Month: February 2022

VR Storyboard

During this week we have spent more time finishing the VR storyboard to now include all of the scenes from the original script all drawn out with written dialogue. The full Storyboard was then captured using the Tiltbrush software and edited together to show the video below:

Problems with importing models

Marianna sent me the final versions of the hand models for the seagull as an FBX file and we had some initial issues with the file versions and ways that we need to export the model and initially the files would appear like in the image below:

But after some further tests and different methods of exporting from Maya which included myself downloading the .mb file and uploading directly to the Unity folder we were able to get the model working! The animation didnt seem to work for the hand models and Marianna believed this might be a problem with the mesh or rig which we agreed we can look into further as they develop the rigs and models over time.

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Hand Position Issues

While we were able to get the hand models fully visible and smoothed in the version you see in the images above for Unity there were some new problems that I faced with the position of the hands showing in the Unity scene.

Eventually after some trial and error and using the advice given to me after speaking with Herman to create a parent where the positions could be changed it eventually worked and the players hands appeared properly in the scene to match the users controller.

Further Issues with Model imports and animations

Marianna and Esme had there models to a very good point where the rigs were nearing completion and they had some test idle animations that they wanted to see how they looked in the Unity scene. However… we had a great number of issues over this week with importing the models in which we needed multiple teams calls and file transfers to try and get these files working over the passed few days which took up quite a lot of time and trial & error from us.

The initial problem that we faced was the model exporting in a very low poly manner in which the model was missing its textures and appeared on the screen in sometimes very strange ways as shown in the image below:

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However after multiple attempts and trying out different ways of exporting the model through Maya and we eventually managed to get a model that was mostly smoothed and polished which would appear in the scene static with no animation.

We then attempted to add the model again but this time with the animation and we faced a even bigger issue where only the eyes and beak would export resulting in this being the full model on dispay:

This for us was very worrying and we needed to spend a couple days and evenings googling different methods and trying new ways of importing the model which resulted in us accidentally making a little family of seagulls shown in the image below that are also exported in very different ways:

We were in the end able to export the animations but it would only effect the eyes and beaks so the rest of the seagulls body would remain stationary while the eyes and beak moved around on their own. While this wasnt ideal it did show that the animations would work and Esme & Marianna took this information and believed it was a problem with the rig and mesh and will continue to look into this and try to solve the issue over the coming week.

Testing Sound Effects

In this weeks meeting we met with the sound students Kiro and Jiachen again and they had developed quite a lot of work and sounds over the passed week including the background music for the beach scene and the romantic music for the sky scene which we were all extremely impressed by and already added it into the project! So in its current iteration theyre music and some sounds they recorded now play in the current Unity project which works extremly well.

Merging the Files

Myself and Yiran had been working on seperate files for the time being but we decided that we would now need to merge since we are quite happy with the scenes mostly and so we spent the day sending over files and packages to one another where everything is now in one master file and all accessible together. This means we can now also look into scene management and transition changes for the project.

The Sky Scene

Now that Yiran has sent through the scenes and assets that she used for the City and Sky scene, I could now start developing the scene further for the flying section of the story. Using the Skybox and Cloud effects that Yiran found and created I used these as the base to now add a seagull model that the player would stand on during this funny scene.

Using the models sent through from Marianna and Esme I molded and changed the model slightly to create a much larger seagull that the player would stand on and overall it isnt perfect but i felt this added to the comedy value of the experience. An XR rig was also added onto the seagulls back so that now you can view this in VR and some sound effects for wind, wings flapping and the romantic music were added as well to really bring the scene together.

Finishing the Beach & Pier Scene

Now that Yiran has sent through all her city assets I decided that for continuity that these would be much more suitable to include in the background of the beach and so I wanted to get this scene completed and fully polished this week which I was very happy overall with the outcome.

The initial inspiration for the beach was going to be like Blackpool pier and so i started to look at how i could make this scene contained but more interesting so i added an elevated level with some more buildings and completely filled the background with the new building assets which overall turned out very well. When you view these scenes now in Virtual reality from a smaller scale it looks very contained now as a scene.

