CAEL5051_Research Blog_Chelsea

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Idea sharing and concept description

In the process of realising the idea, I started by importing some of the models into STYLY, which consisted of elements from some of the footage I had scanned at Sydney Park, as well as background maps generated in AI by my group member Draco, and trees he had painted inside Openbrush. After I put these elements together, I realised that they were too split at the edges, making them not look like a whole. John then suggested moving the whole VR piece closer to a collage style. I realised that this was a good idea and I started to get my VR worlds to reach a similarity in colour, and despite the different sizes of the shapes, they were close in style and had a collage-like immediacy.

After I put the existing models in STYLY into my work, I realised that the existing models were a bit thin and didn't have enough heft to them, so I chose to scan some more of the ground and subsequently attach the existing models in STYLY to give the image a more weighty look. At the same time, I added some effects and animations to make them look more interesting. I created a few models of clouds, and some rocks to make the image look more complete, with sky, water and trees to look more like a landscape.

In addition, I added the bird model, with random motion animation and colour adjustment, with the existing sound effects, so that the viewer can intuitively feel the interesting world of the landscape the first time of enter.

A Collage Landscape_Mixed Reality

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The process of A moment in time

When we began our project, I planned to start with the 3D scanner part. We arrived at Sydney Park, and there were lots of iconic things there allowed me to do the scanning. There is a small park for children, and I can see some equipment stand there for children to play. As I had less scan experience when I started using the app to do the scanning, I found that there was a big difference between scanning inside the room and outside, so I got two qualities of the model when I did the first scanning. We can see the left one is smoother and has a high quality, and the right one loses some details, is more blurred and looks very rougher. Actually, the left one took me around 5-6 mins, and the right one only took me about 1 mins, so I got some experience with the 3d Scanner. I need to hold the phone and walk very slowly, and walk around it to scan everywhere of the thing.

Also, I did different types of scanning, in the App has many types and can make the model look more real. Shown on the left, I am supposed to scan three big pillars of Sydney Park, as the scanning needs to be done very close and walking around/them, makes me feel to do the original Scan type, so I decided to use the photo type scan to show what we want to have, but as the pillars are too high and big, I cannot make it successful. The model on the right shows another face of the models, the colours disappear and it looks like a blender-made model. It also has more details shown than the original one.

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Research of the VR Landscape

Landscape is an important factor in the public's judgement of the social environment and can also enhance public perception. A reading of the literature suggests that the sensory perception and aesthetic preferences brought about by the landscape can be used to judge the criteria used to develop plans. This sensory experience is usually only valid if it is experienced in real life. I believe that this is one of the reasons why the tourism industry is growing in various countries. Tourists experience the local culture and people through a variety of landscapes, and they also learn about a country or a city through its landscapes.

Two specific examples are Chinese architecture and Japanese gardens. Chinese architecture (left) is more oriental, characterised by high space and large depth. It is characterised by high space, large depth, contrasting colours and patterns of dragons, phoenixes and lions. The Japanese garden (right) is more regular and simple, the overall style is more simple, and the architectural pattern is small and precise.

The traditional way of visiting consumes time and money, and the emergence of virtual reality facilitates this way of visiting. Travellers can visit a wide variety of landscapes through VR, and countries are gradually seeing a combination of real environments and virtual landscapes. The emergence of VR allows landscapes to be realised in a variety of senses, spanning time, geography and space. The effectiveness of VR is gradually increasing.

The drawbacks of this approach are not negligible; landscapes in virtual reality are usually slightly abstracted and distorted, and space is sometimes distorted due to the frame. As a result, VR is nowhere near as strong an experience as a camera or the naked eye when capturing still images, which is one of the reasons why VR still can't replace reality.

Using Virtual Reality to Assess Landscape: A Comparative Study Between On-Site Survey and Virtual Reality of Aesthetic Preference and Landsc

In recent years, research on landscape perception has been generally overoptimistic about the use of virtual reality (VR); however, few have

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Project 2: Sydney Garden

This project was inspired by a VR software I used in class in week 8, Openbrush, when I first came across it, I used a variety of brushes and shades of colours to paint plant elements in different shapes and sizes, such as leaves, trees or exotic flowers. 

Due to technical limitations, I did not take screenshots of my work, here are some examples.

I then realised that such creative inspiration could be linked to our final project. We wanted to make a landscape project with an impression of Sydney parks, in which we would incorporate the characteristic landscapes of several Sydney parks so that travellers from all over the world could visit the characteristic landscapes of Sydney parks without any time and space constraints.

We plan to use Openbrush to draw different plant shapes. Secondly, we are going to survey several parks in Sydney and try to deepen the VR experience by 3d Scanner or recording 360-degree VR videos to bring more fresh ideas. Besides, we will also record some natural sounds, such as birds chirping, leaves blowing in the wind, and feet stepping on the grass, to deepen the spatial experience.

