For this project we are focusing on creating an augmented reality using vuforia and unity.
I wanted to take parts from my real time events project, that being taking my main influence from video games. The first thing that came to mind was the big ERROR signs from Gmod.
The purple missing texture line is another iconic part of the game, due to Gmod being a mod for half life 2 many of the assets used are from various different sources, they are mostly from counter strike source those who do not have the game installed will see large error messages and pink and black textures. I feel like the idea of these texts could be quite imposing and impactful.
I don’t plan to directly re create this but I felt like itd be a good starting point to get used to how AR works and I will see where this goes after the workshop on friday.
I also looked into use of AR, the most popular one that comes to mind is pokemon go. However looking at practical uses Vuforia seems to have a great deal in the way of marketing towards the industrial sector. This can also be seen with unity.
This is a testament to the uses of AR however not really what im looking for. I took particular interest in Mirages and Miracles an AR art exhibition.
I feel like it adds another dimension to the exhibition as these pieces could easily be shown on their own without the need for the AR experience. I also wish to work with 3D models this could be ones I make or find or re use. My previous work for AR has been limited to 2d elements and I feel that having unity central to this experience would be a great way to make use of this. I especially like how the work seems to interact with the environment which really adds to the experience.
Apple offers augmented reality art tours in six major cities
I also feel this idea is very interesting, a blend of digital art and the real world intersecting with the tourism industry, reminds me of pokemon go.
In terms of AR as well I remember there was a rumour that the Silent Hill game was being made with google glass. In which the monster could appear in any space 2inches or wider, this turned out to not be true but a good insight into the experiences that could be made with the furthering of AR technology.
I redownloaded Zach Libermanns Weird Type app which I feel translates really well into this project. Other than the fact its AR of course. If you tap and hold on the screen different things happen for instance tapping on certain effects reveals other words and holding on others allows you to almost draw with text.
I feel this is a good place to start as it is a good way to do a form of AR mark making, I also find it quite interesting with the fact the way they also sort of interact with the environment tapping takes a photo of the surrounding and applies it to the text.
Spome AR work from google ARcore, again some of these I find really interesting such as the faces almost morphing out of the wood.
I think this idea of interacting with the environment is something id defiantly like to carry over to my work, I am currently unsure how I would realise this but Id like to make it work.
Going back to the Mirages et Miracles I found these quite interesting, although some are not technically the AR we are looking at they still display these similar qualities. of which I would like to replicate. Perhaps touching an object would allow it to bounce or move around the space. I am unsure how ambitious this might be as it will most likely need a good deal of scripting to pull off but we shall see.
One piece of AR / Mixed reality work I really like and have had my eye on for a while is this Type in Space for hololens. I feel like it is extremely impactful seeing these bold pieces of type shown in real world environments. The fact you can edit them in real time using only your hands is also extremely powerful.
Again this is something far out-width the scope of what I want to produce but I find it very interesting.
On a similar note to this the cubism game for the oculus quest uses the passthrough mechanic of the headset to act as part of the game, using the cameras mounted on the headset so you can see your surroundings at all times.
The clothing brand Vetements for one of their collections also brought out a series of AR clothing. A collab with Looney Toon’s it translates the text on the hoodie and plays an animation of the character on the hoodie. Although given that the hoodie costs somewhere around the £400 mark its defiantly not worth it.
Carrying over my theme of researching half life with these projects, in the time between this and the last unity project I managed to play through Half Life Alyx.
Although this experience was in VR I feel like a lot of things may translate well to AR. Such as the contrast in the two architecture styles that being what remains of the humans construction vs the utilitarian, cold and intimidating architecture style of the combine. This contrast can be seen in the video above just as the Gman speech I also love the whiteout and the proceeding visions in the dark almost hyper space looking environment, it reinforces the idea that you are out of reality and speaks to the mysticism of the Gman and the supernatural aspects of the game.
A given with this experience is its immersion something that will be harder to capture in AR but not impossible. Given that it is a tablet we’re using I think that will make it easier to achieve.
