Week 1

For our last Unit in my second year in Production Arts for Screen we were introduced to designing for Virtual Reality (VR) In the project brief given to us our lecturer spoke about the use of VR in film, commercial and game production that is growing in popularity due to the user friendly nature of VR. In this unit we were meant to design a 3D environment in Blender to be brought into Unreal Engine that would be the VR workspace to be brought to life when worn in the headset. Along with this outcome we were to produce storyboards, concept artwork and mood boards to accompany the research behind the chosen design.

still from the film 'Deep Blue Sea' 1999

During the first day we were given an opportunity to try a VR headset for ourselves and experience what immersive design feels like and it this was definitely exciting to me as I hadn’t experienced it before. When I wore the headset I found I really felt like the space around me, transformed into the world I was meant to step into and the 360 view in it enveloped the real environment into one I’ve only seen in films, with a flyover helicopter and a massive Godzilla roaring in the distance while I stood on the roof of a skyscraper.

The next day we were meant to develop our concepts, I chose to do mine inspired by the 1999 film, Deep Blue Sea that is an action thriller based on a group of marine biologists conducting research in an underwater facility which is attacked by great white sharks.

Research mood board for the tone of my project

The mood board for this concept had different shades of blue and green seen near the ocean floor, I wanted my environment to feel unclear as the water seen in a mangrove forest with kelpies. The approach for this was meant to be a peaceful experience to observe the marine life swimming past the viewer through a glass walkway submerged deep in the ocean floor. The main point of action in this would include a large humpback whale that would swim over the walkway towards the end. For the shape of this domed walkway I took reference from aquariums included in my mood board that I felt had an immersive feel to them in its design.