Air Tree Plan
Asset List
Concept Art
Schedule
Art(Jason)
Sound (Casey)
Sunday, 19 August 2012
New Interactive Project - Air Tree
Air Tree
Major Project Treatment and Flowchart
(RMIT AIM Studio: Master of Creative
Media)
Air Tree is an Interactive projection installation
presenting an audience with a virtual plant. It will be using Unity, Xbox
Kinect, a Projector, a computer, Zigfu and an artistic mind.
The concept idea of Air Tree is to let you to interact with
the virtual “tree” to experience the journey of growth, and to discover the
unknown species of flowers and sounds that will grow from the tree. The project
is inspired by the PS3 game – Flower.
And the beautiful use of patterns uses motion graphics in Erica Haowei Hu (Season) where he gives the
viewer an incredible sense of growth and prosperity. I like the idea and feeling and
beauty that come with constantly expanding natural constructs as they grow
bigger filling a wider space. So I was thinking maybe it’ll be cool to make a
project about growing a tree by bumping air to make it higher and higher up
into the sky. The idea maybe a little cliché but I
think sometimes it is better to tell a story in a straight forward manner.
This project will be interactive not only because I’m
interested in interactive creative work but also I think it will be a great
experience to get people to involve in it.
Due to the objective of Air Tree, player has to give air to
the tree. I don’t want player to use a mouse or keyboard or controller. I want
them to simply swinging their hand upward to let the tree breath. I strongly
believe the simpler the gesture, the better it will work. Mainly because it is
not a project about frustration and I think it is a great gesture to symbolize
the idea of growing higher. It is also inspired by a scene in Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki in which two
girls wave their hands up and down to grow a tree while Totoro sings along with
them.
It was one my most memorable and favourite scenes of all time, and it is a
movie that had a big impact on my childhood. So yes keep swing your hand high
up to the air.
The motivation is the visuals and the sounds of the tree.
Just like you are watching a firework’s show in the sky. Simple colours,
patterns and sounds are strong enough to create a strong sense of joy and you
will always want to see more. Therefore the art will be the main focus in this
project. And I intend to do something similar to Ana Somnia’s work.
It will be a black background with white lined objects or white silhouettes, because that will make it possible to get enough work done to make the idea come alive within the time restraints. Also I want to do something in an abstract style that I did with my last few interactive project which mainly only used shapes and lines and patterns to build up the object’s form. Perhaps like the art style of James Jean.
In this project I’ll also focus on more randomization of different
“flowers” that will bloom randomly on the journey of Air Tree. It is used to surprise
the audience but also used as a reward for the audience. These “flowers” can
also be interacting with hands. They are like toys hanging from the tree. They
play sounds and behave differently when you touch it. Some may swing. Some may
pop. Some may spin. Refer to “Game space metaphors” (Laurie Taylor). This Air Tree should be like a garden. During the Labyrinths
linear play style, there should also be some freedom to the audience to explore.
Like those “flowers” should be the maze like small puzzles. After you solve the
puzzle the reward will be beautiful particles and spark around the air tree. So
maybe the sense of progress will be stronger. I also intend to put the 4 season
in the journey of growth to make the experience more engaging and less
repetitive. At the same time, I believe the transition between seasons to
season will also heighten the sense of progression too.
Sound
The sounds used in this project will be soft and quiet. And
I will cooperate with a sound student for both music and Foley. The ambient sounds will be echo-y like it is
sound originating from within a wide open space. At the same time, the melody
should give the impression that you are floating in space to highlight the
theme – Air, which also builds up a stronger sense of the setting. Also the
sound will always have long pulse randomly in between each set of chords to
make it unpredictable as the Air Tree will bloom and blossom randomly. And
those “flowers” will sound different according to their size and shape e.g.
small flowers will have higher pitched music. However, it won’t be a long and
full-on melody. It should be simple and match perfectly to overlap the ambient
sounds.
What I find also beautiful about firework is they only last
for a short amount of time. Every explosion of each firework feels special and
memorable which bring us to the embedded message behind the project. A message
centred on ones ability to influence their nature, however an inability to
fully control it. The Air Tree will slowly die in the end. The only influence
you have is how fast it will die depending on how much “air” you gave it. We
just have to accept the fact and learn to let go and enjoy the moments in time
when it was alive. Plus, watching something get old and crumble is part of the
beauty of life. And that is the message I want to send to my audience.
So the plan of Air Tree is to let you to discover and enjoy
the journey of growing the tree up to the sky by doing simple simple gesture and
treasuring every moment of it.
Other similar
Project references:
Puppet Parade
Night Bright
Funky Forest
tweetpositive project
Nervous Structure
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