I also decided to add just a little element of animation into the scene to make it feel a bit more alive and so i found a boat model on the asset store and added a simpe looping movement animation so it would move around with the waves if the player were to look out in the distance.

Development to the Unity Environment

During the past week myself and Yiran have been working more on the different Unity Environments, Yiran is focusing on the cityscape scene still and I have continued to work on the beach and pier. Esme has now sent me through some more assets including the ice cream cart and also the ice cream model to be used for the Pier scene and also the ice cream eating part of the story. We initiall had some issues with sending over the files and accessing the textures but after they were sent through seperately as .mtl files the textures worked great in the scene and environment!

Background Scenery

Using some free assets that I found online through the asset store I have added some background buildings for the time being to make the scene look much more lively and not so empty if the player looks off into the distance which i think works well especially when the player is at a smaller scale so the buildings are much further away.

Adding Teleportation

We have also spent some time over the week looking at implementing navigation for the whole experience via teleportation so the player will be able to move around certain areas in each scene using teleportation rather than continuous movement. We also plan to have a flapping wing sound effect incorporated every time that the player teleports which we think will work very well to make the transition seem more natural and a part of this world and story (while also possibly helping the player believe they are a seagull…).

Speech Bubbles

After having meetings and discussions with our lecturers we began to look further into the adaptation and how we could add speech bubbles to the experience. I spent one night typing out all of the dialogue from the script to create PNG files of the dialogue shown as speech bubbles which i also tried to match the typography and style of the comics so it would translate further into the experience. Below are some example screenshots from Illustrator as well as the PNG’s now added into the Unity scene. Each PNG will also have a box collider that will be interactive for the player during the scenes.

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Elements of Interactivity

Most of our experience incorporates the use of mostly grabbing and moving around, throwing or hitting with different objects that are in the scene such as the speech bubbles, different food items and also objects to hit each other with. So i went into the beach and pier scene to start trying to incorporate some interactivity by having the speech bubbles interactive with a box collider and also adding in items such as the fries and stick that the player will now be able to pick up in the environment.

Adding audio to the objects and possibly spatial sound…

VR Storyboarding

Over this week myself, Marianna and Esme spent time working through and finalising storyboards created in Tiltbrush which will help us have a full storyline walk through in a VR app while also giving the animation students a new method of storyboarding for their own blogs and submission.

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Below are some screenshots and a timelapse capture of some of the storyboards which were drawn for this experience. We will spend time soon capturing and recording the full storyboard with a voice over for the final submission.

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Meeting the BA sound arts students

On Monday of this week we had a session online with the BA sound arts students where we all spoke about our interests and did a very short introduction for one another. We were then told who had been assigned to our group which was based on what the lecturer felt would be best suited for each of the sound students styles and needs. We were then put in a break out room with Kiro and Jiachen where they showed us some examples of their previous sound arts work and we also had a general run through of the project, our presentation and progress so far. After these initial discussions we arranged to have them join our weekly meeting on Wednesdays and exchanged contact details.

Catch Up meeting with the full group

On Wednesday we had another catch up meeting to go through the current progress of the project with Kiro and Jiachen meeting the group in person and also introducing them to the MA 3D animation students. This session went very well and we all discussed and asked questions to one another so that everyone was on the same page and understood the requirements and deadlines/milestones for the project.

Final Updates to the Script/Story

Over the passed week Lin has continued to develop and finalise the script/storylines that we wanted to include for the overall narrative. After sending her my draft updates for the script she took some of the recommendations that I had made and also added some more additional dialogue, removed some and amended some scenes to make a more cohesive narrative. She also felt that it would be better to include some more dialogue and story beats within the city scene because initially there was only a couple lines but now she has included a short food/dinner sequence which we can add to the overall experience if we have time towards the end of the project.

Developing the Environment in Unity (Beach & Pier)

Myself and Yiran have spent more time over the passed week working on the Unity environments which included now adding in the models that Esme & Marianna had created to see what they will look like in virtual reality. I have now added in the XR interaction tool into the Unity scene to see how they will work and overall i felt that the results worked very well and looked great for the scene, the models they created really suited the environment as well as the feel for the whole experience.

