Brief Module Overview.
In this module, over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at various pracrtical and theoretical design principles relating to VR (Virtual Reality). We will then plan our own Virtual experience in the second half of our module, whle considering all the methodolgies we’ve learned both pracrtical and theoretical and choosing which we use to create our final piece.
Lab Excercises
WEEK 1 – MAYA 360 VIDEO/Digital Portfolio EXERCISE.
For our first week on the module we looked at 360 rendered videos, and their practical and theoretical use in Virtual Reality exepriences, looking at the various design considerations required when making this type of experience.
MAYA 360 VIDEO
In this lab exercise i planned to do a 360 video where the viewer follows a toy in a childs bedroom, the toy moves around and knocks down an object off a surface and then that objects knocks another object like a domino effect, this is planned to happen around the viewer looping back to the start like a 360 domino chain.
When making the video, i made sure to look back in the slides we looked at for considerations when making 360 videos, one of them that i remembered was about certain unintended objects in the frame of view can divert the viewers attention from what you want them to look at, which is how i settled on the 360 domino effect so the viewer is always focusing on what i need them to.
Overall i found this excercise quite enjopyable, it’s the first time i’ve done it so my skills are a little shaky but doing this again i think i’d be better prepared to create something good, it’s given me a few ideas to run with that i’m going to think about.
Week 2 – WebVR
This week we looked at a website called FrameVR, for this you create a digital showroom that people can join and observe what you’ve placed in the scene, for our exercise we were tasked with creating a digital portfolio with our FrameVR space, in my case i placed in my 3D asset work primarily, with ym Environment Design video from Year 1.
In FrameVR you can actually script mini events in your scene, such as music cues and effects, if you were to make use of storypsheres you could maybe plan a small interactive journey, like a walkthrough museum display. I played around with making effects and adding AI in the scene but i found that the AI was either too limited or i just didn’t find the right options to get it working correctly so they just say generic lines.
In terms of if i would use this for anything, i can’t see myself using it regularly for anything important, howver it’s an interesting gimmick that could help your portfolio stnad out if you so choose.
Week 3 – Zapworks AR
This week we were introduced to AR (Augmented Reality) and Using Zapworks. The zapwokrs exercise involve us using Unity to create a 3D image through light scripting and importing a 3D model, when completed we upload the work to Zapworks and we are given a barcode to scan to see our 3D model in reality.
I first tried the basic guided exercise to understand what the process was like, i made use of the provided assets and followed the instructions to create what was presented to us.
I added the hut model to the image and overlayed exactly where it will show when i scan it, once positioned i built the project and uploaded to Zapworks. I did an initial test and managed to get it to work pretty well on my phone.
I tried the exercise again useing the model i cretaed for character design in year 2, i had to cut down the size of the model due to textures so i only used albedo maps for the model and downscaled them to fit zapworks file limit.
For potential uses for this i had an idea come to mind to use this in combination with the 360 video i did a few weeks ago, a person could watch the 360 video on their screen and then be able to scan the barcode image in a digital environment in the video to have a live model pop out as shown, it would help for the video to be more interactive and unique for those who may be watching without a headset.
Or further it could be paired with the digital portfolio gallery in FrameVR, you could add a section in the gallery with a barcode and the image for someone to scan to see your woork pop out in front of them like a digital pop out book. The one downside i can see with this is that you need both the barcode and the original image you used when creating it together for it to work effectively, if you don’t have one or the other it won’t work, it’s either that or you actually can and i’m just not aware of it.
Week 4 – Immersive Art & Adobe Aero
I did some catch up work for this weeks task, for this one i had to work with a group to use the vr headsets and work together on creating small dioramas in different painting software.
The software we used first was Gravity sketch and for this one we decided on creating a Declaration of Independence scene, it didn’t look too amazing in the end but i still kind of enjoyed it, the interface wasn’t very intuitive for me and it took a long while for me to get adjusted to how it wokred, writing text was a bit frustrating with having to hold the trigger longer than you needed to which resulted in my wonky handwriting.
I don’t see myself using this for any kind of project as i didn’t really enjoy using it too much, the interface was counter intuitive in my opinion whcih made it hard to create anything to a good standard but interesting nontheless.
