In Spring of 2022 by the graces of a collaboration with the Institute for IDEAS I was given the opportunity to work with some really incredible equipment - a fully equipped Volumetric Capture Studio. With our class comprising of 7 filmmakers and 2 game designers, we couldn't help but wonder how we could push this newer technologie's limitations, and so we set off to create and experiment, and I took on the role as the Director. As our team's experiences with interactive media varied wildly, I found my communication and facillitation skills put to the test. Throughout the full process, I worked hard to give all of my team members the tools, support, and resources they needed to succeed in our ambitious project and to make sure each of them had a voice within it. This included a diverse range of tasks, including advising our scriptwriter on how to adapt to an interactive medium, helping our actors imagine the player as a third character in the room, and guiding our art and film teams on what would work in a game setting with such limited graphical resources as VR where you never knew where the player was looking.
After the completion of our project, I travelled with one of my Producers, Becky Lake, to the 2022 UFVA conference to showcase Space Ocean Library in the New Media section, where it underwent a few surprising changes. As the attendees of the conference were largely unfamilliar with the more interactive side of VR, they on average struggled to maneveaur the stand-in-place teleportation mechanics common to those types of games. In response, I decided to overhaul the entire movement system on the fly and, with the permission of the conference, expand the play space to exactly mirror what you can explore in the game, down to the tables and chairs! And since the furniture changes throughout the course of the experience, the whole thing practically became an exhibit as my producer and I carefully pulled items in and out of the play space as the players progressed. This project later went on to be shown at the 2022 ISS conference in New Zealand.
Director - Lead design of the game's core concept, visual design, and gameplay feel and oversaw the filming process of SOL's actors. Additionally, worked closely with all member of the team to help fill in communication and/or understanding gaps present from the Game Designer/ Film Maker team split.
3D Modeling and Level Designer- Modelled (Blender) and implemented all 3D assets into Unity; Implemented all Photogrammetry and Holograms (assets created using the Volumetric Capture Studio)
Voice Actor and Audio Editor - Provided VA for the positive Ethereal Voice and edited the final mixdowns for all VA materials.
Additional Programmer - Modified the game from a stand-in-place experience to a fully walkable one on the fly based on feedback from players during the UFVA conference.
Graphic Designer - Created promotional poster for the finished product.
This project was created for the final project of the Immersive Films course at American University and was shown at the UFVA (University Film and Video Association) and ISS(Interactive Surfaces and Spaces) conferences.
Read more about out experience at UFVA: https://www.american.edu/centers/ideas-institute/solatufva.cfm
