group15

[group15]

The team completed useful personality tests intended to examine each member's unique personality features as part of the transdisciplinaryCollaborative Group immersive Development project. Both my friends and I had an eye-opening experience from it.

Sreelakshmi Chendrathil

[group15]

The Making of the Immersive Experience Environment Project | Idea | Process| Teamwork.

Immersion in an unusual setting is the essence of an immersive experience; this can be achieved through the use of technology such as virtual reality goggles or a multi-media physical attraction.

Working on an interdisciplinary project has allowed me to collaborate with students from other academic fields. By combining these backgrounds, abilities, and knowledge, the first craft game was able to convey the presumptions related to the missions .I am able to lead a team well and I often share ideas in group projects.

I was able to comprehend my personality after taking the Myer-Briggs personality test. I made every effort to make the remaining steps of the procedure as lovely as possible.

After that, I began looking into various concepts. I considered how to provide viewers with a 360-degree immersive experience that meets their needs. Afterwards, I spoke with my buddies, and between us, our combined study produced three distinct concepts. We couldn't decide which side to support because all three were superior to one. But because everyone got along well and worked together, we managed to make the most of it.

As the motif, we decided on a woodland following a forest fire.

It has been attempted to combine a variety of aspects to make it visually appealing to the audience.

Our first choice was to design a realistic woodland. I set up trees and other components for that. After determining that a more stylistic approach would be somewhat better, the processing began with UE5.

The Making time I face a problem, That is the bird animation cycle was one issue I ran into; we intended for the ghost bird to soar across the landscape. tried to do it with a lot of tutorial assistance, but the results weren't good.

When we looked at everything, we encountered a great deal of difficulty with the rendering process. The main issue we encountered during rendering was that numerous elements were missing and the entire image seemed black over the surroundings. We were somewhat disappointed with the finished product. My buddies and I will work to learn more about this and make the necessary corrections.

Team members get together once a week, depending on scheduling, to exchange ideas and feedback. We sent the UE5 document and asset files using Discord, Drive, and WhatsApp. I am happy that my group was able to collaborate right away and that we kept each other informed about our thoughts and solutions as the project progressed.

Submitted By: Sreelakshmi Chendrathil

Reference

BFX Factory. (2023, June 5). Unreal Engine 5.2 Realistic Burned Forest tutorial [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfGm-lqFGQA

MAWI United. (2023, May 5). MAWI Burned Dead Forest | Unreal Engine 5.2 | Inferno Preview #unrealengine #UE5 #gamedev [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ8_-PHV1q0

3DRocks! (2014, April 1). Flying birds in Unreal Engine 4 tutorial [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSHlKxqoc9s

[group15]

Conclusion

Overall, we all worked effectively as a group and each made a valuable contribution to the project. We split the workload between the four of us, into 3D artists, UE5 VFX and blueprinter, Concept Artist and sound/video editor.

With the workflow, the team members met once a week to discuss ideas and share each other's input. For the pipeline, we shared the document of the UE5 and asset files, via WhatsApp and Google Drive. In addition, the group communicated via WhatsApp.

The final product turned out very well, we managed to include nearly everything that we discussed as a team. The major drawback was the rendering. In the future, we as a team should try rendering it sooner, to get this problem solved and not hinder the overall time management, to allow bug fixes.

Edwin

[group15]

Production Update #5

To finalise the production of the scene, we tried rendering the scene for the VR Dome. This aspect had the biggest drawback in this project. When rendering, the biggest issue we faced was that the whole scene displayed black over the environment, as well as missing many assets.

We tried resolving this by rendering it on each of our systems, however, this did not solve the issue and sometimes crashed our systems. At first, we thought it was a drawback of hardware.

After many attempts on trying to fix this, we found that the source of the problem was that the environment's lighting had an error, where it lacked light intensity, holding back the scene from being lit up. This was all caused by the 'Panoramic rendering' in the render settings. We resolved this by deleting the current lighting and completely redoing the light from the ground up.

Below is the before and after of this issue:

Edwin

[group15]

Production Update #4

A big issue we faced in this project was the bird animation cycle, we wanted to have the ghost bird flying around the scene. However, this did not work after 2 attempts at redoing it, as it kept staying low to the ground. So in the meantime, we decided to have it as an idle animation.

Sketchfab. (n.d.). Low Poly Bird - Animated. Retrieved from https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/low-poly-bird-animated-82ada91f0ac64ab595fbc3dc994a3590

Edwin

[group15]

Production Update #3

To create the ghosts, we started off by downloading 2 low poly animals, as it would suit the ghost/icey-like textures.

After creating the first ghost material, one member suggested adding a glowing-pulse effect, as there isn't much animation going in the scene, it will add more life to the scene.

Turbosquid. (n.d.). Origami Deer. Retrieved from https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/origami-deer-1626128

Edwin

[group15]

Production Update #2

Next, the particle effects were added. To save time, we used the pre-made particle effects system from UE5's starter content, from there we tweaked each asset.

With fire particles, we changed the colour and emissiveness. To create the fog, we tweaked the steam effect. For the fire, we slowed down the frame rate to suit the stylised effect that we were going with.

Edwin

[group15]

Production Update #1

In total, 5 varieties of trees were modelled using Blender, created by Sreelakshmi.

In the group, we discussed whether to use a stylised art style for the environments and trees (like the concept & reference images) or to go with a more realistic art style. We discussed this by stating the pros and cons in our group chat, then later used a poll to vote on which we would prefer. The results turned out to be 50/50, so we decided to go with both, aiming for a semi-realistic art direction. We used a realistic ashed soil with a combination of stylised trees with black opacity.