The next piece of software we used was Shapes XR and for this one our design goal was to create a furnished apartment with small items. I started first and added some laptops and table accessories and a man on a motorcycle on the balcony.
I liked using ShapesXR more than Gravity Brush, the controls were easier to understand, objects were easy to find and objects were easy to transform aorund the scene, something i had trouble with in Gravity brush. I feel this would have suited the declaration of independence scene we did much better.
The downsides to this that i could find at least was that there didn’t seem to be a way to texture your objects in the scene, so we had to leave everything looking blank, if i were to use this in a project that would be a major drawback for me, though it’s good for blockout testing a scene if you wanted to use it for that.
The last program we used was OpenBrush which was my absolute favorite of everything i tried, i really enjoyed the more artistic side of this software, being able to paint effects was really good and allowed us to create a really artistic looking scene, the controls were easy to understand for someone like me who has never used it before.
For our last scene we agreed to do a night time scene of an animal enjoying a campfire, we settled on a bear. I went first and for my contributions i created the stars, trees and campfire. The campfire was my favourite part of making the scene because of the effects, being able to paint live moving effects with your brush was something i’d never seen before and made the scene look dynamic.
My teammates after me created the bear on the wood log enjoying the campfire.
I really enjoyed OpenBrush overall and would definitely use it in a future project if i had access to it, i would probably go wth creating painting educational painted dioramas of real events and places like a moon landing, or i could if possible combine what i make in openbrush with a 360 video to create an openbrush 3d gallery like the webvr exercise.
Lastly i used Adobe Aero, for this exercise we needed to find a location on a world map and create an anchor point for where our models would show up when we placed a camera over the area. We used outside the Daime building as a quick example. For my models i added some live effects to an armidillo so when i get close to it it would start to roll around me, and a T rex overlooking Daime.
This exercise worked similar to the AR exercise we did the previous week, the only difference is that instead of an image you need with the scanned barcode you actually have to be at the location you used to see the models, i can see this being used for tours around certain historical sites where you can scan a barcode at a certain place like a castle wall, and then see a 3d guard standing in front of you.
Research Proposal Assignment (2500)
For this assignment, we need to pick one of the design methodologies that we learned over the past few weeks and create an assignment project around it, we must create a research overview and then our plan for how long we spend making it.
For my design project I will be creating a 360 VR video in Maya, focused on a real historical site, the goal is to convey how the site roughly looked at three different dates in time as a sort of timeline, the viewer will be able to look around and experience the site from its early state, prime state and current day state.
The site in I am going to be basing this project around is Corbridge in Northumberland, an old Roman Town site with plenty of resources from English Heritage on its layout, how it may have looked and its structure at different time periods, that I can utilise to help with my research.
The rough structure of the project video is to split the video between early, prime and current day of the location, with planned narration and audio cues, small visual sketches in the environment to enhance the immersion is also something I’m considering. Our video should be 5 minutes minimum, so I broke the video into 3 sections to help with this, the rough structure is that 2 minutes each will be spent on the first two sections, with one minute spent on the current day section of the video towards the end. The ideal audience for this video would be for Heritage and Museum organisations and school learners, so careful planning of the accuracy and length of information conveyed is going to be extremely important during my planning.
Brief Summary of plan
- 360 videos of Roman Corbridge site (Historical)
- UI text cards used as part of conveying information (Digital flashcards)
- Audio narration to guide the viewers attention
- Video split into 3 parts First two are 2minutes long, last part 1 minute long.
Contemporary research and analysis
I did some contemporary analysis of existing media that have done what I plan to create to get an idea of what’s been made and what I could improve and do better for my project. The first one I found is used on google maps for a different site but uses a similar technique with a 360 stationary camera.
The camera can be rotated in 360 view to see a reconstruction of the area how it would have looked in its day, like what I plan to do for my video, the key differences with this to what I want to do is that there is only visual stimulation, on top of this you can’t physically move down the street, you are planted in one spot and can only rotate, no audio stimuli or on screen text info is present either to help inform the viewer on what exactly this area is.
What I think it does well is the scene visually is well presented and easy to look at, the assets are high quality and the lighting shows key structures for the viewer to focus on, the gateway at the centre of the image is still at this site in the real world allowing the viewer to anchor themselves and get a good idea of where they would be standing.
