Initial Testing:
During the creation of my immersive piece, I wanted to assess the environment’s suitability and make sure the viewer wasn’t too close to any items, like the table for instance. In order to see how everything was placed and whether any things were too close to the viewer, I rendered out one frame and turned it into a 360 degree YouTube video. I was careful to avoid placing anything too close to the player because I didn’t want to cause them discomfort.
Transitions:
I wanted to examine the transition between the two environments during this testing period. I originally intended to use animated material to simulate a dissolving environment. But I was unable to apply that material to the Quixel assets, so I had to reconsider my strategy. For my next concept, I considered encasing the viewer inside a ball while the environment switches from one to the other.
I liked the concept of the ball surrounding the viewer, but when I had viewers test it, they felt as though the ball was too near to them and uncomfortable. Another idea I had was to add a fade track using the level sequencer to make it appear as though the person you are controlling is falling suddenly unconscious. I only wanted the screen to be black for a little period of time since I thought that if the viewer couldn’t see their surroundings, it might make them feel unwell.
Embodiment:
I was given the notion to integrate embodyment as part of the video while developing my immersive experience. If a character is embodied, you may see their physical appearance and see them move animatedly as they grab something. This can help the viewer feel more grounded in their current environment. In spite of this, I won’t use it into my animation. Personally, I believe it detracts from the animation, and at the current state of development, adding it would be challenging.
Reflection:
If I were to redo this project, I would want to turn it into a playable video game. The reason for a change was so that it would be simpler to integrate sound to the playing experience and to give the player the impression that they are picking up certain objects and moving around the space more as opposed to being confined in one spot.