For the collaboration module, this term I have joined a virtual reality project which will create an experience of comedy comic books into a 3D space. Largely taking inspiration from the comic artist ‘False Knees’ who makes witty, sarcastic and ironic comic cartoons revolving around animals. For this projects adaptation, the aim is to create a VR experience, largely utilizing the software Unity, to create an interactive experience between two seagulls, and shifting environments centred around a beach.
Initial Group Meeting and Notes:
During this initial team meeting, we were able to mutually agree on all the group members that would be involved in the project. It was agreed that myself and Marianna would focus on
Character Concept Designs
Upon early discussions and plans made clear in the team ‘Miro Board’ that there are two distinct personalities of the seagull character, very heavily based on particularly comic strips created by ‘False Knees’ the artist. Taking this into account, I designed different seagulls in ways that help characterise their personalities, one being goofy and more primal and basic in their desires more aligned with the ‘stupidity’ we often associate with birds. The second bird is designed to have an element of human intelligence, making often sarcastic and psychological reflections that create comic effects between the two.
After producing the Designs the team collectively designed, It was more clear how to approach the next stage of production which included script and story development.
Story and Interaction Development
Developing Ideas in the Realm of virtual reality is something that I lacked experience in, due to its difference in conventional filmic narrative storytelling. Using direct inspiration from the artist ‘False Knees’, I translated the realistically inspired style into a storyboard panel to try and communicate with the Virtual reality team ideas of interaction between the birds. In Doing so I wanted to translate the material and its comedy to fit into the context of the virtual reality setting to enhance viewer engagement.
Previs
In order to better communicate Ideas with the Virtual reality students, I went through the process of creating a 3D previsualization of how I imagined the player would potentially interact and move around the virtual environment by animating false first-person perspectives with `a camera. This also included producing a test for how the speech bubbles would appear in-game and poses interesting ideas and further thoughts on how this text will be presented and animated in style.
Character Animation Tests
In order to convey a realistic idea of how the seagulls would move, I initially looked at reference Videos of Real Seagulls, as well as animated adaptations. Taking these references, I tried to relate the movements of the two seagulls to that of their initial personality descriptions. Due to only using the one downloaded rig, I tried to make it discernable which seagull was which through movement and expression alone.
Seagull walking on the beach in October ~ Hilton Head Island, South Carolina – YouTube
Will Smith Transforms Into A Pigeon Extended Scene – SPIES IN DISGUISE (2019) Movie Clip – YouTube