Module evaluation

MODULE EVALUATION:

I found this module very difficult to manage sure to work at home. I found this effected the quality of work I made and the amount, as my time management was poor and my motivation low. However I am still happy with my outcome and I think I have progressed a lot in my design work through this project. Before this module I knew how to make a VR image, but in this module I learnt how to animate one which is a big achievement as I have been aiming to learn this for a while. I also learnt some 3D for this project, which took up a lot of my time, but was useful to learn, and I can recontinue this before the next module, hopefully being at a higher level, being able to use the skill. I also learnt that I am not a designer in order to transmit and communicate facts and figures, but I am more interesting in communicating feeling and emotion. I think this is very important to consider in future modules and what I will do in the future. I enjoyed this project a lot and learnt a lot, however I am also disappointed that I wasn't able to work at my best. It is another lesson, however, that I prefer to work in a controlled environment away from my bedroom, and it is important to remember this when attempting work at home. I am excited to get back in the studio and work to my full potential, utilising the separation from home, the recourses and tutors.

Research Presentation

These are the slides of the research presentation. An interesting bit of feedback I received is that the suggestion that people enjoy going to aquariums because it is an occasion, so maybe I should design an event as an alternative to aquariums. An idea that was suggested was a lift that has VR goggles so that when you go down it is like you are going into the sea.

Video development

Video development from crit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33mSLmWYYWA
After the crit and gathering ideas for a video, I started gathering footage. I started by using the animated texture exploration, then taking it apart to reveal a video of an eye looking around. To make it look more serious and creepy I had the area around the eye dark so that you can only see the eye. I animated scanned images of rubbish falling down the screen as if you are the fish and your environment is being littered, like in some aquariums. To communicate the impact on the sea environment, I animated beautiful images of coral from the disintegrating. I then placed images in the video of drawings of fish, communicating them as important old species, and animated a rectangular black box on their heads to communicate them dying. Following this, the scans of fake fish come into frame, animated like they are swimming around. Then, the scans of the fish being squashed, stretched, etc. are abruptly placed on the screen, communicating the torture that fish are put through during capture.
Over all of this I had audio of a simulated voice reading a narration for the video, giving people information. I tried to make the narration less informative and more like a conversation so that it didn't feel like a lecture to the user.
When getting to this point I realised that this would be better in VR, however it isn't designed for VR as both sides of the screen should be the same in order for it to work.

Screenshots:

VR video outcome

Final video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NByZrXkooCU

After the firdt try at making the video, I made the decision that a VR video would be much more effective. So I started creating the VR video, adjusting the structure but using the same content of the first video.

I started with the same animated textures as I think this is highly effective in VR, immersing the user into the sea life environment. I then animated each element to move one by one with an eye appearing at the back to communicate the fish being constantly watched by strangers and puts you in their position. I hen animated the bits of rubbish to fall down the environment as if landing in the water. The environmentt hen comes apart, revealing just the eye followed by the scans of the plastic fish being squashed, strecthed, etc. The animated sea textures then comes back in with audio of the sea, giving time for the user to look around and be immersed into the environment.

Screenshots:

Final VR version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciEC_mkmqko&t=20s
Due to render times, the final VR version is very low quality. If I had more time I would have rendered this out to a higher quality. However, it works well in immersing the viewer into the environment and communicates the issue well using the audio and visuals. Once livestreamed, the main aims of the project will have been met - a virtual version of an aquarium that communicates the issue and creates an event that people are interested in attending.

Screenshots:

Posters and promo

Poster ideas:

Further experiments with poster design based on feedback from peers. They said they liked the mirror in the zoo idea, so a design similar to that would be affective for communicating the issue. Peers also suggested that as Gosse regretted his invention of the aquarium, I should look at Kalashnikov who invented the AK-47, which he highly regretted. This would be an interesting similarity to make.

Poster idea questioning the viewer on the view on whether the AK-41 gun is the deadliest invention, when an aquarium isn't even considered a deadly invention. Both inventors of the AK-47 and the aquarium regret inventing them. The gun has scales on it, suggesting the fish is like a gun in being a tool for death, however this doesn't really make sense in communicating the issue.

Poster for a screen. The black space in the middle reflects the person looking at the screen.

Outcome of poster from the viewers perspective. Works well for a digital platform with a highly reflective screen like a laptop, but not for print and depending on the phone, it may not work well for that either.

Although these posters communicate the issue, they don't promote the event well, which is what the poster needs to do.

As the livestream is for this period of time, being in lockdown due to Corona Virus, it should be digital to be spread on social media. Therefore an Instagram would be more appropriate.

Instagram promotion ideas:

Poster post to advertise the livestream. Could animate the poster? Add audio?

Poster post to advertise the livestream. Communicates the issue, but doesn't promote the event well.

Set of three poster posts to be posted in a row, to advertise the livestream. Possibly for an Instagram dedicated to the event? Works well suggesting the visuals for the VR as well as having a dark sinister feel, communicating the issue.