For this example my pros and cons are:
Pros
- Well-made assets help to inform the accuracy of the area and period
- Lighting in this example highlights key structures and areas of interest
Cons
- Too static, not very interesting
- No ambient audio to immerse in the location
- No on-screen text to help inform the viewer
The next example I found was a 360 video, with music sound effects and on-screen text all included, although it’s grander than what I have planned, it still demonstrates all the key stimuli that I want to include in my own video.
The video is called VR Rome and is a small 360 montage showing gladiator fights, celebrations and wide city shots, some sections of the video have the viewer looking through the eyes of someone that is there which I really liked and thought enhanced the immersion.
The one thing missing which I plan to include in my video is narration for what is going on in the scene specifically along with short UI text adding extra info, however this most likely due in part to the video being more of a technical presentation rather than an educational piece, but this is what I would do different anyhow.
For this example, my pros and cons are:
Pros
- Includes ambient audio (Voices, sound effects)
- Use of first-person perspective in some scenes
- Varied set design in each scene (Arenas, streets)
- Showed text of the date of the era in the video
Cons
- No contextual information for each scene delivered through text or narration
- Video quality made it difficult to see finer details
- Each Scene never lasted for too long
From these examples what I would do differently is to focus on adding info text and possibly narration from myself to explain the scene the viewer is in and to deliver information about the place being depicted, the kinds of people that lived in this certain place, customs, laws.
I would also include audio for the environment like crowd chatter and horse riding to assist with helping the viewer feel they are in this certain place, the second example used first person view to plant the viewer which I like and will most likely use in my own design.
Target audience
The target audience for this project is aimed at young learners in schools and museum heritage organisations.
My thought process in using this for young learners was mostly for attention spans, young people struggle to focus on a school environment today as the content delivery is not very stimulating, with 360 VR young learners can interface digitally with the content they are learning about which would captivate them a great deal more, user stories assisted with this also which I will get to.
On the museum aspect of this design, I’ve thought that it could be used in some museums displays for items found a certain sites, a person could look at finds in a museum display and then make use of a VR suite showcasing the 360 videos so they can see what these items would have looked like in their time and immerse the viewer.
To help inform my decision for these audiences I practiced the User Stories concept, one that I did was for the young learners, the example I came up with was “As a teacher, I want an immersive, intuitive experience to engage my students, so that they are better focused and memorise their learning content”
The teacher wants their students to be more immersed and engaged in their learning, this conclusion led me to the idea of including UI text flashcards in the video with key information about the area they are in, so they can remember small bite sized pieces of information.
Content Development
For this project I will need mostly Romano Greek assets, anything sketched I will most likely make myself. For this project also, historical accuracy in the location I am depicting is going to be a challenge, nothing is going to be completely accurate down to the detail, so the aim for this project is to aim for accuracy in the layout and what buildings are present in each period, all the finer details will be less accurate is this is the most realistic approach for me.
For places to source the assets I will be making use of Sketchfab for 3D models and Megascans for textures as quixel has an archive of roman textures I can utilise, and sketchfab has 3d assets I can use for more complex 3d objects, for other designs like people in my scene I’ve opted to go for sketched cut outs, like cardboard cutouts, to depict images of people, I will likely be making these myself however if I’m short on time and need the assets done to a higher quality I may source and reference images an place them in my scene.
I will need to make use of layout maps and sketches from English heritage to inform my layout, and environment designs, as mentioned earlier the layout is what I’ll focus on the most for accuracy as that will be most important.
Storytelling & Narrative.
For the storytelling I’ve broken the site up into stages to help me plan what layouts, assets and environment design and info to use for key dates.
Stage 1 – Early stage of town (AD 85 – AD 185)
Stage 2 – Peak stage (AD 193 – AD 300)
Stage 3 – After/Current stage (AD 400 – AD 2024)
Each of the first two stages will be 2 minutes long with the last stage being 1 minute approximately.
Stage 1 – Early stage of town (AD 85 – AD 185)
The old roman town of Corbridge was extremely large, so big that it won’t be feasible to convey all of it visually so for this project I will be focusing on the area you can actually see and visit today, that being the main market street into the town. The area circled in red on the image below will be the area I will cover.
The fist stage will cover the initial forts created at the site, why they were built and info on what they were mainly used for, the site was built to support Hadrian’s wall which will be mentioned.
