In the second meeting of this project, we already started to discuss how the characters, objects, animals, environment, lighting, colour, and interactivity would look like.
Characters
We started the meeting discussing how the ghosts characters would look like. These characters should be faceless figures or they can even have some eyes, mouth, and nose but showing very vaguely.
These models will need to be modelled by 3D modellers to then be rigged and animated by 3D animators, therefore, we will need a clear break down of both processes so the models are created and exported correctly. Also, VR will need to let us know how do they include elements in Unity, and what format do they need for compatibility. Later on, we clarified that they will prefer us to export in FBX but we could also export on OBJ. Also we will need to use simple materials such as colours, reflections, etc, but never use shaders as these are completely ignored by Unity when imported into the programme.
- Male ghost. This should be the father that is trying to stop the mother to euthanise their child, so he should look threatening initially, but he should also transmit his love and desired to keep his child.
- Mother ghost. She has chosen to euthanise her child to then kill herself, so she should look like conflicted and desperate.
- Child ghost. Running from mother? Is he aware of the situation?
- Main character (POV). One tourist is looking for evidence of life 300 years after the global disaster, (with limited resources as most of technology is lost).
Artefacts
The main character could be receiving hints of what happened in that place with the objects they are finding and the possible interactions they can have with these:
- Posters/propaganda. Like warning signs, posters (showing health, political, or global warming propaganda), holograms (with instructions or a message)
- Oxygen bottles. Rusty and empty.
- Space like suits. To protect from gas/fog and radiation? (thin atmosphere due to global warming lets harmful sun radiation in so can cause skin cancer or really bad sun burns).
- Futuristic tablet devices. Showing holograms with departure lounge scape procedures, or euthanasia options?
- Sunk or floating objects. Like books, helmets, bags, clothes, children toys (everyday objects so viewer empathises with story – emotional response).
- Photographs. Showing ghosts from past memories (happy memories)?
- CCTV footage. Would this show too much of the story? Would it be too obvious?
Animals/Plants/insects
These remains of nature could show both the extinction of live on Earth and at the same time the new rise of life in the planet with only survivors (it would give hope).
- Dead fish in water. This could be part of past memory. In the present it would look decomposed.
- Moss. This could help to minimise number of objects angles such as bricks, broken walls, or other environmental assets.
- Deer. Showing at the end cell to transmit the new rise of life in the planet (hope).
- Bugs. Such as cockroaches, which are resilient to extreme conditions.
Environment
The environment would look like an airport terminal like an open space, tall ceilings, and big windows, but this area would be the waiting room for people that has consent to be euthanised. It would also be a half collapsed building with the following features:
- Broken walls, ceilings, and windows. covered with moss and dirt.
- Flood. Partly flooded floor with animated ripples and little waves. Can add the floating objects and decomposed fish here.
- Water drops from ceiling. From condensation as it would be a really warm environment.
- Fog. As CO2 levels are extreme, this dense fog covers the whole scene giving a monochrome colour feeling.
- Broken bricks. From collapsed walls and ceilings.
- Rusty pipelines. Coming out of walls or floor.
- Door covered on dried blood (stains). It can be one of the cells’ door?
- Euthanising beds. Inside of cells.
- Mother and child’s skeletons. In final room, skeletons of mother hugging child.
Lighting/Colour palette
- Natural light. Coming through broken walls, ceilings, and windows.
- Flickering lights. Would they be working yet after 300 years?
- Hologram light.
- Monochrome palette. With desaturated colours, like a sepia photograph.
Interactions
- Site specific. So it will trigger glitch memory when reaching certain area.
- Grabbing objects. Memory will be triggered.
Testing
This week I have also been testing some hologram effects in Maya following this tutorial in YouTube:
The final result I got was this:
Despite the result was good, after speaking with VR, they confirmed to me that these effects cannot be transferred from Maya to Unity, so it would be better to create this effect in Unity directly.
Miro board
We also organised in Miro the tasks to be done, the role of each member of the group, the assets we needed, the timeline with targets of each week, and links to important shared spaces from the group (like Trello, Google Slides, and OneDrive).
References
CG Artist Academy (2020). Maya MASH Holographic HUD Procedural Tutorial (online). Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8He2bcS6ao [Accessed 11 February 2023]