Category: Introduction to Virtual Reality

There has been a development in my work style and approach since coming from my previous course. I feel as though I now have a more defined art style and know which direction, I am going in. Digital art really suits the type of things I want to create, and I feel completely immersed in this entire world now. There have been so many new mediums I have been exposed to which have given me ideas on how to use them in my practice when they were never even a possibility before; an example being holograms, something out of a film now becoming something I could potentially create. 

I have already been acquiring knowledge from previous work and projects where I have had to do background research into different concepts, looking at various other artists for inspiration and the history behind the works. I also think that the blog has been a good place to keep any research or ideas as you can just dump things down and refer to them later. Another way I developed my knowledge is through understanding all the new processes and practices. Seeing how the skills from one medium are easily transferable to another. It has been nice getting to use equipment I have not used before and interesting learning new terminology about the subject. 

Putting my thoughts together using things like mood boards has been useful for visualising final outcomes. It has also been beneficial to be in a small group on this course because it makes it easier to participate during group discussions, it was also helpful to present and see other people present work as it helped to articulate my thoughts and take inspiration from my classmates. Feedback from everyone is always useful to get so you can then tailor your project to suit your audience further. 

During these first few weeks I discovered a range of other mixed media I was not aware of before the course, for example things like XR and Holoportation. I am still interested in looking at VR as a tool for art therapy or using the art to create a space that is therapeutic; through some research I found things already like virtual rage rooms etc. However, I think that the overall look and feel could be done in a more artistic way which might improve the overall benefit of the apps. Watching a lot of tutorials on YouTube has been quite easy to use and convenient to use when I have gotten stuck on part of my project. I have been watching videos on how to use maya mainly.as I found that the most technical to learn. 

I have had a few challenges so far and these included using the new software and equipment, getting more familiar with using a headset and quite a few other things. One thing I am still trying to get used to is navigating a 3D space; still being confused by the directions of the different axis. I understand how to use all the new tools I have been shown during classes, but I am still struggling to remember the location of the tools, so it is making the process while I am creating take slightly longer than it needs to. Lastly, I am still not used to independent study; it can be good at times but, because the course is so new, having all this time to try and navigate the course we can get overwhelmed. 

I have been recording the process using screenshots of all my external work and documenting stages of some of my modelling processes or screenshots of the final piece. Most of my work I plan beforehand in my sketchbook because it is the fastest way to get all my thoughts out. The challenges I faced impacted my choices by making me find my own way of wrapping my head around the subject. Having to adapt the tools I was comfortable using to make what I needed but this would make the process longer. I could be a lot better at tracking the process, but I am hoping that with practice it should just come naturally. 

I would say there are areas for improvement, but I do not want it to become an immense pressure because it is only my first semester. I need to adapt to this university’s learning style first and get fully comfortable in this unfamiliar environment. My organisation and time management needs work as this is something I am constantly identifying as an issue; this will come more once I get, better at eliminating distractions; become more consistent with documenting the process; taking more notes and better planning. Using the blog more frequently is also something that needs work, but this will come slowly the more I get used to this method of working. The narrative in my work could also be improved because most of the time I just make what is in my head without considering how it relates. 

My Unity project is inspired by Jersey in the Channel Islands that’s why I’ve attempted to make an island type world. I downloaded all of my models from sketchfab and just drag and dropped them into unity. The models were easy to set up but more difficult to texture. I had trouble getting the play feature to work however once I added in the programming for the character movements it started working. That was my main challenge for this artefact everything else ended up being pretty straightforward.

This lesson we looked at different examples of VR, experimental VR and the ethics of VR. Then we moved on to an introduction to Unity. I’ve never used this software before and felt it the most o overwhelming to use so far. We used pre made files and models to start understanding how to use the tools but I was still left really confused after this lesson.

How will people adapt to countless hours of immersion?

I think people have already naturally adapted to immersion b because most things these days can become immersive. Even listening to music on your own in the bedroom can become an experience so I don’t think people will have any trouble. The older generation may have a slightly harder time adapting because of the lack of technology they grew up around, however my generation is thriving from the use of technology and I believe that the world will be fully immersive in the year to come.

The first type of immersive media we looked at was Augmented Reality (AR). We got shown examples of it being used in the world already.

Shifting Skin – Alison Bennett

Human Anatomy Atlas

My Finder App

Had a look at virtual environments and the first attempt at VR – The Sensorama.

The Sensorama was a machine that is one of the earliest known examples of immersive, multi-sensory technology. This technology, which was introduced in 1962 by Morton Heilig, is considered one of the earliest virtual reality systems. 

This lesson was all about how to put together a story, looking at what elements are needed. We had a small investigation into this in small groups and ended up looking at a painting and attempted to make the story work for VR. We also looked at the importance of narrative and the difference in storytelling from narrative. A story is an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment, whereas narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events.

We looked at the structure of a plot:

Exposition

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

Group exercise:

‘A picture can paint a thousand words’
Reportedly first used by Frederick R. Barnard, an advertising manager

who used it in an ad in Printer’s Ink (December, 1921)

Refers to the notion that one single image can convey a story as effectively as a large amount of descriptive text.

Thousand Hands Man – Lumli Lumlong

Portrays a representation of the frontline protestors in the

pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

In our groups we had to quickly draft a rough narrative for what happened in this painting and then act out to the class our ideas. I didn’t really enjoy this activity and don’t feel like I benefited from acting it out. Especially as it was about a protest, trying to act it with such a small group of people didn’t really work that well.