I also looked into things like instagram filters. Certain ones are just your regular filters that dont change much but theres a few that have peaked my interest. I the first one interesting as it takes the image from your camera and distorts it to an extreme extent creating a very impactful image. I like the second one bc hes just a lil guy
I also looked into commercial uses for AR outside of construction etc, some companies allow you to virtually try on clothes, this has been seen with brands such as Prada and Gucci creating a snapchat try on filter.
This is also not just limited to clothes it is also seen with jewellery.
I find these filters interesting due to the technology involved, however especially with the snapchat filters I feel that they’re deliberately pushing their clothes to a younger audience, a complex issue of consumerism. With things like runways being available to see in AR, it defiantly is a good way to use the medium but something doesn’t sit particularly right with it all.
After my research I decided to try my hand at unity again as an attempt to refresh my mind on the basics yet again. However the blank scene quite accurately represents my mind very blank. However I did expect this. Due to the workshop being on Tuesday afternoon I will wait till then before doing anything dramatic with unity.
I feel like translating some of the elements from real time events will be beneficial for this project I like the idea of having my rods coming out of the surface of something flat, or even natural would be very impactful and carry over that similar feel that I tried to bring with the RTE project. However there are bound to be limitations with this. I wanted the spatial audio effects that unity offers to be central to this, I feel like this would be difficult to portray via a tablet and without headphones. However I will look into this.
In my 1:1 Gillian mentioned some different effects that can be done with triggers, where objects can stick to an area so that you no longer need to see the trigger, this helps further with my idea of importing from my RTE project.
In found the workshop quite helpful mostly in ways of how to use AR having some hands on experiences were good to get a feel for the tablets and what the further potential could be. I like the idea of the room tracking as it fits even more with my experience. I also have been playing with the idea of 3D printing objects to use as triggers, but im unsure of the logistics of this. Would it actually work and would I get it in on time etc. If I get it done on time I feel it will be very effective.
For some of the area and object tracking this came to mind, this is Long Term Nuclear Waste messaging a way to communicate the idea of danger into the far future.
The idea of this messaging is to convey visually a series of messages
This place is a message… and part of a system of messages… pay attention to it!
Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
This place is not a place of honor… no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.
The danger is in a particular location… it increases towards a center… the center of danger is here… of a particular size and shape, and below us.
The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.
The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
There has been multiple approaches to this which I find quite eccentric for the most part but also very interesting.
I find these ideas such a strange look into the future, looking to the past to see what may survive into the future. Although I feel the physical markers are the most imposing.
I feel that these would be really impactful to re create in AR, you can really convey the unnatural feeling this kind of architecture is trying to replicate.
I wanted to try and re create these in unity but I was having some trouble as there wasnt much in the way of modelling however there are some issues ive been having with Maya, namely that being the latest version isn’t installing properly. I should be able to use it on my home PC but just annoying it doesnt work on my mac. However I have found the issue it appears to be with the most recent version of Maya
I followed the first intro to vuforia tutorial to re gain the jist of AR working, I generated some basic shapes in maya and brought them into unity as an fbx. I plan to expand this scene and generate more in AR with potential for room scale AR but I feel this will be a great challenge.
I want to use similar audio for my previous RTE project, I wish to have the horror audio from my previous project this will be repurposed, as if to represent the atomic priesthood, this is a civilisation gone awry with the original messaging being distorted and these sites of danger being seen as places of worship. I want the user to be able to explore this area and behold the megastructures of a civilisation gone by.
I took a break from the project over the weekend to give myself some time to breathe as well as hopefully gain some new insights with some fresh eyes. One of my main concerns was my target image, how to get it unique and of which angle i would approach it.
