Final Piece Video
These are screenshots and a video screencap of my final piece (as the real final outcome must be shown on a phone in a google cardboard headset). It shows my finished virtual reality environment, modelled on Salvador Dali's painting: The persistence of memory. It includes animated elements, with the clock hands and ocean, user input, with the ability to turn inside the environment, a surround sound soundscape that changes volume depending on where you are in the area and is slightly doppler-affected, as well as all the other elements shown in my process on this page. The video demonstrates the head tracking and gives an almost perfect depiction of what it will be like to actually use the piece as intended, and the images show an overview of the final build and what the experience looks like on a phone screen respectively.
These are screenshots and a video screencap of my final piece (as the real final outcome must be shown on a phone in a google cardboard headset). It shows my finished virtual reality environment, modelled on Salvador Dali's painting: The persistence of memory. It includes animated elements, with the clock hands and ocean, user input, with the ability to turn inside the environment, a surround sound soundscape that changes volume depending on where you are in the area and is slightly doppler-affected, as well as all the other elements shown in my process on this page. The video demonstrates the head tracking and gives an almost perfect depiction of what it will be like to actually use the piece as intended, and the images show an overview of the final build and what the experience looks like on a phone screen respectively.
Instruction Graphics
Creating the Soundscape
Creating the Soundscape
These are the individual sounds that make up the soundscape of my final piece. I assigned each of the sounds to their respective objects, and edited the settings so that they are a realistic volume for the distance away you are. Using Unity's 3D sound effect, I made it so the sounds completely surround the player, realistically panning across the headphones as the user turns their head. This increases the immersive effect of the piece and acts as a subtle instruction for the user to turn around as they will be able to hear sounds coming from behind them.
Final Piece Second Build Test
After adding in all the assets, texturing them, completing the sea and sky, and adding the sound effects, I tested my piece to make sure everything was in working order. Now I just need to perfect the placement of everything, adjust the camera and lighting, and make any final tweaks it requires before the final show.
Final Piece First Build Test
This was my first rough build of my final piece, with only a few of the assets and none of the scaling or lighting worked out, just to ensure everything was in working order before I started building the final piece.
Animation Testing
This was my first rough build of my final piece, with only a few of the assets and none of the scaling or lighting worked out, just to ensure everything was in working order before I started building the final piece.
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| The app logo I chose, to make it clear where my piece is on the phone, and to make it seem more professional |
Animation Testing
These are animation tests to try and get the hands on my clocks to go round smoothly and accurately. The bottom two are early attempts in blender to get it to work with keyframing alone, and the top video shows the first test after importing it into unity with an F-cycle attached.
Creating the Ocean
To create realistic looking water, I used this water texture with a reflective, bumped specular shader alongside the code below which made it look as it there were waves flowing across the surface.
Photoshopped Textures
I photoshopped the original painting to give me textures that I can now UV map onto my 3D models so that they look as close to the original painting as possible
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| Back flat box texture |
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| Clock 3 crown texture |
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| Clock 3 centre sphere texture |
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| Clcok 3 hands texture |
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| Clock 3 neck texture |
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| Clock 3 rim and faces texture |
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| Dali's face front and back textures |
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| Clock 2 crown texture |
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| Clock 2 hands texture |
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| Clock 2 neck texture |
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| Clock 2 rim and faces |
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| Branch back texture |
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| branch front texture |
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| Mountain with transparent background |
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| Table texture with shadows |
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| Rock 1 texture |
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| Rock 2 texture |
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| Floor texture |
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| Ants on bottle texture |
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| Bottle top texture |
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| Bottle body texture |
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| Bottle neck texture |
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| Clock 1 centre sphere |
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| Clock 1 crown |
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| Clock 1 minute hand |
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| Clock 1 hour hand |
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| Clock 1 rim and faces |
Final Arranged Scene
These are screenshots of the scene in their final arrangement with the animated sea, all objects, and the mountain in place, in the build view (not the camera view)
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| Final arrangement |
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| Zoomed out view so the whole sea is visable |
Adding the Textures in Unity
After individually UV mapping the textures onto each part of each object in blender, simply dragging the texture images onto each element keeps the UV information and textures it in the correct place.
