Hi!
These last couple of weeks have been super busy and fun! We shot #Murder and that was such a blast. Nir just knows how to curate the most wonderful people and create an easy going, inspiring environment while getting done what needs to be done.
I also shot my project. My two subjects ended up being Karla Vasquez of Salvi Soul and Sabina Vajraca, a Bosnian refugee and film director based out of LA. I may only use one for the prototype or both. I haven't quite decided yet but it really depends on post. Jonathan Williams helped by being my DP. This week is El Salvadorian Independence Day so I will seek out a festival to shoot the festivities and crowds in order to capture some of the more scenic and visually stunning pieces.
Here are some pics from the shoot so far...We went to an El Salvadorian restaurant and also to a Bosnian restaurant in LA....
"If I give you the crispy edges of my pupusa, that's love"- Karla
These last couple of weeks have been super busy and fun! We shot #Murder and that was such a blast. Nir just knows how to curate the most wonderful people and create an easy going, inspiring environment while getting done what needs to be done.
I also shot my project. My two subjects ended up being Karla Vasquez of Salvi Soul and Sabina Vajraca, a Bosnian refugee and film director based out of LA. I may only use one for the prototype or both. I haven't quite decided yet but it really depends on post. Jonathan Williams helped by being my DP. This week is El Salvadorian Independence Day so I will seek out a festival to shoot the festivities and crowds in order to capture some of the more scenic and visually stunning pieces.
Here are some pics from the shoot so far...We went to an El Salvadorian restaurant and also to a Bosnian restaurant in LA....
"If I give you the crispy edges of my pupusa, that's love"- Karla
Title
Trying To Laugh At This
Thoughts on Graphics
Graphics are extra important to me for this project. In VR, many players are overwhelmed by sensory information. In Trying To Laugh At This, players progress by perceiving sensory information in a way that is different from real life. Because of this, the information cannot look or feel like real life. Many VR tools attempt to mimic real life, I believe in an attempt to make navigating a cinematic “new world” intuitive to the player. However, I am not trying to take the player “somewhere else.” Rather, I would like to use the medium to exercise the player’s perception of sense itself. Graphics are a great way to craft audio, mic, haptics, and movement data into a filtered experience.
Graphical Dialogue
In Trying To Laugh At This, when the player enters a “Fear,” they will tell you a story about what they’re afraid of.
Concept Art of The Fear
The dialogue in the stories needs to be intelligible on a primal level, but not a logical one. The player only needs to know who is speaking and the emotional tenor of what they’re saying. Rather than exploring facial animation, I made a screenspace shader to outline the amplitude of the speaker’s audioclip data (sampled, not vol). Speakers write their amplitude to their alpha channel, which the screenspace shader reads as outline width. This supports audioclip and mic data.
Code: https://github.com/ATL3Y/AudioVisualizerTests
My prior, not so good outline tests can be seen here: https://github.com/ATL3Y/OutlineShader
Pushing the normals didn’t work for cubes.
Using two cameras felt like too much of an framerate hit.
Writing to the alpha channel was what I used. Here, each cube uses its own instanced mat to achieve overlap.
Animating in Timeline
Depending on player actions, Trying To Laugh At This delivers narrative or gameplay. I made a very simple animatic in timeline to explore how the game manager might shift from narrative animation, which is driven by time passing, to gameplay, which is driven by player input.
This is just the narrative animation of a scene in a computer lab. While coding on the computer, the player has an out of body experience.
Design
This week I will (finally) make a prototype in VR. I will develop a few ways for the player to unlock a new sense by perceiving their current sense. For example, haptics will unlock sight, and sight might unlock what / how you’re able to touch (impact) the game world.
At Evolvr we are developing the main environment - natural sounds & SFX planning including our gross motor module planned to have- layered/rhythmic music with conga/marimba/etc. to fit a cave with glowing crystals game; in our
energy modulation zones- background music to match desired effect of each & in same key as binaural sound-emitting 3d element in each (ex. ambient IDM for 'focus', uplifting classical for 'mood-lift', nocturnes for 'sleep' ; chanting or drumming for meditation - for example.
Also, the driving narrative of Evolvr is forming around Emma's research and collaboration with the team.
Coproducer's Report from Emma, "I started looking into our characters and where they are from and started writing about our story line. Although I am not finish but this is a good start from my research on our species : It is in the 19th centuries that European writers after Indigenous and Ethiopian people discovered one of the most intriguing and powerful species in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian wolves, also called Theas which can be virtually seen has a flying species because of how high they can leap (faster then most species and are more efficient than if they were running). And that characteristic will help us engage our users in the experience. Being one of five Canis species present in Africa, detectable by its larger size, relatively longer legs, distinct reddish coat, and white markings. Although they have no desire to attack men kind, they have developed specialized hunters skills from their ancestors with no challenges in living abundantly until Interglacial periods made their apparition (what we know today as global warming). About 15 years ago according to literature, these environmental challenges have caused the species Afroalpine habitat to fragment, and consequently isolated Ethiopian wolf populations from each other. In our story line we will help our character go to the rescue of it's tribe...We want to reintegrate the character with it's long lost family and our hub is supporting it through the experience with grief and loss, as well as discovering itself again as the warrior that It ounce was through our healing hub. Why are they separated? Our user will help us protect our Ethiopian wolves by keeping them away from rabies (from dog) - and their idea is to keep them away from other species and offer protection and a re-adaptation program in which they re-learn to interact with their new environment our hub environment.
This week for me was primarily giving the player a way to attack with only defending.
Inspired by the combat in God of War Chains of Olympus, I felt that this reflection mechanic would be perfect for VR.
https://youtu.be/_W_CqrFhZY0?t=23s
In my final mechanic for the Launch Pad Demo, I wanted to make a combat sequence that would utilize the satisficing effect of reflecting an attack, but only giving the player that reflection ability in combat.
So what I did was add reflection cubes on the Go remote in the game.
I attached three cubes to the remote, one each giving its own element to the reflection mechanic. The Closest cube away from the player reflects the slowest giving the enemy time to dodge the countered attack. The second cube is the middle ground the sort of sweet spot where reflecting would cause the attack to be reflected back to the enemy hurting the attacker with their own attack. The last cube, closest to the player reflects the attack the fastest, but the widens the player's risk getting hurt waiting to the last minute to reflect.
Right now I am testing this mechanic in VR and hope to get playtesters soon.
we are also adding the finishing touches to the forest scene and it is looking good!
https://youtu.be/hSIIF9d_Oy4
Inspired by the combat in God of War Chains of Olympus, I felt that this reflection mechanic would be perfect for VR.
https://youtu.be/_W_CqrFhZY0?t=23s
In my final mechanic for the Launch Pad Demo, I wanted to make a combat sequence that would utilize the satisficing effect of reflecting an attack, but only giving the player that reflection ability in combat.
So what I did was add reflection cubes on the Go remote in the game. I attached three cubes to the remote, one each giving its own element to the reflection mechanic. The Closest cube away from the player reflects the slowest giving the enemy time to dodge the countered attack. The second cube is the middle ground the sort of sweet spot where reflecting would cause the attack to be reflected back to the enemy hurting the attacker with their own attack. The last cube, closest to the player reflects the attack the fastest, but the widens the player's risk getting hurt waiting to the last minute to reflect.Right now I am testing this mechanic in VR and hope to get playtesters soon.
we are also adding the finishing touches to the forest scene and it is looking good!
https://youtu.be/hSIIF9d_Oy4