The elusive promise of interactive 3D virtual reality
art has been to provide the platform for Gesamtkunstwerke of the 21st Century, combining
the tricks and tools of theater and
cinema with the immersion and involvement of computer games.
Much of the necessary technology, lacking during the "hype" phase of VR in
the 1990s, is finally in place. Major computer graphic conferences such
as SIGGRAPH are starting to devote a large number of panels to game design,
as the game market begins to exceed film as the largest computer graphic
moneymaker.
In this class we will look far beyond the confines of the game
genre to develop interactive 3D as a cultural medium capable of communicating
meaning and creating a sense of emotional involvement in the user.
We will draw on techniques of surrealism, theory from theater, structures
from music, analyses from urban planning to understand how space, images, sounds and
texts can interact with the viewer's own actions and movements to create virtual
environments that are signifying spaces, spaces where metaphorical
images and figures of speech create a meaningful and emotionally moving
fiction stronger than reality.
Students will create, alone or in
small groups, interactive 3D environments in the PC-based blaxxun VRML
browser. Students will use a combination of 3D Studio MAX and text editors
to create 3D objects and spaces, and program interaction in vrmlscript (similar
to JavaScript.)
Textbook and Course Reader: The VRML 2.0 Sourcebook from Ames, Nadeau and Moreland will be the textbook for the course. Additionally, the Course Reader provides essays on relevant topics from various fields, including drama theory, music theory and urban planning.
Course Prerequisites: Portfolio and CSE 11 are required for this course. Preference is given to students with 3D modeling experience (ideally with 3D Studio Max.) Students without such experience will be required to complete a 3D MAX tutorial in addition to their other assignments. For other prerequisites see ICAM website.
Attendance: Students are expected to attend all classes on time and prepared to fully participate. Attendance will be taken at the start of every class. Chronic lateness will count as absence. Each unexcused absence will lower the final grade half a letter grade. For an excused absence a doctor's note or other acceptable written excuse is required.
Course Evaluation:
.Your assignments must be turned in on time. A late assignment
will result in grade reduction by one letter grade for that assignment.
Your final grade will be based on exercises, quizzes, class attendance and
participation and the final project with accompanying website
documentation.
20% attendance & participation
30%
exercises
50% project, final
presentation and documentation
Grading: A=excellent, B=above average, C=average, D=below average, F= unacceptable
Class Introduction and Course
Overview
Videos and
3D demos of
signifying
spaces.
Assignment:(see details in files in
http://sgva-serv1.ucsd.edu/~va120w/week1/)
-
Preliminary project
proposal: topic, imagery, image and
sound sources, initial rough spacial layout, interactivity.
-
Readings:
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, "The Meaning of
Things."
-
Philip Thiel, "People, Paths, and Purposes."
Lecture:
Csikszentmihalyi, Thiel: Why
and how can objects and images evoke strong emotions in us?
How can we apply this to space and sequences of
spaces?
- Mihaly ,
"The Meaning of Things."
- People, Paths, and Purposes"
Philip
- Anatomy of the environment: space, place, occasion
- Use of space
sequence as "emotional composition in time."
Assignments: (see details in files in
http://sgva-serv1.ucsd.edu/~va120w/week2/)
- 3D
Exercise: Diagram user views within rough
3D mock-up of proposed space. Students with no prior 3D MAX experience should go
through the online tutorial. For details see the files and folders in the
subfolder week2 linked above:
- 120w2_assign.doc has a more detailed
description of the assignment
- 3dsmax-vrml_tutorial.doc is the tutorial we
started on in class
- 3dsmax-vrml is the folder containing the files for the
tutorial (you'll need to download these files onto your own machine to use them
properly. Presumeably after this week, everyone will have their
class accounts, and I can start putting material in a folder accessible through your student accounts.)
- Read:
- Damasio, "The Feeling of
What Happens."
- Meyer, "Emotion and
Meaning of Music"
WARNING: the Damasio extract is an extra
one-article supplement and you may have to ask for it explicitely. (If you are
in my vis149/icam130 class or my icam160b class, the same supplement is used in
all 3 classes so you only need it once.)
DUE: Diagram of user views in proposed
space - rough 3D "sketch" in 3dsmax format and exported as vrml file.
Lab: Start on VRML tutorials
Assignment: (see details in file at
http://sgva-serv1.ucsd.edu/~va120w/week3/)
- VRML Tutorial, Exercise on basic VRML interactivity.
-Read:
- Laurel, "Computers as Theater"
- Wertheim, Margaret, "Pearly Gates of
Cyberspace"
Assignment: (see details in file at
http://sgva-serv1.ucsd.edu/~va120w/week4/)
- Prepare first working draft of space-in-progress
Midterm Assignment
DUE: Working vrml
world with features as described in w4_assign.doc (in week4 folder, see link
above.)
Guest lecturer: Peter Graf, co-founder and
server designer at blaxxun Interactive, will demonstrate various multi-user
communities and online vrml worlds.
Theory Lecture: Emotion
and sequence in art (from Course Reader)
- Brenda Laurel "Computers as
Theater"
- Leonard Meyer "Emotion and Meaning in Music"
- Antonio Damasio
"The Feeling of What Happens"
Assignment: (see details in file at
http://sgva-serv1.ucsd.edu/~va120w/week5/)
- Describe current concept for dramatic structure of your
piece, how the current space works towards this end, and what you will add by
the end of the quarter to round out the dramatic experience.
Individual / group meetings with students about
conceptual and practical issues in projects
Assignment: (see details in file at
http://sgva-serv1.ucsd.edu/~va120w/week6/)
- Rough draft of final project is due. Geometry should be
mostly completed, and space should be clearly exhibiting a dramatic
structure based on its space, texture maps, animations and interactivity.
End of Quarter Project Presentations
End of Quarter Project Presentations