Category: FMP

This is my final result!

I have learned so much and am so happy with the final result. Really proud of my work and how far I’ve gone 🙂

The project is looking great and even though I am sad that I didn’t manage to finish the third level I am extremelly happy with the result.

The final crit has come up and I was very glad to share my presentation:

I received great compliments and had a lot of constructive feedback.

The main one was to add more interaction to the subway level.

I am very happy with the overall result.

I mentioned previously that I was feeling kind of weird about not having people on the scenes and was worried that it felt quite empty.

I don’t want to add real people walking around as I don’t want the user to feel stressed or rushed.

That is why I decided to make a cute robot companion.

I worked on the design in blender and created several expressions that will change on interaction.

The idea is that the robot will help the user: recreate conversations, give tips, provide instructions and give company.

I made a few renders.

I also started working on the visual identity of the project.

This robot will be the face and the personality of the whole thing.

I did a lot of research to find an easy to pronounce, catchy and short name that I can use and came up with the name POLYMAD.

It is a mix of the words Polyglot, which means someone that speaks many lanugages and Nomad, which is basically a traveller.

I made a logo with all the elements that encompass Polymad and decided to name the robot Poly.

I managed to get in touch with Karen Harris, which also works in the Language Development department in UAL.

We got together at the High Holborn building in order to test both levels.

I am happy to announce that the results were great! There was a clear learning curve in the use but the instructions were very clear and she passed both levels with zero issues.

She was fascinated by the idea and how it could be very engaging and helpful for people of all ages.

She also claimed that it would be a great proejct for people with learning disablities

A few suggestions she said were to add voice recognition and also remove translations and labels as the player moves on with difficulties.

The results of the testing with language experts were incredibly surprising for me. I was expecting them to be very rejected by the idea of changing up traditional learning but I was met with enthusiasm and really positive reviews.

This was super useful to validate the core of the porject and makes me feel a lot better about the result. I am very excited about how it’s going to turn out!!!

I solved the supermarket bug by playing around with layers and collision settings which has allowed me to get started on the subway.

I have modelled ticket machines, information booth, all the signs and the tickets per se. I have also spent a lot of time working on the lighting and visual to make sure it looks good. I found some really nice textures for the wall and floor and it’s looking really good. A bit more realistic than I expected but I still love the result.

I also worked a lot on the audio. I found a good AI that can speak many lanugages and that’s where I got all my voice recordings from.

I had to make a really hard choice since the deadline is coming up. I was expecting to have 3 levels but I decided to sacrifice the kitchen level in order to ensure that the 2 levels I have are completely flawless, look great and have 0 bugs.

I am working hard on the sound choices to make it very immersive and I have more user testing coming up so I am very excited. My only critique is that it is looking quite empty since I have no people so I am going to give it a thought.

This is how it’s looking now:

We have started talking about the degree show and how it’s important to show the work before the user puts the VR headset on.

I want to keep it simple since I want the spotlight to be in the project.

I decided I am going to either make or buy a giant globe that matches the main menu and hang it from the ceiling.

I also want to make a marketable trailer to show it for the people walking by.

I might design some postcards and posters as well.

On the other hand, I have some exciting news!!!

I managed to get in touch with the Head of Language Development in UAL, Claire Hiscock and she has agreed to test my project!!

It went extremely well! She was very excited to try VR since it was her first time.

For me it was really useful, and it could be said it was two birds with one stone since:

• She was of an older generation so it’s ideal to test accessibility
• She was a lanugage expert

It was hard for her to pick up at first but there was a clear learning curve. Once she got the hang of it she managed to test the level perfectly!

She said it could be super useful as a compliment for traditional learning and she gave excellent suggestions for increasing difficulty.

I did the testing in the library of LCC and it was great because 3 people came up to me and asked if they could try my project so I managed to do 4 user testings in a day when I only had 1 planned.

Based on the results I decided to:

• Add instructions and controllers at the beginning of each level to ensure a seamless user experience.

I have talked to Herman about my struggles while making the supermarket lighting look nice and he said that it might be a good idea to make it with natural lighting.

I decided to design an open ceiling warehouse which will solve these visual problems.

I also added glass walls that divide sections to help the user find items on the list more easily.

I am having a very small techical problem with my trolley. It moves around okay but once it’s filling up with items it either sinks on the floor or it flies up to the ceiling.

Otherwise, it’s looking okay. I am very happy with the result.

Here you can see a video of my bugs: https://artslondon-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/a_donahue0620221_arts_ac_uk/EVqcyLJ9l4hKkqISxkB42aABRoZy4Uf5QjOmsrmXDzrZbA

If I manage to solve the issue with the trolley I will be in a good spot to move on to the next level.

I have modeled all of the fruits and several cupboaards/shelves for my supermarket.

I have also found a good 3D resource that matches my aesthetics for the globe and the trolley, which were really time consuming to model.

I have covered everything on my list and have started with the UI design for the main menu visuals.

I decided to do them in Figma first, which is professionally used for UI and then move it on to Unity.

Post-processing effects have helped a lot for the visuals in this level.

I am struggling however, with the ambience on the supermarket and how to make it look good. I am running into a lot of issues with baking and I;m doubting whether to use it or not

I have populated the supermarket with the items and added all the translations in french.

I have worked on a very simple mechanic for the kitchen level.

Since a lot of mechanics were covered in other levels I decided to focus all my attention in the animations.

I made a very basic animation (not final) in Blender and have played around for a long time determing triggers for specific actions.

It works with this placeholder but I am quite worried about how it’s going to work once I use the real animations.

I am starting to feel quite pressured with the time limit which is why now I think it is a good time to get started with teh visuals.

I am not worried that much since most of my mechanics work at the moment but with unity you never know what might cause issues.

I am going to get started with the visuals of the main menu and the supermarket level, which is why I have developed a list of all the categories and items in the supermarket that I have to model.

I have decided that even though it is a lot of work I am going to take on 90% of the modelling to ensure a good visual style.

I also have a pinterest board with some visuals that might be useful in this upcoming stage.