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| The bottle during texturing |
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| The bottle post texturing |
Building the scene
These are screenshots of my scene whilst I was building and texturing it, and the codes that are used in the final build to control the stereoscopic vision, character movement, distortion, and headtracking.
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| Branch added to scene |
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| Branch scaled and positioned |
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| Clock two added to branch |
Final Piece Textured Models
Here is a selection of my finished models now they have been textured.
Creating the Skybox
Here is a screenshot of my skybox once I have put all six images together. The six images are attached to both of my cameras, and appear behind everything placed in the scene, creating the illusion of a full 360 degree sky.
Landscape Photography
As a starting point of my exploration into the creation of imaginary environments, I decided to do some photography of real life landscapes as inspiration. I looked for varying landscapes within close geographical range, and tried to find some that are out of the norm, for example, the burnt trees within the long grass, or the waterfall surrounded by skyscrapers.
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Berlin & Warsaw Photography
Whilst in Berlin and Warsaw, I took photos of the environment to give me inspiration into creating an imaginary environment as these places have a completely different landscape to that I am used to in England. I focused on elements of the built environment, in keeping with my ideas of creating a 2D/3D cityscape, and other elements of the landscape to create an interesting moodboard of environments.
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Virtual Reality Test Piece 4
This test piece is made up of a single model, borrowed from the internet, to help me realise the capabilities of making a virtual reality environment out of a well known painting.
Virtual Reality Test Piece 3
This test piece followed my idea of making a 3D world made up of supposedly 2D items: newspapers. I 3D modelled the buildings, as seen earlier, and textured them with text and well know newspaper logos.
Virtual Reality Test Piece 2
This is the first fully modelled environment that I created in unity. I uploaded it onto a phone and at the first test stage it would only respond to touch, not movement, so by the second testing stage I perfected the scripts to account for head tracking. I also got a third party person, with no experience with google cardboard or virtual reality in general, to test out my piece, simply giving the instructions that she describe what she was doing as she did it. This allowed me to test how simple the piece was to use, and whether it worked even when you don't know what you are looking for.
Tarot UV Mapping Test
Here is a screenshot of my first try of UV mapped texturing. I unwrapped my empress tarot card model as a smart UV object. This gives me the object in 'net' form in multiple different parts, as close to those matching the axis' as possible (front, side, and top). From this, I can transform the faces and move each individual point until the texture fits perfectly onto the object.
Wolf Modelling Practice Reference Images
These are the reference images I used to model my first cube mesh object.
Subdivision Surface Modifier Tests
Testing My Pieces on Oculus
Here are images of me testing my own virtual reality test scenes on the oculus rift. I used a unity plugin to convert my project into an oculus rift ready one, and ran it on the headset to compare its performance to the google cardboard.
Setting Up Oculus Rift and Leap motion
Here are photos and instructions documenting the set up of the oculus rift with leap motion
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| Plug in the wires to the headset as shown |
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| Slot the cover over the wires |
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| Plug the other end of these connecting wires into your USB port (or straight into the computer if you have more than 4 USB slots) |
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| Attach the other end into the HDMI adapter |
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| Plug the HDMI adapter into the micro USB port |
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| This is how your computer screen will now appear |
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| Plug the wire into the Infared camera as shown |
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| Plug the other end into the wirebox as shown |
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| Plug the USB wire into the other slot on the camera |
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| And plug the other end of that into the USB port |
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| Attach the camera to the top of your monitor |
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| Plug in the power supply |
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| And plug in the other end into the wirebox |
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| A blue light should come on the headset indicating it is on |
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| Change the resolution settings on your computer to make the screen appear normal |
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| Plug the grey wire into the side of the leap motion |
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| Slot the leap motion into the cradle on the front of the oculus headset |
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| Plug the USB end into the USB extender |
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| Plug the other end into the USB port and enjoy! |
Building Google Cardboard
Here I have created a simple stop motion animation of the creation of a google cardboard headset, to accompany my instructions.
