Week 12 : Oculus Launch Pad 2018 - Due Sep 24 @ 11am PST

[Anonymous]

Wow we've made it to Week 12

[azra_isakovic]

Hi!

This past week I have been going over all my footage and sound and just planning out how to put it all together. I'm also incorporating videos of 3d environments like the desert that my subject had to cross.
My sister gave birth as well so I traveled to Atlanta, which on the one hand took away time from work but I was also able to shoot additional footage including my opening shot with the table and it was nice my parents were sitting there with me :). I also shot some airport footage of the crowds, planes leaving, going down the escalator, etc. just to get some footage of traveling crowds and the many ways immigrants come to this country. I can use it for the holding shots when going from one gaze based environment to the next. 
Have SO much to do! And honestly the thing that is stressing me is the unity build. The developer who is able to do it is asking for $500 so I am trying to see if someone from OLP can do it. 

Other than that, I am SO stoked for OC5. It'll be so nice to see all the familiar faces and get to know new ones. This whole process has been so wonderful and I can't believe it's coming to an end and I feel so grateful to be a part of it!

[NeildaLikeZelda]

Neilda Pacquing
OLP18: Week 12
Project Title: EmpowHER VR
Type: VR Experience
Genre: Social Impact, Training

I can’t believe we are in 12 weeks already! Time flies by incredibly fast and I personally feel I’ve grown so much from being in this program. Last week, we focused on uploading the prototype to the Alpha channel. I’ve personally never done it before, so there were some adjustments using the Command Prompt on my PC versus the Terminal on my Mac, which I’m used to. After watching Gabor’s video tutorial, Google searches, and getting help from fellow developers, it is up on Alpha and on OLP18 Channel! *fist pump*

However, after I uploaded the prototype, I realized that Unity somehow backtracked on a version that had the bugs. I had to go back this weekend to do it again after I got it back to the working version.

I’ve also made a list of changes needed to be made this week. Will be doing as much as I can with them before OC5 comes. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Cheers,
Neilda

Oculus ID: NeildaLikeZelda
Instagram/Twitter: @NeildaLikeZelda
Email: neilda.pacquing@gmail.com
Website: neilda.com

[Antelles]

Week 12

So inspired by everyone and installed a number of projects and store experiences from Oculus OLP folks this past week. Especially energized and influenced by all the VR created art and interfaces. Having worked with Oculus Rift before OLP and now the Oculus Go, I am anticipating 6DOF in a blend of both of these platforms with access to all the VR creation tools. 

Niko's compositions integrated into the scenes prove the power of sound design. The dimensionality ambient music brings these polygons to life.




Looking forward to seeing everyone at Oculus Connect 5 and the Inclusion lunch! 

[nirnetser]

#MURDER
Week 12

This week was very intense. Throughout the program, I knew that the Unity build will be the hardest part for me. I have full control of all the other aspect of the 360 filmmaking craft, but Unity is not my jam. I had one specific friend from the Making360 community that I was counting on for help, but he was on a big budget project and didn’t have time to help us. So I ended up finding another friend named Donald. Maya from OLP introduce me to him and he agreed to help us with a minimum daily rate. He was very helpful but we still had bugs. He is developing mainly for the rift so android wasn’t a familiar thing for him. I definitely learned a lot and now I feel very familiar with unity, but it was a rocky ride.

It’s important for me to say that the finances for producing this prototype did not come easily to me. Regardless of all the work and time I put in, I have used all of my savings, which had about $2,000 in it. And this week I had to scratch a little bit more so I could pay Donald to help us with the unity build. It was a lot of stress this week, but I was able to make it happen. I am saying it because it’s important for me that the program will know that it was not easy to pull all of this off with the little budget I had. The launchpad is a true challenge for me and I am committed to getting it done to the best of my ability. I was hoping to get in the program months before it started. When I got in, I worked really hard on the project itself, but also working to save money so I could pay for location/actors/unity and such...

 I never thought VR is a calling for me, but creativity is.
Acting is. Directing is. Filmmaking is. Collaborating is.

VR is an outlet to all of those. Because it’s a new medium, I found a home for all of my desires to come to manifestation. I enjoy the problem solving and the innovative mind it requires. It opens up new horizons every time. My drawer is full of beautiful and thoughtful treatments that me and the Making360 team have put together. I see the potential. I see the open door and I am doing all I can to get it done on the best way possible.

