For our second week virtual sound walk, my group partner Jenny Wang and I cycled through multiple ideas. Initially, we wanted to create a piece that reflected the difficulty of maintaining long distance contact between two individuals, building upon the lack of physicality with video communication. However, we discovered that it would be quite difficult to create the visuals we had in mind.
Jenny suggested that we build upon my Week 1 sound project, which was a sound collage depicting the eerie, apocalyptic atmosphere of California during the wildfires. We both thought this was a great direction to go in, since we could create a virtual space that expanded upon the scene I was trying to create. We planned out the general organization of the virtual sound walk; it would be a long hallway that the player would be forced to walk through, complete with windows that emanated sound. We both thought that the hallway should be organized in such a way that the windows would be split into separate sections, with each succeeding window becoming more intense in regards to sound.
Due to issues utilizing Unity collaboration, we decided that Jenny would create some sound prototypes in audition for the windows, while I generated the tentative visuals for the sound walk. Then, Jenny would look over the visual setup after production while I performed some post-edits on the sounds. In the end, we combined all assets together to generate the overall scene.
Initial Screengrabs:
Positioning of box colliders for furniture
Creation of 'cartoon' shader for overall art style
Light adjustment to generate the 'split-color' effect in the scene
Box collider generation for the doors at the end of hallway
Creation of emission plane to create gradient effect on windows
Visually, we had some setbacks. We had originally planned to place images on the windows to add more detail to the scene, but after adding them in, we discovered that the flatness of the images just made the windows look like paintings, which was not visually appealing. We also attempted to texture the scene with photo-realistic materials, but found that doing so neglected the overall eerie, surreal atmosphere we were trying to create.
After experimenting with countless textures and materials, we decided that a simple approach would be the best option. I created a 'cartoon shader' inspired by the cell-shading technique in video games as well as the moody tone of noire-styled art pieces. I picked a light burgundy color, since a sharp red would be too jarring for viewers. Then, I began setting up the lighting so that the contrast between the colors and shadows would really make the scene pop.
In regards to sound, we both already had the direction in mind; the first two windows would generate sounds related to a normal day in the city, complete with car noises and bustling of people. The second section of windows would introduce helicopter sounds and the ominous hum that was present in my original sound collage. Lastly, the third section would depict the 'climax'; an intense combination of radio static and city-wide alarm. I also added some light particles at the last end of the hallway to add some depth to the scene, as well as hint at the virtual walk's focus around fire.
In the end, the virtual sound walk drew inspiration from the wildfire situation (which has now gotten much better where I live), but transformed into something that could be interpreted many different ways. The viewer could very well see the space as some sort of depiction of a fever dream or apocalyptic event, and we purposefully left the entire experience very 'open' in the sense that nothing really directly points to a wildfire-centered story.
The experience (choose full screen!):
