Week 1 - Reality threshold Ideas
1. Keywords : Fragility/ Disillusionment
I’m thinking of creating a virtual world with realistic and ordinary scenes inside. Everything seems to be normal but there will be one or two unusual objects waiting to be discovered. For instance, a flower that is gradually turning into sand, or a mirror that responds with ripples when you touch it. When the user finds the unusual objects and interact with them, everything in the scene will collapses and vanishes. It’s like the experience of discovering something weird in a vivid dream and suddenly realizing you are dreaming. Finding out the uncommon parts is like pushing the first domino, making the illusion falls apart.
1. Keywords : Unconsciousness / Self-discovery
I’m inspired by the anime series ID:INVAED which tells the story of a detective solving a case by entering the world of the killer's unconscious mind: the id well. Since a person's unconscious thoughts are rarely organized, everything within an id well appears in a fractured or symbolic state. The detective can see fragmented parts of the killer’s psyche inside the id well.
I’m inspired by the anime series ID:INVAED which tells the story of a detective solving a case by entering the world of the killer's unconscious mind: the id well. Since a person's unconscious thoughts are rarely organized, everything within an id well appears in a fractured or symbolic state. The detective can see fragmented parts of the killer’s psyche inside the id well.
Based on these, I’m thinking of creating two spaces that represent the persona and the shadow. The “persona space” will be bright, colorful, and spotless, while the “shadow space” will be dark, fractured and chaotic. The user can explore around and move things between the two spaces to gradually merge them together.
Week 2-6 Reality Threshold Project
Starting with the end, here's what I created:
// All objects in the scene have symbolic meanings.
In the first room, the sculpture represents my fractured self, and the painted mirror represents the feeling of not recognizing myself when I look at my own reflection.
The swing derives from a dream I had where I was swinging in the sky and the next moment the swing was on fire. The clocks scattered in sand is a metaphor for my time anxiety. The cage represents the constraints I feel. And the piano in water symbolizes the feeling of drowning when I was forced to learn piano as a child.
On the second floor, the mannequin represents the darkness in me that I'm trying to hide. The TV with a 404 page on it is a metaphor for the internet censorship I experienced in China. And the security cameras on the wall symbolize the feeling of being watched by someone all the time. //
Process
From week two to six I kept working on my reality threshold project. My idea was to make a space that reflects my inner world, my true self. I didn't have a clear picture of how my space should look like at the beginning, but I imagined it to be surreal and metaphoric. As I began to create my scene in Blender some questions came to mind: What objects best represent me? What emotions am I repressing? What parts of me do I ignore? What parts of me am I afraid of showing others? Finding the answers was an amazing self-exploration journey.
For most of the time, I was modeling and adjusting materials in Blender. Some of the models, like the piano, were downloaded from the internet which I edited the meshes and materials to fit the scene. For other ones like the painted mirror, I tried to add more personalities by building the models myself and then creating textures in Substance Painter.
From week two to six I kept working on my reality threshold project. My idea was to make a space that reflects my inner world, my true self. I didn't have a clear picture of how my space should look like at the beginning, but I imagined it to be surreal and metaphoric. As I began to create my scene in Blender some questions came to mind: What objects best represent me? What emotions am I repressing? What parts of me do I ignore? What parts of me am I afraid of showing others? Finding the answers was an amazing self-exploration journey.
For most of the time, I was modeling and adjusting materials in Blender. Some of the models, like the piano, were downloaded from the internet which I edited the meshes and materials to fit the scene. For other ones like the painted mirror, I tried to add more personalities by building the models myself and then creating textures in Substance Painter.
From week two to six I kept working on my reality threshold project. My idea was to make a space that reflects my inner world, my true self. I didn't have a clear picture of how my space should look like at the beginning, but I imagined it to be surreal and metaphoric. As I began to create my scene in Blender some questions came to mind: What objects best represent me? What emotions am I repressing? What parts of me do I ignore? What parts of me am I afraid of showing others? Finding the answers was an amazing self-exploration journey.
For most of the time, I was modeling and adjusting materials in Blender. Some of the models, like the piano, were downloaded from the internet which I edited the meshes and materials to fit the scene. For other ones like the painted mirror, I tried to add more personalities by building the models myself and then creating textures in Substance Painter.
Modeling in Blender
Creating textures in Substance Painter
After creating the scene, the next step was exporting all the assets from Blender and importing them into Unreal. Initially, I tried this Blender addon called "Send to Unreal" which is used for moving assets between the two software. It kind of worked but created messy folders in Unreal, so eventually I did all the exporting and importing manually. To bake textures created in Blender, I used the Blender addon "Simple Bake" which I found to be much quicker than the Cycles Baking Blender has.
Most of the materials I set up in Unreal are similar, including a base color map, a normal map, a roughness map, and a metallic map. There are also parameters to adjust the UV tiling and color tint. The cloud, fire, and water are made with unique materials.
Master Material
Recreating the scene in Unreal
To be able to walk around in the virtual space, I added a first person character using blueprints. The character couldn't move at first but thanks to Jonathan, I learned that it was the collision of the room causing the problem. I modified the collision mesh and also adjusted the "Max Step Height" so the charater can walk up stairs.
Lighting was also a difficult part. In Blender, adding multiple point lights and area lights is the common way of lighting up a scene. However in Unreal, this kind of lighting setup doesn't work. Following Jonathan's advice, I reduced the amount of lights and changed some of them into spot lights, which made the scene look better.
Final Image:
This was my first time creating a scene in Unreal. It was a lot to learn but I really enjoyed the process. And I'm also super happy with what I made! My next step would be adding some interactive elements and making it into a VR experience by the end of this semester.
Week 7-14 Final Project - Innerspace
The question is how to engage the user and communicate my personal story in a natural way. I thought a VR escape room experience would be a good medium in that it comes with a specific goal set for the player. Also, I could convey my experience more easily by making it the storyline of the game.
Concept
Innerspace is the virtual world formed by a person's unconcious mind. No two spaces are alike, as every mental state of a person is different. The structure of the space and objects inside it are objectifications of the owner's personal experiences and feelings. It's usually not open to the outside, and if an outsider enters it, they need to figure the way out, or they will be trapped inside forever.
As for this specific Innerspace, it belongs to a person whose heart is full of depression and trauma. She is struggling to find her true self while constantly repressing her emotions. Her hidden feelings and experiences are embodied in this space. The player, as a therapist, needs to explore her Innerspace and find a way out by helping her release her repressed negative emotions.
Playtest