I decided again to lean into the idea of this long term messaging. Looking at how these messages could potentially be distorted. I took the messages from earlier in my LJ and removed all words that may allude to danger,
I used photoshop to distort this using the liquify tool, I did this in order to represent the idea of messages being lost / distorted over time. I used the advice given to us in the workshops and tried to make the distortions as random as possible and it turns out that it was 5 stars on vuforia so I will be able to use it with no issues.
experimenting with the new target i created a very basic scene with some of the objects I want to use.
https://www.area.gallery/this-place-is-a-message
To inform my textures I managed to find some sites online that showcase some art relating to the theme, I particularly found the above site of note it really gives the look of some sort of abandoned city.
I wish to continue with this but bring it to the real world having a scale version of the objects appear in front of you. After asking about this it appears I am on the right path as the unity scale is meters therefore it is easier to create a real life scale for reference. An average doorway is 2m tall and I want these objects to be quite large, perhaps viewed better outside but the studio will have to do for now.
in order to simulate some sort of stone / concrete material wathered over time I created a map on photoshop. I feel this creates an extra dimension for the user to create a feeling of setting.
just me and my menacing earthworks. I am currently using my paper target as a reference just to see how everthing looks given the directional light in unity.
Lighting is something I wanted to consider with this project but wasnt sure exatly how to go about it but the directional light seems to be the best way about it. I will move the light so that the objects reflect light in the way that the natural light enters the studio, so depending where my sign is set up the light in the scene will come from wherever it does in real life.
In terms of the objects appearing I want them to be similar to this:
This is an Easter Egg hidden in Call of Duty World at War’s single player campaign with the audio emanating from all around the player of an eary voice speaking an unintelligible language. This gives an aura of mystery to the Raygun leading the player to believe it has been hidden there by some ancient aliens or something of the like.
I tried to print a3 because I didn’t realise, for whatever reason, that my sign was a3 but it didn’t work it just scaled the image down, im sure there is a way to get it to print in a3 but there will be workarounds either way.
Now it is time to start working on putting everything together.
For sounds I have decided to make a start by using the same ones to that of my RTE project, with this reel being the main ones I was considering. I will however begin by offsetting everything from my target to get it to display on the ground. I think I might need one of the tablets to use it with the ground plane but we shall see, I thought this would happen and will need to troubleshoot in the next few days.
I made some attempts at doing particle systems but with the limited time I have all my attempts were sort of lacking just couldn’t get past the 2d glowing sprite used by the default.
I had a lot of issues with the setup of these scenes as well, among my first tests they went very well as seen below and everything was flowing together fine but on Thursday stuff stopped working as planned, the animation I had thought out wouldn’t play ball so I decided to leave it for now. There was also some issues with the ground plane, I was using a different tablet than at first but I don’t think that is the issue. I think it might be to do with the light in the room but I honestly have no idea.
As I was looking into the idea of the priesthood and its messaging being corrupted / partially forgotten I looked into including some people or at least outlines of what appear to be people, I chose to look for models of people kneeling specifically due to the religious ties. I found a low poly 3D model that fits this perfectly.
I can troubleshoot this later however as the main body of my work is working well. I CHANGED THE ANGLE OF THE SIGN TO SIT AT 33DEGREES this is in order for it to be easier picked up by the scanner.
To create some sense of environment I decided to include some spatial audio with the models of people being behind it encourages you to look around and take in the environment.
I have added a few extra things to the scene, that being some characters / human people seen kneeling infront of the structures, they are not afraid of the structures and go against their intentions. I added more thorns in front of the user as even though they’re not being surrounded by them it still gives the feeling of being surrounded due to the small screen size.
Video Documentation
For my video I wanted to make the transitions a bit more abrupt and aggressive to match my theme. The song Helt Ensam by Yung Lean I feel also matches my theme, the digital gloominess goes well I feel. I realised making it that it does sound quite miserable but it is a good instrumental with distinct points for my transitions.
Further Consideration
I think taking this project further will be more to do with the staging, perhaps with it being outside or in a larger room. I overall did enjoy this project and I am very happy with my outcome as I feel I achieved something very close to my initial ideas. I have worked with AR briefly before so knew the limitations well but the experience of actually building it like an app using unity was very fresh and interesting for me.
Stewart Marshall IxD 