360 Video in Maya
In week one of the Emerging Technologies module, everyone was tasked to create a 360 video in Autodesk Maya. Maya is a 3D modelling software that is commonly used for creating assets for video games. This exercise isn’t the first time I have used Maya, as I have used it to create an asset before, but I’m still not as comfortable with the software as I can find it confusing.
With this in mind, I created a scene where I had a box that the camera would be in with pillars popping out of the ground to showcase some depth. This is because feeling the depth of a scene is a large part of the VR and 360-degree video experience. I had to change some settings with the camera, and I ended up changing it to a ‘Spherical’ camera type. This is because in my mind it made sense for a spherical camera type to create a 360 video, however thankfully a friend next to me corrected this and told me to change it to a ‘VR_Camera’ which I imagine saved me a ton of time troubleshooting what was wrong in a program I’m not the most familiar with.
Once I was happy with the scene and camera settings, I had to change some rendering settings. I had to make sure that I changed the frame range so that I could render it as a video that can be uploaded to YouTube. I also had to make sure that the image size was set at ‘2K_Square’. Usually this would be set at 4K however we are using lower end PCs to render on, so we have lowered the quality however in the future, 4K_Square would be used.
During rendering, I had failed to consider that I needed some lighting in my scene, so I had to add that in to make sure that the render was not a black screen. Once I had all the frames rendered, it was time to turn it into a video. To do this, I used Adobe Premiere Pro, and to import the frames in I first decided to drag and drop them into the timeline. However, this resulted in each frame being shown for around 10 seconds each, which is not what I want at all. To fix this I removed them from the timeline and instead went to File > Import Then I selected the first Frame and checked the box that said “Image Sequence” and it automatically took all the frames of the video and put them in the timeline correctly.
I then exported the video as a VR Video by going to Export > Media and ticking the “Video is VR” box so that it would render as a 360 video. Once doing this, it gave me an MP4 file that I could open in the video player on Windows as a 360 video which let me know it all went well, so I uploaded the video to YouTube. Unfortunately, since it was shorter than 60 seconds, I could only upload to YouTube as a short, but thankfully the 360 functionality still works.
Experimenting with Maya's MASH networks
The next exercise I did in Maya was experimenting with its MASH networks. MASH is the plugin in Maya that allows you to create some complex animations and visual effects by adding different nodes to change how the animation behaves. I decided to make a sort of transition animation where a camera is set up in a way where some shapes are moving towards the camera.
The first thing I did to create this tunnel effect is to spawn in a Polygon which I would use as a base for my MASH network. I went with a pipe, and then set the subdivisions to 4 to create a square with a hole through the middle.
Once I was happy with the size and shape, I coloured it orange and blue because I thought it would look quite nice with complimenting colours. I then made it a MASH network by selecting my shape in the project outliner, and going to MASH > Create MASH Network. I increased the amount of instances of my object through the distribution node and changed the distance between each instance until I was happy with the outcome I had. The next thing I did was plot a curve for my MASH network to follow. Thankfully, there is a curve node we can add on the mash network where I can input the curve I wanted it to follow.
This was what my MASH network looked like from the side. The camera looks down the creation to get the transition effect. I debated using a VR camera instead of a normal camera for this, however I decided against that because I thought that it takes away from the perspective I wanted to achieve, so I left it as it is.
When uploading it to YouTube, it created a 360 video anyway, however it surrounds the camera with the effect which I thought was also quite effective so although it wasn’t, planned I’m still quite happy with the outcome!
Frame VR
Frame VR is a VR platform that is easy to use by people who may not be experienced in designing 3D spaces. It allows users to choose from a variety of preset “Frames” which vary from lecture halls, to galleries to virtual convention halls. Once you create a frame with a preset, you can add a variety of interactive items, such as a web browser, a white board or even 3D models. These can all easily be done from a small menu that makes them really accessible and easy to add for people who may not be experienced with designing 3D spaces. Users also don’t have to worry about the general design and layout of their Frames because they need to pick from a preset. Even though this may be useful for new users, it is a drawback for others and can limit creativity.
Due to the limitation of needing to pick a preset area for my Frame, I decided that I would make a collection of some different key assets from different games I liked in a gallery setting. The inspiration behind this was that there was a part towards the end of Mother 3 (2006) that really stuck with me, and that was the boat ride through Porky’s mansion. All the items on display in this area are all important and memorable moments from the previous game in the series, Earthbound (1994). The song that accompanies this scene is called “A certain someone’s memories” and is a remade version of the song ‘Pollyanna’, a song originally from the first game in the series that has been reused in different ways across all three games.
With this in mind, I created my frame, and called it ‘A certain someone’s memories’ as a callback to where I got the inspiration.
The preset I picked as a basis of my idea was “Gallery (Small)” as I thought that was the nicest laid out one for the idea I wanted. This room has 5 walls around the room, I thought it was perfect to put each game I wanted to showcase.
All the games were chosen as key games I have fond memories of, the five I chose were NieR (2010), Mother 3 (2006), Portal (2007), Hollow Knight (2017) and Team Fortress 2 (2007)
For each display, I placed 3D models in from the respective game. Frame VR has built in support for Sketchfab which made it very easy to import models, and I also imported images as backgrounds for each display to fit the theme and make them look nicer.
All in all, I am very happy with the way my frame ended up looking, and it is available to access and look around here.
I found Frame VR very way to use, even though it does have some rather big limitations design-wise due to being forced to choose a preset. If I decide to use this in my final project for this module, it would mean that I wouldn’t have to worry about any issues that may pop up with the VR headset. I also would be able to invite other people to look around my creations alongside me, which could make a good idea.