Introduction
Drawing on concepts which I have developed across my academic modules this term, there are several themes I wish to take forward into the coming months
Task One: Welcome to your World
We represented our identities through a short stop-motion animation, using media to symbolize our individual worlds.
Task Two: The Eye and the Voice
We recreated a local street using photogrammetry and AI software. Photoscans are a way of documenting the physical world.
Task Three: Agency
We evoked a narrative from a space by allowing interaction with it. Game spaces can evoke narratives because the player is interpreting them in order to engage with them.
Task Four: Embodiment
We created a digital twin of a physical space and gamified it. we then used this twin to challenge the players' perception of their physical and technological environment.
Future Tasks
As our lives become increasingly digitalized, the boundaries between physical and virtual are blurring. I aim to explore this relationship between technology and physical space, by creating digital twins of myself and spaces with a connection to me and embedding those spaces with a narrative. Using photogrammetry, I will replicate aspects of the physical world to document the past. By gamifying these spaces, I will approach them not as pure visual spectacles but as meaningful virtual locations.
Task One: Welcome to your World
Animation and Video Editing
Lotte Reinige - In The Labyrinth
Reiniger was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation.
Character
To make the glasses into a character I added animations which directed the protagonist towards the glasses and used a mask around them to highlight their significance.
Genre
The genre felt predetermined; a piece of technology which gives you impossible visions can only be Sci-Fi. I added glitch art to transition between shots.
Context
For the context, we chose the view out of the window and overlayed our footage onto. Windows are an architectural element which grants you a new perspective or view of the world.
Layers of Identity
Through our different styles of animation, we represented our view of the world, influenced by the books and films we grew up with, we created an artistic depiction of our identity.
Concept
This short film explores a pair of glasses which allow the wearer to gain a new perspective on reality. This new perspective was demonstrated through different animation techniques overlayed onto the same piece of footage. To split the workload, each team member took charge of one of these overlays. I used traditional stop-motion animation for mine. These visualisations of our own unique worlds were materialised through a personal animation where we represent ourselves.
Event
For the event where the protagonist sees multiple different perspectives on reality, I added a zoom effect to transition between faces.
Task Two: The Eye and The Voice
Unreal Engine Cinematics and Sound Design
Video Transcript
In our short film, we imaged a character who wanders down a London alleyway to find themself in a different world. The aim was to gradually stylise the shots until we reached a point of ultimate abstraction. I made the realistic shots in Unreal Engine, but the feedback I was getting from my team was “make them more English.” The design lacked the sense of place and identity you would find in the details of a real street. The solution: use a real street. I used a photo scan from Sketchfab, which I combined with my own scans and models. I paid close attention to the camera angles for each shot; first establishing the environment, with a wide shot clearly denoting the realism of the space. When the tone shifts and the character becomes inquisitive, the camera angle shifts also, using an unnaturally low angle to show the unrealism which awaits. We used an AI application called Switchlight studios to generate roughness and normal maps for the green screen footage, and the results were striking. I was amazed at how using Unreal Engine, combined with AI software, I was able to make a photoreal recreation of a space. Using photogrammetry, I was able to embed that space with an identity, creating a snapshot of time and space. With filmed footage, I brought that snapshot to life.
A Surreal Soundscape
I took nature sounds and applied EQ, reverb, and other effects to abstract these. For the voices, I combined multiple takes, playing with the pitch and echo in Logic Pro. Nature sounds, like photogrammetry, gave me access to an accurate depiction of the environment, computer software let me abstract these depictions for my own purposes.
Conveying the Story
The moment the protagonist decides to walk down the alleyway, the music holts as if his inner monologue pauses for consideration.
The Voice
Visual References
Photographs from Stratford, UK
To ensure the space felt believable, we used photo references from around the local area.
A Snapshot of Time in a Specific Place
Walter Benjamin argued that artworks are losing their ‘aura’ in an age where they can be mechanically reproduced, these reproductions lack presence in time and space. With modern technology, physical space can also be replicated and reproduced.
