Month: December 2021

The 360° Gaze

Immersiveness for a movie, theatre production, even a book, requires you to look in one general direction; in front of you. Of course there can be changes and events happening that require you to move your head, but for the most part you look ahead of you. This is because you can only see what is being shown in front of you.

In VR you have a 360° perspective, just like real life. Therefore, the creator must fill a wider environment with objects to sustain immersiveness. A lot of the time the creator will want you to look in a certain direction and will use audio or visual cues to get you to follow. This is not enough, however, as even if you follow the cues the mind is a curious thing and will wonder. As soon as you rotate even 1° from where they want you to be, if there’s nothing substantial to the environment in your view, then you lose your immersion. In turn, this makes for a bad experience.

These weeks were just about tips and help for getting a placement for the summer. A lot of the stuff discussed I have heard many times before, like CV writing, and I found it very boring to have to be told the same things I have heard many times before again.

Politics of Immersive and the Mediated Reality

This week focused on the different forms of reality; physical reality, news, theatre, cinema, augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality.

News, particularly these days, is scrutinised for pushing a particular narrative, albeit how fake or misleading it may be. There was a recent high-profile news story that was portrayed by the media to fit a narrative being pushed at the time.

Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin during the civil unrest following the shooting of Jacob Blake. I remember seeing media portray this as a white kid shooting three black men before the trial started. All three men were white.

I don’t know enough about this story to be sure of what happened and whether I agree with the verdict, but I definitely remember there being polarised media from both Republican and Democrat supporters to fit their own narratives.

It just goes to show that if a narrative is given enough coverage and support then reality becomes whatever we want it to be, regardless of factual importance.

Squid And Other Games

A Geography Cheating Lesson

We looked at Google Maps and raise the question of whether it is truly trustful, and how close to reality it actually is. If you set a destination then will the route it gives you actually be the best and get you to the right place.

Roads and routes have been surveyed by cameras and machines and compiled into maps that have, so far, been trustworthy by those who travel the routes. Cartographers before computers would do the exact same when creating maps and would still be trusted despite the margin for error being much higher.

Google Maps works by assigning each road a value. This value would be decided by a number of factors, including distance, difficulty, speed, and more. There a various ways to calculate the best route, the easiest to code but worst in practice would be to calculate the values of every possible route and pick the smallest valued route. Google Maps doesn’t use this specific method of calculation but when it does assign you a route, it has calculated the values of several routes and found the smallest value route to give you.

Visual Storytelling, Environment Design, Spatial Cinematography

“Aesthetics, Functionality, Narrative, Storytelling”

The use of light is paramount to creating a good environment. It can be used to create different times of the day, or to recreate the feelings we associate with those moments (morning-energy, evening-romantic). Light and shadows enhance shapes, create and change colours, create depth, support the narrative, and give a tone to the world.

The problem with lighting is you need to find a functional way of getting it into the scene that is also realistic and makes sense for it to be there. You can’t have a spotlight on an item without a reasonable light source just because it is important to the narrative.

Visual Storytelling, Environment Design, Spatial Cinematography

“Aesthetics, Functionality, Narrative, Storytelling”

This week was about using space and narrative to strengthen the storytelling. The main techniques used are: leading lines, the rule of thirds, avoiding tangents, balance and symmetry, blocking, depth, and camera angles.

In VR, we can’t use these techniques the same way moviemakers can as our camera is the user, and the user will move however they want to, unlike a movie where the camera is positioned exactly as directed by the producer. So we need to create the environment thinking of all the possible methods and angles.

Medium shots connect your characters with the audience referring to our positional relationship when having a conversation with someone. For VR we have to use the position and scale of our player compared to the characters in the experience.

Close-up shots are meant for situations where the subject’s serious emotions are being conveyed.

Medium close-up shots are for reactions. They put the viewer in the space as the character.

Extreme close-up shots are used to direct the audience to see specific things, such as facial features.

Wide shots show the environment and what is around the character, giving all the information.

Extreme wide(long) shots portray the world of the character, usually as the establishing shot.

Establishing shots set the scene. They let the audience know where the characters are and where the scene will happen.

For any technique to be effective in VR we have to guide the user through prompts (sound, light, movements, etc) or take the more drastic and unrealistic approach of forcefully moving the user to where we want them to be.

Visual Storytelling, Environment Design, Spatial Cinematography

“Aesthetics, Functionality, Narrative, Storytelling”

“You need to support the colour with actions and set pieces within the screenplay. You can’t just add colour blobs. You need to have artistic intention behind every frame.”

Red – anger, passion, rage, desire, excitement, energy, speed, strength, power, heat, love, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence.

Pink – love, innocence, healthy, happy, content, romantic, charming, playfulness, soft, delicate, feminine.

Yellow – wisdom, knowledge, relaxation, joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard.

Orange – humour, energy, balance, warmth, enthusiasm, vibrant, expansive, flamboyant.

Green – healing, soothing, perseverance, tenacity, self-awareness, proud, unchanging nature, environment, healthy, good luck, renewal, youth, vigor, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy.

Blue – faith, spirituality, contentment, loyalty, fulfilment peace, tranquility, calm, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, conservationism, security, cleanliness, order, sky, water, cold, technology, depression.

Purple/Violet – erotic, royalty, nobility, spirituality, ceremony, mysterious, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, arrogance, mourning, power, sensitive, intimacy.

Brown – materialistic, sensation, earth, home, outdoors, reliability, comfort, endurance, stability, simplicity.

Black – no, power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger.

White – yes, protection, love, reverence, purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, you, brth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), cold, clinical, sterile.

Silver – riches, glamorous, distinguished, earthy, natural, sleek, elegant, high-tech.

Gold – precious, riches, extravagence, warm, waelth, prosperity, grandeur.

Analogous: calming, colours do not contrast each other.

Monochromatic: non naturalistic result, theatrical feeling, losing the seriousness.

Complementary: colours on the opposite end of the colour wheel complement one another, while also making harmonious contrast that makes subjects stand out.

Triadic: colours are equal distance on the colour wheel from one another, creates a feeling of spontaneity, the world becomes believable.

Visual Storytelling, Environment Design, Spatal Cinematography (Part 1)

“Aesthetics, Functionality, Narrative, Storytelling”

Before this lecture I never really understood the depth and importance that comes with shapes in storytelling. When creating visual art of any kind, whether it’s a picture, a movie, a photo, etc, I have found for myself that I tend to gravitate towards certain shapes and colours than others in certain situations, and those choices change depending on the situation. I used to think it was just preference for what I liked to see, a bias if you will, but it turns out there is logic and history behind it.

Different shapes portray different things. Circles are considered soft, nonthreatening, natural, feminine, maternal. They symbolise completeness, balance, and endlessness. Squares, on the other hand, are the antithesis of circles. They are unnatural, manmade. Symbolise stasis, stability, strength, or just boring, old-fashioned. And then there’s triangles. They are considered to be the angriest shape. The “pointy-ness” of the triangle elicits fear, distrust, and suspicion. When placed with the broad side down, it can represent stability; when inverted, it can become unnerving, emphasizing power dynamics.