One of my proudest achievements, and projects that took the most learning and preparation – my diploma piece. A VR installation that takes the viewer down a metaphorical rabbit hole through different emotions I experienced during my time studying at the academy – both positive and negative. A sort of culmination of everything I had cut my teeth on the years prior and what it ultimately amounted to.
Video
Gear used
- A fair bit of paper and marker for ideation
- Blender for concept art, mesh creation and some of the texturing
- Phone for reference capture
- Unreal engine as the VR development space, animation, sound design
- Oculus Rift for development and final display
- My own RTX 3060Ti rig for development
- Laptop running Quadro for testing and final display
- The very projector seen in the video, overhead as a POV display for the rest of the viewers
Ideation period
This was a turning point in my personal development as well as my main skillset – we had learned the rough and ready of Unreal Engine the year prior, I was proficient at blender and all the Web3D stuff had put me on an (in hindsight) clear track. All ideas except final didn’t make the cut – a rhythm game, an Arduino installation and many more idea maps that filled up my sketchbooks over the months of pre-production.
Creation and learning
Once a direction was established, the rest of the development was finished within a month – mesh creation, unreal animations and blueprints, and testing. A lot of time was spent on forums and YouTube, digging for resources on different workarounds. One thing was making something impressive on the development machine, another was making sure the end hardware can actually run it.
If I wanted the ending to have a surreal impact on the viewer, I needed to match the surrounding room pretty accurately. To anyone at the academy, it was a place they’ve spent a considerable part of their life in. However, the people walking in from the street had their first impressions of the darkened reverb drenched study hall, my feverish first impressions of it and the impression I was left with finishing my studies.
Final thoughts
The biggest joy in the entire experience was actually seeing peoples intense reactions to the whole thing. I spent the week of exhibit fitting the headset to kids and seniors alike – some having no reaction to the experience, some people staggering and almost falling over when the floor beneath them gives. As intense of a learning curve as it was, I’m glad I could provide some insight into the often secluded inner world of myself through such full-bodied experience.