Task Three: Agency
Blueprinting and Level Prototyping
The game is set in the distant future, where civilisation has undergone such rapid growth that it left behind layers of construction, smothering the natural world below. The protagonist ventures through these levels of archaeology to free the nature left behind.
Video Transcript
The primary gameplay mechanic was allowing the player to control the sun to let light into the spaces and prompt plants to grow. I programmed the E and Q keys to rotate the sun, but we wanted to help orient the player to the suns positing. I first added a 3D object to a widget which rotated with the player input, but this was an imperfect solution as it would not always point towards the sun. The design was improved upon by my teammate through a sundial added to the first-person camera. This sundial was a perfect fit for the wider aesthetic of an ancient ruin. I was tasked with curating the project, applying the Houdini scrip to the levels and laying out the assets and blueprints within the Unreal file. This was a time-consuming process, as the script could take 10 minutes to open and would frequently crash, and the blueprints had to be placed individually. We wanted the gameplay to feel like a journey through the architectural layers of forgotten civilisation, so I tried to mix the assets to give the impression of changes in architectural style. To get the most out of the levels we had designs, I combined them to create new levels. Additionally, I added a water material, sound effects and player prompts in a font reminiscent of runes to add to the ancient aesthetic. Initially, we tried to use level streaming, but in the ended I just used a camera fade for the level transitions.
Due to the nature of collaboration, and unpredictability of Houdini, it was challenging to make sense of the level’s layouts. Despite being the one to lay out the blueprints, program the sun controls and set the sprint speed, it was still a struggle when play testing to solve each level. For example, designing the exit to level three as here was a different thing to finding it during a playtest. We wanted to give the player agency, by developing a range of mechanics thereby enriching their experience with novelty and variety during gameplay. This was a balancing act, as increasing the sprint speed might make it possible to complete level two but allow the player to completely bypass the mechanics on level one. Only through playing the game could I understand the space and mechanics required to traverse it. By interacting with the spaces, I could evoke meaning from them. Because I hadn’t designed the levels, assets or primary blueprints, I became the game's first player. As I played the game I understood it, and as I understood, it I designed it. For example, these structures are just meaningless shapes until you add vines which let you reach them, turning them into balconies.
Visual References
Glasgow School of Art - Barry Wark Studio
We were inspired by buildings which respond to our evolving relationship with the environment.
Journey - Thatgamecompany
We were inspired by games which create another worldly aesthetic through their environment and music.
Cave Houses - Cappadocia, Turkey
We were inspired by ancient settlements, which were carved out of cliff faces.
A Narrative Embedded in Virtual Space
In his book ‘Videogame Spaces’, Michael Nitsche argues that game spaces can evoke narratives because the player is interpreting them to engage with them. Consequently, Nitsche approaches game spaces not as pure visual spectacles but as meaningful virtual locations. By combining the visual environment with the gameplay mechanics, we could embed a narrative within the space. The assets and environment build the aesthetic of the world we created, but the gameplay and mechanics are what bring meaning to that world.
Task Four: Embodiment
Character Design and 3D Modelling
Our game asks the player to complete a series of technical challenges, such as fixing a plug socket and turning on a television. To do this, they must embody a tiny janitor who lives in the television and services the sockets.
Video Transcript
We wanted to subvert the player's sense of scale, shrinking them down to view the world from a new perspective. However, as the game ends, their sense of scale is again subverted when they realise the entire space was miniature all along. Initially we planned on using filmed footage for the final subversion, unveiling it from behind a curtain and making the player realise the studio space was also miniature. However, we thought that the obvious 2D footage would break the immersion, so I instead rigged and animated some hands. These slowly descended on the player to pull them up and out of a box. Our game challenges the player's perception of their physical environment by changing their scale, however, it also challenges their perception of their technological environment through the story and gameplay. Contemporary life has distanced us from technology, and for all we know our television might function with the help of a tiny janitor. In our game this is the case. While designing the janitor, I also designed the objects around his apartment, like a jumpsuit and cleaning cart, to add to the story and believability of the character. Opting for an elderly man added to the mystery of the space, with his implied life and backstory prompting questions in the player about the length of time the television has been there. I designed him in Character Creator, I then edited his material file so I could upload him to Mixamo. Here I could download a variety of animations to bring the character to life.