Edwin

[group15]

Week 2

After discussing within our group, we've chosen a forest after a wildfire as our theme.

On one hand, such a scene is rare for most people, and its slightly tragic nature is likely to stand out among many immersive experience themes. On the other hand, this theme also has societal value for discussion, as it relates to environmental issues. To make this scene unique and bring its content to life, we've decided to add some dynamic animals, but in the form of ghosts.

Simple Concept of Forest after Wildfire

We've chosen shades of gray that best match this mood as the primary color scheme, while the sharp, bare trunks form geometric shapes, complemented by fog that enhances the sense of space. These static objects set the foundation. The dynamic elements in the scene are the animals turned into ghosts, designed to have perished in the wildfire, their souls lingering here, repeating the actions they performed in life, connecting to the previous idea of introducing a unique and emotive exploration of the theme.

Ghosts

We predetermined three types of animals to create dynamic elements within the scene: the smallest and lowest level rabbits, the medium-sized and highest level crows, and the largest deer. These are the most common species in forest ecosystems, chosen to display the most balanced mix of elements.

I also hoped that their movements would leave behind dynamic particle trail effects, but considering the computational load required for rendering, we ultimately abandoned this idea. Keeping them dynamic, as they are, already contributes maximally to enriching the visual experience of the scene, connecting back to our goal of bringing the theme to life in a unique and engaging way.

Song

[group15]

Week 1-B

Continuing with what I can do best, which is developing concepts.

After exploring the day, I want to consider the potential of nighttime. Besides the fact that night inherently lends itself to conceptual creation due to its gentle ambiance and ease of shaping narratives, immersive experiences are particularly suited to presenting things that are slightly beyond reality, a bit more fantastical.

Concept: Nighttime Star Trails

While technically, star trails are a natural phenomenon that follows predictable patterns, this spectacle, observable only within the polar circles, requires time-lapse photography to recreate what people see in the media. However, through immersive experience digital media art, people can have the chance to witness these vivid and mysterious polar skies with their own eyes. The addition of soft, warm lighting can also subtly enrich the emotional depth of the visual experience, connecting back to our exploration of using digital art to enhance and reinterpret natural and everyday phenomena.

Song

[group15]

Week1-A

As a student of Concept Art, I've realized my technical contributions are quite limited. So, I've been focusing on exploring concepts, hoping to offer valuable suggestions to the team. This is also my first time being exposed to the workflow of immersive experiences. Although my prior knowledge in this area was very limited, I'm convinced of the immense potential of this digital media format. Therefore, I've started to imagine what impressive things could be showcased, especially using a dome-shaped screen as the medium.

Concept: Daytime City Skyline & Intermountains

Building on that idea, I hope digital media art can recreate the simplest scenes—everyday things, but observed from a unique perspective. The distortion caused by the dome-shaped screen somehow enlarges the field of view people can observe from the screen, making even common sights a special experience. Additionally, the shadows formed by parallel light during the day can introduce rich colors and geometric divisions.

Song

[group15]

2.2

I found some successful cases and tutorials for our idea in ue5. And added some reference images.

Determined we are going to do the first idea about the forest. We're thinking of some details about adding something about what's in the forest, maybe there will be ghosts…hhhh or animals.

Found some low face count picture references, of trees, fire, and animals. And models, hopefully that will help them ue5. Can't do much about ue5 technical stuff, only hard work Edwin and Sree Lakshmi thanks！

(Synty Studios,2018)

(Robin Tran,2021)

Zhao dan

[group15]

1.27

The first time we went to the library we had a group meeting, the end result was that we decided what the three ideas we wanted to discuss with the teacher were, Sree Lakshmi provided an idea for a forest and we thought that maybe it would be nice to add some fire effects, for the second idea we thought that maybe a cyber with abstract patterns or lines and a bit of rhythmic sound might be good. Since the New Year is coming up for our group we thought of Chinese lanterns for our third idea.

(Kld, 2010)

（Kat Tsai,2023）

（Walt Disney,2010）

Zhao Dan

[group15]

1.26

We found our lost member today, turns out he went to another group, happy for his arrival, and one more person to work with. I made a ppt to collect ideas, hopefully, it will be helpful for everyone's ideas, and we were discussing maybe it would be better to express it in abstract patterns and stylisation to express it better. And thinking about ways to maybe do it easier in a blender and then whether it's feasible to put it into ue5.

Zhao Dan

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1.25

Today we discussed ideas for 3 ideas that we need to report back to the instructor in class, asking about the styles that we are interested in with each other and what we can do with each of them, and we set up an appointment to discuss the ideas online tomorrow.

Zhao Dan

[group15]

Group Activity Reflection

In the first session of this module, we were placed into our groups for the rest of the assignment. Our first activity was a team building exercise, where we had to build a mechanism that will safely land an egg from a height of a building.

Prior to this, we all had to fill out a Belbin questionnaire to predict our skills within teamwork. From this, I can draw parallels when it comes listening and implementing my team ideas. As I suggested to make a parachute and my peer suggest a cone idea to soften the landing for the egg.

Another aspect from the Belbin results, would be the coordination. I spoke up a lot during the groupwork and gave a lot of logical solutions and problems, when questioning the possible outcomes from my ideas and my peers.

Contradicting to the Myer & Briggs personality test

Overall, the egg landed safely. When dropping the mechanism from the windows, it landed very slowly, easing the fall making it very effect.

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1.24

Today our group created the blog, thanks to Edwin for creating it. And we are looking for a member of our group who got lost. We also did the online quiz questions. All in all, it was great to meet everyone！

Zhao Dan