So yeah, this week I found myself frustrated.
Working for the buck, working on the footage and working on a deadline. Reading endless Unity articles and learning code. I was exhausted, but we made it work. After all of this work, all that the team put it and all of the money I invested in it - I couldn’t let a line of code get me down.
That’s why I wanted to make it to the 20th deadline so Gabor will be for our aid. And of course thanks to Donald and all the other friends from OLP who were willing to help.

But also, I understood this week that it’s me. It’s me who put the money, time and sweat to make it happen. It’s me who brought everyone to gather around this idea, and it’s me who couldn’t sleep when the build did not work. I don’t like talking about myself but it is important to me that the judges will know that this is not a rich kid who put some money to make a prototype. It's me and my team making magic with the little resources we had. But we have passion and we have consistency. I never thought I will get close to coding, but now I know my ways around Unity. It is me in front of this project, and I am proud of what I did this week.

We still have a lot to do. Finalizing the video assets, spatial sound and reinsert to unity. The build works, but the videos aren’t. I had to learn the hard way that GO supports only 4k, so we need to replace the assets. I am also attaching the tutorial I have tried to upload last week, but the link didn’t work. It’s a cool technic I have found to mask a moving shot without too much rendering power.

https://youtu.be/tNlBeCXQQp0
Excited to see you all in connect,
Nir

[madomfeh]

Week 12:
Bad news is I wasn't able to restore
the original build.The good news is it is rebuilt and the logic behind it is much clearer. The aim is to synchronize the puzzle to the music and add visual cues as well. I wont say there isn't stress, but with placeholder art assets and aiming for base functionality implementation  I have faith that it can be completed in time!

[Anonymous]

I'm setting off soon to Oculus Connect! I'm excited about that, although I'm not liking taking the time away from working on the prototype. But, I'm glad for the extension (although sorry to the people who didn't like an extension being made).

I was also invited to go to SIEGE in Atlanta in early October. I'll be there, but depending on how things go, will be working on the final submission while there (SIEGE ends on the 7th). Hope to see those of you in the Georgia area there!

I wish that I had more to report. It's a trying crunch-time for me right now. I'm certain that I'll have something to show, but I'm just not happy with it. I wish that I could work on my OLP project full-time or hire some help at the moment, but I haven't done that yet.

I've made some rudimentary sound-effects with the guidance of a friend, though, that I hope will flesh out a demo for you all.

Looking forward to seeing some of you soon in San Jose and hope that we can play some of each other's games!

[jesseayalajr]

This week we mapped out the exact elements required for the prototype and entered into our final sprint on the project. We also set aside time to review key questions / concerns that the viewer may have when interacting with the piece as well as began testing the app build for the submission process. We are very excited to see everyone at OC5 this week. I will be speaking on a panel on Thursday about the experience of creating my vr film series "Authentically Us: Voices from the Transgender Community. 

See you all in a few days. 

Jesse 

[SkyeShark]

Unfortunately, my unreal developer has been dealing with internet access problems in her new apartment for the past few weeks so a lot of the work we originally wanted to get done in this time span has been put on hold 😞 ! However, we have been processing some of the materials I gathered whilst out in the desert into usable assets for the game. Here are some screenshots of what we have been working on!

[thegladscientis]

Great week of development and iteration. 
The sound and visuals are reacting together and the frequency gun is in the environment and fully spatialized. 

Here's a quick video from the beginning of the week of some of the assets in the environment, and some early tests of the frequency gun's visual appearance and how it reveals more of the environment for sighted players:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mueAtCFYESA&feature=youtu.be

Our iterations throughout the week have advanced a lot and being in the same place as Kedar has helped a ton with instant audio integration strategies. 

We also launched our website in anticipation for OC5 so we can send people somewhere to get on a mailing list for updates/beta!

See you all soon. 

[mauehara]

Sprint, Forest, sprint! We've been sprinting to the finishing line. Our initial development issues have caused huge delays, so we're running at full speed to catch up. but we've been making progress across the board, including:

- creating and selecting audio to tie to objects

- tuning interactions in our forest environment, including gaze, object spawning, teleport POV 

- Additional environment - animation to bring the forest to life

- Transitions between scenes

This week, we'll continue nailing our scenes, finalize our proposal, submit our build to the alpha channel, finish up our website, and of course, look forward to seeing everyone at OC5. can't believe we're already here!