Our game alters the player's perspective and perception of our studio space. To provide this new perspective, we first had to recreate the studio space digitally. I started by flipping tables and chairs from around the studio to check for product codes, I then found the 3D models online. It took some cleaning up to make them game-ready, but the one-to-one accuracy of these objects did a lot to sell the similarity of the space. I used a Geonode to model the ceiling, so the details were not completely accurate, but by matching the general shape and industrial aesthetic I achieved its likeness. Finally, I created the plug socket world. I reimagined the inner workings of a plug head, using parts made for holding the batteries in place to instead support cables which run along the floor. I used the same Geonode as the ceiling, mimicking the mechanical characteristics of industrial architecture. Additionally, I joined and booleaned sketchfab models to make them interactable
Visual References
The Plug Socket World
The design fuses the mechanical with the playful reuse of well-known objects
BT Underwater Cables
I was inspired by the mechanical characteristics of industrial architecture, as seen in Underwater Cables
The Lord of the Rings - JR Tolkien
I was inspired by the helper character, who is a recurring myth in many famous stories. When Tom Bombadil first appears in Tolkien’s books, he describes himself as the "Eldest". While little backstory is given on the character, his age implies a backstory.
Super Lookalikes - Joan Steiner
Steiner uses anything from playing cards and rulers, to toenail clippers and cinnamon to create three-dimensional worlds.
A Digital Twin of the Physical World
In Flusser's 'Towards a philosophy of photography’, he defines technical equipment as ‘black boxes’. Their inner workings hidden, functioning automatically, making it difficult for users to fully understand or control. We are more distanced from our technological environment than ever, and with advancements in AI, humans will become increasingly ‘out of the loop.’ While the workings of today’s technology might be difficult to understand for the lay person, tomorrow’s technology will not even be designed by humans. A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object, It uses real-time data sent from sensors on the object to monitor operations. As technology automates our lives, we must question the role of the human
WHEN/WHERE:
My Bedroom in 2010
Video Transcript
This is my room, except it's not actually my room. It’s a 3D scan of my room. This is my actual room, or at least this was how my room looked for the two weeks when my brother was supposed to be taking up the carpet. It was strange, my room became a kind of liminal space. This came at a time of change in my life. I was moving to a new city, changing career path. I felt sad. My carpet, with its paint stains and cat hairs had become a part of me.
This is me. Except it’s not actually me, it’s an AI chatbot trained on my life and memories. Before my brother took up the carpet I scanned my room, and this digital copy will last long into the future. Another carpet might cover the floor, and another boy might cover that carpet in paint. By this point, my room will only exist as a reproduction. A layer of my identity, like the animations from task one. A representation of a point in time and space like a photoscan from task two. It will become a narrative embedded in virtual space, like the structures from task three. A digital twin of the real world, like the chairs from task four. Using the interactivity of game engines, I can embed these spaces with a representation of me, and eventually a representation of what I once was. If you have any questions about any of the tasks, please direct them towards my digital twin.
WHO:
An AI Chatbot Trained on my Memories
Conclusion
Some of my theoretical ideas have come from readings related to my History and Theory essay, such as Michael Nitsche and Walter Benjamin. The technical skills required to replicate myself, as seen above, were obtained during the creations of my Skills portfolio. However, the fusion of practical and theoretical into the medium of games was developed over the course of my Design tasks. During these tasks, I represented my identity through art, used photogrammetry to replicate the physical world. I created a digital twin of a space and gamified it, approaching this space as a meaningful virtual location. My future tasks will remain at the intersection of the physical and virtual, considering the role of technology in relation to space and the real in relation to the unreal.
WHY:
Digital Creations Last For Eternity
WHAT:
Gameplay and Filmed Footage Cutscenes
HOW:
Plugins, Tutors and Youtube