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World One

World One is a work from The Museum of Other Realities. It has an interesting author experience, having worked as a VJ in a nightclub and having extensive experience in video editing.

World One was selected for the 2018 Seattle International Film Festival, where author Scott Bennett combines years of accumulated artistic experience with technology, incorporating elements of painting, sculpture, and photography.

The visual style of the work is unique, and at the first moment of entering the VR world, the intense colours and inkjet textures made me feel like I had entered the world of oriental martial arts. Especially with the contrast of black shadows, it gives the whole work a sense of mystery.

The author wisely uses a lot of black areas to create a sense of space, which, along with the hollow sound throughout the piece, gives a sense of jumping through time. When you look up or down to a certain corner, you will also feel the folding of space because of the artistic treatment. I think the author has put a lot of effort into the layers of the plane, using the black layer overlaying the colour layer and then the black layer to deepen the depth of the space, allowing the viewer to feel the fascination of exploration.

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Devalaya Rupanam

Since the museum has so many works on display, I will choose one VR work that stood out to me for a brief introduction. Devalaya Rupanam is a temple-inspired work by VR art and visual effects pioneer Kevin Mack. It's a mix of ancient temples and churches in various shapes, as well as sculptures and paintings of gods and saints.

Kevin Mack is a visual artist from the United States who is adept at blending diverse colours with bizarre shapes to express his artistic concepts in bold and exaggerated forms.

Stacked shapes and grotesque forms make his style unique, and in Devalaya Rupanam he used the same technique to realise the creation of multiple temples fused into one. When viewed through the VR experience, Devalaya Rupanam is shocking and amazing when we viewed from an upward or downward perspective. It is huge and striking, and if you surround it by drifting around, you will realise that every corner of it is finely sculpted, providing a profoundly human experience.

Devalaya Rupanam's model construction and shape drawing were created using the Houdini development process. Unity was used for lighting, colouring and some animation. When viewing the work, you can see the colours flowing through the sculpted shapes, walk through the massive shapes, and get a different perspective of the creator's whimsical ideas.

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The Museum of Other Realities

The Museum of Other Realities is a community of multiple artists and multiple artworks. It serves as a bridge for creators from around the world to interact with each other in VR and helps creators build a base to showcase their work. The Museum of Other Realities is a multicultural experience where artists from around the world can drop their VR work.

As a successful VR community, the Museum of Other Realities creates a colourful museum with rich viewing options and interesting displays. Viewers can walk, jump or float through the museum, and the VR works are not displayed in the same way as in a typical museum. A mirror or a staircase that the viewer falls into while exploring the museum is a creation of a different artist, adding a sense of surprise and fun to the exploration of the VR works.

The way the museum displays and the works reveal a gesture of exploration in their regularity, just as VR works are merging with art in a pioneering manner. On a normal walk into the museum, one will see some static works gradually appearing in the line of sight. When the audience chooses to float or look up to the top, they will find a thousand forms of artwork appearing on the walls or in the corners. Some are a piece of animation, a still sculpture, or a sudden entry into a new world.

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CAEL5051 Mixed Reality_VR Capturing the essence of a space

The essence of this VR project is based on my first experimental short film, Cage, which is an extension of my feelings and ideas. We used insta360 to record the environment in its full glory, creating an immersive viewing experience for the viewer, who will hopefully be able to feel what we feel.

Cage is an experimental short film about young people trapped by the status quo, and Sydney Park was one of our locations. We spent a whole day in Sydney Park, the whole crew climbing up and down in the woods following the actors, standing in one spot for almost three to four hours, repeating the same actions, and all of us felt like we were trapped in the woods. The experience was so memorable that I made Sydney Park an unforgettable location for my film and television creations.

The concept of this VR project is that people are trapped in the forest, bound by the trees around them. The eyes and ears are free, the eyes can see the leaves, the grass and the sky, and the ears can hear the wind, the pitter-patter of the leaves and the birds. Yet the mind and body are imprisoned; the body cannot move and cannot walk through this forest. This concept and feeling brings the experience of psychogeography to the viewer, making the experience deep and fresh.

The filming process went relatively smoothly, but we still encountered some difficulties. We tried to avoid pedestrians during the filming so that the presence of 'other people' would not affect the ethereal feeling. However we found that it was difficult to avoid ourselves, so we tried to stand in a specific position to make sure we looked to engage in the background. At the same time, the terrain of the forest is rugged, and sometimes the camera and tripod could not stand, the angle was relatively tilted, or we had to hold up the camera to shoot, which affected part of the viewing experience.