I have also added in some more assets into the scene such as Benches and Bins to add some more detail to the pier. I also want to continue to develop the backgrounds and add in moving water from the Unity standard assets over the next week to complete the environment so its ready to add in interactions etc.

Problems with Unity Collab

Myself and Yiran are both working on this project in Unity with my focus being on the Pier scene and hers being the city environment and it was suggested to us that we could use Unity Collab to work on the same project build. However we had a number of problems where we had to test this feature multiple times over multiple builds to get it working.

We needed to change passwords, permissions and many other aspects to get this working but luckily we were able to upload and download eachothers versions of the projects with great success which means that we are now prepaired to combine the scenes and work together on this one single file. We will also continue to have backups on our own machines incase anything goes wrong with the cloud versions or uploading overlaps with one another.

Sound List

For this project we will soon be joined by BA sound art students who will help us to create the music and sound assets for our projects. We then all got together to write down the list of different sounds, music and assets we would need for our virtual reality project.

Identify the soundtrack:

• Funny music like spongebob squarepants 
• Mini Game background music
• Romantic music while flying to another scene

Informational:

• Dialogue between two seagulls
• Bubble popup “Duang”
• Seagull sounds (as first person player at the beginning
• Teleport Sound (wings flapping)
• Eating Ice Cream Sound effect
• Tripping Sound Effect
• Mini game sound effect (Ticking clock and winner)

Environmental Sounds:

• Sea Waves
• City Background Noise
• Baby Crying
• People walking around saying “Sorry”

Group Meeting (Wed 9th Feb)

On wednesday this week we all got together for our weekly group meeting to discuss the current developments with the project. We had discussed the presentation that we had created for the Mid term crit while also showing the final script and unity developments to the rest of the group to get some feedback and opinions from everyone. The 3D animation students also discussed that they have now made a ice cream cart asset to go with the eating mini game as well as now finising the rigging for the characters which looked fantastic which means they are now read for animation and sounds in the final experience.

Mid Term Crit Presentation (Wed 9th Feb)

After we had our group meeting, myself , Yiran and Lin went to the classroom to have our Mid crit presentation of the current progress so far with the project. We put together a presentation containing all of the work we have so far from the script and development of the environment as well as Esme & Marianna’s work on the character models and animations they had created.

The feedback we recieved was positive but it was suggested that we needed to give much more detail on the overall gameplay and interactivity for the whole experience because we may not have shown it clearly in the presentation which we agreed with. It was also suggested that we may need to dial back a bit on some of our ideas such as the ice cream eating mini game which was suggested might be slightly too difficult to do in the time frame that we currently have left for the rest of the project.

Voice Recordings (Initial Drafts)

After having our meeting with the group this week and finding out that the rigging of the 3D models that Marianna and Esme had created is coming along very well and will soon be ready for animation, we needed to look into the next steps. While we will soon be developing both the hand drawn storyboards but also the VR storyboards, we will need some voice recordings to give an idea of the timing and animations that they will need to create.

So I felt that it would be helpful if myself and with the help of my friend Alex (again greatly appreciated), we could record the lines from the final script to give a general idea of how long the animations will be even if we use these as the final recordings for the project. So we spent the morning together recording the lines in different variations and speeds to have voice examples that are ready for animations but could also be used in the final product if needed (Please excuse my Blue Yeti Mic set up, best i can do…).

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Script Adjustments and Recommendations

Lin has continued to work on and develop the script over the past week but said that she was having some trouble in certain areas tying the stories together and how the player could progress through and so she asked us for some ideas, recommendations and feedback for the script. I took the current content of her script and created my own draft adding in some new elements and changing certain areas to see how it could be adapted further. An example of my draft version of the script can be seen in the link below:

Pier and Beach Development

Now that the initial storyline and script is in development i started to search for assets and creating a base unity environment for our project. After looking through the unity asset store as well as turbo squid I found a model of a pier which i then changed and rescaled into a much larger pier and used different aspects of the model to reshape it to fit the original idea that we had. I also found some beach assets including chairs and umbrellas along with some beach textures and terrains that we can use for the beach scene of the experience. For now I have added a blue plane for the water but I know that the unity standard assets have water effects and animations which we can use for this project. This is something that i will continue to look into and develop for our project.

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