Last minute work.

A new deadline for handing in a ready VR project for the Wardsend Cemetery was approaching, and with-it additional tasks for each of us to complete. 

Train Animation. 

I volunteered to make a train animation for the project. I discussed a general idea and a spot in the scene where the train should be moving in our VR environment with the group, and started working on this task.

Initially, I wanted to create a Bézier curve – a line which is not rendered, therefore, not visible in the actual experience but in the app building process (in Unity) it is a track that objects can move along. Creating the curve and then adding an object to move on that line is a way of creating animations in Unity engine. To refresh my knowledge about this way of animating objects in unity, I have watched several video tutorials and read Unity documentation. Everything seemed straightforward. Unfortunately, even though I followed the correct steps, my final animation was not working properly. I tried several times with no succes.The object (the train model) was supposed to move on the Bézier curve. The train in the scene not only did not stay on the curve but was turned to the side, and moving backwards. This incorrect animation’s capture is available here, on my YouTube channel.  

After not succeeding with the Bézier curve animation and running out of time for any further trys and troubleshooting, I decided to key-frame animate the train in Unity. It turned out to be a simple animation of the train running between the hills and appearing in the scene for a few seconds. The train is quite far away from the viewer, therefore it had to be scaled down appropriately. The presented video is a close-up of the scene in Unity 2020.3.30.

The time I have spent on this task suddenly doubled, as after major changes made by another team member in the terrain in the Unity scene, the train had to be resized, placed and animated again. Luckily, the second round of work on the train was the final one.

Another technical issue which we came across working on assembling the project were train’s textures created outside Unity. They could not be assigned to the model. The workaround for that was assigning simple black and dark red materials created in Unity engine. For this particular project and element (the train), which was not presented in a real-life aesthetic it was a good enough solution (suggested by me at the beginning of my adventure with modelling and UV mapping the train). For future projects, however, texture issues this can be a major obstacle. 

People Animation.

Another task, which was not originally mine, was to add animations to the people models in the project. I, again, volunteer to hop on this task. I enjoyed adding motion to the characters I had created at previous stages of work. This time, I focused on choosing appropriate movements for each character. The first couple appear sitting on the grass. The male is pointing at something during their conversation, and the female is gently idling in a response to his action. The second couple is standing a bit further away from the player. They appear as they happily chat and move next to each other, like they were enjoying the time they were spending together. 

I placed all four models in the scene and scaled them down accordingly.

Testing.

It was necessary to keep testing the app at various stages of the building process. I happily pulled and pushed changes to and from GitHub, to then build the scene in Unity and run it on Meta Quest 2. 

I documented various builts with screenshots and short videos I shared with the group as evidence of the process and hints for needed improvements. 

It was an important element of work, especially towards the end of it, when everyone was a bit stressed out and at the same time focused on their own tasks. We had to visualise the final outcome and check if the product we were about to deliver corresponded well to that vision.

In this stage, I was not only pointing at elements that needed extra attention from others, but also suggesting solutions and improving and correcting components myself.

Final presentation support.

One of my colleagues, Anita, was delegated to prepare a document presenting the project. It had to capture stages of our group and individual work, as well as the final outcome. This document was to be sent to our course leader, Annie along with the ready VR experience, and then forwarded to the client. 

I was working with Anita, capturing images (photos and videos) of the project in both Unity as the scene we were working on, and in Quest 2 headset when the ready experience was built and run. These visuals were added to the document Anita wrote.

Apart from that, me and Billy spent a couple of hours each, just before sending the project on proofreading and editing the document so it was well constructed and written in a professional way. 

The final step was to send the whole project to Annie. This task was fulfilled by Billy as the creative director of the product.