I wasn’t under the impression that we had a theme for this week’s LO, here are two projects I like, theme-less.
Jerry’s Place is a virtual reality environment inspired by (television character) Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment. The project was made by Greg Miller, using Blender and Unity. One aspect of the project that inspires me is that the project was completed by a single developer as a personal project. Just using 2 dimensional screenshots, he was able to create a 3 dimensional space that can be explored. Having access to an oculus rift, I am excited about the opportunity to turn my own 2 dimensional works into a space for exploration. This project showed me that with some experience in blender and unity, I can create my own virtual reality. This also brings me to my critique of the project: because Seinfeld is based in reality, they use real props, and rooms have real lighting and texture, which can be especially hard to replicate in blender, especially at hobby level. I would love to see how a cartoon world could be translated.
Walking City is an animation which features a walking figure, which is gradually and continuously changing forms throughout the 7:45 video. This project stood out to me due to my interest in animation. The use of texture throughout the video was particularly interesting, especially due to the lack of color. The importance of sound in animation was made very apparent in this video, which relied on sound to define abstract forms. The animation uses the familiar motion of a walk cycle to emphasize the similarities between different forms and materials. This was an effective approach because the motion is so common, but it also felt like an easy/obvious choice. According the its creators, Universal Everything, the animation is inspired by design, animation, sculpture, fashion, and architecture. After seeing the video, I would say that this is fairly clear.