Group 18 – Emergent City

Our Event was focused around conceiving, creating and visualising a gamified scenario of a future post-apocalyptic Manchester. Our game was created as a group of first, second and fifth year students. Initial conceptual design took place in Sketchup, to allow the students free reign to explore their ideas. Designs were then taken forward into 3Ds MAX for texturing and then into Unity3D for rendering and compositing.

The final game is a 3D environment which players can move through and interact with, exploring the creations of our students. The Oculus Rift virtual reality kit played a key part of the visualisation. For many of us it was the first experience of VR, so it was especially exciting to experience our own creations in virtual reality. Our students were involved in all parts of the process, and this created a supportive environment for experimentation and learning. They all worked hard and were very proud of their contributions to the end result.

Our two collaborators were Phil Watson (Greenwich University) and Matt Fear (Architectural Visualiser). Matt introduced us to 3Ds MAX and revealed some of his visualisation techniques, which we used to render our final output. Phil’s workshop was invaluable as it expanded our minds and taught us new ways to think about space and experimental design.


Video Link:
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fopen%3Fid%3D0Bya0vhNOCQPEN2lkd25hTHJOSVU&h=ATNabMiqkdOPcC7YF428-YSnTd2asAfx3QSD-hXsp18yJd1n21nMYhWbAdQbzcEkEgGWgRJ_zVgJgtMTeoHUZgKC7fM333Dd-CBqmqp7hN27fT7dXAZLixQB8K5JoWKxkKAwdQ

Game .exe Link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bya0vhNOCQPEQ3pWSmE1SkIzczA

Day 9: We finally managed to get the VR working! (sort of)

Day 9: We finally managed to get the VR working! (sort of)

Day 9: Some of the final textures get added to the models, looking really good! Aidiel Shukri

Day 9: Ross and Sherry look into sound design for our film

Day 9: Teodora does some coding to get our cameras to move within Unity

Day 9: The final day! Final work on models

Day 9: The final day! Final work on models

Day 9: The final day! Final work on models

Day 9: The final day! Final work on models

Day 9: The final day! Final work on models

Day 9: The final day! Final work on models

Day 9: The final day! Final work on models

Day 9: We start the day with a storyboard of how we want our film/game narrative to run

Day 8: Updated progress of some models. Dev Halai

Day 8: Updated progress of some models. Dev Halai

Day 8: Updated progress of some models. Dev Halai

Day 8: Updated progress of some models. Dev Halai

Day 8: We tried to get the full model to work in VR but had a lot of technical issues. Here are some shots of work in progress

Day 8: We tried to get the full model to work in VR but had a lot of technical issues. Here are some shots of work in progress

Day 8: We tried to get the full model to work in VR but had a lot of technical issues. Here are some shots of work in progress

Day 8: We tried to get the full model to work in VR but had a lot of technical issues. Here are some shots of work in progress

Day 8: We tried to get the full model to work in VR but had a lot of technical issues. Here are some shots of work in progress

Day 7: It was a long and busy day so we all had some pizza to keep us going as we worked

Day 7: It was a long and busy day so we all had some pizza to keep us going as we worked

Day 7: It was a long and busy day so we all had some pizza to keep us going as we worked

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Michael Walsh

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Michael Adebayo

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Michael Adebayo

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Michael Adebayo

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Teodora Matei

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Michelle Malajang

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Zafir Ameen

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Zafir Ameen

Day 6-7: The current progress of the students' Unity and 3DS Max models! Rudhira Sambrey

Day 5: A combination of all today's drawings, overlaid to give a conceptual group impression of the site. Great work guys!

Day 5: Phil Watson joined in with a sketch of his own from what the students had achieved

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: A selection of all the students' work

Day 5: The students were then asked to cut up the model and take a piece of it away. They would then attempt to draw an architectural section through each piece.

Day 5: The students were then asked to cut up the model and take a piece of it away. They would then attempt to draw an architectural section through each piece.

