Assignment Part One: Links
Assignment Part Two:
Research Overview
For the first part of our module, we were tasked to experiment with different mediums in which we could create an immersive 3D 360 degree scene or environment. This proved extremely fruitful as it provided me with a lot of great initial ideas that I am extremely ready to build on and let flourish.
My first initial thought process when approaching this project was to come up with some initial ideas as to how I want my piece to look. Not necessarily ideas of what to add, but more in terms of technique, colours etc. I know I wanted to encapsulate quite a low/mid tone as a main colour. My first thought was a dark environment, but with this being such an immersive piece, I did not want to overload colour effects on too dark of an environment, as it could cause problems for the user. More specifically, problems in terms of player comfort when exploring the piece as if they are being overloaded with flashing objects or areas, it could cause issues with health problems such as migraines and epilepsy.
Research – Considering the Colours
Colour in general also has a large effect on cognitive behaviours in people, which is the same in Virtual Reality as it is in real life. When we perceive colour, whether it be through a physical source or a virtual one, the visual stimulus we see contains certain information that our brains take and process. Little is known about colour psychology and so much is left to theory, but there are often statements which are popularised to the point where it may have a subconscious effect on our everyday lives (“the colour green promotes peace and relaxation” for example) Elliot, A.J. and Maier, M.A., (2007). Avoiding colder colours will definitely be a benefit as they are both sharp and have a indirect effect on the lighting of the piece. Lighter colours like blues & whites will make the surrounding areas feel brighter and may lead to discomfort, where as warmer colours like reds, yellows & purples will help keep the player immersed whilst also keeping them comfortable. To ensure I keep a good level of colour control throughout my piece, I will be making sure that I stick to the general colour wheels across the internet and utilising contrast.
Research – Considering the Lighting
The colour not only effects the atmosphere of the environment, but in a VR setting it will also drastically aid the lighting effects that the user will be perceiving throughout their experience. VR as a form of technology is still in its infancy compared to most, and in turn means that the consoles using it are struggling with errors that have not yet had a design method to overcome them. Calibrating these as best we can due to the amounts of blue light being transferred from the screens to the user’s eyes is incredibly important to halt the exacerbation of headaches & migraines SeriousReaders (2021). When creating my virtual environment, minimal uses of harsh lighting effects will be necessary however with this in mind it does not mean I cannot use any at all. My application of how and where I use them has to be both sparing and calculated.
Research – Considering the Setting
When it comes to considering the setting of the piece, I first had to decide on which medium of design I will be using to create the scene for the final production. Each application that we covered in our workshop had their pros and cons, however I will be wanting to keep it fairly simple and stick to an application that I am familiar with. With this in mind, I will be using Autodesk Maya for the main bulk of the creation process.
Using maya allows me to experiment with complex shapes, and really create a dynamically shaped environment, whilst also incorporating interesting and strong lighting sources. Having experience in all of these, I am confident in my ability to take these specific elements to standard required to immerse the user in my environment. If I struggle with using Maya, I can also swap to using an application such as Unreal Engine. This being another 3D environment design medium would be a great backup in case my main idea cannot be brought to fruition.
Ideally for the physical setting itself, my main plan is to create an underwater exploration scene, in which the user finds themselves in a small nautical craft in which they are roaming some shallow parts of a reef that is shouldered alongside a deeper trench of ocean. The player will remain in the reef for the experience but may see the occasional glint of mysterious light emerging from the trench, adding to the mystery of what is down in there. There will be nothing that emerges, however utilising audio will be an extremely important aspect for making this right as some large far out wails may be heard from the trench below increasing the tension for the user.
Horror is a genre of game that I love, and I always try (if the situation allows) to incorporate something of a horror nature into my projects if I can. In a situation like this, I would use the fear of something unknown to really captivate the player into wanting to explore more but having to stay glued to the screen for answers. Applying a small hint of horror into the scene like this would work for one major reason, that “as humans we are visual creatures and our fear of darkness may be selected for by evolution” Madigan, J. (2015). Now as horror would not be the major focus for this, there would still be much for the player to focus on such as fish, coral, greenery etc. This would definitely help offset any overwhelming feelings of unease and I can space out interactions to give the user ample time to regain composure and limit the repetition of events.
Concept Images of Environments
Here is a collection of images that I feel could really help inspire the final design of my production piece.
Considering Ethical Practices
With any creative design choice comes the task of ensuring that we are staying within certain ethical boundaries. Especially for a published piece such as this, it is crucial that I have a basic knowledge of recent and current world events as to ensure my work is not considered insensitive or offensive. A big concern in creating an underwater piece is to ensure that I not venture on the idea of having the players nautical craft start to malfunction. The reason for this being in relation to the Oceangate Titan submarine that tragically did not return from a venture to the remains of the Titanic. These types of issues also brings cause for concerns in two major phobias that would have to be taken into account from the user point of view, thalassophobia and claustrophobia. These are the fear of being underwater and being in close space environments respectively.
Project Planning – My Timeline Goals
By the time this first assignment will be handed in, I will have 7 weeks to the day to create this piece. That gives me blocks of weeks at a time to focus on specific parts of the production, and I have allocated time throughout these weeks to ensure I can spread myself as efficiently as possible over these aspects. I split the scene final piece into four major aspects (excluding camera which will be done in the final week 7). The aspects are:
- Asset Gathering – This will include browsing asset stores and creating valuable assets in available software to ensure maximum immersion
- Audio – Sampling royalty free clips and recording my own pieces to really help drive an atmosphere the user will not want to dissociate from
- Environment – Creating the environment will be the most challenging part, using the assets from the gathering stage will be a must, hence me starting with that section, and ensuring that it is properly textured to the best of my ability
- Lighting – Applying my knowledge of lighting to implement suitable sources of light, both ambient light and direct light.