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| The standard Google Cardboard kit containing everything you need: Laser cut cardboard part, Velcro, Glass lenses, Two magnets, Elastic Band. |
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| The first pre-cut piece |
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| Start by popping out all the removable sections |
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| Score along all of the creases |
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| Fold the cardboard as shown |
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| Slot the edges into the holes to keep it in place |
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| Stick hooked and looped sides of the velcro1 together, and stick to the top of the google cardboard |
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| Close the cardboard, leaving enough room for where a phone would be, and stick the other side of the velcro to this part to ensure the velcro will line up. |
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| Hold a magnet in place in the slot on the side... |
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| And put the other magnet on the other side so both with stay up on their own |
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| Using double sided tape (optional) stick or place lenses in third compartment circles of first cardboard piece. |
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| Fold the third section over the second... |
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| And fold the first section underneath the other two |
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| Slot the eyepiece into the body of the headset |
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| Open out again with the velcro now securely in place |
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| Slot in the dividing piece between the eye holes, with the gap allowing room for your nose |
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| Slot a phone into the headset, already running a google cardboard capable app |
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| Close and enjoy! |
Flash Animation Plan
This is a sketch of the painting I am going to create a virtual world of, with a few of the elements animated in flash. This helps give me an idea of which parts I could animate to make the piece less static, and also will help me decide how to go about it when it comes to 3D animating it.
Final Assets Reference Drawings
These are the Images I created from my orthographic blueprints. For each of the more complicated elements of the painting that i am going to model I have drawn out a perspective-free version of the front, top, and side of the object (and more for some of the even more complex shapes).
Bottle - Perspective View
Bottle - Front View
Bottle - Left View
Bottle - Top View
Branch - Left View
Clock One - Perspective View
Clock One - Left View
Clock One - Top View
Clock Two - Perspective View
Clock Two - Front View
Clock Two - Back View
Clock Two - Left View
Clock Two - Top
Clock Three - Perspective View
Clock Three - Back View
Clock Three - Front View
Clock Three - Left
Clock Three - Top View
'Dali's face' - Perspective View
Dali's Face - Left View
Dali's Face - Right View
Dali's Face - Top View
Orthographic Drawings
These are the 'blueprints' I drew out for creating my 3D models for my final piece. I traced out the original objects to ensure they were accurate, and then used this to create dotted guidelines to keep everything in proportion. After I drew out each side I would copy and paste it at a right angle to make sure it would all fit together perfectly in 3D.
Trump Modelling Reference Images
These are the different viewpoint images I used to help me model the Trump building for my skyscrapers test piece. This was my first experience modelling from real life or from reference images, allowing me to create accurate 3D models easily.
Skybox Textures
Leap Motion Input Test
This is a short video of me testing out the user input capability of the leap motion, helping me consider user input methods for my final piece.
Exploring Leap Motion Playground Tests
Here are three different test 'playground' games that are available on leap motion, allowing me to test out its user input capability.
Oculus Rift Test Scene
This is a short video showing me testing out the oculus rift.
Wii Remote - External User Input Test
Here I am testing out using a wii remote to control an object in unity. I connected the wii remote to my computer via bluetooth and ran a script that allowed to control the movement of a cube 'wii parent' with the wii remote.
Autowalk - Internal User Input Test
This video shows me testing out the autowalk script of the google cardboard .sdk. When the centre of the users vision lands on the sphere I made in the sky for over 2 seconds, it triggers the character controller to start moving forwards, ands stops again if you repeat the action.
Oculus With Leap Motion Testing
These videos (When played at exactly the same time) show both my movements and reactions, and exactly what was being shown inside the headset. Here I am testing out using the oculus rift in conjunction with the leap motion controller so that I am able to interact with the environments I am experiencing.
