0.2
scene 1
Although the 360 degree view is shown, it is also cluttered and incompletely annotated, and not well presented in the screenshots.
So I’m going to try again with the built model and import the scene.
version 0.3
Various bugs were encountered in the process of importing the models. But finally I made it.
scene 1
At first there is nothing but a series of flashing lights to guide the way, then slowly the view becomes clearer and an interior corner appears, as you walk towards the corner many windows appear one by one on the wall, the windows gradually open and many optical fibres shine through the windows to inside.
Once leave the room, what appears in front of you is a long and endless corridor, the corridor is above this rotating frames. Vaguely can see the end of corridor has a bit intermittently shinning door. Each frame is a memory of the play. At the end of the corridor is an unknown space.
Once enter the first frame. Triggered all the frame start to rotate.
A.there are leaves falling from the celling，breeze blows.
(Sound)The sound of the breeze
blowing through the leaves
B. Couch and cabinet table are hanging in an upside down way on the frame, leaning on the small scrap of wallpaper looks like 19th century furniture. The whole frame rotates follow the other frames’ speed. Decorative paintings that should have been hung on the wall were hung upside down beside the couch.
(Voice mixed)
” I lost my key “
“I lost my wallet”
“I lost my mind”
C. Teddy bears and the blocks were scattered on the carpet, and everything was hanging from the ceiling like anti-gravity.
D. The chairs and clothes were hung on the wall in anti-gravity, and the dog was dutifully resting on the floor.
PROBLEM:In this scene , because i design the sequence of animations , so the tiltbrush can’t fully pressed my idea, so I think I am gonna remake this one in a different way.
scene 3
At the end of the corridor is a figurative scene. When the player entered the room.
(Voice)
There is no word what everything dissolves
The lights pour in
Reaching to the floor
Finding its way from deep within
(Sound)
There is the slow sound of water flowing
Into the room is a room full of future sense. A chair, a platform surrounded by flowing water, like a great viewing spot. Behind it is a huge geometric backdrop with some kind of metaphorical meaning.
Players need to move the slate in order to walk to the viewing position.
In the last post, I briefly introduce the concept of this project and explain the idea I have for this game experience.
So here I am gonna trying to make it to VR platform and make it as a real game.
Stage 1 — let obstacle collide with camera
At first, I tried to control all the obstacle with animation–since it’s the easiest way for a fresher in unity.
All I need to do is make an animation and control it in animator. It can work but becames super handy. I wish it could be more like a game so I decide to write the script to control it.
Meanwhile I add the collide rule to the camera and let it can be test when they collide with each other.
stage 2– script
So I created the prefab first, let it can moving automatically, then create the prawn code to let it prawn 🙂 which looks super easily but actually took long time to write and test.
stage 3 game scene and UI
It looks like that now.
Like I said before, the difference in this game is it has obstacle not only from the horizontal way but also vertical way.
To make this game experience more completed. I updated the UI part.
Unlike web games, Vr games can be more difficult to restart. Especially this game is like ‘how long you can last’ so this restart button is also really important.
AR augmented reality is simply the real world combined with digital information, it is the superimposition of virtual objects in the real world, allowing people to experience virtual objects within a certain spatial range, focusing on people’s visual function, thus enabling a sensory experience beyond reality. With this feature, I think that based on the characteristics of AR technology, it is possible to develop special forms of art or to do things that cannot be achieved in the real world, such as building my real world or enhancing information transfer.
For me personally, the first thing that comes to mind is about urban construction. Everyone can realise that there are always more or less problems with urban construction, and that these problems can only be realised by people who actually live in the city. But in the cities where I have lived for a long time, most residents do not have the relevant awareness to speak up for themselves. So I took this point as the starting point for this project and went on to research.
I have compiled a list of the problems that have arisen in urban planning and the solutions that are available.
Discrepancy between urban planning and what citizens think
Design goal
To generate public thought through the expression of one’s own opinion
On the top of that, I made a series of illustration.
In this case, I am complaining about the traffic problem in Shanghai. In order to promote public transportation in Shanghai, there is a bus that runs through the city center on important routes. These two buses have been given a dedicated lane that no other vehicles are allowed to enter, but the bus routes are limited, and taking up a whole lane during congested hours adds to the traffic congestion in some sense.
Monsters actually represent some emotions about the traffic.
Based on the content I started to write the script of whole story.
VERSION 0.1
Empty in the room.
(Introduction to the player they are entering in a alive space)
(Voice) Here I am.
Now anywhere else.
I remembered how I felt presence
Like longing full of so much what
POV Still nothing in the empty room with endless white horizontal line. Gradually with the shining pot shows flying around the player.
(Voice) Do you feel it?
POV Fog gradually clears.Several lines slowly form the basic shape of a room, a corner two corners form the most basic composition of a room. And on the two walls facing each other, there are countless windows side by side, without too much decoration, as if many holes were naturally opened in the wall.
When the player walks into the room, several windows staggered open
Lights come out.
behindPOV When all the memory cubes alternate the room gradually opens a different color window (you can go to the next scene)Through the door frame you can see a long corridor.
