Check out the final outputs for ‘Project Goodbye 100’

Website: http://projectgoodbye100.businesscatalyst.com/index.html

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4k-kYUkIA8

Evaluation

Evaluating the final output, involves looking at the final trailer video for the virtual reality project, designed in Unreal Engine 4 and the accompanying website, created using Adobe Muse. Both outputs became something I am proud to showcase as a representation of my digital skills.

The final ‘teaser trailer’ for the project ‘Goodbye 100’ involves an Adobe after-effects animated title sequence, a voice over and a camera pan overview of the virtual reality world. I wanted the title sequence to reflect the level of professionalism seen in most modern day marketing videos and pitches for new projects, remaining clear with the intended message, whilst still being interactive and visually pleasing, this involved designing the text and shapes around specific colour schemes that reflect this aim.

The camera pan and voice over involved placing specific cameras with directional rails in unreal engine 4, using the cinematic options to make a consistent flow of content showcasing the 3D world. I also added particle effects within the games design, including fire, smoke and leaves blowing, with the aim to give the world a sense of realism away from its digital birth, this also involved researching into how objects decay, looking at broken glass and rust on a recent trip to an abandoned airfield at RAF Folkingham, these images are listed on the website. I then exported this footage into Premium Pro, adjusting the colour and video transitions into a cinematic trailer, this worked well and became the main showcase as an embedded video on the websites homepage.

The website began with research into what style and layout I wanted to present, looking at different public sites and finding inspiration from platforms like: http://everydaypro.com and deciding on a minimalist output. I broke the website down into 5 different sections, including the home page, a global problem, VR development, Gallery, Contact Page and used a menu widget to navigate easily between the pages. The design is simplistic with a white/black theme and opacity overlay on most content to make the website feel more interactive and clean. The most complex part of the process involved lining up and correcting all margins within the site so everything looks streamlined and filled the browser.

With future improvements and planning I would spend more time designing characters and a linear storyline that could take the player on a journey that explained the reason for the project and how they can make a change to stop this determined future. I would further design more complex 3D models, including props that I could include within the suburban neighbourhood, and local characters that could interact with the player. I would also challenge myself to create complex environments for the player to experience, included narration as well as the voice over and attempt to gain public funding for completion of the product.

Personal Reflection

Digital media projects delivered an open brief for whatever creative concept we could come up with, with the one goal of the outcome being either entertaining, useful or a positive influence on the world around us. For my direction I decided to explore the world on ‘going green’, focusing my work around energy consumption in developed and developing countries, with the output being an informative website and teaser trailer for a virtual reality project called ‘Goodbye 100’.

Overall the process was enjoyable and rewarding but didn’t come without its fair amount of complications, in particular with the self education of new technologies and design techniques. Creating a 3D believable world is no easy task and the total time of 70+ hours of work and weeks of trail and errors supports this, however the output is now complete and I am happy with what level and quantity of content I was able to produce in the set time, I also feel the quality of work is to the best design I could achieve with the amount of education in each area I learnt.

Breaking down the project the first complication came in the form of designing 3D models in Blender, this although now a simple process to me took time to perfect and there is still so much left to learn. I needed skyscrapers, small houses and white picket fences created for my suburban world, now falling apart, this was achieved through watching tutorials on Blenders website, then applying what I’d watched to my own concepts, although the final output models are fairly basic, I’m confident enough to try more challenging ideas come future projects.

Then next process with problematic stages came in texturizing these assets using Substance Painter, this again involved learning tutorials from their website, but problems began firstly because I hadn’t unwrapped any of my models in blender first, which meant I was painting textures onto several surfaces at once, making the whole design a complete mess. Once this had been addressed I spent the next few days designing different textures for each house, so they didn’t look completely the same, I spent some time also researching different layouts and look for both the website and the game to gather an idea for what overall presentation I wanted.

I attempted to stick the previously outlined timeline within my research and development file, however I think it is always important to continue to work on a project if there are still improvements than can be made, therefore I will still be working on the final output of this project until the deadline, whether this this comes to adding new assets, or polishing presentation videos.

The continue developments post production file involve several stages and complex designs to be continued, some of which is listed in the timescale and continuing developments include:

Website

The construction of the website will continue until fully functional and inclusive of all the information around project ‘Goodbye100’. This comprises of educational aspect to the problems being resolved, development stages of the VR project, home page, about page, design gallery, consumer engagement/ feedback, contact details and imagery.

Beyond the first prototype I will look for consumer feedback in ‘live tests’ of the website and see what users like or dislike, as well as what changes could be made before submitting the final product in the form of prototype 2.

Brand

As previously mentioned I am looking at working on a distinct logo design as the flagship of the brand, this will be included within the website, development stages and including this document before it is submitted. I will shortly begin some proposal ideas, including sketches and graphical experimentation, before using Adobe Illustrator to create the first prototype on ‘Goodbye100’s’ brand to be rolled out with all other outputs.

VR Experience

By far the most time consuming and largest part of extended developments will come in creating a visual concept for the Oculus driven project, including the completion of a world 100 years from now. This can only be achieved through dedicated self-education and continued work on shaping this VR concept into an accurate portrait of my original vision, whilst recording and documenting various stages of the process to be included on the website.

Also I will need to look towards some game programming and scripts to create a basic prototype that can be used with the Oculus to showcase my work, fortunately the script is very accessible, however some thought and tutorial understanding will need to be pursued to make sure this all works correctly before demonstration.

Final Thoughts

A final note on these outputs, all plans are still at this stage subject to change and the final outcomes may be different from what is suggested, particularly in terms of design and final showcase. However this document is to be treated as a rough sketch of what probably the final outcome will look like, bar a few small changes.

On production of this file, the development of both outputs have begun and initial designs and constructions of both the VR world in Unreal Engine 4, as well as the website through Adobe Muse are beginning to form the first visual representations of the reality that is ‘Goobye100’.

Website

In regards to the website design, Adobe Muse as previously mentioned is making the creation of the projects main portal very easy and efficient, the key elements to remember though include:

• Colour
• Tones
• Layout
• Font
• Minimalism
• Composition

Currently I am experimenting particularly with imagery, layout and colour to find the right balance that is easy on the eye, but still follows the simplistic and stylish look I want from my site, previous research into colour tones in Mad Max: Fury Road has helped me to identify certain shades that work well together.

Virtual Reality

Part 2 of the project has already proven to be quite difficult, the sheer amount of work and learning that goes into creating a half decent VR experience and especially on your own is very substantial. However some initial progress has been made, I have started to model the ‘environment’ in UE4 creating mountains and textured surfaces as a simple canvas to paint on my models.

I am also using the 3D modeling software ‘Blender’ to some success with two 3D models of buildings created to be featured as ‘abandoned’ structures within the VR world. I am also looking at preexisting game packages for nature designs to bring the world to life, inserting and experimenting with some rocks, trees and plants. Furthermore research into other game developers post apocalypse designs is influencing my artistic side of what vision I want to bring to life, inspiring my style, in particular ‘Bethesda’s Fallout