Creating Scenes’ Layout
Lobby
For the first scene, my goal was to create a space station or lobby, where the player could admire the wonders of space while also serving as a transition scene between all the major levels. So it had to have some sort of impact on the player. So it served as a great starting point and was my first prototype.
For the basic layout and assets of this scene, I used two very important sources. A YouTube tutorial to create the planet and sky, and a ue5 package I found that had a space station I used in my scene.
Solar System
For the solar system, I wanted to create a standard solar system that looks like the one in my concept drawing. To achieve this, I once again found a very helpful tutorial on YouTube that guided me not only through the creation of each planet material, but it also gave me the real measurements, rotation and scale of all planets in unreal units. Of course, the distance between the planets and the sun is not at the same scale, otherwise it would be impossible to showcase them together.
Mars
For the Mars Scene, I also followed a tutorial and downloaded another package to use for the Mars terrain. I had to adapt it a bit though because the tutorial focuses more on a cinematic sequence. I mostly just used it to find out about the unreal package, which apparently had 90Gb… I just used the assets I needed and then deleted it.
For the sky, I adapted it to look like a Mars sunset.
Black hole
For the Black hole scene, I also followed an extremely complex tutorial in order to create a black hole texture that felt realistic and immersive.
Earth
Finally came the Earth scene. As the closing scene of the experience, I needed it to feel somewhat nostalgic and with an overwhelming sense of smallness when facing the huge infinity of our universe. So I created a huge grassy field under the night sky, where the viewer could wrap up the experience by having a more realistic perspective of the space, and once again feel “back on earth”, as if they took off the headset. To make it visible, I added a small lamp to serve as lighting for the scene.
Lamp asset link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/gas-lamp-0a5013605cc848e89ae5b2e3396504da
Grass: UE5 package called “City ENvironment Collection”
Desk and chair
Package decomposed
Robot
3D asset and rigging in blender
Collaborations
Collab 1 – Lecture narration and Sound (and Incorporation)
For my first collaboration, I worked alongside Vlad from BA Sound Arts year 3. He’s collaborated with our course before. Last year, he was with Miranda’s group and they produced some amazing work. This year Miranda recommended him to me so I reached out through whatsapp and our collaboration began.
I am so happy to say that he is a great person to work with! Very proactive and produces great material. Always very self-reflective and looking to improve in any way he can! I couldn’t have asked for a better work partner!
During our work, we shared files and ideas through both Whatsapp and OneDrive, where we uploaded all the videos, scripts and audio files. This made the entire process smooth and hassle-free.
In terms of robot content, he recorded all the scripts I’d sent him, including the voice-over for all the national geographic videos, which he recorded according to the timing of the original ones so that the robot’s acting could match them. It was perfect!
In the end, he produced the narration for the robot Teacher as well as many sound effects I used in my project. And once again I am delighted to say that his work was great and fit my project incredibly well.
Sound Incorporation
There isn’t much to say about the sound incorporation in Unreal. It’s a very easy process that doesn’t take more than 10 minutes. Overall very smooth step of this project.
Collab 2 – Motion Capture (and incorporation)
For my second collaboration, I worked alongside Kabir from BA Acting and Performance year 2. Kabir is also a great worker, very dedicated and talented! Once I mentioned to him we’d be doing motion capture, he became delighted and excited to work with such a relevant medium to today’s media production.
Our goal here was for him to perform as the robot teacher throughout all the scenes, by acting out the movements according to the audio Vlad had sent me. As a result, there wasn’t much preparation beforehand since Kabir didn’t have to memorise any lines. It was pure improvisation, with help from my directing and notes.
We ended up producing 5 takes, meaning one per scene. And I was extremely happy with the results as well. The movement was fluid and he was able to match the audio and body language to the audio seamlessly.
With the help of Kay (Digital Arts Specialist Technician), I was able to have the files exported by him through Rokoko. He sent me everything through teams and was willing to help me with any problems I might’ve had.
issue with animation starting when scene is opened and fix (new menu scene)
Designing interactions, coding and UI prototypes
Lobby
issue with lag and fix. issue with the prototype UI page and fix
Solar system
Issue with teleportation and fix
mars issue with rover and transparent shader and fixes
blackhole
moving player and fix
Earth
issue with too much grass and fix
UI/UX Design and Incorporation
Unfortunately, after looking for UI students who were willing to collaborate with me, I couldn’t find anyone that was willing to give me a hand. I even went with Abhay to their class but neither of us was able to find what we were looking for. And with not that much time left, I had to figure it out myself. So during break, I researched and designed all the UI by myself. To accomplish this, I used Adobe Illustrator to get the best resolution possible and to make it as precise as I could.
In terms of design, I’ve mentioned my inspiration in the previous page, but overall I was trying to go for a modern look reminiscent of Apple UI and the meta’s video UI as well. I worked with darker tones as I feel like it was easier on the eyes, making the entire experience more comfortable and less overwhelming. Plus it just looks more coherent with the darkness of the entire project.
As I started adding the UI to Unreal, I found two big issues.
1 – The resolution was bad, but it was an easy fix. I simply had to make the UI huge and scale it down on the scene.
2 – As I was working with pngs it always had a few resolution imperfections, so I ended up redoing all the UI within Unreal, based on my original illustrator designs.
After fixing these, I simply scaled them down as I saw fit, and transferred all the blueprint functions from the widget prototypes to the final designs. And then I did the same thing for the blueprints that governed each widget. It was a long repetitive process but it presented no issues whatsoever.
And I must say I am extremely happy with the final results that I got. Everything looks crisp and modern, just as I initially planned.
Ambient Sound
COME BACK TO THIS ONE!!!!
Playtests and feedback
Abhay
My first volunteer for the playtesting sessions was Abhay. Overall he really enjoyed the experience, especially the Mars scene and being able to look at the Mars rover up close. However, he had a few notes for me:
- Fixing a repeated title in one of the UI buttons in the Mars scene
- He thinks the screens should be in the middle rather than on the side
- the menu from the solar system scene should be more vertical instead of longitudinal
- Overall, “Very cool”
I think he felt a bit bored watching the lectures though, so I have to consider adding some sort of interaction for the viewer, while each lecture is playing.
Zedan
Zedan came next and was able to give me even more complex feedback and comment on the experience’s effectiveness at standing out as an educational tool that can extended the physical limits of current educational practices. She thought it accomplished what I set it out to do and that the graphics along with the interactions, make for an extremely immersive and complementing asset for education.
As a space enthusiast herself, she thoroughly enjoyed exploring all the assets and looking at them up close, as well as watching each lecture and absorbing its contents. She gave me a few notes:
- Overall, looks amazing and accomplishes its purpose
- Solar System interaction was her favourite but she wishes the planets would spin so she could explore them further
- Slower rover rotation in the Mars Scene
- She enjoyed the lectures and didn’t think they were too long
Herman
Finally, Herman with some of the most relevant feedback. I think he enjoyed the experience in general. But he had a lot of notes to give me, and details I could work on, especially for the exhibition.
But I think the one that stood out the most to me was to have some sort of interaction during each lecture since he focuses better if he has something to do while learning anything. I fully understand this as in my case I tend to draw in order to pay attention or fidget. So I seriously am going to consider this change, even before the submission.
Here is some more feedback:
Changes after feedback
COME BACK TO THIS ONE!!!!