Once leave the room, what appears in front of you is a long and endless tunnel, the tunnel is above this rotating frame players once into the tunnel, frame began to rotate. Each frame is mix memory of the past. Can’t see the end of the tunnel, only one light.
POV
A.Players enter the first frame. All the frame start to rotate in sequence. The First frame shows the animation that leaves are falling.
B.C.D Players enter the second and third frame.Many pieces of furniture from different periods hang weightlessly on the frame.
(Voice mixed )
”I lost my key “
. “I lost my wallet”
“I lost my mind”
At the end of the corridor is a figurative scene. When the player entered the room.
(Voice) There is no word what everything dissolves
The lights pour in
Reaching to the floor
Finding its way from deep within
(Sound) There is the slow sound of water flowing
I have
POV Into the room is a room full of future sense. A chair, a platform surrounded by flowing water, like a great viewing spot. Behind it is a huge geometric backdrop with some kind of metaphorical meaning.
Players need to move the slate in order to walk to the viewing position. And there’s not much things but the abstract interior and peaceful landscape.
(When the player get into the viewing place ,The background sound starts which is someone softly reciting a poem)
“The sun has set
Mountains, trees, rocks, rivers
All great buildings are buried in dark shadows
Mankind interestingly lights their little lamps
Delighted with what they saw
Hoping to find what they want”
FEEDBACK
This is my first version of the script, the flaws of this one is quite obvious.
Everything is quite disconnected. I only have the front and behind POV, without the left and right one.
VR can better express the feeling of space and thus further illustrate the theme.
Only in VR is more convincble to have a liveable immersive space. Could use the experience to embody the characrer. Better allow players to feel the feeling and idea of space.
Give life to the space and in the VR environment this space can exist in a real and virtual form to better build the whole narrative.
game EN
ENVIROMENT
Stand in the space’s view and de-visualize space for human perception. It’s like a conversation between humans and space. So I am trying to use the human’s mindset- our perspective of our life which based on time to tell the whole story.
Like what I showed in the game environment. It was divided to three parts, which represents three different topic I tried to talk about: present, past and future. Time is the main narrative line of one whole life. But to the space, a four dimension creature, time isn’t the only standard. So I feel time is a good topic for both to talk about .
First scene
present
In the endless flow of time, every human being exists as tiny as dust. What happened right now will def over writing by the things will happened in future.
This moment is destined to be obliterated, but it is like a spark in the darkness, even if it is destined to be extinguished, it has lit up that space and time at some point. Looking at the THIS MOMENT from the perspective of space, all the things that are happening are like meteors that exist for a short time but undeniable shine.
So the whole scene in my mind was at the begining it was an empty room. And once the space wanna talk to people, it shows a lot of windows. Windows are like the medium or the mouth that talking to human being.Once the windows open, lots of light came out which is visualizing the moment we are having right now.
SECOND SCENE
PAST
Here was A living room, was the tundra of the ice age，the nuclear explosion or the first time to hold the hand of a lover. Here is a witness, Witnessed all the joys and sorrows. Memories are stored in HERE. HERE holds memories also carries memories. It connects present and future.
Tango, Zbigniew Rybczynski(1981)
Just like what way showed in the Tango. All the character crossthe limits of time and appearing at the same moment. That also inspires me the idea of the second scene.
What in my mind is a long long tunner was set in the middle of lots of frames. Each frame contains every memory of a certain time. Players once into the tunnel, frame began to rotate.
THIRD SCENE
past
Time is not a linear concept for space. Unlike human beings, who often have many good expectations based on the future, space is more of a God’s perspective waiting for the future to come, so here I did not design too much interaction, just a viewer’s posture waiting for the future to come.
The concept actually came from a project I did when I doing my BA. When we talked about the relationship between students(which is us) with “classroom”.The project This project explores the emotional attachment to space from the students’ perspective, starting with the four senses. There are four installations in total, each expressing in the form of sound, projection, and image. Here is the poster made at that time, scan the code to see the video.
But in this project, the search for memory simply starts with the senses and does not portray the role of space.
Like we said space as a container.
Space is immeasurable for the carrying of emotions. On this line with time as the axis, everyone is as small as dust, and the marks left by the previous people are inevitably covered up by the later ones. There is nothing new under the sun, if time is long enough, everything will return to dust or even nothingness. But here and now, our joys and sorrows are happening in real time. This moment is destined to be annihilated, yet it is like a spark in the darkness, even if it is destined to be extinguished, it has lit up that space and time at some point.
The space at this moment is a participant and a recorder.
So I started to think maybe in the VR, I can really character “space” and to have a conversation with it. This is a direct conversation that no other platform can do.
Tango, Zbigniew Rybczynski(1981)
I’ve researched lots of video, film and comics. Most narratives depend on time; small narratives become individual stories, and grand narratives are shaped into history. The human concept of time, on the other hand, is often linear: it is like a river, coming from the past and going towards the future. Most of the earlier narrative art followed this, and even though there were occasional flashbacks of internal memories, external time always moved linearly forward. But if space is the main character, the timeline will be stretched wirelessly. More of creaters will use non-linera to make storytelling.
CONCEPT
Bring space alive / Giving life to space
Stand in the space’s view and de-visualize space for human perception. It’s like a conversation between humans and space