This stage will then move onto the early legionary base built after on the site, what structures were placed, small acts about them, and what legions where stationed here, it will also mention the Abandonment of the Antonine wall and the significance of this on the sites purpose.
This first stage will begin with narration from myself on what the viewer is about to experience as well as guiding info on where the viewer should look in case they lose focus, I will also be dropping info along with the text card info.
For transitioning between the different stages of this video I have opted to go for a fade transition, as moving while the user is standing stationary can be quite disorienting and I want the viewer to be focused on the content.
At the end of each stage, I will narrative to the viewer that a transition will take place, and the video will fade to black and move the user back to the start and begin the next section.
Stage 2 – Peak stage (AD 193 – AD 300)
The second stage will have firstly a focus on the military compounds built after the legion bases around the early AD 190s, around this time Septimius Severus had restored stability to the empire and its northern provinces which influenced the town, this effect led to the creation of the civilian town.
This section covering the civilian settlement will include ambient diegetic audio of crowds chatting and sounds of swords and carts, as such my narration audio will be reduced in frequency here to help the user immerse themselves, info text cards in front of the viewer will be used more to convey the facts.
After the viewer sees the town I will use narration to talk about how the town started to slowly be abandoned with the collapse of Roman Governance in Britain which will led to stage 3.
Stage 3 – After/Current stage (AD 400 – AD 2024)
This section will be one minute minimum and will initially talk of the collapse of settlement in the town and the influence of Saxon stone robbers that arrived in the early 7th century, the site the player will see will be ruinous to reflect the modern day state of the area.
When the viewer reaches the end of this stage I will narrate a conclusion of the video and then end with a fade to black.
Technical and Ethical Considerations
When planning for the 360 video I looked back at what we learned for making content for 360, for the fonts of the UI cards, I have opted to go for a simple aerial font, as I want the info on screen to be as readable as possible.
I also want the info to be remembered in small bite sized chunks, from my research, humans can remember on average 3-4 chunks of information in short term memory and as such for both narration and text I will be aiming to keep info short and snappy so the viewer won’t need to remember long lines of text, this is to align with one of my target audiences being young learners as well.
For the UI cards I will be aiming to keep them around 1 – 1.5 meters from view for comfortable reading, I will be following this measurement for certain props in the scene such as for the images of characters.
This video will be designed ideally for the viewer sitting, but I will be planning for those that may stand to so my video can accommodate both, this is why I went with the decision to use screen fades to transition the viewer to a new area, as watching your self-move in VR while you’re stationary can be disorienting
The Reasoning for my video including narration is partly due to accessibility reasons, I wanted to ensure those with blindness can hear information being given and that those who are deaf can see know what’s going on with the UI text cards.
Technology and Tools
The VR 360 video ideally will be made in Blender, as that is the 3d package I am most comfortable with, however if the feasibility of this is not strong then I will go ahead and commit to Maya. For both software packages I will need to consider what kind of render farm to use for the video, Maya has Viper and Blender has multiple third-party farms to choose from, RenderFarm seems to be the recommended for Blender the most.
It’s highly likely I will be making use of some Adobe Software to assist me in creating some assets for the project, I will probably be making use of Photoshop and Substance Painter for texturing basic models and creating images to place on my UI and scene, for the Audio side I will be using Adobe audition in post to add my narration to the video content and also adding the sound effects for the environment.
Project plan
For this project I will be using Trello to track my progress of what I’m doing need to do and have done, as I prefer to use this to quickly add what I’ve done, everything is organised in order of what I need to complete so I can gradually check each task off.
I created a storyboard so i could come up wiht the rough plan for where the viewer will be going, the layout wil always be subject to alteration when i get to creating it.
References
Reference list
English Heritage (n.d.) History of Corbridge Roman Town. English Heritage. Available online: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/corbridge-roman-town-hadrians-wall/history-and-stories/history/ [Accessed 4 Nov. 2024].
Faber Courtial studio for digital works (2016) VR Rome (360 Video). www.youtube.com. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VEAHgzBDmo [Accessed 3 Nov. 2024].
Google Maps (2019) Google Maps. Google Maps. Available online: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.2932443 [Accessed 3 Nov. 2024].