Day 5: The students were then asked to cut up the model and take a piece of it away. They would then attempt to draw an architectural section through each piece.

Day 5: The students were then asked to cut up the model and take a piece of it away. They would then attempt to draw an architectural section through each piece.

Day 5: The students were then asked to cut up the model and take a piece of it away. They would then attempt to draw an architectural section through each piece.

Day 5: The 'final' model!

Day 5: All students collaborated on the model to build it further in 3D using whatever materials we had to hand. By randomly partitioning 3D space the plan was to then use this as the start of a conceptual form.

Day 5: All students collaborated on the model to build it further in 3D using whatever materials we had to hand. By randomly partitioning 3D space the plan was to then use this as the start of a conceptual form.

Day 5: We stained the paper with whatever we had to hand to create different effects and textures

Day 5: We stained the paper with whatever we had to hand to create different effects and textures

Day 5: Our day started with scrunching up lots of pieces of paper, as a conceptual aid and form-finding technique!

Day 5: We analyse some overlays to learn how to perform similar techniques on our site for Events, in an area of North Manchester

Day 5: Phil Watson talks to us about analysis and mapping techniques like layering and overlaying, and shows us examples of his previous students' work.

Day 5: Phil Watson, design tutor from Greenwich University (formerly of UCL/Bartlett Unit 19) came in to blow the students' minds (and ours!) with a day-long workshop on conceptual drawing, mapping and modelling

Day 4: The initial model gets taken into unity so we can explore rendering and atmosphere

Day 4: The initial model gets taken into unity so we can explore rendering and atmosphere

Day 4: We start to put some of the students' initial ideas together into a combined model.

Day 4: We start to put some of the students' initial ideas together into a combined model.

Day 3: It's a hive of activity in 811 today!

Day 3: Our resident 3DS Max expert Archontia provides on-the-spot guidance

Day 2/3: The first and second year students begin work on their Sketchup models for the Emergent City. These will be taken into 3DS Max at the next stage for texturing and colouring. Some really interesting and exciting proposals are taking shape!

Day 2/3: The first and second year students begin work on their Sketchup models for the Emergent City. These will be taken into 3DS Max at the next stage for texturing and colouring. Some really interesting and exciting proposals are taking shape!

Day 2/3: The first and second year students begin work on their Sketchup models for the Emergent City. These will be taken into 3DS Max at the next stage for texturing and colouring. Some really interesting and exciting proposals are taking shape!

Day 3: One of our collaborators, architectural Visualiser Matt Fear came in in the morning to talk to the students about designing, texturing and rendering in 3DS Max. This will help them very much when it comes to bringing life and colour to their buildings! Thanks very much to Matt for coming in to do this session, we look forward to checking in again with him this week!

Day 2: The students formulate exciting initial design sketches and proposals for their buildings for the Emergent City.

Day 2: The students formulate exciting initial design sketches and proposals for their buildings for the Emergent City.

Day 2: The students formulate exciting initial design sketches and proposals for their buildings for the Emergent City.

Day 2: The students formulate exciting initial design sketches and proposals for their buildings for the Emergent City.

Day 1: Also on the bill was THX 1138 (1970), George Lucas's first feature film. Portraying an underground city 500 years in the future, humans are kept under control by a central authority, in order to escape whatever horrors lie on the surface that has driven them underground. The film centres on one man's sensory awakening and drive to escape this prison he has been born into.

Day 1: we talked to the students about our quest to visualise a future utopian/dystopian Manchester. To get them in the spirit we invited them to watch some films which portray alternate futures. The first of these was Bladerunner (1982), a the 1982 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, an adaptation of the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

Portraying a dystopian Los Angeles, genetically engineered replicants have been manufactured to be visually indistinguishable from adult humans. The use of replicants on Earth is banned and they are exclusively utilized for dangerous or menial work on off-world colonies. The world of Bladerunner is simultaneously bright and futuristic, and dark and decaying.