Above is the outline I am currently working towards in hopes to get this production piece finished for the deadline. I do not expect asset gathering to take a full week, so on the chance I do get what I need fairly early on I will start the other steps slightly earlier as well. This saves me having gaps of time in-between where I procrastinate and decide to put off making progress.
Project Planning – Asset Gathering and Creation
Assets in this piece are going to be extremely important, for both background and foreground pieces. Being underwater does allow for some extremely beautiful landscape designs, such as underwater ruins, caves, coral reefs etc. I am hoping to gather as many pre made assets in this category as I can to spread more time out on making the environment as opposed to making individual pieces. Ideally, when looking for marketplace assets I can hopefully find some free of charge pieces to use on web stores such as unreal or unity’s asset markets. Doing so would result in a larger variety of models to use, rocks & wrecks etc. and really help create a story for the piece.
Maya will be an extremely helpful tool should I decide that certain pieces will need creating. Using different tools like extrusion, bevelling & the wide variety of poly modelling tools, I will be able to make some extremely dynamic and complex shapes. I do not plan on doing this in an extremely photo realistic setting, so with the fairly low poly environment I will be making, the assets will not be too large of a part should I need to create and prepare them.
Project Planning – Audio Design
Understandably, being underwater in a virtual reality piece is definitely going to have a large effect on the audio that the user would expect. Over the span of a week (or however long I may be able to spare doing so), I will be looking to record audio parts from a plethora of sources both at home and in public. The sound in question will have to be extremely thought out, as I want to avoid adding audio tracks into the piece just for the sake of there being a sound.
Any assets I do use, I will take into an application such as FMOD, and edit myself to create the underwater effect I require. This will be through the use of different techniques such as automation to create the effect of sounds droning and travelling through the water, lowering the treble of assets and increasing the bass values to create the muffling sound that you would tend to find underwater, etc. Once these sounds are recorded and edited, I can look to export the new edited assets into MP3 files and get them imported into my project. There, I can add them into the desired places as either mono or stereo sounds (as relevant per audio piece).
Project Planning – Environment
Environment is definitely going to be the most important part of this scape, as my production will be taking place while submerged underwater. With this in mind, I will have to shape my environment accordingly, and ensure that sufficient water textures are imported. The last thing I would want to do is create the reef in which will be so visible but leave the area extremely open due to empty space. After building parts in Maya that I need, it will more than likely be that the environment will have to be sculpted in tools such as blender and/or unreal engine.
Sculpting an underwater environment using a graphics tablet will be my best method of creating a more natural appearing sea floor. Being able to use a pen to create unnatural shapes and disrupt and sculpting patterns in the environment will aid the aesthetic and really show the surrounding water’s natural pressure.
I also do not have to limit my view and keep it fully close up. I am at liberty to have the user start above water and sink underneath, with a boat or some sort of pier above and place them right in the centre of the scene. This could really help get the user thinking that they are a part of this world rather than looking through someone else’s eyes to really help immerse them into this scene. If I chose this approach, the boat could be visible to the user from wherever they end up in the surrounding water as well to really put how far they have travelled into perspective of ocean sizes.
Project Planning – Lighting & Cameras
Lighting will be an extremely important part of this VR scene. As stated earlier in this post, lighting has a large effect on the colours presented in the scene as well as an effect on the user. I aim to have the setting of the production based around dusk in this selected placed, meaning there will be ample light for the user to see underwater and explore, whilst also not presenting too much blue light. Exposing the user to more red light than blue light really helps keeps their eyes more comfortable, meaning they will be more comfortable whilst exploring, resulting in a longer time immersed in the environment and piece.
Using a 360 camera will also be extremely important. I plan on having the user in a small craft, however it will be big enough for them to get out of their seat and walk around the main navigation room. Once the user is moving around the environment in the craft, the camera will still be tied to themselves and will not notice the craft moving around whenever they do. I will have this move separately as to not make the production piece seem clunky at all.
Storyboard – Initial Key Frame Concepts
The initial keyframe will be starting from either being lowered in the craft from a larger boat anchored on the water, or from another part of the players craft. However, regardless of whichever start comes to fruition there will not be much time before the user is at the helm and looking upon a coral reef.
There will be a brief exploration when they notice an ominous part of the sea floor, which on a further distanced inspection looks to be a trench. After it passes, the user carries on exploring and noting different fish they see.
They player will then come across a wreck, which will stir a response from something large in the distance from an audio queue. No visual will be presented, and the user’s imagination will take precedent.
After another short exploration, there will be a much louder audio queue alongside a change in lighting to become more ominous. In a panic, the user will look to leave the area, whether it is returning to the boat or to the shore.
Planning for project contingencies
I am no stranger to things going wrong in a project for one reason or another. Should anything happen and the idea of an underwater piece become out of the realm of possibility to create, I have decided that as a backup, I will look to create a production that leans heavily on inspiration from H.P Lovecraft and the occult.
References
Elliot, A.J. and Maier, M.A., (2007). Color and psychological functioning. Current directions in psychological science, 16(5), pp.250-254.
Madigan, J. (2015). The Psychology of Horror Games. Psychology of Games. 29 October. https://www.psychologyofgames.com/2015/10/the-psychology-of-horror-games/ [Accessed: 16/11/2024]
SeriousReaders. (2021). How does light in a virtual reality headset work? The problems with VR technologies. Seriousreaders. 02 November. https://www.seriousreaders.com/blog/how-does-light-in-a-virtual-reality-headset-work?srsltid=AfmBOorbclTHGWG19n15Ie4_bL865WrzZRUL_vPUcD5G2y2n206_zvWg [Accessed: 16/11/2024]