Double Eye Blog - Week 8 - Art & Architecture
We
are getting close to completing the second main mechanic of adding buildings.
We’re also in a total revamp of our world working more closely with the color
palette I originally set. We’ve dumped out our prefab models that we used for
testing and we’re honing in on the atmosphere and the feel of the experience.
Some pieces are beginning to feel like they’re clicking. I’m in constant
rewrites on the narrative, casting to find the right voices for V.O., and
planning another 360 shoot in Brooklyn. Meanwhile my teammates are building
away, from the 3D models to the mechanics.
While
we are busy building the backend “architecture” of this 3D world, I hadn’t put
a lot of thought into the concept of architecture when it comes to
gentrification. I regularly think about the types of people involved
around gentrification -- the residents, real estate developers, business
owners, but what about the architects? I hadn’t thought deeply about what role
they play in the changing design of our cities until I came across this TED
talk by Justin Davidson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48x_00Iy0ac
Diversity
in a city is important to me in terms of people and point of view. Diversity
gives us an experience. I believe it’s why we actually have the “feeling” that
we are in a city; because all backgrounds and sounds and energies are colliding
into each other around us. It’s why I first began documenting the plight of
artists being displaced and why I’ve continued to explore this topic. Davidson,
an architecture critic discusses the lack of diversity in our buildings and
points out why our cities are beginning to look monotonous. He suggests that it
comes down to the materials we are using and he’s especially critical of the
use of glass.
So
while we craft our buildings to replicate this old style of 1800s architecture
in Gowanus, I think about the new styles of buildings, heavily designed with
large glass windows which the players will bring in. We have been fortunate to
add a 3D modeler (Leigh) who happens to be an architect. She brings
great insight to our team about buildings and New York. I’ve learned from her
that zoning laws were originally created in NYC to establish light and air
requirements. The zoning law for NYC was in fact the very first zoning law passed in
the US, and it dates back to 1916, making sure that light and air reached the
sidewalk.
Tradition
and history are important, but change is inevitable. I’m curious to explore the
balance between these ideas. Is it even possible to make way for change while
preserving history? It will be interesting to see what choices the player will
make.
CalmBox (Kathleen Kamali)
Last week I wasn't able to even get a blog post up! My progress has always been slow, but it didn't feel great to miss a blog!
First off, I was able to get people to finally experience the part of my game that I have. And it's apparently incredibly relaxing. My best friend came over and I watched as she went from standing, to sitting, to laying down. Which yes, seems pretty weird, but for a game about relaxation watching someone become quickly comfortable in the environment and soothed I think means that I'm doing something right 🙂
This week I managed to add some shooting stars, and most importantly...
A fox friend! He doesn't do much now, but I like his little low poly presence!
I also found hopefully the right asset to help with the glitter jar effect. Yay physics!
Last week I wasn't able to even get a blog post up! My progress has always been slow, but it didn't feel great to miss a blog!
First off, I was able to get people to finally experience the part of my game that I have. And it's apparently incredibly relaxing. My best friend came over and I watched as she went from standing, to sitting, to laying down. Which yes, seems pretty weird, but for a game about relaxation watching someone become quickly comfortable in the environment and soothed I think means that I'm doing something right 🙂
This week I managed to add some shooting stars, and most importantly...
A fox friend! He doesn't do much now, but I like his little low poly presence!
I also found hopefully the right asset to help with the glitter jar effect. Yay physics!
Starting from scratch since my recent computer crash. Was not able to get the original work back since now the original project just stalls on open for hours. I just switched to using my old mac so I can have something for the deadline. I am now aiming to have something for the Alpha submission channel. Based on the recent events I have shifted my idea to something darker. 
Tania Pavlisak - Enliven VR Week 8:
This week was one of those time when I lost track of days and suddenly it was the end of the week. If it wasn't for persistent calendar notifications, I would totally missed the office hour on Friday too. Thank you, technology!
I spent two days resting to recover from the conferences and game jam. Then, following advice from the conference, I worked on making real assets for this project. The first room to tackle is the bedroom scene. During the game jam in the previous week, I managed to grab a couple friends to try the early unpolished prototype, and they both like the outer space scene, and dislike the bedroom scene. They like the open space feeling, and bedroom barely had any opening. So I spent a few days researching open space room design as an alternative. Initially I wanted to create a Japanese inspired room, with tatami floor, ceiling, shoji wall panels & doors. Moving ahead, I still want to have some Japanese room elements but combined with modern design for the open space feeling. I'm hoping to get this all done by the end of next week.
