Week Eleven

Week 11: Setting

This week I have working to enrich the environment with objects, lighting, particle systems and animations. I wanted to create a sense of movement and mood in the spaces that would envelope the viewer and draw them into the environment. I have also started tp paint on material textures into the environment that I created with oil painting. This method of scanning in oil painting to use as texture will help me create a more unique space. The moving components have added another dimension to an other-wise static setting. These components will help me create the ambiance I seek in the different scenes in my project. 

The first interior space the player will encounter needed more life, and traces of human interactions. I am using baked lighting to set the mood and audio that is triggered as the player maneuvers the space. The collections of items and audio will give the player clues to their objective and the path they should check as the proceed through the environment. Though the whole game has a certain atmosphere or mood, I want each sprat space to stand out and have different qualities from one another. I hope through lighting, objects and audio I can create this distinction. 

In the second house interior, I am making a darkroom where photographs are being developed. I am using actual black and white film scans of my photographs in this room to once again involve traditional media within a digital setting This lighting situation is proving more difficult, as I want to maintain the red shade and darkness while allowing the player to see the space well enough. This house needs to be more dramatic than the first interior in order to build up tension as the narrative unfolds. 

The next interior space in the game is inside of a cave. This space has allowed for far more experimentation and a bit more dramatic effects. It has also been rewarding to work with more organic forms in the sculpting. In contrast to the domestic spaces, the more "wild" spaces often have more movement which helps to create a more engaging area.  

Moving forward I will continue to tweak these changes while adding more content and focusing more heavily on interactive elements. I am hoping to intensify the whole experience by creating a more cinematic and interactive environment that will hold the players attention. I also intend to bring these same qualities out in the physical installation space. I will be speaking more about this process as I move forward.