For this assignment I am designing a 3D scene set in a club/disco and my aim is to recreate an interactive experience in which users can explore all the different features of the game, including lights (which are the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about a disco) and objects changing colours on mouse click or hover. The main concept behind this project is to create a colourful, bright and spacious environment, with objects that can easily be found in a disco (bottles, drinks and of course a dance floor with people dancing).
As for the aesthetic part of the scene, my main aim is to let colours and lights stand out over other elements, so I chose to use a vibrant colour palette with bright colours (such as shocking pink, red, light blue, light green and yellow). Therefore I chose to use dark colours, such as black, dark purple and dark blue to create the basic structure of the environment, like the walls, the furniture and the dance floor. These dark hues will make the vibrant colours of the lights and the decorations stand out even more.
With regards to the assets, I chose a range of basic and simple 3D models to decorate the environment: basic wooden furniture (shelves for the bottles, a bar, and small coffee tables), some chairs, couches, modular humans, bottles and drinks. These assets will also require a range of different textures, materials and colours, from wood, to plastic and glass for the furniture, clothes for the human models and textiles for the chairs and couches. I will download most of these assets and textures from the Unity asset store, while for those that can't be found there, I will use free images from other websites or try to create my own.
Below is a brief list of the assets which will be required to complete the environment:
- basic furniture (couches, armchairs, coffee tables) to create a lounge area
- a bar area with shelves, drinks, bottles and a barman
- a dancefloor (the main elements which will attract the viewer's attention will be the coloured lights flashing and changing colours)
- a dj and his sound board
- a disco ball
- other small decorations
As discos are crowded and noisy places, all the sounds that will be used in the environment must be very loud, sharp and noisy, almost disturbing. However, the range of sounds to choose from is mainly limited to: playlists and music tracks (electro, pop, dance music) and the noise of people singing or shouting in the background. I will record my own sounds and music where possible, while for the rest I will download free music tracks from online sound libraries such as Freesound and Findsound.
As interactivity is any type of digital or non-digital exchange of information between two agents (either human or non-human), it's important to establish correctly every parameter and design every component to shape a good, interactive 3D environment. The basic principles that guide any kind of digital interaction are: affordances, signifiers, constraints, mapping, and feedback.
Affordances are the range of interactions that a particular designed object can have with an agent. In this case, the main affordances for this interactive project are: allowing users to experience a realistic 3D environment, explore the space and interact with objects that change colour or make sounds, interacting with 3D sounds and music. The overall concept behind this project is to recreate a realistic 3D space where users can interact and experience real-looking 3D elements by using only 2 inputs: a computer and a mouse, and simple actions like mouse scrolling, clicking and hovering.
A signifier is any kind of element which communicates to the user what kind of affordance is available for that particular element or object with which they are interacting. We can say more broadly that signifiers are visual instructions that communicate to users what action they need to perform in order to interact correctly with a particular object. Affordances are what users can do (what interactions they can experience), while signifiers indicate what users should do to have better interactive experience. Some rough ideas of signifiers in this 3D space can be human models moving and performing and action (such as dancing, walking, or the dj playing) when mouse hovering on them. Another example can be the lights changing colours, turning on and off or also balloons moving on mouse hover.
Another important aspect is mapping, that is to say the consistency between the user's physical input (eg: mouse click) and the visual feedback which comes in response to that input (eg: system's response to mouse click). In this case, every mouse click or hover will result in a change of colour, movement or sound.
Affordances express what possible actions the user can perform, while signifiers, constraints and mapping guide the user's interactions. Feedback communicate the result of these actions.
These are a few screenshots representing a map of the environment and containing only the basic elements of the scene (dance floor on the right, a bar and couches on the left).
Inspiration (images are taken from online copyright free libraries https://www.pexels.com/search/club%20/ )
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