Trying Unity3/12/18 Getting into Unity Launch
Overview
“Unity, originally launched in 2005 as a game engine for creating interactive media, typically video games. Recently however, designers and artists are beginning to realize that game engines can be successfully used for non-game applications; architects can easily prototype ideas, artists can create interactive art installations, or researchers can use them for data visualization.
Using Unity create a dynamic environment that the user interacts with through a series of triggered events, both visual and aural.”
Useful link tutorial to learn Unity essentials: https://www.lynda.com/search?q=Craig+barr+unity
Trying Unity
I’m really enjoying just experimenting with the different components shapes and textures. I’m already starting to think about what I want to create.
Ideas and Research
I am considering researching and re-creating a landfill with a twist. I want to look at how much rubbish is wasted for no reason. I am inspired by a little shop down my old street where I used to live which gathered furniture from landfills and gives it a new purpose and a layer of paint making it new and cool. Recently, a new recycling policy is being introduced in Scotland to help with the very worrying recycling statistics. My landscape would represent something of a fantasy dream landfill filled with furniture and life.
Right now Landfills in the UK look something like this:
using UnityEngine;
public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour
{
void Update()
{
var x = Input.GetAxis(“Horizontal”) * Time.deltaTime * 150.0f;
var z = Input.GetAxis(“Vertical”) * Time.deltaTime * 3.0f;
transform.Rotate(0, x, 0);
transform.Translate(0, 0, z);
}
}
Research and Inspiration
https://www.facebook.com/uphub.org/
Some posts from the shop’s Facebook page. They use furniture from the landfill and intend on up cycling them and making them new and usable again by using electronics, paint and decorations. They give forgotten items new purpose and use.
Another inspiration for this project is a new recycling scheme being put in place in the town I live in. I currently have 4 bins in my kitchen to properly recycle. Along with the new bin we received a booklet with information about landfills and recycling in Renfrewshire and about how much improvement it could use and how much money could be saved.
Here is a link to more information about recycling in Renfrewshire and the new bins: http://renfrewshire.gov.uk/mybins
Looking at objects which could make the first realistic as it is now landfill before I start my landscape since it will be dumped objects.
A small scale trial of the landfill to see the objects available. I really like the objects and I think with time I could create the look I’m hoping to achieve which is an overwhelmingly unpleasant environment that you feel like you quickly want to leave.
Camera view will be set inside the forklift so the viewer can attempt to get through the enormous pile of stuff that keeps coming from the ‘sky’ giving an overwhelming feeling to the viewer.
Wall-e is a bit of an inspiration for this camera-view concept.
Paul also showed me this game where the player is gathering things as they roll ending up a pile of junk.
Workshop 02 with Kenny
Paul helped me to make the code work ,this is a screen recording right after we figured it out. Now I will work on aesthetic, choosing which items to use, whether I want to create another scene.
Working with adding personalised assets to create desired prefabs. I’m also playing with the lights using spotlights at different angles and different colours.
Scene 2 – Fantasy landfill
I am hoping to create a fantasy landfill I have imagined. Instead of unusable heaps of trash that currently occupy the landfills I want to make something inspired by Ikea where there are sections you can pick up old used and refurbished furniture from in the lay out of furniture store. The space would be organised for trash with recycling bins and a big compost pile that gardeners could come and take from. Basically, it is a happy place which currently doesn’t exist, this is my imagined solution to the landfill and waste problem.
One of my inspirations is a show on Netflix I have been watching called ‘Great Interior Design Challenge’ where amateur interior designers are given a space to redecorate and design based on a given theme. This show has taught me about atmosphere in certain rooms and some old fashioned interior design themes. However, most of all I am taking away the fact anyone can decorate their home if they just try.
There’s a challenged on the show where the designers are given a random object, or several old objects, to upcycle and give a new purpose which is exactly what can be done with most furniture and big items left at the landfills. Which is why I imagine landfills to be accessible and a place for people to go and be creative.
I find it funny how I am using Ikea as inspiration since these little shops which remake furniture stand against companies which mass produce furniture which is later disregarded, however Ikea is my reference to how these shops could be in the future however rather than viewing a setup scene and taking stock from a warehouse downstairs the ‘customers’ could just pick up individual items from the landfills.
De Stijl
Right now I’m playing with setting the atmosphere and making both the scenes contrast. Below are some in process screenshots of the scenes.
My finals contain a trigger which lets you escape the scene by jumping into the unknown which triggers a plane which then transports you to the next scene. Since the first scene is the realistic landfill of today the whole point of the trigger is you trying to escape the inevitable and the current present by jumping into the unknown which is actually a fantasy abstract solution to our current waste problem on earth.
I asked Charlotte come take a look at the work since she didn’t know anything about my project she instantly wanted to jump off the edge which made me happy since that was the trigger and in the second scene she said she suspected it might be about recycling which was also accurate.
Final thoughts
My intention for this project is to create an immersive environment which portrays the current problem we face with recycling and waste which results in trashing the world and killing animals in oceans. By creating the first landfill scene I have made something which portrays a hopelessness as the only way off the plane is to jump and that jump moves to the second scene which an abstract fantasy child-like solution I have come up with to solve our current problems.
Marta Zofia Palacz 