My plan was going to create a virtual reality animation which demonstrates the creative empowerment of the medium. This would be done through animating myself drawing, then putting on the headset and being 'transported' into the virtual world, where I can bring my creations to life. I thought this idea would both reflect my journey into the medium as an animator, as well as the power of VR for bringing creatures to life.
I used one one of my older animations as inspiration for this, since the subject matter had a lot of correlation.
This animation is called morph and represents the process of being immersed in drawing/animating. This animation focusses on how setting strengthens this creative immersion. I can extend this idea to the medium of VR, embodying how much more immersive virtual reality can be, both in process and final result. I decided that animating my personal journey into VR would be the next step for this animation.
This was one of my first finalised animations and therefore tells a story of my journey into the medium. The piece displays a narrative of creative exploration of a new medium. At the time it was made I had only just realised the potential animation holds for bringing things to 'life'. To parallel this I want to represent my discovery of VR for doing the same, but adding a new level of immersion to the 'life' in my animations. I also want to extent the idea of being pulled into your drawings as a metaphor for immersion in VR.
[Tilt Brush and 2d sketches]
I wanted this journey to start where 'Morph' one ended, by having my character drawing at a desk, then being absorbed into a virtual world through the headset. I also wanted to use a similar change of style through the transition (like where my character goes from realistic to an abstract design in 'Morph') I thought about how this change could present the creative empowerment VR provides, as well as the mystical nature of the medium. I decided to have my character transform into a 'Virtual Wizard':
At this point I was happy with the idea of how my character would be absorbed into the virtual world, but was still uncertain about the content of this world. I wanted to present the power of character creation and further this idea of giving 'life' to my creations. To help me decide on this content, I drew a variation of creatures and ideas in hope to find inspiration for what would be formed within my VR animation:
I wanted to present the power of VR as a medium for a character/creature artist. By animating my creations in VR, I can present the life that VR animation can embody, while simultaneously demonstrating my technical and expressive animation abilities to potential future employers.
Below are some tests for how to present the creatures I will create within the animation
This piece later inspired the use of floating islands within my final experience.
I was struggling to find a sense of direction with this project. I wanted a stronger narrative but didn't have the time to form one as well as create a presentable VR Narrative animation in Quill- simply presenting my experience of VR felt it was lacking volume.
Then I had an idea, why not combine the feeling of immersion that VR animation gives, with the feeling of presence and interactivity which I heavily focussed on in my research. I believe balancing expressive VR animation with small elements of interactivity could keep the focus on animation while strengthening presence. However, this meant learning Quill and Unity simultaneously, which would be a big challenge.
I continued my development with a few core ideas in mind:
Use previous work as a reference to test translation of style and tone into 3D VR context from 2D
Use interactivity to strengthen narrative and immersion
Make use of techniques and approaches unique to VR
Form a final interactive animation presentable to employers
At this point I needed to learn Quill and Unity enough to be able to integrate them and interact with my animations, as well as produce polished and stylised results.