Here are a couple model I created for bedroom scenes:
On, after listening in the office hour Q&A, I decided to update Samsung S7 O/S from Marshmallow to Nougat. I went to At&t first, explained my situation to them, but they were not able to help. We tried with inserting their sim card onto the phone and looked for update, but nothing happened. Not only that, the phone suddenly said I couldn't try to update for another 20 something hours. Then I messaged Caroline Old Coyote. She mentioned to go to Best Buy, and look for Samsung representative there, since she had better luck going by this method. I followed her suggestion and went to the closest Best Buy, and voila, the Samsung guy just plugged my phone to his laptop, push a few buttons and I have Nougat installed. Thank you Caroline!
Plan for next week:
- finalize bedroom level design with real assets
- add 1-2 animal companion to the scene
- start implementing interaction for space and bedroom scenes
See you next week!
This week was one of those time when I lost track of days and suddenly it was the end of the week. If it wasn't for persistent calendar notifications, I would totally missed the office hour on Friday too. Thank you, technology!
I spent two days resting to recover from the conferences and game jam. Then, following advice from the conference, I worked on making real assets for this project. The first room to tackle is the bedroom scene. During the game jam in the previous week, I managed to grab a couple friends to try the early unpolished prototype, and they both like the outer space scene, and dislike the bedroom scene. They like the open space feeling, and bedroom barely had any opening. So I spent a few days researching open space room design as an alternative. Initially I wanted to create a Japanese inspired room, with tatami floor, ceiling, shoji wall panels & doors. Moving ahead, I still want to have some Japanese room elements but combined with modern design for the open space feeling. I'm hoping to get this all done by the end of next week.
Here are a couple model I created for bedroom scenes:
On, after listening in the office hour Q&A, I decided to update Samsung S7 O/S from Marshmallow to Nougat. I went to At&t first, explained my situation to them, but they were not able to help. We tried with inserting their sim card onto the phone and looked for update, but nothing happened. Not only that, the phone suddenly said I couldn't try to update for another 20 something hours. Then I messaged Caroline Old Coyote. She mentioned to go to Best Buy, and look for Samsung representative there, since she had better luck going by this method. I followed her suggestion and went to the closest Best Buy, and voila, the Samsung guy just plugged my phone to his laptop, push a few buttons and I have Nougat installed. Thank you Caroline!
Plan for next week:
- finalize bedroom level design with real assets
- add 1-2 animal companion to the scene
- start implementing interaction for space and bedroom scenes
See you next week!
Mariya Mishurenko — AWERE project
This week was fantastic and productive! We finished to sketch all user interactions, onboarding, tested some breathing sessions and even got some early testing feedback from an actual psychiatrist who is using biofeedback on a daily basis in his work!
We decided to make a living sculpture for visualizing user's breath. Sculptures are generated on the runtime. Every session will be different and user will see the progress over time not via scores, but via comparing sculptures.
We still have a lot of challenges — like the freezing controller, but it all starting to work, woohoo!
This week was fantastic and productive! We finished to sketch all user interactions, onboarding, tested some breathing sessions and even got some early testing feedback from an actual psychiatrist who is using biofeedback on a daily basis in his work!
We decided to make a living sculpture for visualizing user's breath. Sculptures are generated on the runtime. Every session will be different and user will see the progress over time not via scores, but via comparing sculptures.
We still have a lot of challenges — like the freezing controller, but it all starting to work, woohoo!
Neil D. Short
Project Title: Achilles Heel
Type: 360 Video Series
Genre: Sci-Fi Sitcom
OLP17 - Blog 8
Wow, Week 8! This week has been about graphic designing, finalizing production design of the set, camera testing and a trip to a VR conference.
Our graphic designer has been sketching logo designs to be turned in to patches for the character’s uniforms.
Our graphic designer has been sketching logo designs to be turned in to patches for the character’s uniforms.
My production designer finished her Sketchup design of the set, which is the captain’s quarters, and as of tonight our concept artist will begin to flesh out the visuals.
We began camera tests by shooting on green screen with my Gear 360 camera and compositing into a previs background.
Along with all that collaborating, I attended the Sea Island VR Weekend at Sea Island, GA. It was a great event with some exciting presenters, many from NYU’s Future Reality Lab. 
Next week is all about prepping for our shoot!
Until next time…