These are the 3D models that will go on to make up my final piece. I modelled them based on the original painting - The Persistence of Memory - and my orthographic drawings. From this I will go on to texture them to look like those in the paintings, and then build my scene out of them.
Interactive Painting Test Asset - Untextured
This is a model I downloaded off the internet (created by Troy Whitmer) that I used to test out another of my initial ideas - exploring a virtual reality 3D painting.
Tarot Card Test Asset - Untextured
This was a model created to test out another of my initial ideas by drawing around the shape of one of my tarot card characters, and extruding it to make a 3D model.
Skyscraper/Building Test Assets - Untextured
These are the raw, untextured 3D models used in creating my second virtual reality test piece. For these I tried out numerous techniques, such as using boolean modifiers to remove window shaped sections, mesh modelling by combining multiple 3D shapes, extruding flat shapes made up of curves, and transforming shapes using bevel levels.
'Flat' Test Assets - Untextured
These are the untextured 3D models for one of my first test virtual reality pieces. They are all made by extruding flat shapes drawn out using bezier curves.
Modelling 'Flat' Assests: Excrusion Modelling Test Piece
These are fast-motion videos showing my process of creating flat assets for one of my virtual reality test pieces.
Concept 3 - Concept Art
This is another piece of concept art for a possible imaginary environment I could make. It shows a natural scene that is made entirely out of flat objects, as if they are pieces of set. Again, I could use this as a location for a film or animation, or as a virtual reality environment.
Concept 2 - Concept Art
This is concept art for a possible imaginary environment, made up of buildings folded out of newspaper. I could turn this into the location of a short film or animation, or use it as a virtual reality environment.
Concept 1 - Step Outline
This is a step outline for a pice I am considering making, outlining the sound and visuals of what would be happening on screen. It is for a time based piece of a first person point of view animation exploring the relationship between 2D and 3D, in a strangely game-like formatThis allows me to start thinking of concepts in a way that affects multiple senses at once.
This is a step outline for a pice I am considering making, outlining the sound and visuals of what would be happening on screen. It is for a time based piece of a first person point of view animation exploring the relationship between 2D and 3D, in a strangely game-like formatThis allows me to start thinking of concepts in a way that affects multiple senses at once.
Origami Stop Motion - 3rd Test Piece
This is a stop motion animation I made using two identical origami cranes, holding them up to make it look like they are flying across the screen independently, with the background continuously changing and the bird staying the only constant. This started me off thinking about the relationship between the dimensions by using 2D materials (such as paper) to create a 3D animation.
Simple landscape to be viewed through Google Cardboard - 2nd test piece (1st VR Test Piece)
This is a simple virtual reality environment created in unity with a skybox, ground plane, and a few walls representing a shelter of sorts. It can be uploaded onto a phone, and viewed through a google cardboard headset creating a 3D view. When you turn your head, the screen changes as if you are looking around inside the landscape, and you can use the arrow keys on a computer to control movement within the scene. From this, I would like to explore using this medium of virtual reality and google cardboard further.
This is a simple virtual reality environment created in unity with a skybox, ground plane, and a few walls representing a shelter of sorts. It can be uploaded onto a phone, and viewed through a google cardboard headset creating a 3D view. When you turn your head, the screen changes as if you are looking around inside the landscape, and you can use the arrow keys on a computer to control movement within the scene. From this, I would like to explore using this medium of virtual reality and google cardboard further.
These are small, paper houses I made that light up when the environment around them goes dark. I did this by cold soldering - using electricity conductive paint - small circuits into the roof of each house including LED's and Light dependent resistors. The resistors were hidden inside the chimneys of the house and varied the voltage going to the LED's depending on the amount of light hitting them, making the light brighter in dim light and less bright or completely off in brighter light. Because of this, I am considering working with more small circuits and creating electric elements, as well as exploring interactivity/responsiveness further.
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